Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good

What (and Where) Is the Liberal Backbone? Spencer on WCPT Chicago with Joan Esposito Dec 21, 2024

As you know if you’ve been following my posts and podcast episodes lately, I’m writing and releasing the chapters of my new book The Liberal Backbone in real time. When Joan Esposito of WCPT Chicago heard about it, she had an idea: a "radio book club," with me coming on her show to talk about the book as it comes together, chapter by chapter, with her and her listeners.

On December 13, we had the first episode, and I thought it went great — Joan is one of my favorite interviewers. We explored the book's big themes: what liberals actually stand for and how they can stand up for it a lot more effectively, at a time when that’s needed more than ever.

I’m sharing the interview here, lightly edited.

As always, you can find the text version at DastardlyCleverness.com and at Substack.

And I hope you’ll follow me on Substack — just search there for Spencer Critchley.

— Spencer

From Marx to Theory to Wokeness: The Liberal Backbone Chapter 5 Dec 10, 2024

The first draft of Chapter 5 of my next book, The Liberal Backbone. It's a brief summary of the roots of woke thinking, which should make the woke left more understandable, especially for liberals trying to sort out what they do and don't stand for.

More at Dastardly Cleverness.com/liberal-backbone-chapter-5 and at Substack.com/@spencercritchley.

— Spencer

We Need to Talk About Marx: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 4 Dec 03, 2024

Are the woke just a bunch of Marxists?

No, but that claim isn’t based on nothing. The Theory behind wokeness is complicated, but some of its key concepts are inherited from Marx, in modified form. And it becomes much easier to understand Theory if you understand something about Marx — which few people do, because Marx doesn't make it easy.

In this fourth chapter of The Liberal Backbone, I explain two key Marxist concepts I plain language: structural oppression, and how a structure of ideas can make oppression seem normal.

Marx was sure he'd discovered an infallible "science" of history. But in practice, it went terribly wrong. The effort to explain why would lead, via many branching paths, to Theory.

Find more at Substack.

What DOES It Mean to Be Woke? The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 3 Nov 26, 2024

The word "woke" has at least two meanings — and they’re so different, they contradict each other.

By one of them, any liberal can be proud to be called woke, because to be woke in this sense is to recognize bigotry and oppose it. But by the other meaning, liberals can’t be woke, even if they want to. That’s because if you’re this kind of woke, you reject liberalism.

Spencer explains in this chapter of The Liberal Backbone.

Find the full text and links at DastardlyCleverness.com.

The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 2: Why Nothing Makes Sense Nov 19, 2024

It’s hard to stand for something if you’re not even sure what that something is. And many liberals have become unsure what liberalism is.

For a long time, few of us had to think much about it. Liberalism was just default political reality.

It was like water is for the young fish in David Foster Wallace’s famous parable: They can’t see the water, because it’s everywhere.

Let’s remember that the word “liberalism” doesn’t only refer to beliefs on the left. It’s also the name of the philosophy of freedom on which the United States and every other liberal democracy were founded. When Thomas Jefferson wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” he was referring to the principles of this kind of liberalism.

But now we liberals are being forced to think about our default reality, because it’s being disrupted by two radical challenges from outside: one from the MAGA right and another from what’s commonly called the woke left — although the word “woke” needs some clarifying, which I’ll get to a little later.

The trouble is, it can be hard for liberals even to see these challenges for what they are. They don’t fit within our default reality.

More at substack.com/@spencercritchley.

The Liberal Backbone Nov 12, 2024

With American democracy facing its greatest crisis since the Civil War as a corrupt autocrat returns to the presidency, I want to do my part, however small, to help right now.

So I’m going to try an experiment: writing a shorter, more tightly focused book, and releasing chapters as I write them. They’ll appear as posts and podcast episodes, like this one.

There are many reasons why we are where we are, and in this little book I’m not going to try to address all of them. Instead, I’m going to try to answer what I think are two of the most important but most poorly understood questions we’re facing:

How did Democrats, and liberals in general, get so bad at politics?

And what can they do about it?

More: dastardlycleverness.com/liberal-backbone-chapter-01

— Spencer

Slowly and then all at once Nov 05, 2024

Ernest Hemingway is famous for the terse economy of his writing. And in one of the most resonant examples of that quality, he captured the essence of catastrophic failure in just a few words, in his novel The Sun Also Rises.

The alcoholic veteran Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt.

“Two ways,” he says. “Gradually and then quickly.”

As it is with one person going broke, so it is with an entire economy crashing, or countless other catastrophes. There isn’t only a single failure, but a first, and then more — and then a cascade.

And so it is when a democracy fails: it happens slowly and then all at once.

Facing the possibility of a vindictive autocrat becoming president, the LA Times decides not to endorse his opponent, or anyone. Then the Washington Post does the same. Then USA Today and all the other Gannett newspapers follow.

Some of their journalist employees protest, but almost no one walks off the job; a few editorial board members are rare exceptions. We can feel for those who keep their heads down. Given the precarious state of journalism, they know that if they lose the job they have now, there's almost nowhere else for them to go.

Businesses, too, begin signaling their loyalty and obedience to the potential dictator. Their executives are driven by what they see as their duty to protect against risk — even as far larger risks gather. Nearly all their employees act essentially the same way.

And as the cascade accelerates across society, a democracy that has survived many shocks fails. The last shock is sudden, even though the preparation was long.

Until recently, it seemed unthinkable to most Americans that our democracy could fail. But it would be far from the first, as historians of democracy know well.

One of the most insightful is Robert Kagan, who until recently was a member of the Washington Post editorial board. Kagan immediately recognized the meaning of the Post’s endorsement surrender. He resigned. It wasn't the first time he had made such a choice. In 2016, he left the Republican Party after it nominated Donald Trump. He sounded an alarm in an essay for the Post called “This Is How Fascism Comes to America.”

But as Kagan’s principled choices demonstrate, fascism doesn’t have to come. Our democracy doesn’t have to fail.

Some failure cascades are like avalanches: impersonal and irresistible. But when a human system fails, each step is a choice by an individual human being — by each of us.

And sometimes, we make the right choice. Nothing is stopping us from doing that now, or at any time — nothing but our own character. “The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves,” as Shakespeare’s Cassius tells Brutus, with the Roman Republic falling around them.

More: https://dastardlycleverness.com/slowly-and-then-all-at-once/

To a Friend Voting for Trump Oct 07, 2024

If we believe in democracy, I believe we have a responsibility not only to vote for it but to speak up for it, including to family and friends, despite how hard that might be. That doesn’t mean berating or insulting them. It can be done quietly and respectfully. In my own view it’s a mark of respect and even love to give people the whole truth about what we believe.

So I’ve written an appeal to a friend who's planning to vote for Donald Trumo, imploring them, before it’s too late, not to make a mistake I believe they’ll regret for the rest of their life. I hope it might be useful for you, however you plan to vote.

— Spencer

Mike Madrid on Why Latinos May Save Democracy Jul 07, 2024

According to my guest this time, the United States is entering a Latino century, and that might be what saves our democracy.

Mike Madrid is a top expert on Latino voting, and in recent years he’s become a national leader in the bipartisan fight to save democracy.

He’s been the political director for the California Republican Party, a senior adviser to both Republicans and Democrats, and a co-founder of the never-Trump Lincoln Project.

Now Mike has a new book, called The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy.

One of his goals for it is to help the Democratic Party win against MAGA authoritarianism.

He’s worried, though, that Democrats have been slow to get the message about Latinos and their crucial role in the nation’s future. And he thinks that helps explain why so many Latinos have been moving towards the Republican Party, a development many Democrats find baffling.

According to Mike, they’re baffled because they don’t understand Latinos or other minorities nearly as well as they think they do. He says too many Democratic candidates, strategists, and pundits think of minorities as theoretical stereotypes instead of as real people with complex lives. That’s why Democrats tend to assume immigration is the top issue for all Latino voters, for example, or that most want to be talked to in Spanish. Both of those assumptions may seem reasonable theoretically, but are often wrong in reality.

Mike argues that now more than ever, Democrats need to get reality right. That’s because first of all, the Latino vote can make the difference in crucial battleground states this year, including ones that may surprise you, like Wisconsin and North Carolina. And he believes that over the long haul, Latino voters can help revive all Americans’ faith in democratic institutions — and democracy itself.

— Spencer

Confused About the Gaza Protests? This May Be Why. May 06, 2024

Many liberals are deeply confused about how to respond to the campus protests over Gaza. And I think it’s an example of the confusion liberals are feeling generally over a lot of issues.

I believe much of the confusion can be traced to the assumption that all political opinions can fit on a single line, from left to right.

For this one-dimensional, one-line model to work, there can only be one left and one right — but there are at least two lefts and two rights. And they’re not different as in further left or further right on the same line. They’re different as in not on the same line at all.

And the difference goes back to the rise of liberalism, accompanied by the rise of an anti-liberal left.

"The President of Forgetting" Mar 13, 2024

As we risk obliviously repeating catastrophic mistakes others have already made, Spencer Critchley has some thoughts about memory and freedom, from people who know the precious value of both.

Excerpt: "Most of us in the U.S. have been spared the necessity of knowing history, and instead have been able to live as if the world was created at our birth. But people in Central and Eastern Europe have already been trammeled by the history that has just now caught up with us. They’ve been trying to warn us for decades."

What's the Real News About Election '24? With Mike Madrid & Zach Friend Feb 13, 2024

If you wanted to, you could consume nothing but presidential campaign coverage all day every day. But how much of it would leave you feeling better informed about casting what may be the most important vote of your life? Not better informed about the campaign as a sporting event, with all the expert play-by-play, color commentary, and stats. But better informed about questions that may not have easy, satisfying, or entertaining answers? Better prepared to think, and not just react?

On this episode of Dastardly Cleverness, we go hunting for that kind of election coverage, find a little, and try to supply some ourselves. I'm joined by two people I can always count on to leave me better informed.

Mike Madrid is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project and one of the country’s top political consultants, with special expertise on Latino voting trends. Mike previously served as the press secretary for the California Assembly Republican leader, as the political director for the California Republican Party, and as a senior adviser to both Republicans and Democrats. He’s the author of the upcoming book The Latino Century.

And Zach Friend has worked for multiple presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives, and has served for multiple terms as an elected official in Santa Cruz County, California. Zach is the author of the book On Message.

-- Spencer Critchley

Luke Freeman on the promise & challenges of Effective Altruism: how to make giving count Dec 22, 2023

By some measures, well over half of charities do little or no good. When similar charities are compared, the most effective ones can be up to 100 times more effective than the least. And there’s often a big mismatch between where donors direct their support and where the need and potential benefits are greatest.

A movement called effective altruism aims to make giving work better by identifying the most effective charities in the world and encouraging donors to support them generously and strategically.

There's been a lot of excitement about it, but lately it's also drawn critics of its ethical premises and the behavior of some who call themselves effective altruists.

In this episode Spencer explores both the promise challenges of effective altruism, in a fascinating conversation with one of the movement’s leaders, Luke Freeman, Executive Director of Giving What We Can.

What Cynics Get Wrong About Politics Oct 25, 2023

There are lots of reasons to be cynical about the crisis in our politics. The trouble is, one of the biggest causes of that crisis is cynicism itself.

We should always be skeptical about politics. People aren’t angels, as James Madison reminded us.

But skepticism involves checking to find out what’s really going on, good or bad. Cynicism is just assuming that it’s all bad.

This is often mistaken for savviness, which lends cool-kids credibility to claims like “all politicians are crooks,” or “there’s no difference between the parties,” or “government never works.” Except none of those claims actually stands up to skeptical scrutiny.

Political journalists reinforce cynicism when they cover politics, day by day, as a dirty game in which all the players are more or less the same: self-interested schemers. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen blames it on what he calls “the cult of savvy,” which rewards reporters for the cynicism of their coverage, when what we need from them is skepticism.

Skepticism is healthy, and necessary for democracy. You can’t say either about cynicism.

If we automatically accept cynical beliefs as true, we make them ever more likely to become true. People who work on behalf of hope gradually withdraw from the arena, leaving it to people all too happy to encourage despair. And those are people who do in fact have very bad motivations.

In this way cynicism reinforces itself and becomes a political death spiral.

Democracy can’t run on despair. But authoritarianism depends on it. This is why authoritarians like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump don’t care that you know they’re lying — they want you to know they’re lying. It serves their interests if you conclude that everyone is a liar, and lose hope. Then your only safe choice is to back the most powerful liar.

All this is why I wanted to talk this time about what has become a deeply unfashionable topic: morality in politics. Yes, it does exist, and in a democracy it must exist.

And once again I talk with Kevin Lewis and Zach Friend.

Kevin has been a communications advisor and spokesman for former President Barack Obama, the White House, the Department of Justice, both Obama campaigns, and Meta.

Zach has worked for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and several presidential campaigns, including both of Obama’s. He’s currently an elected Supervisor in Santa Cruz County, California.

Both have seen lots of the good and bad in politics, but neither is a cynic.

— Spencer

A Hollow Man Vacates the Chair & Other Leadership Lessons, Cautionary & Otherwise, with Kevin Lewis & Zach Friend Oct 05, 2023

A three-way conversation featuring host Spencer Critchley, Kevin Lewis, and Zach Friend on leadership lessons from the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, as compared with far better examples set by Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and others. It turns out, to the shock of cynics everywhere, that character matters!

Kevin was the post-presidency spokesman for former President Barack Obama. During the Obama administration he served at the White House and at the Department of Justice, where he advised Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. He’s also worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and both Obama campaigns.

Zach has worked for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and both Obama campaigns as well. He’s currently serving in local government as an elected Supervisor in Santa Cruz County, California.

A video version of this episode is on YouTube.

Kevin Lewis on AI: Lessons from Working with Meta, Obama, and the DOJ Sep 19, 2023

If you want to know more about the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence, you could hardly do better than to consult with someone who’s been a senior communications advisor for Facebook, lately known as Meta, the US Department of Justice, and a President of the United States. And that’s what Spencer did for this episode.

Kevin Lewis was the post-presidency spokesman for former President Barack Obama. During the Obama administration he served at the White House and at the DOJ, where he advised Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. He’s also worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and both Obama campaigns.

We talk about how AI is transforming communication, politics, business, and even our understanding of reality and identity. We get into Senator Charles Schumer’s current efforts to help Congress catch up with a rapidly-growing technology few people understand. And you’ll hear some of Kevin’s anecdotes about working with some very interesting people under very interesting circumstances.

Katie Davis: What We Really Know About Kids & Tech Jul 11, 2023

If you have children in your family, you’re probably worried about what technology might be doing to them. And maybe there’s some hope about what tech might do for them. In this episode, you can get guidance from one of the world's top experts on the subject.

Dr. Katie Davis is a researcher and associate professor at the University of Washington, and the director of the university’s Digital Youth lab. She’s been studying technology and children for nearly two decades, starting with her time at Harvard University, where she studied under, and worked closely with, the renowned psychologist Howard Gardner. Katie’s first book, The App Generation, was co-written with Gardner. Her third and latest book, Technology's Child, was released recently by MIT Press.

Joan Esposito: Talk radio for people who want better politics Feb 01, 2023

The episode before last, Spencer was the guest for a change, interviewed by Joan Esposito, who hosts a liberal talk radio show originating at WCPT-AM in Chicago. This time, Spencer interviews Joan about how she manages to conduct smart, in-depth, live political conversations three hours a day, five days a week — sometimes devoting a full hour to a topic when the standard is a few minutes. We hear what Joan has learned as a radio host, as a TV news anchor, and in other roles, helping people understand what’s going on in their lives and in the world.

Sam Farr: How Democracy Can Work Dec 21, 2022

Sam Farr devoted 44 years of his life to elected office at the local, state, and federal level. That included 24 years as the Congressman for the Central Coast of California, where he grew up in the seaside village of Carmel.

Among his inspirations were his father, longtime state legislator Fred Farr; President John F. Kennedy; and the Peace Corps, which he joined as a young man. If that makes him sound like an idealist, that’s accurate, but it’s only half the picture.

The other half is very pragmatic, with an obsessive focus on the nuts and bolts of policy and politics.

As you’ll hear in this interview, when both of those halves come together, democracy can work. Sam has lots of great stories about how that happens, some of them funny, some very moving, and all of them hopeful.

Why do so many choose tyranny over democracy? Joan Esposito interviews Spencer Critchley Nov 29, 2022

Spencer often talks with Joan Esposito, who interviews him about politics for her show on Chicago's WCPT-AM. This episode of Dastardly Cleverness replays one of those conversations that's especially relevant now.

Joan and Spencer focus on why democracy, after all its successes, is now in so much danger from authoritarianism. They talk about:

Why so many people are choosing authoritarianism over democracy, mostly on the right but on the left too
How the sources of America's division go back to the Founding
The breakdown of the moral consensus that used to hold us more or less together and how that allows demagogues to appeal to the worst in us
What Plato, Freud, Marx, religion, and Silicon Valley tech bro’s have to do with all this
And more.

You can hear more smart, thoughtful interviews by Joan Esposito over the air on WCPT-AM Chicago, online at heartlandsignal.com, on SoundCloud, or with any podcast app — just search for “Joan Esposito.”

Les Francis & Lora Lee Martin: Can Democrats Save Democracy? Oct 27, 2022

Even with democracy in grave danger, Democrats are in a close race against the people who are trying to finish it off. How can that be, and what should they do about it?

Questions like that have been dominating discussions among a group of some of the country's most senior Democratic Party veterans, including former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, one-time presidential favorite Gary Hart, and until her recent death, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

And our two guests this time: Les Francis and Lora Lee Martin.

Sam Quinones: "America and hope in the time of fentanyl and meth" Oct 11, 2022

In many ways, addiction has become a defining feature of life in America. More and more of us have become addicted to drugs like alcohol, heroin, cocaine, and opioids, and to other things increasingly recognized as addictive, like sugar, junk food, and social media.

The problem has been growing for decades, but in recent years it has exploded. A record for deaths by overdose was set in 2020, at a level six and a half times higher than just 10 years before. The 2020 record was smashed last year, with the overdose death rate still rising. Overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

Some of the toll is probably related to the COVID pandemic. But much of it is also caused by a seemingly infinite supply of incredibly addictive and dangerous synthetic drugs, especially meth and fentanyl. They can be obtained or made cheaply by almost anyone, and sold at an enormous profit. Often they’re mixed in with other illegal drugs, or with counterfeit versions of legal drugs. Now there are reports of fentanyl pills made to look like candy.

Spencer's guest this time is one of the leading experts on the addiction crisis, and one of its most powerful storytellers. Journalist Sam Quinones sounded the alarm on opiate addiction in 2015 in his multiple-award-winning book Dreamland. That book focused on the devastation visited on a small Ohio town from two sources: the aggressive marketing of a supposedly safe universal painkiller called Oxycontin and a flood of cheap, black tar heroin. Dreamland played a major role in exposing the scale and the origins of the opioid epidemic, and that helped produce consequences for many of those who promoted and profited from that epidemic.

Sam Quinones was well ahead of the crowd when he wrote Dreamland, and he still is. His latest book is called The Least of Us. In it, he describes how the addiction crisis has gotten even worse — and yet he also gives reasons for hope. Those reasons are found in the stories of ordinary people who reject the despair that addiction feeds on and amplifies. They’re replacing it with small acts of rebuilding and love, the mutual care that may be the only lasting cure for addiction.

Sheri Berman: Is the Game of Democracy Over? Sep 08, 2022

One way of thinking about democracy is as a game — a game in which freedom, equality, and even lives are at stake.

And one way of thinking about the state of our democracy is that one of the two main competitors is no longer playing the game, but trying to destroy it.

As with any game, the rules of democracy only matter if we agree they do.

Ultimately, we can’t prove that things like civil debate, fair elections, and following the law are good things, we just agree that they are, like we might agree that aces are high. Except we’re not playing for chips.

My guest this time is a leading expert on the game of democracy, why it matters so much, and how it could come to an end.

Sheri Berman is a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Much of her research focuses on how European democracies have developed, struggled, and often failed many times before succeeding. That’s if they do succeed, and if that success lasts. The lasting success of democracy isn’t guaranteed, as we’re all seeing, all too clearly, right now.

Sheri Berman’s most recent book is Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Regime to the Present Day, published by Oxford University Press. She also writes for many scholarly and popular publications, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and VOX.

Walter Shapiro: Finding the Democrats’ Missing Message Jun 16, 2022

It's not just Democrats who need the Democratic Party to remember how to win elections. Democracy does.

Spencer's guest this time has some great ideas on where to start, based on his unique, decades-long experience studying politics from the inside and out.

Walter Shapiro has reported on 11 presidential campaigns, going back to Ronald Reagan’s landslide defeat of Jimmy Carter in 1980. He’s written for the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, Roll Call, and The New Republic among others, worked for President Carter, and teaches at Yale.

Russia Expert Jade McGlynn: Putin's Memory War May 04, 2022

Spencer's guest this time has fascinating, important insights about Vladimir Putin's "memory war:" a campaign to rewrite history with Russia at the center of the world stage. That campaign is being enacted with horrific violence in Ukraine, but is pursued in different ways around the world, including in the United States. Dr. Jade McGlynn is a senior researcher in Russian Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, a former lecturer in Russian at Oxford University, and a contributor to Foreign Policy, The Telegraph, The Spectator, and others. She's the author of The Kremlin’s Memory Makers, coming soon from Bloomsbury, and is currently writing a second book, Putin’s Unreality.

Find more info and links at https://dastardlycleverness.com/jade-mcglynn.

Lincoln Project Co-Founder Mike Madrid: Latino Voters Have an Urgent Warning for Democrats Mar 28, 2022

Mike Madrid is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a longtime political consultant for candidates of both parties, and a leading expert on Latino voting. Mike says Latino voters are sounding an urgent alarm for the Democratic Party about how it may lose the presidency and more, by losing its working class base. And Mike believes that’s not just a problem for Democrats: At this time in our history, democracy needs Democrats to win. Mike says the problem is that Democrats have increasingly become the party of a well-educated, well-intentioned, but disconnected elite, as recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times called “While Democrats Debate ‘Latinx,’ Latinos Head to the G.O.P.” In this episode, he discusses it with host Spencer Critchley in a fascinating, wide-ranging discussion.

Treating People as People, Not Machines: Dr. Rose Kumar on How to Heal Healthcare Dec 09, 2021

The way we live is also the way we get sick and die: "Lifestyle diseases" are the leading causes of death for Americans, six out of ten of whom have a chronic condition. And yet we treat the symptoms, with expensive drugs and procedures, instead of addressing the causes.

After training at top medical schools, our guest Dr. Rose Kumar walked away from a promising career in what she calls our industrialized healthcare system. She says it was killing her to have to treat patients like machines instead of people, and she knew there was a better way. And she's working to prove it at her multidisciplinary health center, where the care is based on both rigorous science and attention to a patient's whole life, not just their illness.

More: dastardlycleverness.com/rose-kumar

Michele Gelfand: What Tight & Loose Cultures Tell Us About the World & Ourselves Nov 04, 2021

In Singapore, you can face a heavy fine or even jail for offenses like spitting on the sidewalk and importing chewing gum. Meanwhile in New Zealand, a man who hatched himself from a giant egg was appointed the country’s “official wizard.”

These are examples of tight and loose cultures. Much of what’s going on in America and the world right now can be understood better through knowing more about tightness and looseness: for example, the appeal of authoritarian leaders, or refusals to follow COVID safety guidelines.

Spencer's guest this time is Michele Gelfand, an expert on tight and loose cultures, a Stanford University cultural psychologist and the author of the fascinating book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: Tight and Loose Culture and the Secret Signals That Direct Our Lives.

A Guide for the Confused: Just What Is Critical Race Theory? Oct 18, 2021

Even if you see through the phony panic being spun up by Trumpists, some of what you hear from critical race theorists can sound extreme, especially if you don’t know much about the context. In this episode, host Spencer Critchley offers a guide for people who feel confused about Critical Race Theory but aren't sure why.

To Go Forward, We Must First Look Back: Colleen Murphy on Transitional Justice Aug 06, 2021

Sometimes we can't "just move on." Sometimes we must first confront the truth about the past.

According to our guest this time, we can do that through transitional justice. It addresses situations where doing wrong is not the exception, but has been made normal, as has happened in places like South Africa under apartheid, Northern Ireland during the Troubles—and the United States during our long history of racism, and more recent history of democracy under attack.

Colleen Murphy is a professor of Law, Philosophy, and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an expert on transitional justice. As she makes powerfully clear in this episode, transitional justice has helped other societies truly move forward—and is already under way in parts of the US. Sometimes, as with the murder of George Floyd or the attack on the US Capitol, it's because the truth confronts us, whether or not we're ready to confront it.

Georgina Mendoza McDowell: What We Know About How to Reform Policing Jul 15, 2021

We already know a lot about how to reform policing: not just to make it more fair, but to make it more effective. It turns out that when police work in partnership with the communities they protect, crime goes down, often way down. Spencer's guest this time is an expert on what works. Georgina Mendoza McDowell is an attorney and public safety expert who has worked with the Obama Justice Department, a White House initiative to reduce youth violence, a Washington DC-based international development consultancy, and now with Evident Change, a data-driven policy consulting nonprofit.

Susan Neiman: What America Can Learn From Germany About Facing Its Past Jun 08, 2021

It may be hard for many Americans to imagine, but there are striking parallels between post-Civil-War America and post-World-War-2 Germany. Our guest this time is an expert on those parallels, and wrote a deeply-researched, insightful, and important book about them. Philosopher Susan Neiman is the author of Learning From the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.

She describes how Germans finally began what a process of vergangenheitsaufarbeitung, or “working off the past.” It has helped Germany both to make atonement, and to build a better society. As America begins facing its own forgotten, buried, or rewritten past, we can learn a lot from this book and its author.

Abené Clayton: Guns and Lies May 15, 2021

Compared to other high-income countries, our rate of gun deaths per capita is 25 times higher.

But much of what Americans think they know about the costs and causes of gun violence is wrong. And few are aware of solutions that have already been shown to work.

To help fix that, The Guardian has been running a series of in-depth stories called “Guns and Lies.” Its lead reporter is Spencer Critchley's guest this time, Abené Clayton.

Abené Clayton started covering community gun violence in her hometown of Richmond, California and continued during her time at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. In this episode, she recounts her own experiences with gun violence and the discoveries she's made while covering the issue as a reporter.

It's a fascinating discussion that goes behind, and well beyond, the conventional wisdom and clichés of gun violence coverage. You'll hear about the real people involved, the real costs — and some real solutions.

Vinz Koller: How to Repair Democracy Now Apr 03, 2021

American democracy is more fragile than many of us ever imagined. But we’ve been neglecting and abusing it so much that maybe the bigger surprise is that it’s lasted as long as it has.

A lot of that damage can still be fixed, though—as long as we don’t let the whole thing fall apart first.

Spencer's guest Vinz Koller has great insights on what's gone wrong and how we can repair it. Vinz is a political scientist who advises governments on effective policy. He’s long been active in politics, working on multiple national and local campaigns. And he’s been a member of the Electoral College three times for California’s 20th Congressional District.

Vinz sees all too clearly how bad things have gotten—but the solutions he proposes offer real hope.

Living With Big Lies Mar 27, 2021

Even with Trump out of office, the Republican Party's leaders and media enablers appear determined to keep on living in a world of lies — a place where democracy can't live. As host Spencer Critchley says, it's like life under Soviet domination as described by writers such as Vaclav Havel and Czeslaw Milsoz: "Everything is a lie, everyone knows it's a lie, and everyone goes along with the lie anyway."

It consists of the continuing Big Lie of a "stolen election," plus endless others, such as the daily right-wing media "scamdal:" what you get when you build a scandal out of a scam.

Ultimately, the liars are harmed as much as the lied-to, as Socrates long ago warned us:

Having so many evils, will not the most miserable of men be still more miserable in a public station? Master of others when he is not master of himself... wanting all things, and never able to satisfy his desires; always in fear and distraction, like the State of which he is the representative. His jealous, hateful, faithless temper grows worse with command; is more and more faithless, envious, and unrighteous — the most wretched of men, a misery to himself and to others.

(Plato, The Republic.)

Sound familiar?

The Eighth Circle of Hell: Fraud. Painting by Sandro Botticelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The State of Democracy: An Ask Anything Discussion Feb 08, 2021

Spencer Critchley hosts a Zoom-based "Ask Anything" discussion covering the chaos in the Republican Party, how we can both believe in tolerance and make clear moral judgments about something like the Capitol riot, whether better education would be enough to save democracy, what we can learn from other countries that have had to deal with shameful periods in their histories, and what reconciliation might look like.

You can find the video version of the conversation at:

spencercritchley.com/2021/state-of-democracy-online-discussion

The Psychology of Trumpism Jan 26, 2021

This time, host Spencer Critchley talks about the psychology of sedition, Trumpism as Freudian dream logic, and the apparent belief of Capitol rioters that they were in a movie.

Excerpt:

In dream logic, the Capitol riot was the start of a patriotic revolution led by Trump. And it was an anti-American plot led by Antifa and BLM.

Dream logic not only doesn’t have to make sense, it destroys sense — and thereby destroys all constraints. If you want to live in a world of dream logic, the more flagrant the lie, the better. A lie isn’t a shield, it’s a weapon. When Trump makes everything a lie, he makes everything true.

What History Can Teach Us About the Attack on Our Democracy Jan 18, 2021

Spencer Critchley talks about:

Why we can’t “just move on” after the Capitol riot - or everything else that’s happened over the past four years.
The circle of shared moral values that must encompass democracy and how each of us can and must defend it — starting by simply speaking up.
Lessons from other countries, especially about the consequences of silence: Germany, South Africa, Northern Ireland, and France.

The Attack on Democracy Jan 11, 2021

Just about the only thing many of us are thinking about these days is the endangered state of American democracy, especially since the attempted coup on Jan. 6. In this episode, Spencer Critchley offers some of his thoughts, and invites you to share yours. You can do that at these links:

Twitter: @scritchley Facebook: spencer.critchley.page dastardlycleverness.com spencercritchley.com

Photo: Tyler Merbler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Zach & Spencer on Election 2020 Oct 21, 2020

Zach Friend is an author and a public policy and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Democratic National Committee. He’s been featured on and quoted by CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, and many others.

In this episode, Zach and host Spencer Critchley talk about not just what’s happening now, but what it all means for where politics is going.

Mike Madrid of the Lincoln Project Oct 01, 2020

The Lincoln Project is made up of top Republican political consultants who are aiming attack ads at a Republican president. We find out why and how from the Lincoln Project's Mike Madrid.

Mike is an expert on Latino voting trends, based on work starting with his master’s thesis at Georgetown University. He’s the former press secretary for the California Assembly Republican leader and the former political director for the California Republican Party. He’s been named as one of America’s Most Influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine.

And Mike Madrid is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project. That’s a group of top Republican consultants working to help elect Democrat Joe Biden, because they believe our Republican president is a threat to democracy itself. Other members of the Lincoln Project include John McCain presidential campaign manager Steve Schmidt, attack ad expert Rick Wilson, and lawyer George Conway, the husband of President Trump’s senior adviser Kelly Anne Conway.

Ryan Coonerty: Facing Historic Wildfires and a Pandemic—at the Same Time Sep 16, 2020

As a county supervisor in Santa Cruz County, California, Ryan Coonerty is having to cope with two historic challenges: the national coronavirus pandemic and the catastrophic western wildfires. Both disasters have hit his community hard. In this episode, host Spencer Critchley talks with him about leadership in a time of crisis — or crises.

How to Do Social Impact Marketing That Works Jun 24, 2020

Social marketing uses the persuasion techniques normally used to sell potato chips, fashion, detergent, cars, and endless other consumer products, but for social good campaigns.

Knowing how to do social marketing right is important to nonprofits, socially responsible corporations, and all other purpose-driven organizations — but all too often, it's done wrong. You hear a lot about "sharing information," "educating the public," and "conducting outreach." None of these is likely to have much effect on people's beliefs and behaviors, which are what count in creating social change.

In this episode, Spencer Critchley teaches you a five-step model for social marketing that has impact.

You can find a video version at dastardlycleverness.com, and on our YouTube channel.

Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable & What Happens Next Apr 28, 2020

The election of Donald Trump shocked America and the world — and that included Dastardly Cleverness host Spencer Critchley. But Spencer believes now that we should have seen him coming, like we should have seen the approach of this hyper-partisan crisis of democracy we're going through.

He's written a book about it, called Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable & What Happens Next, available now at Amazon.com. We hear an excerpt from it in this episode.

In the book, Spencer explains why Trump or someone like him has been on his way since this country's beginning. The Founders thought they could design a new kind of nation, one based on the Enlightenment triumph of reason. But many Americans rejected the Enlightenment, and many of them still do. So the United States has never been truly united: it’s divided not just by race and class, but by culture and worldview.

Supporters and opponents of Trump see America, loyalty, and even truth very differently.

Uniting those nations is going to require that they finally learn to understand each other. I think that might still be possible.

For the sake of democracy, it has to be.

How to Communicate in a Crisis, With Brent Colburn Mar 30, 2020

Brent Colburn’s experience goes back to the Al Gore presidential campaign in 2000, through Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004, both Obama campaigns, FEMA, Homeland Security, HUD, and to the Pentagon, where he was in charge of communications for the Defense Department. After that, he led communications for Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and he is now the Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Along the way he was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

In this episode, we hear Brent's insights on how we should deal with the coronavirus crisis, and what he’s learned from dealing with other high-stakes crises during his career.

How Republicans Are Beating Democrats Online, With Mark Barker & Jordan Ruden Feb 03, 2020

A big reason why Donald Trump won in 2016 — and why he may win again in 2020 — is that Republicans now seem to get social media, email, and the rest of the online world better than Democrats do, even though Democrats like Howard Dean and Barack Obama were online pioneers.

In this episode, Mark Barker and Jordan Ruden of Craft & Commerce give fascinating insights into how Democrats lost their lead, how Republicans took it over, and what it means for how we all communicate, whether we’re in politics or not.

Tracy Palandjian: Changing How Change Happens, With Pay for Success Dec 11, 2019

Host Spencer Critchley talks with Tracy Palandjian, the co-founder and CEO of Social Finance, a nonprofit dedicated to using capital to drive social progress. So far, it has helped direct more than $100 million toward challenges in criminal justice, early childhood education, workforce development, health and homelessness.

Social Finance uses the Pay for Success model. At its most basic, that means funding promising social good projects with money from investors, who only get paid pack if the project succeeds. But it also involves a lot more than money: clearly defined outcomes, data-driven decisions, cross-sector partnerships, and strong governance and accountability.

Jake Harriman: Fight Terrorism By Ending Extreme Poverty Nov 12, 2019

For more than seven years, Jake Harriman was a US Marine, serving as a platoon commander in the Infantry and in a Special Operations unit. He was deployed in Southwest and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and served two combat tours in Iraq. During the second tour, he earned the Bronze Star.

Jake believed whole-heartedly in the mission of fighting terrorism. But in Iraq he started to question how that should be done. He came to see the greater enemy as extreme poverty: while terrorist leaders may be evil or insane, their foot soldiers are often motivated by desperation.

So Jake left the Marine Corps and went to Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. There he gained the knowledge he needed to create Nuru International, a nonprofit dedicated to ridding the world of extreme poverty in our lifetime.

There's more at dastardlycleverness.com.

Jenn Park: What If Government Just Did What Works? Oct 07, 2019

We hear so many stories about government spending big money without getting results — to the point that many Americans agree with Ronald Reagan's famous assertion that government isn't the solution, it's the problem.

That claim was never accurate, as government successes like the Internet, highways, or vaccinations make clear. All the same, though, a lot of government effort does end up wasted, as even people who work in government will readily acknowledge.

So, many of them have embraced a new approach that’s driven by the smart use of data. It has a lot in common with the way coach Billy Beane turned around the Oakland A’s baseball team, as was described in the book "Moneyball," by Michael Lewis. In fact, it’s is often called “Moneyball for government.”

Spencer's guest this time is Jenn Park, who’s with a nonprofit called Results For America. In their conversation, Jenn focuses on What Works Cities, a collaboration with Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies and other partners.

More at dastardlycleverness.com.

Elin Kelsey: How Optimism Can Help Save the Oceans Aug 14, 2019

“We recognise and respect the many challenges facing our oceans, yet too often 'doom and gloom' stories are the only kind of ocean news we hear.

"The evidence suggests that if we do not balance the bad news with good, and the problems with solutions, we will not motivate people to act.”

That’s a quote from the website of Ocean Optimism, a movement to inspire action to save the oceans not by highlighting what’s going wrong, but by sharing stories of what’s going right. Our guest this time is Ocean Optimism’s founder, Elin Kelsey.

Learn more on the episode page at dastardlycleverness.com.

Jacob Martinez: How Digital NEST Helps Youth Take Flight Jul 16, 2019

Jacob Martinez is the founder of Digital NEST, an incubator for young tech talent in the farming towns of Watsonville and Salinas, California.

Its graduates make an average starting salary of more than $46,000. The average Watsonville resident makes about $17,000. NEST graduates have been hired not just by local companies but by multi-nationals like software maker Adobe, and the NEST has attracted donations from major venture capitalists.

As we hear in this interview with host Spencer Critchley, Jacob Martinez thinks the success of Digital NEST can be replicated in small towns up and down California, and maybe even across the country.

Alex Gershenson: The Huge Potential of Making Corporate Buying More Sustainable May 21, 2019

Big corporations buy what they need from all over the world because they're looking for the best prices.

But increasingly, they’re also looking for environmental and social sustainability.

For example, McDonald’s has committed to serving only sustainably-sourced coffee at all of its locations by next year. To achieve that it’s buying its coffee from thousands of often small coffee growers.

A company in Santa Cruz, California called SupplyShift makes software that helps companies manage their supply chains to make sure they’re sustainable. On this episode: an eye-opening conversation with SupplyShift’s CEO, Alex Gershenson.

Patrice Maginnis: How Tech—High & Low—Is Changing the World of the Blind & Visually Impaired Apr 23, 2019

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.

Patrice has learned to adapt and to thrive. And she helps others do the same, through her work with the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a nonprofit with locations in Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, and San Jose, California.

Vista Center’s mission is to empower people who are blind or visually impaired “to embrace life to the fullest.”

Often that involves technological solutions that a sighted person might never think of. A smart phone, for example, takes on a whole new meaning by providing a means of "seeing" everyday objects like groceries or currency.

And sometimes, the Vista Center’s approach is very low-tech — like clients being made to feel welcome in a supportive community.

Saving Democracy: The Way Forward Mar 26, 2019

Our episode this time is a live recording of a terrific panel discussion featuring some 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 to go way beyond the usual talking points and offer deep insights into where we are — and how we go forward.

More at dastardlycleverness.com.

Bud Colligan: Social Entrepreneur Feb 04, 2019

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.

One example is Pacific Community Ventures, which he co-founded and where he helped raise $100 million for community-focused investments. Another is the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, a coalition that’s helping to build sustainable economic growth in his part of California.

More on the episode page at dastardlycleverness.com.

The New Congress: Be Right or Do Right? Jan 10, 2019

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.

In this episode host Spencer Critchley brings brings back a previous guest and introduces a new one. Dastardly Cleverness veteran Zach Friend is an alumnus of the John Kerry and Barack Obama campaigns, the Democratic National Committee, and Congressional staff, and is currently an elected Supervisor in Santa Cruz County, California.

New guest Paul Shone is a Boston-based Democratic political consultant. He's had senior roles on presidential campaigns in nearly every cycle since 1976.

Lenny Mendonca: Why Progressive Federalism May Be the Answer to America's Problems Dec 16, 2018

Lenny Mendonca, a former senior partner with McKinsey & Company and a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is the co-founder of New America, a self-described “think and action tank."

In this fascinating conversation with host Spencer Critchley, Lenny explains why he believes progressive federalism is the solution to our biggest challenges, including climate change, the rise of artificial intelligence, the future of work, and the health of our democracy.

More at the episode page.

Beyond the Horse Race: What the Election Can Teach Us About Making Change Nov 14, 2018

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 was one of the first people to join Barack Obama’s presidential campaign back in 2007. He went on to serve as the White House Director of African-American Media, as press secretary to Attorney Generals Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, and as Obama’s post-presidency spokesperson. Kevin is now a senior adviser at a Washington-based consulting firm, Blue Engine Message and Media.

Dan Schnur no longer belongs to any political party, but he has a background as a top Republican consultant. He was the Director of Communications for John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, and the chief spokesperson for former California Governor Pete Wilson. He now teaches at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley, and is frequently interviewed about politics by major media outlets.

Enrique Gutierrez is the Hispanic Media Director and the Southern Region Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee, which he joined in the summer of this year. Before that he was the Communications Director for Voto Latino, after working for the Arizona Democratic Party, including during the push in Arizona by the Hillary Clinton for President campaign.

This time on Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good, we hear from all three about the crucially important election we just had: not for the usual “Who’s up and who’s down,” but for their deeper insights about change, especially how you make it happen.

One theme that emerged that may surprise: authenticity. As Kevin Lewis says, “Candidates were being themselves, and they weren’t necessarily following the traditional playbooks.”

More at dastardlycleverness.com.

Highlights From Our First Year Oct 02, 2018

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.

Featured:

Former California Governor candidate Amanda Renteria
USC/UC Berkeley Professor Dan Schnur
Purpose-driven marketing pioneer Drew Train
Future of work experts Katie Caves, Vinz Koller, and Kristin Wolff
Monterey Bay Aquarium communications chief Ken Peterson
Santa Fe Institute Researcher Mirta Galesic
Universal basic income advocate Natalie Foster
Anti-poverty leader and socially responsible bank founder Joe Sanberg.

That is a lot of concentrated Dastardly Cleverness!

Subscribe to Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good with any podcast app, and find episode pages, notes, and links at dastardlycleverness.com.

Amanda Renteria: How to Create Impact in the Public & Private Sectors Sep 04, 2018

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.

Through it all, she’s been focused on just how you get good things done: trying to bridge the private sector’s focus on results with the public sector’s commitment to the common good. Along the way, she’s learned a lot about what works, and what doesn’t.

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.

Find more at the episode page.

Saving Democracy: National Perspectives From Left & Right Jul 12, 2018

How did the world's leading democracy get in so much trouble?

To talk about that — and what we should do about it — "Saving Democracy" brought together a bipartisan panel with experience in Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, the federal government, Congress, national media, the California Assembly, and more.

Joining host Spencer Critchley were former Democratic Congressman Sam Farr, former Barack Obama and Kamala Harris adviser Debbie Mesloh, USC / UC Berkeley Professor and former top Republican consultant Dan Schnur, former California Assembly GOP Leader Kristin Olsen, and local elected official and national Democratic politics veteran Zach Friend.

They met in an auditorium in Aptos, California on June 29, 2018. This episode presents their fascinating discussion.

Find more on the episode page at dastardlycleverness.com/saving-democracy.

Joe Sanberg: We Can - And Must - End Poverty in 30 Years Jun 28, 2018

Joe Sanberg grew up in poverty, raised for much of his childhood by a single mother who worked hard but still struggled to secure food and shelter.

With scholarships and financial aid, he was able to get into Harvard, and after he graduated magna cum laude, he sought out the highest paying job he could get, at a major private equity group — so he could provide for his mother.

But after accomplishing that mission and succeeding on Wall Street, he decided to devote the rest of his career to the cause of ending poverty, not just for his mother, but for all Americans.

One of his projects: 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.

Find more on this episode at dastardlycleverness.com.

Find a Purpose or Face the Pitchforks: This Ad Agency Is Betting on Doing What's Right May 29, 2018

Drew Train was a rising star on Madison Avenue, working at the legendary J Walter Thompson agency for clients like HSBC, one of the biggest banks in the world.

But at night, he was going to Occupy Wall Street rallies.

That's because he thought something had gone very wrong with business: it was extracting more from the world than it was putting back, and benefiting the rich over everyone else.

Eventually, he couldn't stand the tension between his day job and his values, and he ended up leaving J Walter Thompson to co-found a new agency, Oberland, with Bill Oberlander, himself a highly successful ad veteran who had designed campaigns for clients like Target and Snapple.

At Oberland, Drew and Bill work with nonprofits, like The Nature Conservancy, and for-profits, like the Blue Man Group. But increasingly, they believe there'll be less difference between the two: all for-profit businesses will have to be socially responsible, or risk going out of business — and quite possibly taking the whole system down with them.

In this episode, Drew tells host Spencer Critchley why business as usual won't work any more and describes what's coming next.

Find more info and episode links at dastardlycleverness.com.

What If Everyone Were Guaranteed a Paycheck? May 02, 2018

What if everyone got paid - even if they didn’t have a job? That’s the idea behind universal basic income, or UBI. Its advocates say we need it to protect humans who are losing their jobs to robots — and as one of the best ways to end poverty.

In this episode, Spencer Critchley talks to Natalie Foster, co-chair of the Economic Security Project, which advocates for UBI.

More at http://dastardlycleverness.com/ubi.

How to Communicate for Impact Apr 11, 2018

We sometimes think that good communicators are just born talented, like a Jefferson or a Lincoln. And it’s probably true that the great ones have a special gift.

But it’s also true that anyone can learn to communicate better. To explore how, Spencer talks to Sean Smith, who has worked on presidential campaigns for Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and Barack Obama, served at the Department of Homeland Security, and is now at global PR firm Porter Novelli.

Find more, and the show links, at dastardlycleverness.com/communicate-with-impact.

Can We Make Government Work? Mar 21, 2018

Dan Schnur is a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications and the University of California – Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. He worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns as one of California’s leading Republican political strategists.

Zach Friend is a public policy and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He’s currently on the Board of Supervisors in Santa Cruz County, California.

Find the full show notes and links at http://www.dastardlycleverness.com/can-we-make-government-work

Why Do We Vote the Way We Do? Feb 26, 2018

When Santa Fe Institute Professor Mirta Galesic was a teenager, her country fell apart.

She lived in what was then Yugoslavia. But after the death of president for life Josip Broz Tito, that country was riven by ethnic nationalism.

Amidst all the competing claims and rumors spawned by the turmoil, young Mirta was struck by a realization: people would believe whatever supported their group. It influenced the course of her life as a scientist.

Mirta and several co-authors have just published the results of a study that finds, among other things, that if you want to know how people will vote in an upcoming election, you may want to ask their friends. And as you'll hear in this interview with host Spencer Critchley, complex social systems — offline and online — may explain a lot about the surprise election of Donald Trump, hyper-partisanship, media echo chambers, and many other aspects of the current state of democracy.

Find the full show notes, with links, at dastardlycleverness.com/why-we-vote.

North Korea & WMD: How to Think About the Unthinkable Jan 24, 2018

Spencer talks with David Schmerler, a researcher who keeps track of North Korea and its weapons of mass destruction. David says his work can be like a spy novel, or a video game — and in fact he even helped create a Minecraft simulation to help people understand what’s at stake. But knowing the difference between fiction and reality is crucial — for him, and for all of us.

Find the full details, plus links, at the episode page: http://dastardlycleverness.com/blog/north-korea-and-wmd

David SchmerlerJames Martin Center for Nonproliferation StudiesMiddlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

The Future of Work with Kristin Wolff Jan 04, 2018

Everything about jobs is now open to question — including whether jobs will even exist. To sort it out, we talk this time about robots, the gig economy, income inequality, the disruption of education — even bitcoin. All that and more from someone whose job is to work on the future of work: social policy consultant Kristin Wolff.

Find the show notes and links here.

More Than Just Pretty Fish: This Aquarium Is a Force in Ocean Preservation Dec 12, 2017

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is world famous for otters, sharks, a spectacular setting — even appearances in movies such as "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Finding Dory," and TV shows such as "Big Little Lies" and the BBC/PBS series "Big Blue Live."

But that’s just the most visible part. The Aquarium is also a powerful force for protecting the oceans through education, advocacy, and the development of young leaders. In this episode, Spencer speaks with the Aquarium’s senior communications strategist, Ken Peterson, about the dramatic impact the Aquarium is having in ocean conservation — and the protection of all life on earth.

Show Links

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Big Blue Live

Seafood Watch

Ken Peterson

Ken Peterson is senior communications strategist for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In that capacity, he’s responsible for developing messages about a public aquarium that’s evolved from its beginnings as arguably the finest public aquarium in the world, to become a global leader in ocean conservation.

The scope of its activities include policy advocacy, marine research and science education involving protection of marine ecosystems and wildlife, sustainable seafood, climate change and ocean plastic pollution.

Prior to joining the aquarium in 1989, Ken was a writer and editor for 15 years with California newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and Monterey County Herald, with a focus on coastal, land use and environmental issues.

As a member of the Mercury News staff, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for contributing to coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and is a past Jeopardy! champion.

You can follow him on Twitter at @aquaken.

If We Got the First 5 Years of Life Right, It Would Change Everything Nov 26, 2017

If we could get the first five years of life right, it would transform society: less crime, less violence, less poverty, more people having happy, productive lives.

Lots of research backs that up. When young children suffer from poor health, neglect, missed learning opportunities, or trauma, they can pay for it for the rest of their lives. So do the rest of us. Many of our biggest social problems originate in troubled childhoods.

So if the goal is to make the world better, improving life for the very young is one of the best things we can do.

The people of California took a step in that direction in 1998 by passing Proposition 10. That created a state commission called First 5 and funded it with a tobacco tax. First 5 finds and supports effective early childhood programs. It also advocates on behalf of young children.

The work gets done through 58 local First 5's, one in each California county. Spencer's guest is Gabriel Sanchez, the Director of Communications for the biggest one: First LA, covering Los Angeles County.

Spencer first met Gabriel while both were doing communications work for the 2008 Obama for America campaign. As you’ll hear, Gabriel's experience includes politics, government, education, and now, trying to change the way we think about and invest in early childhood.

Show Links

First 5 LA First 5 California First 5 Parents' Site The Power of Moments, by Chip and Dan Heath (source of Gabriel's "trip over the truth" reference) "Myers study: Investing in children critical to nation’s economic, political future" "How to Say 'No' to a Toddler (Without Actually Saying No)"

Gabriel Sanchez

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielsanchez

Southern California native Gabriel Sanchez is the Director of Communications at First 5 LA. As the principal communications and marketing strategist for the organization, Gabriel leads a department of 12 to spearhead communications, media, social marketing, public education, advertising, digital and social media, sponsorships and related activities for First 5 LA’s ongoing work to support young children and their parents across Los Angeles County.

Gabriel came to First 5 LA from Green Dot Public Schools, where he was the communications director. Previously, he was a senior strategist with The Strategy Group in Pasadena and an independent communications consultant in Orange County, serving a range of corporate, labor and political clients. He also has served in top communications roles in the offices of then-Governor Gray Davis and then-Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he was the California Communications Director for Obama for America.

Gabriel is a graduate of California State University Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in political science and Chicano studies. He is in the process of completing a master’s degree in political science from Suffolk University in Boston, MA. He also is a graduate of the MALDEF Leadership Development Program, and Cal State Fullerton’s Leadership Institute.

A Letter from Gabriel to His First 5 LA Communications Staff

I was thinking deeply about the “why” of what we do. We point to facts and figures on brain development. We talk about outcome areas. Yes, it’s about kids. Yet I feel we aren’t connecting with audiences.

Then I thought about how parents are the focus of our work.

What do parents do when they become parents? They re-order and re-prioritize their lives. Parents sacrifice. Parents go without. No more going out to eat, weekend getaways or fancy sportcars (if you could afford that earlier). Sleep is a like a long-lost friend you hope to see again someday.

Why? Why endure all of that? Because parents want that little human to be the best they can possibly be.

We speak that truth in the tagline below our current logo, but I offer to you we haven’t embraced it fully.

Aside from some tax credits, there isn’t any new revenue that comes in when you have a child. Your spending on baby furniture, food and clothing skyrocket. And your household income may dip if one parent chooses or has to stay home with baby. We offer tips, ideas and resources to parents to help with these priorities. We don’t ask parents to “make a greater investment in early childhood development.”

Maybe we shouldn’t ask decision makers and lawmakers either.

Rather, we should ask them to “think like a parent” and prioritize policies accordingly. We can bridge our parenting and community audiences with decision makers by messaging a “parenting approach to policies.” Parents – that, is constituents - sacrifice and re-prioritize to give their kids the best start. We should ask lawmakers to do the same, across all policies.

We should be asking decision makers and lawmakers to re-order their priorities, not make new investments, as if they too were parents and had to sacrifice for their kids.

The Mercury News last week and the NYT’s California Today newsletter capture examples of decision makers taking a parenting approach to law making. In this case, it’s because they became parents themselves and “tripped over the truth.” (h/t Dan and Chip Heath, the authors “The Power of Moments,” who say, “the way to get an idea to stick is to have someone experience it.”)

I can share my own example. I would have never lobbied my friend, then-Assembly Member Ricardo Lara, on diaper changing tables in mens’ restrooms unless I had experienced, first-hand, the frustration of needing to change my daughter’s diaper in stores that sold diapers and baby food.

I’m not sure how this can fit into the message platform development, but I wanted to share the idea.

Gabriel

We Know How to Reduce Gang Violence — If We're Willing to Act Nov 10, 2017

Cities across the United States struggle with gang violence, and the challenge can sometimes seem hopeless. But you may be surprised to learn that we know a lot about how to reduce gang violence — often dramatically. We just have to act on what we know.

Our guest this time is an expert on the subject, from a small but innovative California city: Salinas.

If you know about Salinas, it may be because your vegetables come from the Salinas Valley, sometimes called the Salad Bowl of the World. Maybe you know that John Steinbeck was born there. Or maybe you’ve visited, and enjoyed the scenery, the nearly perfect weather, and the charming old downtown.

What you may not know is that this rural town of 150,000 has a big-city gang problem. But it’s also a national leader in taking an innovative, evidence-based approach to reducing the violence, by dealing with it as a public health problem — one that can be prevented.

The strategy in Salinas brings together law enforcement, social service agencies, nonprofits, the faith community, and anyone else who wants to make a difference in a county-wide group called the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, or CASP.

The director of CASP is Jose Arreola, who is also the Community Safety Administrator for the City of Salinas. (Disclosure: the City of Salinas is a client of Boots Road Group, the producer of Dastardly Cleverness.)

José Alfonso Arreola is the City of Salinas Community Safety Administrator and Director of the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace. He was born and raised in San Diego, California. José graduated from San José State University.

He co-founded and was the founding Principal at Downtown College Preparatory Alviso, a middle school in North San José, California.

Prior to joining the City of Salinas, José was the Education Specialist and Extensions Coordinator for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monterey County. He currently serves as the Millennium Charter High School Board President.

José is also the site coordinator for Salinas‘s participation in the Government Alliance on Racial Equity, California Cities Violence Prevention Network and the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention.

"Debt-Free College" & Other Ways We Could Transform Education, Jobs & the Economy with Apprenticeships Oct 27, 2017

What if we could get millions of young people good jobs, free them from college debt, and give the economy a big boost? This episode's guests say we can do it — if we just follow a proven model from Switzerland, now being tried and tested with promising results here in the United States.

It's an update of an ancient concept: apprenticeships. Students attend high school while also working and learning at a real job. Everyone benefits: young people, employers, schools, and the economy overall.

We’re learn about it from two experts:

Dr. Katie Caves is a post-doctoral researcher with the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich.

That’s like the Swiss version of MIT -- Albert Einstein studied and taught and there.

Katie grew up in the Bay Area of California.

Vinz Koller is an expert on US workforce development policy and the Director of Training and Technical Assistance at Social Policy Research Associates in Oakland, California.

SPR "provides customized services in evaluation, organizational development, and facilitation and training."

Vinz grew up in Switzerland.

Show links and files:

KOF Swiss Economic Institute:

Social Policy Research Associates: www.spra.com

CApprenticeship2.0 LinkedIn group: www.linkedin.com/groups/13555551/profile

"Training for Growth" report on Colorado apprenticeships: www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/164859

Hope for Democracy, Part 3 of 3 Oct 12, 2017

The third and final part of "Hope for Democracy:" great questions from the audience.

On May 17 at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, we heard the unique perspectives of leaders with national and local experience in government, politics, the law, and media. This is Part Two of a three-part series on this event.

Former Congressman Sam Farr represented the Central Coast in the House of Representatives for 24 years, following service in the California Assembly, on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and in the Peace Corps. His record of accomplishment includes the creation of CSUMB, Pinnacles National Park, the VA Hospital in Marina, the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery and much more.

Adrienne Harris was a Special Assistant to President Obama for Economic Policy at the White House National Economic Council. Before that she was with the U.S. Treasury Department, New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and election campaigns for Barack Obama, Senator Cory Booker, and Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Zach Friend is a policy, public affairs, and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, Congressman Sam Farr, and the Democratic National Committee. He is the 2nd District Supervisor for Santa Cruz County.

Host Spencer Critchley is a communications consultant whose experience includes both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, stories for the CBC, NPR, the AP and others, and audio production for the Emmy-winning PBS documentary “Blink.” He is the Managing Partner of Boots Road Group, a communications firm for governments, nonprofits, and socially responsible corporations.

Hope for Democracy, Part 2 Sep 25, 2017

More from "Hope for Democracy:" the conversation resumes with former Congressman Sam Farr describing the anger and misinformation surrounding health care reform, all the panelists addressing whether public servants really want to serve the public, and more.

On May 17 at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, we heard the unique perspectives of leaders with national and local experience in government, politics, the law, and media. This is Part Two of a three-part series on this event.

Former Congressman Sam Farr represented the Central Coast in the House of Representatives for 24 years, following service in the California Assembly, on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and in the Peace Corps. His record of accomplishment includes the creation of CSUMB, Pinnacles National Park, the VA Hospital in Marina, the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery and much more.

Adrienne Harris was a Special Assistant to President Obama for Economic Policy at the White House National Economic Council. Before that she was with the U.S. Treasury Department, New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and election campaigns for Barack Obama, Senator Cory Booker, and Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Zach Friend is a policy, public affairs, and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, Congressman Sam Farr, and the Democratic National Committee. He is the 2nd District Supervisor for Santa Cruz County.

Host Spencer Critchley is a communications consultant whose experience includes both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, stories for the CBC, NPR, the AP and others, and audio production for the Emmy-winning PBS documentary “Blink.” He is the Managing Partner of Boots Road Group, a communications firm for governments, nonprofits, and socially responsible corporations.

Hope for Democracy, Part 1 Aug 31, 2017

Government institutions, the free press, the judiciary, the integrity of the election itself — all face doubt and even attack, from both foreign and domestic sources.

What’s the way forward?

On May 17 at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, we heard the unique perspectives of leaders with national and local experience in government, politics, the law, and media.

Former Congressman Sam Farr represented the Central Coast in the House of Representatives for 24 years, following service in the California Assembly, on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and in the Peace Corps. His record of accomplishment includes the creation of CSUMB, Pinnacles National Park, the VA Hospital in Marina, the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery and much more.

Adrienne Harris was a Special Assistant to President Obama for Economic Policy at the White House National Economic Council. Before that she was with the U.S. Treasury Department, New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and election campaigns for Barack Obama, Senator Cory Booker, and Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Zach Friend is a policy, public affairs, and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, Congressman Sam Farr, and the Democratic National Committee. He is the 2nd District Supervisor for Santa Cruz County.

Host Spencer Critchley is a communications consultant whose experience includes both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, stories for the CBC, NPR, the AP and others, and audio production for the Emmy-winning PBS documentary “Blink.” He is the Managing Partner of Boots Road Group, a communications firm for governments, nonprofits, and socially responsible corporations.

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