In this podcast I got two wishes. What two things would I fix if I could. Chris Vanstone from The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) asked to interview me as part of TACSI's thinking about its own future. I agreed but made two suggestions. First, that we record the discussion and make it a podcast.

Second, given his description of the process as exploring “what futures do you want to see”, I said that I'd expect to critique that as a starting point right off the bat. Why? Because this kind of framing suffers from grandiosity. I'm not some hero charting a course to the future. I'm a little munchkin noticing things, trying to figure out what problems and opportunities exist in what Humphrey Bogart called our "crazy mixed up woild" in Casablanca.

The ensuing session was really engaging I thought. Kudos to Chris for being an unfazed master of silence while he thinks. Oh, and the two things I want to fix?

We talk as if we'll scale up social programs that work and scale down the less successful ones. But we haven't done it since, now let me see. Since … Well ever actually! And that's the case in most countries.
Oh and democracy — I want to fix that (and this'll make you laugh) I don't think it's that hard! I think we just need to introduce jury-like mechanisms into our democracy. If you're interested, have a look at the trailers for this documentary.

If you'd like to listen to the video of this podcast, it’s here.

00:00 Trailer

01:00 Introduction to Democracy and Citizen Juries

11:01 The Texas Experiment: Deliberative Polling

26:01 East Belgium's Standing Citizen Council

41:01 Challenges and Triumphs of Scaling Solutions

51:01 Addressing Democracy's Gaping Wounds

1:01:01 The Future of Citizen Participation

The two things I'd like to fix: Governments scaling what works and fixing democracy.