“The system of funding science is fundamentally broken. In some respects, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. It was a house of cards, and it’s not surprising that it’s now falling apart.”
-Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research 🧪
www.statecraft.pub/p/whats-wron...
I had a great time talking with Santi Ruiz @ifp.bsky.social about how to reduce infrastructure costs. Here's the podcast.
www.statecraft.pub/p/what-is-am...
A lot of the credit goes to Santi Ruiz for being really well prepared and asking great questions … but this is probably the best market wide and historical conversation I’ve had on apartments. And how it affects “apartments for families”
open.spotify.com/episode/63C6...
Development econ legend Dean Karlan, on DOGE, RCTs, and how to fix foreign aid. www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-fix...
Amtrak says it'd cost more than $100 billion to build high-speed rail on the Northeast Corridor.
@alonlevy.bsky.social says Amtrak's wrong.
New Statecraft on why. www.statecraft.pub/p/how-cheapl...
Map of the continental United States showing a mosaic of all the local government jurisdictions. There must be many many hundresd, maybe even thousands. There is a stark difference where the new england, northeast, great lakes and midwest jurisdictions are very small, like pinpricks. The jurisdictions in the south east and gulf coast are larger, like grains of rice, and the jurisdictions in the mountains, south west, and west coast are much larger, sized like peas.
Map showing every general-purpose local government in the US. "The most eye-catching thing about this map is that the Northeast and Midwest are administered very differently from the South and West". More insights at source: fakeisthenewreal.org/local/. h/t @salimfurth.bsky.social from LinkedIn.
Apparently before the St. Lawrence Seaway opened when they wanted to get large ships into the Great Lakes they just brought them up the Mississippi and shoved them through the Chicago River
Statecraft crossover event:
@kyla.bsky.social and I talk DOGE, Direct File, and deficits with the former #2 at Treasury, Wally Adeyemo. www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-run...
Every time I poke my head over here you've got another 4 posts about me. It's like the quarantine zone for my 3 haters.
Really great interview and deep dive into transit financing and the politics of the MBTA Green Line Extension (as well as the Big Dig).
There's a lot to talk about here on costs, planning, etc about how things turned out. But this is a very good discussion about how things actually played out.
We need to talk more about how government can do better at delivering what people want and need, including infrastructure. Santi Ruiz and I talked about this in his recently-posted Statecraft podcast on rescuing the troubled Green Line extension from cancellation. www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-sal...
I'd be interested to read a rebuttal or write-up from you on what Pollack is getting wrong.
There's a lot more in this episode:
- How they built these tools in-house instead of outsourcing
- When involuntary commitment can increase risks for the seriously mentally ill
- Why anti-addiction drugs fail
- Why screening algorithms aren't more common in government
Full conversation is here:
Worth noting the algorithm doesn't determine whether kids get removed from homes, or override human decision-making.
The department has developed a screening tool for CPS: When a call comes in about a kid who's potentially at risk, the tool generates a "risk score" based on the integrated data.
That score helps a caseworker decide whether to do a site visit or not.
About 1/5th of parents involved in the child welfare system have a diagnosed opioid use disorder.
You're often dealing with the same people in these programs, just in different contexts. So it makes a lot of sense to integrate the data.
This problem doesn't just manifest in deaths.
A relatively limited number of drug addicts are disproportionately likely to be booked into jail, be homeless, or be involved in a child welfare call.
Like many mid-size Rust Belt urban regions, Allegheny County deals with high overdose death rates, largely from opioids.
Here's Allegheny County: think Pittsburgh plus.
In most states and counties, different "human services" systems aren't synced up. You can't easily cross-reference CPS calls with substance abuse databases, for instance.
In Allegheny County, you can. Here are the results. www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-fix...
🚨 We're hiring!
Join @ifp.bsky.social’s metascience team to rethink how science gets funded and organized.
Fellow & Senior Fellow roles open — $3K referral bonus if we hire your recommendation.
Apply by May 11:
ifp.org/come-work-wi...
I went on @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social’s show to talk DOGE www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/o...
This fries me: We architect these intricate pandemic response systems, but we don't ever test them.
Compare that with the military, which "live fire tests" weapons and systems constantly.
Before EcoHealth Alliance got NIH money to do gain-of-function research in Wuhan, it pitched the project to DARPA.
Today's interviewee reviewed that pitch.
New Statecraft on risky research, Ebola, and why the CDC is not a response organization. www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-bui...
So far my impression of the culture on here is that it incorporates all the most annoying features of 2019 Twitter with none of its strengths relative to 2024 X.
I’m in The Free Press this AM, outlining how the next administration can make the federal government more effective and efficient. www.thefp.com/p/the-five-t...
thank you Brendan!
cool piece from @regressstudies.substack.com
https://regressstudies.substack.com/p/why-writing-needs-speaking
into the idea of talking as ~ first draft tool!
also the concept of "intonation units"…could be a useful step in the drafting process, like songwriting techniques applied to prose
@emily.bsky.team
real?
