OECD Podcasts

As AI assistants, search engines and chatbots become intermediaries between users and information, official statistics face a new usability test: can authoritative public data be found, understood, sourced and used correctly by both humans and machines? In the second episode of Statistics in the AI Era, OECD Chief Statistician Steve MacFeely speaks with Prem Ramaswami, Head of Google Data Commons,...

AI is changing how citizens, journalists and policymakers find facts. Instead of going directly to statistical databases, more users are turning to AI assistants and chatbots to retrieve, interpret and reference official statistics. In this first episode of Statistics in the AI Era, OECD Chief Statistician Steve MacFeely speaks with André Loranger, Chief Statistician of Canada and head of Statisti...

Recorded live for the first time at the 7th Digital for SMEs (D4SME) Roundtable, this special episode is hosted by Shayne MacLachlan and Alix Philouze. While 61% of SMEs report using AI, three quarters remain beginners, highlighting a gap between adoption and confidence. Joined by entrepreneurs Regitze Vestergaard Jacobsen, Robyn Baker and Leonardo Baggiani, the discussion explores how small busin...

Over the 10 years, global tourism has been reshaped by successive crises, from the collapse of travel during COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the current conflict in the Gulf and the rise of petrol prices. In this episode, Shayne MacLachlan from the OECD, speaks with Sergio Guerreiro, Chair of the OECD Tourism Committee, about how governments have responded to uncertainty and what resilience...

Data is the lifeblood of the modern economy - powering decision-making, daily life, and the AI revolution. But governing data is full of trade-offs: openness and trust vs privacy and regulation; cross-border sharing vs sovereignty; and timeliness vs quality. In this episode of Behind the Numbers, host Ashley Ward is joined by OECD Chief Statistician Steve MacFeely to explore why data governance ha...

With hundreds of sustainability and impact labels in circulation, how can consumers, policymakers and investors identify organisations that really do put people over profit? And why does it matter for the social economy? In this episode of Cogito Talks, Shayne MacLachlan is joined by Ruben Rebelo from the European Commission and Sofija Rakcejeva from the OECD to explore how labels can do more than...

Imagine a world where rural and tropical regions aren’t struggling backwaters, but breeding ground for fresh ideas, new jobs and sustainable growth. According to OECD’s Rural Innovation Pathways, rural innovation isn’t just a smaller copy of what happens in cities, it’s different: rooted in community‑led projects, adaptive agriculture, renewable energy, social enterprises and creative responses to...

India's rural areas are developing at an extraordinary rate, and it poses both challenges and extraordinary opportunities to rethink development at a large scale. Across the OECD, over nine in ten households are now connected to the Internet, but in rural regions connectivity still lags behind, with only about 89% of rural households having even a basic broadband connection. https://www.oecd.org/e...

The OECD Report for Regional Policy for Greece Post-2020 (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/regional-policy-for-greece-post-2020_cedf09a5-en.html) revealed that 32% of the population lives in predominantly rural regions which is significantly higher than the OECD average share of rural population which is around 25%. Of those living in predominantly rural regions (~3.4 million people), roughly...

Rural populations are shrinking. In 11 of the 29 OECD countries included in the OECD Reinforcing Rural Resilience report (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/reinforcing-rural-resilience_7cd485e3-en.html), rural populations are declining, not only as percentage of national populations but also in absolute numbers. Rural regions close to cities are also exposed to this trend, particularly if their...

The 2025 OECD Report Reinforcing Rural Resilience reveals that OECD regions have seen a significant loss of forests, with approximately 10% of their forest cover disappearing between 2000 and 2020. This decline is driven by a combination of factors, including land conversion for agriculture, urban expansion, and the increasing demand for natural resources. Some countries and regions have experienc...

Recent OECD data show that around one in ten people across member countries have no one they can rely on in times of need, underscoring the growing urgency of loneliness and social isolation. In today’s episode, we explore how one Parisian neighbourhood has decided to push back through the creation of a vibrant community movement that’s reshaping daily life. Recorded with Patrick Bernard founder o...

Recent OECD data shows that less than 40% of young people aged 18 to 30 feel they have the skills and experience needed to start a business. https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2019/12/the-missing-entrepreneurs-2019_668840b2/3ed84801-en.pdf In today’s episode, you’ll not only hear inspiring stories about young people who have turned their enterpreneurial dreams into reali...

Even though 40% of young people would prefer to be self-employed, the reality does not match their aspirations. If young people were as active in entrepreneurship as 30- to 49-year-old men, there would be an additional 3.6 million more young entrepreneurs across OECD countries. This episode of OECD podcast features Joni Rakipi from ETH Zürich and is hosted by Shayne MacLachlan from the CFE. Joni,...

Even though 40% of young people would prefer to be self-employed, the reality does not match their aspirations. If young people were as active in entrepreneurship as 30- to 49-year-old men, there would be an additional 3.6 million more young entrepreneurs across OECD countries. In this episode of OECD podcasts, Alix Philouze chats to Elina Cohen-Peirano, CEO & founder of URONE and a young entrepre...

How can we turn great ideas into lasting social impact? In this episode of the OECD Podcast, Shayne MacLachlan speaks with Jeroen Jutte, Head of the European Social Fund Coordination Unit at the European Commission. They explore how the EU is using its flagship funding instrument to support and scale social innovation—from pilot projects in disadvantaged communities to multi-country initiatives re...

For far too long, healthcare performance indicators have centred on inputs—like funding and infrastructure—or processes—like hospital admissions or waiting times—without adequately capturing the experiences and outcomes of the people receiving care. The OECD’s PaRIS Survey upends that dynamic, shining a light on how older people with chronic conditions feel about their care, how healthy they reall...

What happens when we flip the urban planning script — putting people, not cars, at the heart of our cities and regions? In this 15-minute episode, Professor Carlos Moreno - creator of the “15-minute city” and now a leading voice behind the “30-minute region” - joins the OECD’s Soo-Jin Kim to explore how we can build more inclusive, connected and resilient places. From the sidewalks of Paris to rur...

What happens when First Nations take the lead in shaping the future of clean energy and infrastructure in Indigenous communities? In this episode, we hear from Mark Podlasly, CEO of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) and member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation in British Columbia. He speaks with Sinead Teevan from the OECD about how the coalition is helping First Nations secure ownership...

Volunteers are the beating heart of any event, from the Olympics to your local school sports day. But beyond the medals and podiums, what impact does volunteering have on individuals, communities, and the broader economy? In this episode, we speak to Max Jablonowski and Betty Anne Bryce, who volunteered at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. They share their behind-the-scenes experiences,...

On a daily basis, we’re faced with a deluge of online content, only swelling further with the mainstreaming of generative AI and rising political polarisation. Improving our joint understanding of how people consume news, and how effectively they distinguish between fact and fiction, is one of the key challenges of our time. The OECD Truth Quest Survey implements an innovative methodology to answe...

L’intelligence artificielle générative transforme rapidement les marchés du travail, notamment à l’échelle locale. Elle aide à combler les pénuries de main d'œuvre et renforce la productivité. Mais elle creuse aussi la fracture numérique entre les zones urbaines et rurales. Dans cet épisode des Podcasts de l'OCDE, Pauline Arbel et Karen Maguire accueillent Eric Pérès, le Secrétaire général de FO-C...

The COVID-19 pandemic brought health statistics into the spotlight, from tracking excess mortality to understanding the financial impact on healthcare systems. But health statistics are just as vital today as they were during the pandemic. In this episode of Behind the Numbers, Ashley Ward is joined by OECD Head of Health Accounts David Morgan and Policy Analyst Gabriel di Paolantonio to discuss h...

How does the richest group of households in a country compare to the poorest? How can we expose the growing importance of the digital economy, often hidden in macroeconomic statistics? These questions are at the centre of upcoming updates to the System of National Accounts (SNA), which aim to provide policymakers with the information required to better understand the distribution of income, consum...

Most people know Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the go to number to evaluate an economy's performance. It is often referenced in the news, sometimes directly, other times implied in discussions of economic recession, recovery or boom. But other indicators, further removed from the limelight, are also vital for economic analysis: for example, Household Disposable Income (HDI) helps us to monitor c...