Radically Pragmatic, a podcast from the Progressive Policy Institute

PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools (RAS) Project has partnered with The 74 Million to tape a new podcast series on the “Future of Teaching” recorded at the SXSW Education conference in Austin, Texas.  In the final episode of our four-part series, RAS co-director Curtis Valentine sits down with Sarah Johnson. Sarah Johnson serves as CEO of Teaching Lab, a non-profit dedicated to shifting the...

PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools (RAS) Project has partnered with The 74 Million to tape a new podcast series on the “Future of Teaching” recorded at the SXSW Education conference in Austin, Texas.  In the third episode of our four-part series, RAS co-director Curtis Valentine continues the conversation from the previous episode about reshaping school leadership for the future as he sits d...

PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools (RAS) Project has partnered with The 74 Million to tape a new podcast series on "The Future of Teaching” recorded at the SXSW Education conference in Austin, Texas. In the second episode of our four-part series, RAS co-director Curtis Valentine sits down with Jean Desravines. Jean Desravines serves as the CEO of New Leaders, a national nonprofit organization who...

PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools (RAS) Project has partnered with The 74 Million to tape a new podcast series on "The Future of Teaching” recorded at the SXSW Education conference in Austin, Texas.  In the debut episode of our four-part series, RAS co-director Curtis Valentine sits down with Tequilla Brownie. Brownie serves as CEO of The New Teacher Project, a non-profit with a mission of...

In September 1989, the brand-new Progressive Policy Institute published The Politics of Evasion: Democrats and the Presidency . Nearly 33 years later, this political study maintains more than just historical interest today as the Democratic Party once again must wrestle with basic questions of political outlook and electoral strategy. Written by political scholars William Galston and Elaine Kamarc...

Cryptocurrency has taken the world by storm. Depending on the day, digital currencies are now cumulatively valued at several trillion dollars. Financial and nonfinancial corporate executives, once dismissive, increasingly understand the importance of cryptocurrency and related technologies for the future. However, the federal government is only in the early stages of deciding how to regulate crypt...

On this episode of RAS Reports, Curtis Valentine, Co-Director of the Reinventing America’s Schools project, sits down with Karega Rausch, the President and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. NACSA works to advance and strengthen the ideas and practices of charter school authorizing so students and communities – especially those who are historically under-resourced – thr...

On this episode of the Radically Pragmatic podcast, Dr. Kalinda Ukanwa sits down with Jordan Shapiro, PPI’s Data and Economic Policy Analyst, to discuss her new paper entitled, “Breaking Up Big Tech Will Not Prevent Algorithmic Harm to Society.” Dr. Ukanwa and Jordan dive into what algorithms really are and how they’re simultaneously helping and harming consumers. They unpack why breaking up Big T...

As variants of the COVID-19 virus continue to emerge, it's becoming more and more clear that this epidemic is becoming endemic. As the world continues to grapple with the reality that this virus is here to stay, how do we begin to live in our new normal, and how do we balance the tradeoffs between combating the spread of COVID-19 and letting normal life resume? Last week, PPI's Director of Health...

In this week's episode of RAS Reports, Curtis Valentine and Tressa Pankovits, Co-Directors of PPI's Reinventing America's Schools Project, celebrate National School Choice Week by discussing new developments in the movement to provide access to affordable, quality education to all of America's youth. The hosts highlight Innovation Schools in Indianapolis, IN which serve as a prime example of the b...

On a new episode of Radically Pragmatic, PPI’s Mosaic Economic Project examines the findings of the 2021 Greater New Orleans Startup Report. The episode explores topics such as the growth, resiliency, and economic sustainability of New Orleans – including the effects of increased remote work options – and dives into solutions to bridge gaps in race and gender equity in critical areas from entrepre...

On this week's episode, Paul Bledsoe, author of a new PPI report titled "The Role of Natural Gas in Limiting European Union Emissions: Key Opportunities to Cut Methane, Coal and CO2" sits down to explain the major implications for U.S. and global climate policy, as well as some of the key recommendations from the report. The report calls for an international effort to accurately verify and monitor...

On the first episode of RAS Reports, Co-Director of PPI's Reinventing America's Schools Project Curtis Valentine sits down with RAS Advisory Board Member and Fort Worth, Texas School Board Leader Cinto Ramos to explore the importance of school boards among students, parents, and local leaders. What challenges do school boards face post-COVID? And what opportunities are created from having to reinv...

The Progressive Policy Institute's Innovation Frontier Project released a comprehensive research deck on the threats facing American innovation. The authors of the deck, innovation experts Ashish Arora and Sharon Belenzon of Duke University, found the United States has lost a substantial amount of corporate research since the 1980s, with only a handful of present-day U.S.-based companies inve...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Americans inside their homes and restricted access to critical services, including health care. However, telehealth technology that was previously only used by a fraction of patients turned out to be a reliable way for all Americans to access health care services from the safety of their homes. A new bipartisan report by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Ameri...

On today's episode of Radically Pragmatic, PPI's Mosaic Economic Project brought together a panel of women to discuss the intersection of access to private capital formation for new and small businesses owned by women and particularly minority women; how the response to the pandemic (government stimulus intervention including PPP) has impacted entrepreneurs and what policies looking forward can an...

This week, Chief Economic Strategist at PPI, Michael Mandel, and Senior Fellow at AEI, Shane Tews, sit down to discuss the current antitrust legislation in Congress and how it will affect everyday consumers. What happens to Amazon Basics? And what about Kirkland products? Is breaking up big tech really what consumers are concerned about?  Today's episode is moderated by Jeremiah Johnson, Dire...

Recently, the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future released a focused blueprint for delivering on President Biden’s promise to Build Back Better while addressing the concerns of moderates who cannot support $3.5 trillion of new spending. The report is titled “Reconciling with Reality: The top priorities for building back better,” and is authored by Ben Ritz, Director...

On this segment of Talk Policy, Director of Social Policy Veronica Goodman sits down with Dr. Chandra Childers, Study Director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Their discussion focuses on the concept of apprenticeships, its benefits for workers, and the historical context on the racial and gender makeup of these job training programs.  Also, check out “Here to Stay: Black, Latina...

Recently, the Progressive Policy Institute hosted an event with U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and a panel of energy experts, focused on expanding power line capacity to enable renewable energy deployment. PPI's Strategic Climate Advisor Paul Bledsoe moderated the conversation and raised questions about how the US can improve its electric infrastructure to reach President Biden's clean ener...

On this week’s Radically Pragmatic Podcast, Dr. Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), sits down with Representative Bill Foster (IL-11), to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of work. Dr. Mandel and Representative Foster discuss the diffusion of technological innovations for individual consumers and small businesses, the role of gover...

On this segment of Talk Policy, Director of Social Policy Veronica Goodman sits down with Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy professors Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan, whose research focuses on public policy and improving social program design, performance, and outcomes. They discuss how administrative burdens prevent those in need from receiving critical welfare benefits and what...

The Progressive Policy Institute’s Reinventing America’s Schools Project and The 74 Million hosted a webinar on the future of school choice. Following a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the passage of the first charter school law in America, the Reinventing America’s Schools project looks forward 30 years, and asks what America’s public school system will look like in 2050, and who should be...

On this segment of Talk Policy, Director of Social Policy Veronica Goodman sits down with University of Pennsylvania Criminology Assistant Professor Aaron Chalfin who researches crime and policing. They discussed the recent spike in violent crime and evidence-based approaches for crime prevention. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen! Learn more about the Progressive Policy Institute here .&nb...

On this week’s Radically Pragmatic Podcast, Veronica Goodman, Director of Social Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), sits down with Representative Veronica Escobar (TX-16), to discuss the Child Tax Credit. For context, The American Rescue Plan Act , crafted by the Biden Administration and passed by Congressional Democrats, included a historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC)....