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The Realignment

FAI Presents | Jennifer Pahlka & Michael Kratsios : From Tech to Government and Back Again

The Realignment

The Realignment

Saager Enjeti, Technology, Policy, News, Marshall Kosloff, International Relations, Politics, News Commentary, Public Policy, U.s. Politics, National Security, Economics

4.82.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Earlier this month Marshall moderated a conversation Jennifer Pahlka and Michael Kratsios on their experiences moving from tech to government and back again. Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America, served as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States under President Obama, and as a member of the Defense Innovation Board under Presidents Obama and Trump. This year, she published Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Michael Kratsios, former Principal and Chief of Staff at Thiel Capital, served as Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Under Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon during the Trump administration. Today, he is Managing Director at Scale AI, where he leads corporate strategy and helps accelerate AI applications across industries. They discuss how tech can contribute to the national interest, opportunities for a tech "tour of duty" in government, and the sclerotic political environment in DC.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Marshall here, welcome back to the realignment.

0:02.4

This one's pretty straightforward.

0:09.6

This is the official last episode of the year for the realignment before we go into the

0:14.7

holiday season break. With that in mind I wanted to share a conversation I

0:19.6

really enjoyed recording earlier in this month in San Francisco.

0:23.4

I spoke with the former chief technology officer

0:27.0

in the United States, Michael Kratios,

0:28.6

under the Trump administration,

0:30.2

and previous realignment guest, Palka who was the deputy

0:34.4

CTO of the United States during the Obama administration. This panel was

0:38.4

focused on how technologists or frankly anyone interested in reform could get into government so lots of

0:44.7

really great questions for these two panelists hope you all enjoy this

0:49.2

conversation and of course I will link notes to all of their work moving forward.

0:54.2

I really want the realignment to be a space where folks who are interested in solving and

0:57.8

addressing issues can really get involved, so this is a perfect place to start.

1:01.8

Definitely hit me up and let me know if you have any further

1:03.4

questions. Have a good holiday and a great start to the new year. See you in

1:09.0

2024. Huge thank you of course to the Foundation

1:13.0

supporting the work of this podcast.

1:15.4

So we'll just kind of jump into things here.

1:18.0

Jen, I want to start with you going through a chronological order.

1:22.2

You enter the Obama administration, deputy

...

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