RadicalxChange(s)

Executive Director Jess Scully speaks with Takahiro Anno, an AI engineer, science fiction writer and newly elected member of Japan's House of Councillors. Anno shares his remarkable journey from software engineer to politician, driven by a desire to "fix the bugs" in society and democracy.Anno's political rise has been rapid. In his first-ever campaign for Tokyo Governor in July 2024, Anno received over 150,000 votes, an unprecedented milestone for a candidate in their 30s with no prior political experience. Following this success, he founded Team Mirai in May 2025 and, just months later, won a seat in Japan's national parliament with 2% of the vote, securing a six-year term.The conversation explores his innovative "broad listening" approach, which challenges the traditional "broadcasting" model of politics. Anno treated his campaign like an open-source software project, publishing policies on GitHub and openly accepting "pull requests" from citizens. During the Tokyo campaign, his team received over 100 proposals and merged more than 80, continuously updating their 100-page policy book just like open-source software.Anno also details the technology that made this possible. His team created "AI Anno," an AI avatar hosted on YouTube Live that could engage voters 24/7, bypassing legal restrictions limiting human campaigning to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The avatar enabled two-way communication: citizens could see each other's questions, making it easier to participate, while Anno's team analyzed conversation logs to identify and address common concerns.For his national campaign, Anno's team scaled participation dramatically using Model Context Protocol (MCP). Citizens could simply converse with an AI, which would automatically generate GitHub pull requests on their behalf, removing technical barriers entirely. This approach gathered over 10,000 proposals, 100 times more than his first campaign in Tokyo.Critically, Anno made all of these tools open source, embracing openness as a core value and the most practical way for a small party to create systemic change. Politicians from other parties have already committed to using these tools in future campaigns.Jess and Anno discuss his mission for the next six years: using technology to enable large-scale deliberative democracy. While many fear AI's potential to erode democracy through deepfakes and misinformation, Anno provides a powerful, working example of how these tools can make democracy more transparent, participatory, and responsive to citizens' voices.Host: Jess ScullyGuest: Takahiro AnnoProducer: Jack Henderson Feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at info@radicalxchange.org. Connect with RadicalxChange Foundation:WebsiteXYouTubeLinkedInDiscordBlueSky

In this conversation Matt and Jonathon discuss the philosophy of timekeeping. They consider the connectedness and the alienation of being on universal atomic time, the promise of alternative systems such as the river clock, and how different notions of timekeeping influence our understanding of democracy and nature.

In this episode, Matt Prewitt sits down with Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador-at-large and 1st Digital Minister, as well as the star of the new short documentary Good Enough Ancestor. It is a fascinating conversation exploring the profound intersections of technology, spirituality, and democracy.

What happens when artificial intelligence starts weighing in on our moral decisions? Matt Prewitt is joined by Meaning Alignment Institute co-founder Joe Edelman to explore this thought-provoking territory in examining how AI is already shaping our daily experiences and values through social media algorithms. They explore the tools developed to help individuals negotiate their values and the implications of AI in moral reasoning – venturing into compelling questions about human-AI symbiosis, the nature of meaningful experiences, and whether machines can truly understand what matters to us. For anyone intrigued by the future of human consciousness and decision-making in an AI-integrated world, this discussion opens up fascinating possibilities – and potential pitfalls – we may not have considered.

In this episode, Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt joins Matt for a second round to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by rapidly developing AI technologies. Building on their previous chat about digital infrastructure, they explore whether AI will exacerbate social media, digital advertising, and data centralization issues, or fundamentally change them. McCourt emphasizes fixing the internet’s design flaws to ensure AI benefits society, advocates for returning data ownership to individuals and stresses the need for political engagement to align AI with democratic values. Tune in for this enlightening conversation and what we can do moving forward.

In today’s episode, Matt Prewitt engages in a thought-provoking dialogue with Tahir Amin, the Co-Founder and CEO of the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge (I-MAK). Together, they delve into the history of the patent and trademark systems – flaws and all, especially within the pharmaceutical realm. Tahir, drawing from his experience as a former intellectual property lawyer turned reform advocate, sheds light on how these systems have been manipulated by large corporations to prolong monopolies rather than foster invention. He proposes substantial reforms to address these systemic issues, advocating for a fundamental restructuring of the patent system. This insightful conversation highlights the complexities and challenges within the patent system and the quest for a more just and equitable approach to intellectual property.

In today’s episode, guest host Margaret Levi interviews Matt Prewitt, President of RadicalxChange Foundation. With the tables turned from our last episode, Margaret interviews Matt on rethinking property rights. Beginning with a reflection on the state of political liberalism, Matt dives into the mechanics of Partial Common Ownership (also known as “Plural Property”) and it being part of the solution to manage assets in a fairer, more efficient way and how experimentation like PCO can lead toward a politics of change. RadicalxChange has been working with Margaret Levi and her team at Stanford, together with Dark Matter Labs, on exploring and reimagining the institutions of ownership. This episode is part of a short series exploring the theme of What and How We Own: Building a Politics of Change.

In this episode of RadicalxChange(s), host Matt Prewitt engages in a deep and thoughtful conversation with Barry Threw, Executive & Artistic Director of Gray Area. They explore Barry's diverse career integrating art, technology, and humanities for economic, social, and ecological regeneration, and examine the cultural shifts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Barry and Matt saunter through anecdotes from Burning Man to Joan Didion to the technocratic molding of the Silicon Valley phenomenon — an exciting pathway of cultural importance to walk along.

In today’s ep, Matt Prewitt speaks with Victoria Ivanova, R&D Strategic Lead of Serpentine Arts and curator-strategist-writer, about the role art and culture have in society in preserving democratic ideals while offering critical and actionable solutions for the emerging technological era. They delve into the historical and present significance of art, its crisis of meaning in the age of accelerationism and powerful AI, and the potential for Plural Property (Partial Common Ownership) to create a more fair and dynamic market for art; thereby rethinking art ownership and promoting a more equitable future. This conversation and the collaboration between RadicalxChange and Serpentine Arts offer new perspectives on the intersection of art, technology, and society.

In today's episode, Will Holley (Founder of 721 Labs), Graven Prest (Co-Founder of the Geo Web project), and Kevin Seagraves (CEO of NiftyApes) are three mission-focused entrepreneurs who join host Matt Prewitt in a roundtable discussion on the topic of Plural Property — RadicalxChange's umbrella term for Partial Common Ownership, Harberger Taxation, Self-Assessed Licenses Sold via Auction or SALSA, and Common Ownership Self-Assessed Tax or COST.

In this exciting episode, Matt Prewitt speaks with the inquisitive and captivating Christine Lemmer-Webber, who is CTO of the Spritely Institute and whose lifelong work focuses on advocating user freedom. This philosophical and technical discussion focuses on the many ways to look at ethical methods of building technology without usurping the free agency of others; a pluralistic view of examining technical design with different lenses.

Rosa O’Hara moderates a discussion between Audrey Tang and Jo Guldi on Taiwan’s expeditious response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the history of the g0v movement, the democratic power of embracing new forms of civic technology, and more.