Mariana Mazzucato Thinks We Need More Moonshots
5/8/202656 min
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.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Mariana Mazzucato· Guest0:25
[upbeat music] Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:35
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Jill Wiesenfeld.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:51
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:52
We're still here in Madrid, Tracy. How are you?
Tracy Alloway· Host0:53
Still here.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:54
You having a good time?
Tracy Alloway· Host0:55
I am. I've eaten a lot of ham and cheese.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:57
[laughs] Me too.
Tracy Alloway· Host0:58
That's pretty much all I can say.
Joe Weisenthal· Host0:59
Yeah. I'm gonna turn into a jamón by the time I leave. I'm certain of that. So we are at the, uh, the Bloomberg CityLab conference. You know, it's funny, like, the mayoral level of politics is not something we spend a ton of time- Mm-hmm ... typically on. But I would say, like, it definitely... You know, when I think about it, when I'm, like, here and, like, listening to a lot of the conversations, it's just so obviously, like, connected to a lot of the themes we talk about because so much of our discussions have to do with something related to, you know, innovation or technology