Episodes

Patrice Maginnis has experienced life as someone who can see, and as someone who can’t. She was born with retinitis pigmentosa and gradually went blind, losing all usable sight at age 60.

After a career on the music faculty of UC Santa Cruz, she now helps people adapt and thrive at the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. That often involves some surprising high tech solutions—like creative uses of smart phones—and some decidedly low tech ones as well—like the power of a welcoming community.

(more...) about Patrice Maginnis: How Tech—High & Low—Is Changing the World of the Blind & Visually Impaired

This time: a live recording of a terrific panel discussion featuring very smart people from across the ideological spectrum who have national experience in politics and media.

Amanda Renteria, Mike Madrid, Debbie Mesloh, Dan Schnur, Kristin Olsen, and Zach Friend joined host Spencer Critchley at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California on March 21, 2019 to go way beyond the usual talking points and offer deep insights into where we are — and how we go forward.

(more...) about Saving Democracy: The Way Forward

Business drives our economy — but our guest this episode thinks it can also make society better. Bud Colligan has been part of some of the most successful businesses of our time, including Apple.

He’s also a social entrepreneur: he invests in ventures that promise to achieve social good, such as through education, or environmental protection, or inclusive economic development.

(more...) about Bud Colligan: Social Enterpreneur

Can we look at the top priorities for the new Congress without talking about likability, who curses more, or a dancing video?

Yes we can. On Dastardly Cleverness: Politics Edition it’s not about the horse race, or the latest outrage, but how to make politics do what it’s supposed to do: make our lives better, not just more entertaining — or depressing.

(more...) about Be Right or Do Right? Zach Friend & Paul Shone on the New Congress

Lenny Mendonca is the co-founder of New America, a “think and action tank.” He believes that what America is going through now is similar to the Gilded Age: technology is enabling a few people to get very rich while the lives of millions of others are disrupted.

And he thinks the solution to many of our problems is also rooted in the past: progressive federalism, a pragmatic and yet hopeful approach that he believes can win support from the left and the right. He says it’s the answer to making progress towards the values most Americans hold dear.

(more...) about Lenny Mendonca: Progressive Federalism May Be the Answer to America’s Problems

It was called the most important election of our lifetimes, but so much of the coverage has been the same old horse race stuff.

Not on Dastardly Cleverness, though: in this episode we dig deep with experts who have worked with Barack Obama, John McCain and the Democratic National Committee, among others:

Kevin Lewis, Dan Schnur, and Enrique Gutierrez.

(more...) about Beyond the Horse Race: What the Election Can Teach Us About Making Change

We’re celebrating our first season with highlights from the past year!

It’s an episode full of gifts of insight from leading social innovators, on the future of work, universal basic income, reforming the way we bank and invest, why we vote the way we do, saving the oceans, saving democracy, and much more.

(more...) about Highlights From Our First Year

Raised in a farmworking family, Amanda Renteria has worked for Goldman Sachs, the City of San Jose, and two senators; has been a teacher and coach at her old high school; has run for Congress; held a top position in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign; directed operations for the California Department of Justice and this year, ran for Governor of California.

She has the insights to show — many of them arising from her own life story — as you’ll hear in this interview with Dastardly Cleverness host Spencer Critchley.

(more...) about Amanda Renteria: How to Create Impact in the Public & Private Sectors

LIVE episode: “Saving Democracy,” featuring former Congressman Sam Farr, former Barack Obama and Kamala Harris adviser Debbie Mesloh, USC and UC Berkeley Professor and former top Republican consultant Dan Schnur (now a No Party Preference voter), former California Assembly Republican Leader Kristin Olsen, local elected official and presidential campaign veteran Zach Friend, and host Spencer Critchley. It was an in-depth and enlightening conversation, about topics that ranged from the frightening to the inspiring.

(more...) about Saving Democracy: Bipartisan Views from Presidential Campaigns, Congress, National Media & More

Joe Sanberg co-founded Aspiration, a socially responsible, online bank and investment firm. Aspiration invites customers to pay whatever they think its services are worth — even if that’s nothing.

He’s a prime mover behind the California Earned Income Tax Credit, which has helped 800,000 low-income California families in its first two years of existence.

He established the Working Hero political action committee. Working Hero supports candidates who are committed to ending poverty.

And he believes we can end poverty in 30 years, and must, if democracy is to survive.

(more...) about Joe Sanberg: We Can — And Must — End Poverty in 30 Years