Policy Prompt
Episodes
Necessary Friction (the fragility of today’s givens with Tim Minshall)
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to forget that everything in our lives that’s not strictly natural has been manufactured. That manufacturing incorporates elements from ...
Convenience Costs (the extraction economy with Tim Wu)
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s world is more convenient than it has ever been in history. It can take fewer than five discrete actions to have most anything delivered righ...
Ordinary People Rule (finding a path to true democracy with James Bacchus)
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since the ancient Athenians first attempted a democratic approach to governance, nations worldwide have been attempting to perfect it. Somethings...
Victims, Scammers, and Scammers Who Are Victims (the dark side of the digital economy with Mark Bo and Ivan Franceschini)
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The playing field for modern scams is bigger than ever. Entire guarded compounds are dedicated to online and phone fraud, and the network of influence...
Decoding Brain Data (the possibilities and pitfalls of neurotech with Jared Genser)
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neurotechnology is a dual-use technology transforming lives — from implantable devices that use deep brain stimulation to ease tremors from Parkinso...
Scientists and AI: Partners in Discovery (understanding AI’s role in scientific research with Rebecca Willett)
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact on science, from data analysis to scenario simulation and predicting protein structure — its ...
Space Is a Human Domain (discussing governance challenges with Esther Brimmer and Jessica West)
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Often compared to ocean shipping lanes, Earth’s orbital layers act as channels to almost 14,000 satellites moving at around 7 km/second. These orbit...
The Trust Battle: Stablecoins, Crypto and the Future of Money (with Ali Abou Daya and Morva Rohani)
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, the power to create money was isolated to traditional issuers, who built trust over the ages. But now stablecoins are starting to pull ...
From Shipping Things to Spreading Ideas (unboxing global trade with Marc Levinson)
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 16, hosts Vass and Paul talk to Marc Levinson — economist, historian and author of The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Sma...
Perfect Fit Content (from elevator music to your AI DJ with Liz Pelly)
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you discover music? College radio, word of mouth, serendipity — or your very own AI DJ? In 2006, Spotify’s founders discovered music as “...
What Does Innovation Actually Mean? (talking research, the academy and AI with Joel Blit)
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does innovation actually mean, and how should we be thinking about it?In this episode, Vass and Paul welcome Joel Blit, an expert in innovation a...
Measuring and Visualizing AI (grounding decisions in data with Nestor Maslej)
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
AI is going to affect us all and everyone has opinions about it. But what does the data say?In this episode of Policy Prompt, Vass and Paul welcome Ne...
Where Do Art History and Computer Science Meet? (drawing lessons with Amanda Wasielewski)
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 12, artist and thinker Amanda Wasielewski joins hosts Vass and Paul to discuss the crossover and interplay between digital and capital-A ar...
How to Predict the Future with Accuracy (throwing darts with Robert de Neufville)
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Warren Buffett once said he would rather trust his money to monkeys throwing darts than financial advisers. So how do the monkeys’ chances of hittin...
In Our Computational World, What Do We Know? (seeing the many worlds with Michael Richardson)
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join hosts Vass and Paul for their fascinating conversation with Michael Richardson, associate professor of media and culture at the University of New...
“The Empire of IP”: How Did We Get Here? (talking history of copyright with David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu)
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Copyright has become a tool for privatizing everything — the opposite of what it was designed to do when it was invented in the eighteenth century t...
The Competition Cage Match (Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn weigh in)
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join the Policy Prompt crew for a different kind of episode: recorded with a live audience at Perfect Books in Ottawa, host Paul Samson interviews Den...
How Refrigeration Changed Our Palates, Our Plates and Our Planet (a taste of history with Nicola Twilley)
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is refrigeration really that revolutionary? In this episode of Policy Prompt, the hosts are joined by Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrige...
A look at News, Memes, and Wireless Tech from More than 100 Years Ago (Heidi Tworek calls from Germany)
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Before Google and Meta dominated the digital landscape, the news agencies and technologies of the early twentieth century captured unprecedented influ...
How Every Computer Is a Chinese Computer (twirling the cord with Thomas Mullaney)
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Amid the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War, the Chinese computer emerged. Despite the complexity of formatting tens of thousands of characters f...
Siri, Tell Us About Human Rights and Robot Wrongs (a conversation with Susie Alegre)
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Policy Prompt hosts chat with CIGI Senior Fellow and international human rights lawyer Susie Alegre, to unpack her latest book, Human...
History Claps Back on Techno-Optimism, with Daron Acemoglu
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Do emerging technologies inherently serve the greater good? Join Policy Prompt hosts Vass and Paul in a discussion with world-renowned economist Daron...
A Crash Course on the “Corpocene”: The Influencer Factory, with Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Policy Prompt hosts are joined by Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness, authors of The Influencer Factory: A Marxist Theory of Co...
CTRL+ALT+Revolt: The Tech Coup, with Marietje Schaake
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Marietje Schaake joins the hosts to discuss her book The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley (Princeton University Press, 2024). Info...
Welcome to Policy Prompt: A CIGI Podcast
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Policy Prompt, a new podcast from the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Hosted by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson, Policy ...