Behavioral insights where policy meets practice.
Calling DIBS brings behavioral science into the machinery of public programs, education, employment, immigration, and workplace design. Its conversations move carefully from theory to implementation, with guests explaining how evidence becomes forms, scorecards, measurements, defaults, and better service decisions.
PRESS PLAY
Calling DIBS is a measured, interview-driven show about behavioral insights as they are practiced in public policy, social programs, research, and organizational life. It is less interested in quick tips than in the mechanics of changing behavior responsibly. Kirsten Appelt usually starts with a guest's path into BI, then moves toward concrete projects, methodological choices, and the barriers that made the work difficult. The conversations have room to breathe. Guests describe problem scoping, partner conversations, literature reviews, target populations, implementation constraints, and the question of what can actually be measured. Recent episodes show that range clearly. Faraz Haki discusses employment outcomes, job training programs, registration materials, onboarding steps, and visual progress tools. Katherine Flashin talks through early childhood development and education work, including caregiver behavior and school re-enrollment after pandemic closures in Uganda. Nick Chesterly brings the frame of government measurement, future-facing policy, GDP, budgets, call centers, social media engagement, experimentation, and iteration. David Hardesty focuses on A/B tests, experiments, random sampling, random assignment, and the danger of treating every comparison as causal evidence. Greg Lockwood connects BI to hybrid work, deep work, office design, team autonomy, defaults, reminders, and organizational norms. Joanna Katter brings the work into immigration service strategy, where behavioral science methods are used to improve client service. Amara Martinez adds lessons from policy development and implementation across education, health, cultural affairs, and sport. Across these episodes, the show keeps returning to a few questions: What behavior matters? Can it move? Can it be measured? What would make the desired action easier for real people in a real system? The tone is warm and methodical. It works especially well for listeners who want behavioral science connected to institutions, not just individual decision quirks. Calling DIBS stands out because it treats evidence, context, and implementation as inseparable parts of the same conversation.
Made for: For policy practitioners, behavioral science students, public servants, service designers, and researchers who want applied examples with methodological care. It also suits listeners interested in education, immigration, employment, workplace design, and public-sector experimentation.
What sets it apart: Calling DIBS stands out for its patient project-level detail: guests explain not just what worked, but how problems were scoped, measured, adapted, and translated into implementation. The show keeps behavioral science grounded in institutions and everyday service barriers.
Join host Kirstin Appelt, Research Director of UBC Decision Insights for Business & Society (UBC-DIBS), as she interviews Behavioural Insights enthusiasts and experts from BC and beyond to explore: how BI is being used to tackle societal and planetary challenges, how BI skills are used across sectors,how BI intersects with other fields, how to conduct BI projects, and how BI is advancing with new research.Liner notes: Calling DIBS is recorded and edited on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh). Calling DIBS is edited by Risha...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Kirsten Appelt shows how behavioral research becomes practical decisions inside governments, workplaces, schools and employment programs.
Calling DIBS follows behavioral science out of the lab and into government, workplaces, schools and employment programs. Kirsten Appelt interviews researchers and practitioners about both their routes into the field and the decisions inside particular projects, giving the…
Calling DIBS makes policy measurement practical before your next KPI quietly starts running the institution.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear look at how behavioral design can make job programs easier to enter and harder to drop.
Kirsten Appelt and Faraz Haki make a practical case for behavioral design in employment programs. The strongest parts stay close to the work itself: clearer marketing language, simpler registration and intake forms, and a better welcome kit for an online skills-building and job…
Behavioral design is grounded in a concrete education problem and a clear way to think about change.
Katherine Flashin frames Ideas42's work as a way to shrink a social problem into something a team can actually test. The three Ns, meaningful, movable, and measurable, give the discussion a plain but useful shape, and the episode keeps coming back to that discipline instead of…
A measured case for behaviorally informed government, with measurement and feedback at the center.
The episode tracks Nick Chesterly and Kirsten Appelt as they argue for behaviorally informed government. It stays focused on measurement, experimentation, and iteration, and it keeps coming back to a simple point: small design choices can change whether a system works for people…
A precise look at A/B tests, experiments, and the claims research can fairly carry.
The episode turns the line between an A/B test and an experiment into a practical problem, not a wording dispute. David Hardesty, in conversation with Kirsten Appelt, frames an A/B test as a broad comparison of two things, while an experiment is a more specific version that uses…
A grounded behavioral-insights episode on making flexibility and focused work part of everyday team practice.
Calling DIBS turns hybrid work into a test of practical judgment, with Kirsten Appelt tracing Greg Lockwood's move from UBC's Equity and Inclusion Office to Global Affairs Canada and his use of behavioral insights inside government.
A grounded look at behavioral science, career fit, and the effort required to make research matter beyond the lab.
Stephanie Mertens and Kirsten Appelt frame the conversation around a familiar but useful tension: how behavioral science can stay rigorous and still travel beyond the lab.
Washington headlines, tested against consequence.
Cattle policy from the Washington side of ranching.
Global health, explained through policy machinery.
Kirsten Appelt talks with Faraz Haki about behavioral insights and employment outcomes.
Kirsten Appelt talks with Katherine Flashin, a principal behavioral designer with Ideas42.
Kirsten Appelt calls on Nick Chesterly for a conversation about behaviorally informed government.
Calling DIBS host Kirsten Appelt interviews UBC Sauder professor David Hardesty about why online A-B tests are often mischaracterized as experiments.
Calling DIBS host Kirsten Appelt interviews Greg Lockwood about a Global Affairs Canada experiment on hybrid schedules and deep-work time.
This episode features an interview with Joanna Katter, a research leader in immigration policy, discussing her career journey in applied behavioral science and her work improving client services for immigration clients.
This episode features an interview with Amara Martinez, a senior program officer at UNESCO, discussing her career in behavioral insights, focusing on projects and partnerships in public service and social sectors like education and health.
Kirsten Appelt speaks with Stephanie Mertens, a behavioral scientist at the Ontario Behavioral Insights Unit.