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Is Business Broken? — Business
Is Business Broken?

Conversations about the role of business in society, brought to you by the Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets & Society at BU Questrom School of Business.

Latest Episodes:

Is the Gig Economy Changing the Rules of Work? Oct 22, 2026

Show notes

More than 70 million Americans now do some form of freelance or gig work. For many, the appeal is flexibility: the freedom to choose when, where, and how much to work. But that flexibility sometimes comes with a cost.

Gig platforms give companies a workforce they can scale up and down with demand, while shifting more of the risk onto workers, who often lack the benefits and protections of traditional employees. In July, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that ride-hailing and delivery platforms were among the largest employers of workers receiving SNAP and Medicaid benefits in 11 states. So is gig work creating a fundamentally new way of working, or simply a new way for companies to organize labor?

In this episode, host Curt Nickisch explores that question and more with Gordon Burtch, professor of information systems at BU Questrom, and David Weil, professor of social policy and management at Brandeis University and former administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration.

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Is Employee Surveillance a Productivity Solution, or a Trust Problem? Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

In the age of remote and hybrid work, one question has taken on new urgency: how do you measure productivity when you can’t see it?

From AI-powered engineering dashboards to internal chatbots that log every question an employee asks, companies now have more visibility into the workforce than ever before. These tools are often built with good intentions to help employees grow, collaborate better, and deliver more value. But when workers experience them as surveillance, even the best-designed product can backfire.

How are these technologies actually being used? What are the unintended consequences for trust and morale? What does responsible deployment look like?

In this episode, host Curt Nickisch unpacks these questions and more with Thomas Costa, Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; Rhonda Morris, former Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Chevron; Kabrina K. Chang, professor of business law and ethics at BU Questrom; and George Champlin-Scharff, senior business agility and operating model consultant at Scrum Inc.

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Beyond Corporate Sustainability: Can the Free Market Be Environmentally Responsible? Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

We've watched companies wrap themselves in green branding, issue elaborate corporate sustainability reports, and promise a future where capitalism and conservation march hand in hand. But is corporate sustainability truly about saving the planet, or is it a substitute for accountability and regulation?

In the last episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks the myths of market-driven solutions and the critical role of governance with conference co-organizers Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, and Tom Lyon, professor of business, economics, and public policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

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Beyond Corporate Sustainability: When Did Sustainability Become Sustainability Inc? Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Individual companies don't operate in a vacuum. They're part of industries, supply chains, financial markets, and a much larger system. So in this bigger picture, how did the idea of corporate sustainability become so ubiquitous and powerful? How did we come to believe that companies could take on some of society's biggest environmental problems while still turning a profit?

In the second episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks those questions with conference co-organizers Kenneth Pucker, professor of practice at Tufts University and former chief operating officer at Timberland, and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom.

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Beyond Corporate Sustainability: Can Corporations Solve Climate Change? Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report confirming what many scientists already knew: that human activities are driving rapid, intensifying global warming. The science was clear, and there was momentum to act. But who should take the lead?

Beginning in the 1990s, a new answer emerged: corporations. If businesses were responsible for much of the world’s fossil fuel emissions, perhaps they could also be part of the solution. It seemed like a win-win: good for the planet, good for the business. Three decades later, corporate sustainability has profoundly shaped business education, investment, public policy, and academic research. But what if the idea itself has limitations?

In this three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, we take a closer look at the promise and pitfalls of corporate sustainability and ask what it would take to move beyond it. This series is a departure from our usual Is Business Broken? programming: rather than bringing together competing perspectives, we’re taking a deeper look at one particular critique of corporate sustainability.

In this first episode, host Curt Nickisch unpacks the idea of corporate sustainability and more with Auden Schendler, climate activist and author of two books, Terrible Beauty and Getting Green Done; and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom and a leading scholar of corporate environmental strategy, voluntary programs, and environmental regulation.

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What transforms an idea into an economy? Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

Where does innovation begin? What are the critical factors driving innovation today and tomorrow? And what happens when federal funding gets shaky, the IPO market stalls, and political uncertainty rattles an entire industry? A century and a half after Boston University Professor Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, questions around the innovation economy are more urgent than ever.

At a live show, recorded at the WBUR Festival in Boston, host Curt Nickisch sits down to explore these questions with Dr. Melissa Gilliam, President of Boston University; Kendalle Burlin O'Connell, CEO & President, MassBio, and Elizabeth Jurinka, Operating Director, Healthcare Policy, Vistria PRG.

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Does the Future of Sustainability Lie in the Shipping Industry? Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

Ocean shipping carries close to 90% of global trade, and it accounts for about 3% of global emissions. The International Maritime Organization has set ambitious targets to reduce those by 20% by 2030, by 70% by 2040, and reach net zero by 2050.

Ships are expensive and pay for themselves over decades, and the technology for green fuels is still developing. What are you supposed to do if you're a shipping company? Do you invest early and take on the risk? Do you drag your feet? And why should we be thinking about the shipping industry in the first place?

Host Curt Nickisch unpacks this question and more with Ravi K. Mehrotra and Amulya Mohapatra from the Foresight Group; Chris Wiernicki, independent industry consultant and the former Chair and CEO of the American Bureau of Shipping; Valerie Thomas, professor of industrial engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology; and Justin Ren, Associate Professor of Operations and Technology Management at BU Questrom.

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Can Private Equity Be a Force for Good? Apr 16, 2026

Show notes

We are living through a massive migration of wealth. More and more capital is leaving public markets and flowing into private equity. There's even a growing push to let everyday investors put their retirement savings into private markets. But as private equity's footprint expands, so does the debate over who actually benefits.

Has private equity made the economy more efficient, innovative, and productive — or has it become a system for extracting wealth at the expense of workers, consumers, and communities? Can private equity be a force for good? And if this is where the money is flowing, what rules and safeguards do we actually need?

Host Curt Nickisch unpacks this question and more with Danny Wadhwani, Private Equity investor and Co-founder at ThinkLite; Gretchen Morgenson, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist from NBC News; and Thomas Wollmann, Associate Professor in Markets, Public Policy, & Law at Boston University Questrom School of Business.

Related reading:

Painful Bargaining: Evidence from Anesthesia Rollups

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Vote for "Is Business Broken?" in the Webby Awards! Apr 13, 2026

Show notes

Exciting news! Is Business Broken? has been nominated for a Webby Award in the Business category!

We couldn't be prouder of all of our listeners who helped make this possible. And with this nomination, we're up for a People's Voice award.

We’d be so grateful if you’d take a moment to vote for us: https://wbby.co/57452N.

The voting period ends this Thursday, April 16th. Thank you so much!

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How is AI Changing Your Relationship With Your Doctor? Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

AI is already making its way into healthcare, from helping doctors write notes to interpreting medical images and managing growing amounts of patient data. As one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S., healthcare is quickly becoming a major testing ground for these tools.

As tech giants roll out health-focused chatbots and tools, patients and providers face big questions: Is AI giving doctors back the time and presence that the business of medicine stripped away? Or will it become another lever for consolidation and control in a care system that doesn’t always reward real value?

Host Curt Nickisch unpacks this question and more with cardiologist and author Eric Topol, anesthesiologist and pain physician Sunny Jha, Microsoft Health Futures principal researcher Michael Hansen, and BU Questrom professor Carey Morewedge.

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