Reclaiming Imagination in Government with Sir Geoff Mulgan

In this episode of the Future Government series, I sit down with Sir Geoff Mulgan, one of the people whose work has deeply shaped the field of public sector innovation — and, personally, someone I remember studying back in grad school. So this was a bit of a special one. We talk about why governments need to get much better at using intelligence, how history can help us make sense of the moment we are living through, and why imagination may be one of the most underrated capacities in public life. A big theme running through the conversation is the need to reclaim imagination — not as fantasy or naïve optimism, but as a practical tool for building better futures. More positive futures. Maybe even, dare we say it, slightly utopian ones. Geoff also shares advice for the next generation of public servants and reflects on what it will take to build governments that are more capable, thoughtful, and alive to possibility. For anyone working to make government better, this is a conversation worth spending time with.