Doing Democracy: Jennifer Pahlka on How to 'Recode America'

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During the height of the pandemic, the agency that handles California’s unemployment benefits had an epic meltdown. Not only could its computers not handle the thousands of additional claims, officials couldn’t even say for sure how big the backlog was. Jennifer Pahlka was one of the technology experts brought in to help, an experience she writes about in her new book Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing In the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. The former United States chief deputy technology officer and founder of Code for America, Pahlka reveals why systems are too often developed to meet the needs of bureaucrats instead of the public. She joins Forum as part of our “Doing Democracy” series. Guests: Jennifer Pahlka, author, "Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing In the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better." Pahlka is the founder of Code America and has served as the chief deputy technology officer for the United States Government. She lives in Oakland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego,
0:07.4	recently voted the number one destination spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine.
0:12.8	Summer retreat packages of three, four, or seven nights including hiking, water classes,
0:19.0	mindfulness, spa therapies, and culinary adventures with
0:22.8	farm-fresh ingredients. Learn more at Rancho LaPuerta.com.
0:27.3	Switch to Comcast Business Mobile and save hundreds a year in your wireless bill.
0:31.4	Comcast Business, powering possibilities.
0:33.9	Restrictions apply. Comcast Business Internet required.
0:36.0	Compar as two unlimited intro lines and lowest price 5D plans of top three carriers.
0:38.9	Tax on fees extra, reduce speeds after 30 gigabytes of usage.
0:41.3	Data threshold may vary.
0:43.6	From KQED.
0:59.9	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:07.8	It's time for our monthly series doing democracy, and today we're examining one of the crucial factors eroding trust in that democracy.
1:11.5	But it's not polarization or a political party's dysfunction or even gridlock. We're going to talk about how policies are implemented in the digital age, how they
1:16.4	lead to problems, and what happens when people encounter a government technology that fails them.
1:21.6	We're joined by Jennifer Polka, author of the book Recoding America, and she's going to give us an
1:26.5	inside and deeply insightful look
1:29.0	into the efforts to build government capacity to actually serve the people in ways big and small.
1:35.3	She's coming up next after this news. Welcome to Forum.
1:49.0	I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:51.0	Jennifer Polko is the founder of Code for America.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.