Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro
This podcast explores how design thinking can transform economics for the 21st century. Host Vinny Tafuro discusses the Institute for Economic Evolution's three tenets of design economics. Listeners meet pioneering thinkers who challenge economic orthodoxy and create human-centered solutions. The show aims to evolve economics to better serve humanity and the environment.
Episodes
Veronica Pesantes: Artist-Built Economies; Pooling, Sharing, Collecting Together
Veronica Pesantes's contribution to a Prazzle feature on women in the art world named something Vinny had been circling for years: the decades of artistic work deferred by talented people who took a traditional career instead. Veronica is an art writer, curator, and cultural strategist who has spent nearly forty years in art, from museum education at the Guggenheim to bylines in ARTnews.
Caroline Shenaz Hossein: Credit & Community; The Banker Ladies' Way
When Vinny discovered Caroline Shenaz Hossein's The Banker Ladies in audiobook format, he had found something rare: rigorous scholarship on Black cooperative economics that's accessible beyond the academy. Caroline is a Canada Research Chair in Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy and Full Professor of Global Development & Political Economy at the University of Toront
Jody Levison-Johnson: Five & Rising; The Economy's Unfunded Engine
When Vinny came across Jody Levison-Johnson's Forbes piece arguing that the social sector deserves to be treated as an economic engine, he reached out. That conversation became this episode. Jody is President and CEO of Social Current, a national network of more than 1,800 human service organizations, and the founder of Five & Rising, a movement to revalue, reframe, and rebuild how th
Erin Hotchkiss: Fragments & Frameworks; Translating Silos Into Systems
Join host Vinny Tafuro and IEE board member Erin Hotchkiss for a special origin story episode celebrating ten years since the publication of Unlocking the Labor Cage. This episode traces how curious questions unearthed economic blindspots, leading to three tenets that unite fragmented movements. From care privilege and solidarity economics to B Corps and Employee Ownership Trusts, great i
Misty Heggeness: Swiftynomics; Taylor Swift & the Women Economics Ignored
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Misty Heggeness, associate professor at the University of Kansas, former principal economist at the U.S. Census Bureau, and author of Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy. Misty reveals how the economics profession has long ignored the contributions of women in the labor market, in households, and in the data itself. Th
Holly McCann: Growing Local; Blue Ridge Blueprint for a Local Food Economy
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Holly McCann, co-founder and Core Steward of Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons, a public benefit company catalyzing a self-sustaining local food economy in Western North Carolina. Holly traces her path from Silicon Valley corporate attorney to regenerative systems designer, and explains why food is where you have to start when rebuilding an economy
Masami Sato: Woven In; Embedding Impact by Design
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Masami Sato, founder and CEO of B1G1, a Singapore-based social enterprise and certified B Corp that has generated over 395 million giving impacts across more than 50 countries. Masami traces her path from a shy, introverted young woman who left Japan at 20 with little money and no English, to food entrepreneur, to living alongside farmers in
Miren Oca: Exit While They Slept; Employee Ownership & the Perpetual Trust
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Miren Oca, founder and CEO of Ocaquatics Swim School, who built a Miami swim instruction institution over 32 years before transferring 100% of it to her employees through a perpetual Employee Ownership Trust on the company's thirtieth anniversary. Miren walks through why she walked away from private equity, how the EOT compares to ESOPs and w
Helena Norberg-Hodge: Local Futures; Happiness as a Cure
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of Local Futures and pioneer of the new economy movement. Helena traces the economic forces that transformed Ladakh, a self-sufficient Himalayan culture untouched by the global economy until the 1970s, and what that experience revealed about the relationship between economic design and human happiness. From the d
Tom Llewellyn: Borrow Don't Buy; Tools, Trust & The Commons
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Tom Llewellyn, Executive Director of Shareable, exploring what a genuine sharing economy actually looks like. Tom traces the roots of community sharing infrastructure from the first tool libraries of the 1970s through 2,000+ Libraries of Things operating worldwide today, and examines mutual aid as a proven economic model — not charity. With t
Pam Shockley-Zalabak: The Trust Deficit: Economics' Costly Blind Spot
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a compelling conversation with Dr. Pamela Shockley-Zalabak, former Chancellor of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and leading researcher on organizational trust. Their discussion explores the 50-year decline in social trust, reveals how the 2016 election exposed a crisis in social capital, and examines why orthodox economics has ignored trust despite
John Feldman: Documenting Revolution, Scientific Paradigm Shifts
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest John Feldman, filmmaker and founder of Hummingbird Films, for a conversation about how ecological documentaries challenge scientific orthodoxy. Over his forty-year career, John's work has evolved from defending traditional evolutionary theory to documenting how cooperation and symbiosis drive evolution and ecological health. Their conversation explores how
Tonya Donati: Growing Slow is Sexy: Kombucha, B Corps & Patient Capital
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest Tonya Donati, Founder and CEO of Mother Kombucha, for a conversation about building a certified B Corp through bootstrapped, regional growth. Tonya's journey from occupational therapist to beverage entrepreneur reflects a shift in business fundamentals—rejecting the venture capital model in favor of profitability, community anchoring, and stakeholder capit
Walter Balser: Decentralization & Paradigm Shifts in K-12 Education
Join host Vinny Tafuro for an engaging conversation with guest Dr. Walter Balser, Clinical Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Florida. Dr. Balser teaches graduate courses on organizational leadership, technology leadership, and qualitative research methods, and his research examines the changing education ecosystem from the standpoint of decentra
Stan Deetz: Systems Design to Slow Down Capitalism
Join host Vinny Tafuro for a conversation with Dr. Stan Deetz, exploring why corporations—not governments—make most decisions affecting our lives. Stan reveals how externalized costs and the relentless pursuit of speed are destroying economic systems, from quarterly reporting cycles to high-frequency trading. They discuss practical solutions, including enforcing antitrust legislation, usi
Melanie Sue Hicks: Invisible Snake Bites, The Economics of Broken Workplaces
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest Dr. Melanie Sue Hicks, a workforce and employee experience expert with more than two decades of experience in organizational development and culture, for a conversation about workplace dysfunction and its broader economic impact. Today's conversation focuses on the hidden costs of employee disengagement, drawing from Dr. Hicks' research on psychological co
Thaddeus Squire: Fiscal Sponsorship as Management Commons
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest Thaddeus Squire, Chief Commons Steward at Social Impact Commons, for a conversation about fiscal sponsorship in the social sector. Thaddeus has more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit management field, and today’s conversation focuses on the evolution of fiscal sponsorship. Thaddeus and his organization have coined the term “management commons” t
Riane Eisler: Nurturing Our Humanity and Partnership Economics
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest Dr. Riane Eisler, renowned systems scientist and author, as they explore her groundbreaking work on partnership systems and their impact on economic structures. Drawing from her 2019 book "Nurturing Our Humanity," co-authored with Douglas Fry, Eisler discusses how the biocultural partnership-domination lens reveals patterns that conventional economic frame
Eric Eisenberg: Paradigm Change and Orthodoxy in Academia
Join host Vinny Tafuro for an engaging conversation with guest Dr. Eric Eisenberg, Senior Vice President for University-Community Partnerships at USF. Through the lens of design economics, they explore paradigm shifts in academia, the unique role of communication as an interdisciplinary bridge, and the challenges of creating innovative university-community connections. Dr. Eisenberg share
Exploring Afrofuturism and The Dinkinesh Method with Ingrid LaFleur
Join host Vinny Tafuro for an engaging conversation with guest Ingrid LaFleur, a curator, Afrofuturist, and pleasure activist. Her groundbreaking work has been featured in prominent outlets such as The New York Times and Time magazine. Their conversation explores the roots of Afrofuturism, the impacts of nonlinear presence, and how Ingrid’s Dinkenish Method World Builds can guide us towar
The Collective Impact of B Corps with Nathan Stuck
Join host Vinny Tafuro for an engaging conversation with guest Nathan Stuck, an entrepreneur, B Corp consultant, and the founder of B Local Georgia. Their conversation focuses on the collective impact of B Corps on the wider market and economy as more examples of successful B Corps illustrate how a better-designed business can support a better-designed economy.About Nathan StuckNathan is
After Capitalism: Designing Economic Futures with Andy Hines
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest Andy Hines, Assistant Professor and Program Director of the graduate program in foresight at The University of Houston as they discuss Andy’s new book Imagining After Capitalism. The book is the culmination of professional futurist Andy’s 10-year exploration of what comes next after capitalism. Arguing that the absence of compelling positive alternatives k
Introducing Design Economics with Paula Seymour of Flagler College
Join host Vinny Tafuro and guest Dr. Paula Seymour, Assistant Professor and Program Director of Social Entrepreneurship at Flagler College, as they explore how design thinking can revolutionize economics for the 21st century. Learn about the three tenets of design economics and hear how visionary thinkers like Hazel Henderson, Marilyn Waring, Riane Eisler, and Kate Raworth have shaped thi
