OTT Podcast

Can small and mid-sized think tanks survive the mounting challenges they're facing and the increasing costs of overcoming them? OTT Talks to Simon Maxwell about alternative think tank models and markets.

OTT Talks to Dana Schmidt, Programme Director at Echidna Giving about her role - the skills and values needed to be a funder, the power dynamics between grantees and funders, and the personal impact of the role.

OTT Talks to Liliana Alvarado, Executive Director of Mexican think tank Ethos, on what happens when think tanks have to take on a government watchdog role.

OTT Talks to Dr. Damien King, Executive Director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), to explore the think tank sector in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean region.

OTT Talks to Dr. Abraham Ibn Zackaria, Deputy Director of Research in the Parliament of Ghana, shedding light on how evidence is used in Ghanaian policymaking.

[Please note that the sound quality in this episode is not optimal. Nonetheless, we believe the insights shared by Dr. Zackaria make it well worth listening to!]

OTT Talks to Grant Dalton, researcher at the Institute for Government (IFG), a leading British think tank, about the findings of a diversity and inclusion sector report he co-authored and published last year.

Guests: Kuranda Morgan, Evidence Lead in the evidence and experimentation team at Nesta; Mohammed Awal, Team Leader - social accountability and SDGs workstream at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development; and Abeba Taddese, Senior Program Director - evidence for decision making at Results for Development.

On Think Tanks Director, Enrique Mendizabal talks to David Sasaki, Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation about the need for more accountability in the philanthropic sector; what the job involves; and what it takes to do it well. 

Luis Orlandi, OTT Growth Manager, talks to Enrique Mendizabal, Founder and Director of OTT, about the challenges and opportunities for think tank fundraising.

Julia Pomares, Chief Advisor to the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and former CIPPEC Executive Director, talks to Emily Hayter, OTT Associate, about the shift from generating to using evidence and share recommendations to inform decision-making.

To celebrate International Youth Day, OTT Talks to Ibrahim Faruk from Yiaga Africa and the ‘Not too young to run’ movement in Nigeria, and Neringa Tumėnaitė, from  Humanity Consulting about how youth can shape and participate in politics and change. The conversation is hosted by Cristina Bacalso.

In this new OTT Talks, Joe Miller, Director of Soapbox Washington Studio, talks to Louise Ball, OTT Communications Director, about his new book Screens, research and hypertext.

Enrique Mendizabal, OTT Founder and Director, talks to Irene Pingkan Umboh from RTI International and Widjajanti Isdijoso from SMERU Research Institute. They look back over the last 10 years of the Knowledge Sector Initiative’s support to 16 think tanks in Indonesia.

For International Women's Day 2022, we have an OTT Talks about women in think tank leadership roles with Andrea Ordoñez, Director at Southern Voice, Fiona Moejes, Interim CEO at Mawazo Institute and Shannon Sutton, OTT Consultant.

In this episode of the OTT Podcast, Bob Wekesa tells us about the work he has been doing at the African Center for the Study of the United States, an institution dedicated to studying the impact of US political, economic and trade relations with African countries. He talks about the organisation’s research agenda, building partnerships with institutions across Africa and his vision for the Centre’s future.

OTT Talks episode with Gala Díaz Langou, CIPPEC's new executive director, on the challenges and opportunities that think tanks face today. Gala reflects on her career at CIPPEC and her new role.