High Variance with Danny Buerkli

Antoine Bosselut, Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, joins Danny Buerkli to explain how he and his team built Apertus, the 'open' LLM. Antoine and Danny discuss why taxpayers should fund this work, which constraints bite hardest when creating an LLM outside one of the large labs, and which public investments may be needed now.

Vishal Jodhani, a master facilitator, joins Danny Buerkli to talk about what makes facilitation work. They discuss what makes for a good question, how to know the difference between productive chaos and unproductive confusion, and what is underappreciated about the Berlin club scene.

Don Kettl, a prominent scholar on public administration and former dean at the University of Maryland, shares insights into state capacity and government reform. He discusses the remarkable success of Operation Warp Speed and how it fostered private innovation. Kettl evaluates the agility of government reform, weighing the merits of incremental versus disruptive changes. He also highlights the importance of data-driven strategies and how AI can reshape public service delivery. Lastly, he draws lessons from the leadership of Paul Volcker and the adaptability of government by 2035.

We live in weird times. The world has become harder to read — more uncertain, more volatile, stranger. High Variance is an interview podcast about how to navigate this reality. We talk to people who are making sense of what’s happening around us to ask: What’s going on? And how should we respond?