364 episodes listed below
Government management, explained from the inside.
Management Matters treats government as a working system, not an abstraction. Its conversations bring public-sector voices into practical discussions about oversight, evidence, service delivery, and the public trust that makes institutions function.
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Management Matters is a public administration show about the work behind government performance. It treats agencies, oversight bodies, data systems, and public servants as the places where democratic trust is either strengthened or lost. The tone is formal, steady, and practical. Recent conversations focus on accountability tools such as the GAO high-risk list, including how agencies land on it, how progress is judged, and what removal requires. The show also spends serious time on data. Episodes with Diana Maurer and Keri D'Elia examine transparency, source tracing, interpretation, and the challenge of helping both Congress and the public use evidence without turning it into advocacy. That makes the show unusually grounded. It is not built around campaign drama or personality conflict. It is interested in criteria, processes, decisions, and consequences. Another recurring concern is public understanding. Episodes on storytelling argue that public servants need clearer ways to explain what government does, especially as traditional media habits change and podcasts become part of civic communication. The show also looks outward. A discussion with Donna Shalala and Norm Ornstein considers institutional rebuilding, ethics enforcement, competent leadership, and the long future of American governance. These conversations can be candid about dysfunction, but they are rarely cynical. Management Matters keeps returning to the idea that reform depends on people who understand operations, budgets, public purpose, and the lived effects of policy. It is best suited to listeners who want to understand government management from practitioners rather than from partisan commentary. Its value is patience. The show makes room for the slow, technical, consequential work that determines whether public institutions can perform under pressure.
Made for: For public administrators, civic-minded listeners, and students of government who want operational detail without partisan spectacle. It especially suits people interested in accountability, evidence, institutional trust, and reform.
What sets it apart: The show centers the administrative mechanics behind public outcomes: GAO criteria, data credibility, agency leadership, storytelling, and reform capacity. It gives practitioners room to explain how decisions are made and how trust is earned.
Management Matters with James-Christian Blockwood brings together government and private sector leaders for in-depth conversations about the big issues impacting public service, government and more. A podcast of the National Academy of Public Administration.
GAO's high-risk list becomes your cheat sheet for spotting where public trust can spring a leak.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A plainspoken guide to how GAO uses its high-risk list to press agencies toward measurable progress.
The GAO high-risk list is framed as a durable accountability tool for spotting where taxpayer money, mission performance, and public trust face serious strain.
A focused conversation on making public service more visible, clearer, and easier to trust.
Public administrators cannot assume good work will speak for itself. Management Matters centers that challenge in a conversation about media, public administration, and the trust that grows when government helps people understand what its work accomplishes.
A grounded conversation about American renewal through expertise, ethics enforcement, institutional checks, and public responsibility.
Management Matters takes a long view of American governance, asking what it would take for public institutions to serve the country over the next 250 years.
Kansas audits, explained plainly.
David French and Sarah Isgur break down Supreme Court arguments and rulings twice a week.
David Roberts interviews energy and policy experts on grids, solar, geothermal, and climate law.
Orice Williams Brown explains how GAO's high-risk list, first issued in 1990, moved from 14 programs to 38 areas by 2025.
A discussion with GAO and USAFacts leaders on challenges facing government, focusing on declining trust and the need for informed debate.
Management Matters with James Christian Blockwood focuses on how public administrators tell stories that build trust, using guests Michael Keegan and Dave Martin as examples.
Donna Shalala and Norm Ornstein argue on Management Matters that American governance needs rebuilding, not just incremental repair, because the constitutional system, civil service, and oversight structures are under strain.
GAO reports $62 billion in fiscal-year savings and identifies up to $250 billion more through unimplemented recommendations.