Best MySociety Podcasts (2025)

1
From Digital Public Infrastructure to Democratic Public Infrastructure 54:12

Play Pause

15d ago54:12

54:12

Imagine a world where every citizen automatically receives the government grants they’re entitled to, stays informed about public consultations, and can easily contribute feedback—feedback that they trust will genuinely shape policy decisions. Services like these could strengthen and transform democracies worldwide. But, should this be the reality …

1
TheyWorkForYou update: a richer view of Parliament 40:33

24d ago40:33

40:33

TheyWorkForYou aims to improve the quality of UK democracy by making more and better information available to everyone. In previous updates, we’ve expanded coverage to all the UK’s parliaments and brought all the registers of interests together. Now we’re pulling in data from beyond Parliament to provide richer insights into your representatives. A…

1
Putting transparency to the test: evaluating FOI in practice 59:11

1M ago59:11

59:11

In our latest online webinar, we convened three experts to speak around the topic of how Freedom of Information works in practice – in other words, how does the law work when it comes into contact with the real world? Speakers were: Toby Mendel, Centre for Law and Democracy Giovanni Esposito, Université Libre de Bruxelles Mária Žuffová, European Un…

1
Beyond websites: How pro-democracy projects reach their audiences 45:38

2M ago45:38

45:38

Note: This is the audio version of an online event, in which a couple of the speakers refer to visual elements. If you’d like to see the websites, etc, that they mention, please see the video of the event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvJVCgBprwY. Details: Across the world, there are many websites and apps that help citizens to better understa…

1
How access to information can help us understand AI decision making 51:18

3M ago51:18

51:18

AI and automated decision-making technologies are increasingly being used in government, and due to their opaque nature, it’s vital that we bring more transparency to their workings. In this event, three researchers and civil society actors talk about how they have used Freedom of Information to do just that. You’ll hear from Morgan Currie from the…

1
Launching TheyWorkForYou Votes 49:41

6M ago49:41

49:41

New launch, new launch! We could have just talked about our new votes platform, but it was much more interesting to also explore a bit of history, and research into how MPs and the public use TheyWorkForYou. So, together with Dr Ben Worthy, Alex and Julia, that’s what we did. Further information Find the TheyWorkForYou Votes platform here. Here’s a…

1
WhoFundsThem – the launch event

7M ago

—

On March 4, we launched new data on TheyWorkForYou, making MPs’ financial interests easier for everyone to access and understand. This wasn’t an easy undertaking! To explain the difficulties we encountered, and the recommendations we have for the way MPs declare their interests, we also put out a report. At our launch event, we chatted through the …

1
Who Funds Them launches today 6:39

9M ago6:39

6:39

It’s March 4 2025, and we’re releasing a bunch of new data on TheyWorkForYou, around each MPs’ financial interests: that’s whether they have second jobs, what donations helped them campaign ahead of the general election, and whether they’ve received gifts such as Taylor Swift tickets. In the course of assembling this data — with the help of our bri…

1
Climate Action Scorecards are having real-life effects 3:14

10M ago3:14

3:14

In this super-short episode, we look at three recent examples of how the Council Climate Action Scorecards are bringing measurable change. The Scorecards are a joint project between mySociety and Climate Emergency UK, and you can visit them at councilclimatescorecards.uk. Here are the three blog posts where you can find more details about all of th…

1
FOI for investigating: Joe Banks and Mary Le Port 8:40

10M ago8:40

8:40

In our second video interviewing subjects of the book Our City: Community Activism in Bristol, we talk to journalist Joe Banks, who was able to find a real anomaly in the council’s approach to developing the oldest part of the city. He did this both by looking at information other people had requested, and putting in his own Freedom of Information …