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PODCAST

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro

Institute for Economic Evolution, Inc.

Join us to discover how design thinking can revolutionize economics for the 21st century. Learn about the Institute for Economic Evolution"s three tenets of design economics and meet the pioneering thinkers who are shaping this approach. From challenging economic orthodoxy to creating human-centered solutions, explore how design economics is evolving economics to better serve humanity and the environment.

science social sciences

All Episodes

65:17

Veronica Pesantes: Artist-Built Economies; Pooling,...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/09/28

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. She's the founder of Miami Art Hang, an education program that places Miami's artists and galleries in

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74:36

EP 22 Caroline Shenaz Hossein: Credit & Community;...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/09/08

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 Toronto, founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective, and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada

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66:20

EP 21 Jody Levison-Johnson: Five & Rising; The...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/08/17

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 nearly 1,800 human service organizations, and the founder of Five & Rising, a movement to revalue, reframe, and rebuild how the social sector is funded and supported. Together they trace how a sector representing 5.3% of U.S. GDP has

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60:49

EP 20 Erin Hotchkiss: Fragments & Frameworks;...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/07/27

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 ideas need common language. Through a conversation spanning the future of work, three transformative

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73:21

EP 19 Misty Heggeness: Swiftynomics; Taylor Swift &...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/07/06

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. Through the lens of Taylor Swift's career and songwriting, Misty makes the case that pop culture isn't a

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71:16

EP 18 Holly McCann: Growing Local; Blue Ridge...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/06/15

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 rooted in life rather than extraction. From the paradox of a region with 5,000 family farms that

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57:33

EP17 Masami Sato: Woven In; Embedding Impact by Design

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/05/26

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 rural communities, and explains how each of those experiences led to a single transformative insight:

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59:02

EP 16 Miren Oca: Exit While They Slept; Employee...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/05/04

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 worker cooperatives, what the transaction actually looks like, and how the trust's structure protects the

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64:21

EP 15 Helena Norberg-Hodge: Local Futures; Happiness...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/04/13

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 destruction of local economies by deliberate policy to the structural case for localization, this episode

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65:27

EP 14 Tom Llewellyn: Borrow Don't Buy; Tools, Trust &...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/03/04

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 the new Library of Things Toolkit launching March 19 at the Repair & Share Summit, this episode is

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54:30

EP 13 Pam Shockley-Zalabak: The Trust Deficit:...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/02/02

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 its role as the market's true "invisible hand." Dr. Shockley-Zalabak shares insights from her decades of

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55:45

EP 12 John Feldman: Documenting Revolution,...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2026/01/12

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 this intellectual humility contrasts with the scientific overconfidence that plagues economics, and how

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47:23

EP 2.4 Tonya Donati: Growing Slow is Sexy: Kombucha,...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/12/02

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 capitalism. Their conversation explores how B Corps formalize the paradigm shift from shareholder primacy to

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46:27

EP 2.3 Walter Balser: Decentralization & Paradigm...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/11/10

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 decentralization, blended capital, and technological disruption. Their conversation explores the

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61:00

EP 2.2 Stan Deetz: Systems Design to Slow Down...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/10/08

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, using transaction taxes to make short-termism expensive, and designing collaborative processes that enable

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49:00

EP 2.1 Melanie Sue Hicks: Invisible Snake Bites, The...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/09/09

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 contracts and generational workplace dynamics. Dr. Hicks introduces the concept of "invisible snake bites"

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57:37

EP 1.6 Fiscal Sponsorship: Management Commons with...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/06/06

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” to better illustrate the nuance and breadth of what fiscal sponsorship can do beyond the

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58:25

EP 1.5 Nurturing Humanity: Partnership Economics with...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/05/07

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 frameworks miss, offering practical paths toward more equitable, sustainable economic systems.★ Support

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48:18

EP 1.4 Paradigm Change and Orthodoxy in Academia with...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/04/04

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 shares insights from his 30-year academic journey on how universities can evolve to become true metropolitan

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52:21

EP 1.3 Exploring Afrofuturism and The Dinkinesh...

Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro ·

2025/03/17

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 toward better futures.Authors & Books MentionedOctavia Butler, Wild Seed and Parable of the SowerNnedi

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23 results

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