Public Service Podcast

Alethios

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Talking about institutions and cities in the age of AI. Find more here: alethios.substack.com

JAN 19

Chinese Trade, Housing, and the Auckland Mayoralty - Hon Phil Goff

Hon Phil Goff is a former New Zealand Minister of Trade, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Education, Housing, and Justice. In 2016 he was elected mayor of the Auckland 'Supercity'. We discuss that experience, contrasting central and local government, as well as his role negotiating the first Western Free Trade Agreement with China in 2008. Full transcript, with inline notes and links is available at alethios.substack.com Auckland Skyline image from Ssiyamalan.

1h 24m
12/22/2025

Smart Cities & Digital Governance, with Sean Audain

Presenting a discussion with Sean Audain, the former City Innovation Lead and now Strategic Planning Manager at Wellington City Council. We covered a wide array of topics, from how Wellington is using sensors at scale to improve earthquake resilience, to the implications of narrowing information asymmetries thanks to AI combined with data collection at unprecedented scale. This recording is from the 2025 Sustainable Development Goals Summit at Massey University and is published here with the permission of the organising committee.

38 min
12/03/2025

Auckland's Legendary Design Champion, Ludo Campbell-Reid

Ludo is one of the most interesting and successful public servants of the 21st Century, leading a radical transformation of Auckland’s urban design over his 13 years as the city’s ‘Design Champion’. YIMBY’s rightly celebrate the city’s upzoning successes and improving affordability, but it’s easy to forget how strong public opposition to ‘ugly’ tower blocks almost unraveled the movement before it started. Delivering change is always challenging, particularly in the public sector. Ludo’s extraordinary efforts required building and managing a world-class team, maintaining political support, leading a relentless and incisive comms strategy, and coordinating the efforts of numerous public organisations all to deliver quality public spaces at such scale that it came to be expected, and therefore easy and unremarkable.

1h 50m
10/20/2025

Patrick McKenzie - VaccinateCA and Institutional Dysfunction

Patrick McKenzie (aka patio11) is a strategic advisor at Stripe, an angel investor, writes the fortnightly newsletter ‘Bits About Money’ about financial infrastructure, and was CEO of the extraordinary VaccinateCA effort in 2021. Patrick and I previously spoke on his show ‘Complex Systems’ about system dynamics, local government challenges, and organisational scar tissue. Here we follow up on what the insane VaccinateCA saga tells us about modern institutional dysfunction, and how we might avoid repeating the terrible mistakes of 2021. Read the full transcript with inline notes here: https://alethios.substack.com/p/patrick-mckenzie-vaccinateca

1h 32m
08/14/2025

Anish Tondwalkar - The Societal Implications of Reasoning Models

Anish Tondwalkar is a former employee of OpenAI and Google Brain, now the co-founder of Y-Combinator backed AI interpretability startup ‘dmodel.ai’. We sat down in June to discuss the underappreciated capabilities of the latest generation of AI models, and how individuals, institutions, and society is likely to respond, even if no further progress were made. Full transcript with links and inline notes available here: https://alethios.substack.com/p/anish-tondwalkar-the-societal-implications

1h 46m
08/05/2025

Samo Burja - Live Players and Institutional Reform

Samo is an institutional theorist, the founder of Bismarck Analysis, and the editor of Palladium Magazine. We discuss why our political agreements are 80 years out of date, and how Estonia provides the same standard of public services at half the cost. Full transcript with reference links and notes available here: https://alethios.substack.com/p/samo-burja-live-players-and-institutional

1h 23m
08/01/2025

Steve Hsu - In No.10 with Boris and Cummings

Steve Hsu completed his PhD in theoretical physics at age 24. He’s since made numerous contributions as a scientist, tech startup founder, professor, and institutional advisor. Little is known about the role he played during Boris Johnson’s ill-fated tenure as Prime Minister of the UK. In Steve’s first interview on the subject, he shares that hidden history, and what lessons can be drawn from it. Later, we discuss the rapidly changing power dynamics of the Western Pacific, as China continues to flex its growing might. Full transcript with links is available here: https://alethios.substack.com/p/with-steve-hsu-in-no10-with-boris

1h 57m
08/01/2025

TracingWoodgrains - Journalism, Education Policy, and Political Change

Jack Despain Zhou, aka ‘TracingWoodgrains’, is an independent investigative journalist, education campaigner, online community expert, and internet commentator. We discussed evolving cultural dynamics, leadership, and how to reform everything from dog control laws, to education, to the Democratic Party. Full transcript available here: https://alethios.substack.com/p/with-tracingwoodgrains-journalism

1h 16m
08/01/2025

Nuño Sempere - Superforecasting and Global Risk

⁠Nuño Sempere⁠ is a founding member of the legendary forecasting group ‘Samotsvety’. His track record puts him at the top of the world’s most accurate predictors of the future. I sat down with him last month to discuss forecasting, global risk, and his new non-profit ‘⁠Sentinel⁠’, a free early-warning system for large-scale catastrophes like pandemics, wars, and financial turmoil. Read the full transcript and more at ⁠alethios.substack.com

1h 27m

9 Episodes

Talking about institutions and cities in the age of AI. Find more here: alethios.substack.com

Creator

Alethios
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

9
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Alethios 2025
Show Website

Public Service Podcast