Follow the Data Podcast

The skills needed to be a mayor are many, and few have the time to pause and learn something new.

The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative was developed in response to the need for leadership and management training specifically tailored to city leaders. Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University are uniquely qualified to develop such a program, combining resources to facilitate learning for city leaders currently holding office.

Josh Skolnick of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation team spoke to the program’s director and faculty co-chair for executive education, Jorrit de Jong. Jorrit is also a Senior Lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School; he and Josh discuss the program’s nearly 99% recommendation rate, the use of data, experimentation and innovation and cross-sector collaboration.

On September 10th, 2019, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the creation of a new $160 million initiative to end the youth e-cigarette epidemic. The three-year program, called Protect Kids, is led by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which will partner with other leading organizations including parent and community groups concerned about the nation’s kids and health.

Dr. Kelly Henning, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health program lead, spoke to Matt Myers, President of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, about the initiative, including the need to hold the federal government accountable for it’s stated intentions to ban flavored e-cigarettes.

Follow the Data’s Census Series has covered the “Who, What, When, Where, Why” and featured a case study on how one city, Detroit, Michigan, is preparing for the 2020 census.

In the final episode of the series we learn more about the federal agency that manages the decennial census, among other things. Terri Ann Lowenthal, former staff director for the House of Representatives Census Oversight Subcommittee, speaks to Bloomberg Associates’ Municipal Integrity Principal, Rose Gill Hearn, about how the Census Bureau has evolved to prepare for the first “digital count,” about the agency’s commitment to confidentiality and the efforts made to achieve full census participation.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, support flooded in from across the country to drive the recovery effort in New York, and beyond. Since then, hundreds of thousands of first responders, recovery workers, and community members have gotten sick and many have passed away from exposure to toxins at the recovery site.

18 years after the attacks, communities are still feeling the effects. To recognize the sacrifice, loss and continuing effort of those who responded to rebuild the community, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum created a physical space on the memorial site, called the Memorial Glade.

On the heels of the 18th anniversary of 9/11, we feature a conversation between Anita Contini of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts program and Alice Greenwald, National September 11th Memorial and Museum President and CEO. They discuss how the Glade came to be, it’s thoughtful design, and how the space will tell its story for years to come.

In today’s episode, we revisit a conversation about tackling persistent problems facing boys and young men of color.

Bloomberg Associates – the international, philanthropic consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies tailored for city government—works with the city of Houston, Texas on My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiatives. MBK aims to address opportunity gaps for boys and young men of color, offering new support from cradle to career through young adulthood.

Last fall, Niiobli Armah IV of Bloomberg Associates’ Social Services team spoke to both the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner and Asa Singleton, an MBK program participant. The Mayor discussed inter-departmental collaboration, his personal experience with the MBK program, and long-term impact. Asa describes how he got involved with MBK, advice for others, and the opportunities he hopes to explore in the future.

We’re re-publishing a past episode of Follow the Data featuring Katherine Oliver of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and John Feinblatt, President of Everytown for Gun Safety. They discuss Everytown’s tireless work fighting gun violence, how they use data to inform change, the future of gun safety in America, and the national movement to end gun violence.

Nearly every nation is experiencing rising rates of overweight and obesity and no country has successfully reversed these trends. This poses a serious threat to people’s health and wellbeing; the significant healthcare costs associated with treating obesity and related conditions, such as diabetes heart disease and certain cancers, have the potential to undermine economic development across the globe.

A major cause of the obesity epidemic is easy access to unhealthy, ultra-processed foods and beverages that are inexpensive and marketed heavily—especially to children. We need leaders who can stand up to the food and beverage industry and fight for communities where healthy foods are the norm, not the exception.

Dr. Neena Prasad of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health team spoke with three public health experts who are doing just that: Paula Johns, Director of ACT Health Promotion in Brazil; Professor Karen Hoffman, Director of Priceless South Africa; and Deborah Chen, Executive Director of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica. They describe the food environments in their countries and highlight some of the successes and challenges of their work.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- better known as the NAACP convenes an annual meeting of members, delegates, elected officials, entertainers, authors, athletes and other leaders from across the country. This year, the organization hosted its 110th convening with over 10,000 people in attendance. The convention helps set the organization’s policy priorities for the coming year. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.

Among the speakers this year were Presidential candidates, activists, business leaders, and philanthropists including our founder Mike Bloomberg. In his speech, he spoke about prioritizing education as a path to equity and equality, and how it can be done.

The first episode of our census series was dedicated to the basics: who gets counted, what the survey is, when it takes place, why it matters, and how cities are preparing for the census.

To get a sense of specific preparation plans, we visited a Bloomberg Associates’ client city, Detroit, Michigan. The Mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan, spoke to Bloomberg Associates Municipal Integrity Principal, Rose Gill Hearn, about his experience with the count, challenges that are specific to Detroit, the extensive efforts Detroit is making to prepare for the count and how he defines success.