Culture Eats Policy: The Hidden Architecture of Government Failure

from Talk Cocktail · host Jeff Schechtman

Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America and former Obama White House Deputy CTO, talks to me about why government fails in the digital age. Drawing from her groundbreaking work creating the U.S. Digital Service, Pahlka exposes how rigid bureaucratic culture—not lack of money or technology—creates dysfunction. From unemployment systems requiring 17 years to master to 911 calls going unanswered, she demonstrates how accumulated policy complexity destroys state capacity. Her book "Recoding America" offers a roadmap for debugging democracy itself through user-centered design and policy simplification.This post is FREE for everyone. Please spread it far and wide. And please consider becoming a paid subscriber to TalkCocktail. It’s $8 a month or just $80 for the entire year! Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe

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This episode is 49 minutes long.

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This episode was published on July 9, 2025.

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