Civic Punks

Ukraine has become one of the most interesting governments in the world to watch when it comes to AI. In this episode of Civic Punks, I sit down with Roman Kyslyi, Chief AI Officer at Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital...

Last week, I shared my conversation with Victoria Itskovych, CIO for the City of Kyiv, about how Kyiv has continued to build and adapt under some pretty extraordinary circumstances. Six Weeks Under Siege Denys Nazarenko...

I started the European leg of this journey in Ukraine—a war zone, which is kind of a mad thing to do. I went to Ukraine because I think they are the most interesting case of government transformation in the world right...

Olivia Dorey has been supporting Civic Punks since before Civic Punks had a name. So it feels pretty special to finally sit down with her — and to announce The Kindred Agency as our first sponsor. In this conversation...

Tokyo was already special. Getting to spend time with Chika Masuda made it even better. Chika is Head of Intelligence Research at Japan’s Digital Agency, and one of those rare public servants who seems to connect...

What does it look like when a city council takes both AI and community engagement seriously — without making either feel like a corporate strategy exercise? In this episode, I talk with Jared Griffith, a senior leader...

Leg two of the Civic Punks World Tour is here. I’m heading to Europe — with stops in Kyiv, London, Berlin, Tallinn, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Tbilisi — to look for the people, places, and ideas shaping the future of...

Governments around the world are trying to make sense of AI in real time. Some are experimenting, some are regulating, some are cautiously poking it with a stick from a safe distance. In this episode, our global...

Civic Punks is starting to come into focus. In this short solo update, I’m back at Queen’s Park — where I filmed the original launch video — to share where the project is going next. Over the last few months, I’ve been...

In this episode of the Future Government series, I sit down with Sir Geoff Mulgan, one of the people whose work has deeply shaped the field of public sector innovation — and, personally, someone I remember studying back...

Thea Snow is one of those people I love talking to because I always leave our conversation feeling a little more grounded and wise. At the time of this recording, Thea was Director at the Centre for Public Impact for...

What if one of the problems in government is that we keep using the wrong pattern for the work in front of us? In this conversation, I sit down with Suhit Anantula to explore his framework of Lines, Loops, and Vibes...

Public sector innovation was supposed to help government change. But what happens when innovation becomes part of the system it was meant to challenge? In this conversation, I sit down with Nicholas Gruen, a longtime...

Roger Watson has been one of the leading voices shaping the practice of design in government in Australia — as a practitioner, teacher, author, and long-time champion of better public services. I sat down with Roger in...

There’s a lot of pressure right now to be more efficient, more effective, and somehow keep up with a steady stream of new tools—especially AI. In this conversation, I sit down with Michael Baskin, Chief Innovation...