Shows
Democracy Innovators PodcastMarco Cappato & Francesco Vecchi discuss how AI can empower democracyMarco Cappato and Francesco Vecchi from the pan-European Eumans movement engage for a more transnational democracy and a more long-term orientation. In this episode we talked about the Civic AI initiative as part of the Eumans movement.
2025-12-1654 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastVir Sanghavi about Tilt.vote and how it can improve debates in democraciesVir introduces Tilt.vote, a platform that uses AI to rank comments based on a “Logic Score” rather than just popularity or rage bait. We discuss how the AI detects fallacies, the future of AI agents in the workforce, and how civic tech can help save democracy from polarization.
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2025-12-0453 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastBruce Schneier on democracy in the context of cryptography, security, e-voting, AI, power and trust.Bruce Schneier is a well known cryptographer, security expert, and privacy advocate who deeply cares about society. Recent books like “A Hacker’s Mind” or “Rewiring Democracy” reflect his engagement in finding new perspectives of how democracy can be designed in better ways.
We had a connection issue which caused a cut within the recording.
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2025-11-2644 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastTiago Peixoto about the role of collective action in reforming democratic systemsTiago C. Peixoto is an international civil servant and a visiting professor at the Centre for Democratic Futures at the University of Southampton. He has been recognized as one of the 20 Most Innovative People in Democracy and one of the 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government.
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2025-11-191h 06
Democracy Innovators PodcastJonathan Moskovic about the future of deliberative citizen participationJonathan Moskovic is expert in democratic innovation and citizen participation. He has over ten years of experience at local, regional, European, and international levels with various actors, including civil society, traditional political institutions, and international organizations.
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2025-11-1250 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastCarol Romero & Andrés Pereira de Lucena about Decidim, and why technology is politicalCarol Romero is CPO and Andrés Pereira de Lucena is CTO of Decidim, a well-known open-source tool for democratic online participation. With several hundred instances actively running and nine years of development behind it, Decidim is a widely used and battle-tested software. Building on this experience, the Decidim team is now working on a more refined and mature release.
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2025-10-281h 07
Democracy Innovators PodcastAlex Blaga from Trollwall about using AI to combat toxic content and misinformation on social mediaAlex Blaga works at Trollwall AI, a platform designed to moderate toxic comments on social media. In this episode, Alex explains how harmful content is often used to spread narratives through repetition alone. The conversation also touches on the need for user identification on social media and the balance between freedom of speech and accountability.
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2025-10-241h 01
Democracy Innovators PodcastSonia Bussu about using arts to bring emotions in democratic settingsSonia Bussu is an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on participatory democracy and democratic innovations. In this episode, we explore the role of emotions in democratic engagement, the potential of civic technology, and how assemblage theory can help us to understand the fluidity and complexity of democracy.
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2025-10-1441 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastGraham Wetherall-Grujić of the Innovation in Politics Institute about improving political discourseGraham Wetherall-Grujić is researcher at the Innovation in Politics Institute. With his background in political theory and a PhD in philosophy, he has a differentiated perspective on contemporary democracy, power and deliberation. He emphasizes the need for a reasoned discussion that needs to happen before any voting process.
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2025-10-021h 09
Democracy Innovators PodcastRichard Bartlett about Loomio and how horizontal decision-making is different from society's habitsRichard Bartlett is the co-founder of Loomio, a collaborative decision-making tool for communities and organizations. He started his career as an engineer, but the financial crisis caused him to change direction. He joined Occupy Wall Street and eventually founded Loomio in 2012. With over 13 years experience in digitally assisted consensus decision-making, he has valuable insights to share.
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2025-09-2449 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastMartín Carcasson about the Center for Public Deliberation and overcoming toxic polarizationMartín Carcasson is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. After focusing on theoretical academic communication work, such as analyzing the rhetoric of U.S. presidents, he transitioned into a more applied direction. As the founder and director of the Center for Public Deliberation, he has organized over 500 deliberation events in the United States.
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2025-09-181h 09
Democracy Innovators PodcastTomas Rakos about Participation Factory and why fetishising a single method or tool is a bad ideaTomas Rakos began his career in the Czech media industry. In 2013, he was co-founder and CEO of his first participatory company. 6 years ago, he started the social enterprise Participation Factory, through which he designs, consults, and manages participatory projects around the world. With his extensive knowledge and experience in this field, he is able to offer valuable insights on participation.
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2025-09-101h 00
Democracy Innovators PodcastMargo Loor about CitizenOS, an open-source, community-based, grassroots decision-making platformMargo Loor is CEO and co-founder of CitizenOS, an open-source platform for grassroots decision-making. The platform allows communities to gather ideas and take decisions. As an early adopter and optimist, Margo draws a picture of a technological and participatory future of democracy, though he favors a careful integration of AI into deliberative processes.
2025-09-0158 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastDaniel Mackisack on setting ambitious political goals and testing new forms of governance in spaceDaniel Mackisack is a democratic systems and innovation expert with a career spanning international development, tech entrepreneurship, advisory, advocacy, diplomacy, journalism and research. Inspired by experiences in the Arab Spring, he has spent the last decade working on projects to strengthen democracy and empower citizens, including most recently a participatory initiative to bring citizen voices to the space sector.
2025-08-261h 02
Democracy Innovators PodcastGuido Saracco about Tecnosofia and the importance of combining humanism and technology in educationGuido Saracco is professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin and author of the book “Tecnosofia: technology and humanism for a new science” (title translated). He believes that future education needs to combine technological and human teaching, since engineering increasingly implies social impact.
2025-08-2051 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastAndrew Gray about Suffrago and how to use the wisdom of people's voices for politicsAndrew Gray is co-founder of Suffrago, a civic tech platform providing politicians with anonymized polling data, specific to their constituency. With his background in politics and law he is passionate about changing democracy for the better. He was especially amazed by how Polis is collecting wisdom from crowds, which had influence on Suffrago.
2025-08-1147 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastMagnus Strobel about the Future of Civic Engagement: Inside the Nexus Politics PlatformMagnus Strobel is co-founder of Nexus Politics, a digital democracy platform bridging citizens and politicians for more accountable governance. Inspired by growing dissatisfaction with democracy, Magnus and his team set out to build inclusive technology that empowers people to voice their concerns and enables political representatives to act transparently.
2025-08-0458 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastRobert Bjarnason about the Citizens Foundation and how technology supports participatory democracyRobert Bjarnason is an early Internet entrepreneur and is co-founder of the Citizens Foundation in Iceland 2008. This was at a time when the financial crisis hit the world and trust in the parliament of Iceland was at a historical low. The idea was to start a civic tech non-profit to help create technology that enables better decision-making in society.
2025-07-281h 00
Democracy Innovators PodcastEvelien Nieuwenburg about Dembrane ECHO and mirroring insights from large groups' conversationsEvelien Nieuwenburg is co-founder of Dembrane, a company that is developing a tool called ECHO which uses AI to record conversations of large groups. Analyzing these recordings in real time finally reveals insights into how the group thinks.
2025-07-2156 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastGuillaume Saunier & Lucien Langton about how Voca helps to distribute the participatory tool DecidimGuillaume Saunier & Lucien Langton both work at Octree, a tech cooperative that operates the Voca project, among others. Voca is a software as a service (SaaS) product that simplifies and extends the citizen participation platform Decidim. The aim is to facilitate the distribution of tools for civic participation.
2025-07-1049 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastGianluca Sgueo about gamification and how it has potential to improve participation in democraciesLegal scholar and digital democracy expert Gianluca Sgueo explores how gamification can revitalize democratic participation. From his research on participatory democracy across different legal systems to real-world examples like the World Bank’s global crisis simulation game and Lima’s innovative pollution monitoring project, Sgueo discusses why traditional civic engagement is declining and how game design elements might re-engage citizens. He also examines the limitations of current approaches and envisions how technology could reshape democratic participation in the coming decades.
2025-07-061h 03
Democracy Innovators PodcastStephen Boucher about Dreamocracy and how collective creativity solves complex problems in societyStephen Boucher, democracy consultant and author, explains how collective intelligence can solve complex public problems. From climate change to political creativity, discover how groups can be smarter than individuals under the right conditions.
2025-06-2441 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastMichihito Matsuda about the AI Mayor project and why we need to overcome old democratic systemsMeet Michihito Matsuda, the masked founder of Japan’s AI Party, who’s conducting a radical experiment in digital democracy. From running as “AI Mayor” to envisioning a future where artificial intelligence replaces traditional politicians entirely, Matsuda challenges everything we think we know about governance in the digital age.
2025-06-1735 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastOliver Klingefjord about the Meaning Alignment Institute and how to bring up wisdom in a collectiveInterview with Oliver Klingefjord: AI Alignment and Human Values
In this episode of Democracy or Spot Guest, Alessandro Oppo interviews Oliver Klingefjord, co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute. They discuss how AI systems can be aligned with human values, the challenges of current democratic systems, and potential futures in an AI-centered world. Oliver explains their unique approach to understanding human values at a deeper level beyond slogans and preferences, and how this can transform decision-making processes.
2025-06-1049 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastGareth Farry works with Amnesty international on human rights advocacy using blockchain technologyGareth Farry, a qualified lawyer from New Zealand with a background in music, arts, and social impact, shares his journey into blockchain technology and how it intersects with his interests in law and identity.
The conversation explores Gareth’s innovative SOL (Sovereign or Self-Actualized Identity Layer) project, which aims to provide a blockchain-based identity solution that acknowledges different legal statuses and jurisdictions.
A highlight of the discussion is Gareth’s work with Amnesty International to create a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that will help coordinate and incentivize human rights advocacy across their 10-million member base across 70 countries.
The interview delv...
2025-06-021h 14
Democracy Innovators PodcastTate Berenbaum about Arweave and how a blockchain-based permanent storage impacts governance22-year-old Tate Berenbaum discusses Arweave, a permanent data storage network designed to store data for 200+ years, along with his journey as a young founder in Web3. Learn how decentralized technology can preserve knowledge for future generations and the challenges of building in the crypto space.
2025-05-281h 11
Democracy Innovators PodcastBjørn Bedsted about Democracy X, local transitions and global participationIn this episode of Democracy Narrators podcast, Alessandro Oppo interviews Bjørn Bedsted, International Director of Democracy X, discussing the organization’s work on deliberative democracy, citizen participation, and sustainable development.
Democracy X is a nonprofit foundation working to find solutions for societal challenges like developing technology in desirable directions, addressing planetary boundaries, and advancing democracy with innovative mechanisms.
2025-05-2146 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastJosef Lentsch about the Political Tech Summit and huge potential in digitally assisted democracyIn this episode of Democracy Innovator, Alessandro Oppo interviews Josef Lentsch, founder and CEO of the Political Tech Summit. Josef shares insights on political technology, the distinction between civic tech and govtech, and how technology can strengthen democratic processes. Drawing from his background in psychology and public administration, Josef offers a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in digital politics.
2025-05-1255 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastLukas Salecker about deliberAIde and why generative AI makes a difference in deliberative democracyIn this episode of Democracy Innovators Podcast, Alessandro Oppo interviews Lukas Salecker about deliberAIde, an innovative platform that uses AI to enhance deliberative democratic processes like citizens’ assemblies. Lukas shares how deliberAIde helps make democratic participation more accessible, efficient, and scalable through AI-powered transcription, analysis, and reporting tools.
2025-05-061h 01
Democracy Innovators PodcastGeert Lovink about Democracy and the Internet. Do internet technologies help or harm?Media theorist Geert Lovink discusses the internet’s military origins, its evolution, and its problematic relationship with democracy. He explores how digital networks democratized information while proving dangerous for voting systems. Lovink shares insights from his work with alternative media and warns about AI excluding cultural knowledge. He calls for Europeans to develop alternatives to Silicon Valley platforms while balancing crisis response with building democratic technological futures.
democracyinnovators.com/geert-lovink-about-democracy-and-the-internet-do-internet-technologies-help-or-harm/
2025-04-281h 05
Democracy Innovators PodcastMarcin Woźniak about Swarmcheck and Argument Mapping: How democratic discourse can be more rationalNOTE: Because of some network problems, I had to repeat some questions. I had to cut the video a couple of times: to make it comprehensible, I’ve inserted a “beep” sound, to make it clear that is not Marcin that is repeating himself. I hope it is comprehensible. :)
In this insightful episode, Marcin Woźniak discusses SwarmCheck, an innovative argument mapping software developed by the Optimum Foundation to improve rational public discourse and collective decision-making. SwarmCheck visualizes arguments as interactive networks, helping people find agreements and understand disagreements through an analytical approach. Marcin explains how the platfor...
2025-04-221h 50
Democracy Innovators PodcastArtem Zhiganov, Harmonica: How to improve collective sense-making with GenAIA conversation with the creator of Harmonica, an open-source tool using AI to support collective sensemaking in online communities. We explore the origins of the project, its design for asynchronous dialogue, and the vision behind building democratic infrastructure without relying on venture capital.
2025-04-141h 09
Democracy Innovators PodcastValentin Chaput about Open Source Politics. A decade of digital tools & the next generationIn this interview, Alessandro Oppo talks with Valentin Chaput from Open Source Politics about the evolution of civic tech, the challenges of institutional adoption, and the role of AI in digital democracy. They discuss key open-source tools like Decidim and Polis, the importance of collaboration, and the need to adapt civic tech to modern communication trends. Valentin emphasizes that the future of digital democracy depends on meaningful participation and interoperability between platforms.
2025-04-0750 min
Democracy Innovators PodcastIntroducing the democracy innovators podcast: The future of of democracy, governance and technology
00:00 Introducing the podcast
13:21 Expectations for the podcast
19:36 Personal background
43:46 The role of information
46:17 The stability of instability
50:22 Can technology help?
58:14 The Holy Grail of democracy
1:05:50 Code is law
1:12:59 Outro
2025-03-311h 15