The People's Data: Why Federal Data Matters More Than Ever with Nick Hart

About this episode

Nick Hart discusses the importance of federal data and its impact on evidence-based policymaking.

In this episode, I talk with Nick Hart, President and CEO of the Data Foundation, about the rapidly changing landscape of federal data, statistical agencies, and evidence-based policymaking. We explore how the Evidence Act reshaped government data infrastructure, why privacy protections and data governance matter more than ever, and what's been happening behind the scenes over the last year as agencies faced staffing cuts, data removals, and unprecedented political pressure. Nick explains how government data systems actually work, why the U.S. model is both admired and strained, and what a "Data System 2.0" might look like in the future. We also discuss state and local data roles, the risks of politicizing data, and two public-facing initiatives from the Data Foundation: the Evidence Act Hub and the People's Data 100. This is a wide-ranging conversation about trust, transparency, and why government data quietly underpins far more of our lives than most people realize. Subscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast…

People in this episode

Host: PolicyViz Podcast

Guest: Nick Hart

Topics covered

• federal data
• evidence-based policymaking
• data governance
• privacy protections
• government data systems
• trust
• transparency

Keywords

• federal data
• data governance
• Evidence Act
• government data
• data privacy
• Data Foundation
• policymaking
• trust
• transparency

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Data Foundation, Evidence Act

More episodes of The PolicyViz Podcast

• Outlier 2026: What to Expect at This Year's Data Visualization Society Conference · June 3, 2026 · 40 min
• Reimagining Civic Participation: The Digital Democracy Project · May 20, 2026 · 36 min
• Mapping the Invisible: Inside the Atlas of Macroscopes · May 7, 2026 · 45 min
• Data Vandals: Taking Data Visualization Off the Screen and Into the Streets · April 22, 2026 · 52 min
• Why Government Makes Things Hard: Don Moynihan on Administrative Burden · April 8, 2026 · 36 min
• AI, Dashboards, and Human Decisions: A Conversation with Melanie Tory · March 25, 2026 · 36 min