Elyce Cole and Daniel Burka interview people who are working on the world's hard and meaningful problems.

Recent episodes

Sarah Jones

Sarah, a manager at Fake Org, is an expert on micro-lending. Most recently she worked on a fake project in a fake place.

Episode 4 — Feb 22, 2019
Rajeev Patel, MD

Rajeev founded Fake Corp twenty years ago with the goal of improving cancer outcomes in low-income settings.

Episode 3 — Feb 21, 2019
Kathryn Okone, RN MPH

Kathryn is a fake person who has done remarkable things. She is an engineer who lives in a place by the sea.

Episode 2 — Jan 21, 2019
Jane Kim

Jane, a professor at Fake College, is an expert on conflict resolution. Most recently she worked on a Peace Accord.

Episode 1 — Dec 21, 2018

Hard Problems Podcast

About this podcast

This is a new experiment from Elyce Cole and Daniel Burka. We are working on a new podcast where we plan to interview people who work on hard, meaningful projects.

The two of us plan to interview the people working on some of the hardest challenges in the world. Hard problems like health, education, good government, financial security, global warming, and inequality. These are the types of challenges that require years of concerted effort and coordination between many people. Most of these problems seem insurmountable and progress is sometimes hard to measure.

What's special about the people who work on these problems? We're especially interested in talking to people who are in the trenches day-in-and-day-out making positive change happen. Not just people who write books or speak at conferences. We're also particularly curious about the teamwork that is necessary to create long-term sustainable change — often the story of change is about great individuals but we know that real change is the result of many people working together.

This is a work-in-progress

This podcast is a work-in-progress. What does a "hard problem" mean and who should we interview? What are the important questions to ask our guests? How can we bring attention to the problems and people who matter most? Give us your feedback and help us make this into a special project.

Suggest a guest

Please email us or (even better) post a tweet that mentions @_hardproblems to tell us who you think we should interview and why they would make a great guest. What about the hard problem they're working on inspires you?

Contact

Please contact us if you would like to get in touch:
[email protected]