How would you spend $1.1 billion? The question sounds like something that most of us only dream about, but it’s a very real question with real implications that Rhode Island faces as leaders decide how to spend the $1.1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. Guest co-hosts Jonathan Womer and Lisa Vura-Weis spoke with Michael DiBiase, President and CEO of the RI Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) and Linda Katz, Co-Founder and Policy Director of the Economic Progress Institute,...

What's the right kind of school and at what age should a particular kid start? How can you best manage TV and social media time? In this episode, we take a deep dive into a data-driven approach to parenting with Emily Oster, Brown professor of economics and mom of two and author of "The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years." In her latest New York Times bestseller, Emily offers a classic business school framework for data-driven parents to think...

Year Up is a workforce development program that aims to bridge the opportunity divide and help young low-income adults who don't have a college degree find meaningful work. But how effective is it? Join us for a conversation with David Fein of Abt Associates about his newly-released five-year results from a major randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of Year Up. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Governor Dan McKee became the 76th Governor of Rhode Island in unique circumstances, but he is no stranger to governing. In this episode, David Yokum sits down with Governor McKee to discuss how his experience as Mayor and Lt. Governor prepared him to lead, policy priorities for Rhode Island, and the role of science in government. Take a deep dive with us and get to know Rhode Island's new Governor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You're mindlessly scrolling through your phone, holding the entirety of the internet in your hand, but you're still bored out of your gourd. Why? And what can you do about it? In this episode, David Yokum sits down with John Eastwood, co-author of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at York University to discuss his research on boredom and its association with the unengaged mind. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s April 28th, 2020, and we’re a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic. Here in Rhode Island we’ve been under a stringent, stay-and-home order for the past 30 days.  States across the country are starting to consider when and how to responsibly lift these restrictions. Yesterday, Governor Raimondo released a framework for how to reopen the state, called “Reopening RI: Charting the Course.” It describes three phases of progression, and the metrics we’ll monitor to know when to move from one...

On any given day, about half a million people are locked in jail, but not yet convicted of any crime. The most common reason by far is an inability to pay cash bail. Bail is the main driver of mass incarceration, but what is cash bail? How should it work in theory? And how does it work in practice? Are reforms needed? And if so, in what ways? Today we're talking with Robin Steinberg. She's the founder of the bail project, a nonprofit that advocates reforms to curb mass incarceration, and in...

We're in an unusual moment. Schools are closed. We're being asked to socially distance ourselves from our neighbors and in general. Society is bunkering down in the face of novel coronavirus. What is COVID-19 what can it do to our bodies and what are the risks? How should we respond both as individuals, families, and as a society? Should you be buying 80 rolls of toilet paper right now? We talk with Dr. Philip Chan, an infectious disease expert and physician at Merriam and Rhode Island...

Humans have built hugely complex societies and technologies, but most of us don't even know how a pen or a toilet works! How have we achieved so much despite understanding so little? In this episode, David Yokum sits down with Steve Sloman, author of The Knowledge Illusion and Professor of Psychology at Brown University to discuss the extensive research on the cognitive biases that convince us we know more than we do.

Corporate America knows you better than ever before, but is that a good thing? The apps we use, the electronic books we read, and the digital coupons we shop with may be convenient, but they also provide businesses with an increasingly fine-grained map of our daily activities. Meanwhile, the new discipline of neuromarketing uses brain scans to probe consumers’ motivations without their conscious participation. David Yokum (of The Policy Lab) and Mark Bartholomew, Professor of Law at the...

Can money make you happy? How should you spend the 20 dollars in your pocket right now? Is mo’ money really mo’ problems? We are joined today by Mike Norton, a Professor of Harvard Business School and Co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending, which tries to answer these common questions. This conversation, though funny, will also leave you humbled about how you might do better at spending your money on what you care about in life. 

A few weeks ago there was a blackout in New York City and it caused all sorts of problems: traffic and subway gridlock, people trapped in elevators, no working appliances or computers. It is really a window into what our life would look like if there weren’t abundant electricity everywhere. So today we talk with Macky McCleary, former Administrator of the RI Division of Public Utilities, current partner at Innogy consulting, and a senior fellow at the policy lab, about the future of energy....

We're joined by The Policy Lab's Emily Oster, bestselling author of Cribsheet and Expecting Better, for a conversation about how data can help us become better, more relaxed parents.

A conversation about the messy intersection of data governance, evidence building, and privacy in pursuit of leveraging our administrative data for the public good. With Amy O'Hara, Director of the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University.