7 Podcasts Actually about Policy, Not Politics (Too much)

I theme my days of the week to take in different content, and on my #FreedomFridays I have wanted to listen to a good podcast about how to develop policies....

This has been much harder than I thought, as nearly every podcast of this sort seems to be with an ideological bent on the current political news. I get enough news during the week, and I'm tired of most pundits. I wanted to find a podcast that thought deeper about legislation, laws, regulations, etc. Of course, anything will policy will have some ideology, but I wanted to go beyond that, into the weeds of wonkiness.

Each Friday I would look. And each Friday I was not fully satisfied, because none of what I found was a weekly podcast, nor always covered the depths I was looking for. But, between the following 7, I now get at least one good podcast episode each week.

Rules of the Game

For those who draft policies, regulations, laws or other rules (or for the #wonks who are deeply interested in this) this podcast by Stephan Kyburz and the its accompanying blog, is truly a great listen, to get insights about the tradeoffs of different systems of rules, and how they are made.

The topics are usually very broad, and specific to one country or jurisdiction, especially about how that jurisdiction decides on how to create its rules, and not necessarily about the rule creation process itself. But, for those of us who care deeply about designing systems that can last and provide the most value to humanity, this is a truly important podcast.

GW Regulatory Studies Podcast

This podcast produced by the GW Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University and hosted by Susan Dudley , dives into the effects of regulations, and how they might be created better. It is much like a lecture might be, and I say that in a good way, covering topics including: best practices, benefit-cost analysis, regulatory risk assessment, competition analysis, and public interest comments in the rulemaking process.

Of all the podcasts here, this is probably the most directly relevant to those of us who draft policies, and want to consider many parts of them.

State Lobbying Heroes

Our news too often demonizes lobbyists. And there are good reasons to be skeptical about their intentions. Yet, these are also the people who actually get things done, and often think through the effect of the legislation more than others. So, I was extremely pleasantly surprised to find this podcast, State Lobbying Heroes, by Deepak Pisipati, in which he interviews real lobbyists, and shows how they can be the heroes and not the villains that we often assume.

This podcast is also very valuable for those of us who draft policies, or are involved in lobbying for a cause, as it covers some real nuts and bolts of things at time, and is just a generally good listen to.

Bite-Sized Business Law

There are a good number of podcasts about the law. This one from Fordham Law’s Corporate Law Center, by Amy Martella and Richard Squire is one of the better. While this one usually does dive into something that has been in the news (although not always), it does a deeper dive, with good explanations about what is happening. Coming from a university, the content is well thought out, and generally trustworthy.

For policy writing it is good to be abreast of what is happening in the world. And while the guests have clear opinions about what should happen, they are open about them, and not completely ideologically rigid, as we unfortunately find in most "news" today.

Anticipating the Unintended

This is the most outright political podcast that I listen to. Although, the politics it talks about are in India, and I'm in the U.S. But what I appreciate, is that it does work to live up to its title, and think about the unintended consequences of policies and politics. Also, we ignore India's politics at our peril, since it is on the rise, yet also in my opinion, moving more towards autocracy.

While this podcast is actually just a reading of the newsletter of the same name, by Pranay Kotasthane , its content is good and compelling, keeping me interested enough to listen through.

Social Contract Research Podcast

Along with Rules of the Game, this is one of the more philosophical podcasts. It is also deeply academic. Hosted by Christopher Watkin of Monash University, it dives into research being conducted and philosophy around the social contract and how it applies today.

Ludology

Ok, so this last one may seem strange to have on here. It is a podcast about board game design by Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim . But, in fact, this makes it very relevant, because game rules share a lot with rules we have in our laws and regulations... So, for true #wonks and policy creators who want to think outside the box, this is a podcast worth a listen.