Shiftdisturbers Shiftdisturbers

The Martin Prosperity Institute will be closing its doors at the end of June. Over a decade ago we set out to make a difference in the world in our explorations of city building and geographic advantage and in our investigation into the underpinnings and fault lines of democratic capitalism.

For details on the latter, we highly recommend taking a listen to our previous episode that lays out some solutions for the ills facing democratic capitalism. But for our final episode, wanted to take stock of all the work and research that’s come out of the Institute over the past 11 years. Here, MPI staff members past and present offer highlights from their time working here and offer what they believe will hopefully be the Institute’s lasting legacy.

Music used in this episode - "Steppin'" by Wake

Over the course of the last decade, MPI researchers have looked at the problems faced by democratic capitalism from a number of different angles. In our last episode, MPI Institute Director Roger Martin talked about some of the solutions he’s explored for the problems facing our democratic, capitalist system. He specifically had call-to-actions for four different actors: citizens, policy makers, business and educators.
On this episode he drills down further, offering the what, why and how for each actor. There are echoes of past work from across MPI’s existence; while these are Roger’s solutions, they were arrived at through the blood, sweat and tears of people like Richard Florida and MPI’s talented fellows and researchers. But this is far from simply a greatest hits of our work; it’s a holistic assessment of our political system and the people who work within it. Notably, their roles are not siloed – when one actor pulls a lever, it affects the actions of the other three.


Music used in this episode:

Wake - "Steppin"
Jahzaar - "The Last Ones" and "Siesta"

As part of MPI's ongoing work around shared prosperity, Roger Martin outlines his case against efficiency, specifically the way it's come to dominate how we think about the economy and politics and how that impacts are day to day lives. Once considered an unalloyed good, he argues we've gone to far, pushing our systems of finance and government to a point where they no longer work towards the betterment of the average middle-class family.

This episode is based on the article "Rethinking Efficiency" by Roger Martin for the Harvard Business Review - https://hbr.org/2019/01/rethinking-efficiency

Featured music:
"Steppin'" by Wake
"The Last Ones" & "Siesta" by Jahzzar

We examine the idea of citizenship and the power that comes with it.
Here in North America, and across the Western world, we don’t put stringent definitions or limitations on what constitutes citizenship. Some simply define citizenship as voting while others would argue that even that is too limiting. Everyone we spoke with for this podcast, agreed on though was that it’s through citizenship that we create power, especially political power. Yet, as a whole we’ve become power illiterate.

Featuring interview with Citizen Universtiy founder Eric Liu, the Ryerson Leadership Lab's Karim Bardeesy, and MPI Executive Director Jamison Steeve.

Music featured:
Wake - "Steppin"
Jahzzar - "The Last Ones"
Jahzzar - "Siesta"

we kick-off 2018 by looking at the term Music City, its meaning, intent and how such recognitions shape cultural policy in cities.

Featuring interviews with Toronto Music Sector Development Officer Mike Tanner and Sound Diplomacy founder Shain Shapiro.



Featured music:
Wake - "Steppin'"
Poddington Bear - "Woop Groove" & "The Window"

16 blog posts, 14 research reports, 13 op-eds, four books and 1 short film – it’s been quite a year for us here at MPI. On this episode we take stock and looking back at some of that research while casting our gaze forward to 2018.

The Shiftdisturbers Holiday Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/iangormely/playlist/3jkDo1co6ZsOi7kowoVRAz

Music in this episode:
"Steppin'" by Wake
"Playtime" by Jahzzar
"Jingle Bells" by Poddington Bear