About this episode
Mariana Mazzucato discusses the mission economy and the role of public investment in technological development.
Today's guest Mariana Mazzucato is one of our most requested. Mazzucato, who is the director of the University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, specializes in the political economy of technological development and public sector investment. In our conversation, recorded in Madrid while at the Bloomberg CityLab conference, she explains her concept of the "mission economy," her definition of state capacity, how to prevent top talent from fleeing to the private sector, and whether consultants or governments should be blamed for inefficiencies and civic failures. It's a wide-ranging interview, one that covers everything from the initial public financing of Silicon Valley algorithms to the history of moonshots. Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
People in this episode
Hosts: Joe Weisenthal, Tracy Alloway
Guest: Mariana Mazzucato
Topics covered
- mission economy
- state capacity
- public sector investment
- technological development
- civic failures
- Silicon Valley
- moonshots
Keywords
- Mariana Mazzucato
- mission economy
- state capacity
- public sector
- Silicon Valley
- moonshots
- civic failures
- consultants
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Bloomberg
Places: Madrid
More episodes of Odd Lots
- How a Vibecoded Newsletter Is Making the Hay Market More Transparent · June 12, 2026 · 40 min
- Why Tomatoes Are the Most Expensive They've Been in Four Decades · June 11, 2026 · 55 min
- How CoreWeave Sees the Market for Compute Right Now · June 8, 2026 · 51 min
- Why Susquehanna Is Building a Prediction Markets Business · June 6, 2026 · 32 min
- Inside Hudson River Trading's Blistering Token Burn · June 5, 2026 · 31 min
- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on Running a Bank in the Age of AI · June 4, 2026 · 1h 6m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Odd Lots podcast page.