04 August 2025
The School for Government podcast
Exploring how government works – and how it could work better
In each episode, Professor Michael Sanders, Director of the School for Government at King’s College London, speaks with leading policy experts and practitioners from across the public sector, academia and industry. Together, they explore the inner workings of government, the biggest challenges it faces, and where the opportunities lie to make policy more effective, evidence-based, and citizen-focused.
Episode 8: Julia Ellingwood
Julia Ellingwood is a Research Fellow with the Experimental Government Team at the Policy Institute. Before joining the Institute in March 2023, she contributed to research on public preferences on hate speech regulation at the Hertie School in Berlin, as well as on connections between labour conditions and voting, family health, and child behaviour at the Berlin Social Science Centre.
Episode 7: Dr Jon Roozenbeek
Jon Roozenbeek is a Lecturer in Psychology. As a computational social psychologist, Jon’s research seeks to understand the interplay between modern communication technologies and polarisation, misinformation, and authoritarianism. He covers topics such as human-AI interaction, group identity and ideology building, misinformation and propaganda (especially in Ukraine and Russia), institutional trust, digital technology use, and the psychological drivers of authoritarianism.
Episode 6: Dr Gloria Novović
Gloria is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the International School for Government. Working at the intersections of international political economy, feminist political ecology, and critical development studies, she studies how the existing global governance architecture forecloses avenues of international cooperation.
Episode 5: Dr Joseph Sherlock
Dr Joseph Sherlock is a Lecturer at the School for Government whose work focuses on leveraging behavioural science to advance democracy and sustainability, as well as the science of behavioural science. He also serves as a Behavioural Science Fellow in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Office. Previously, he was a Principal Behavioral Scientist at Duke University, and also held the role of Principal Behavioural Researcher at HM Revenue & Customs, contributing to public sector innovation and policy development.
Episode 4: Dr Georgios Samaras
Dr Georgios Samaras is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Public Policy at the School for Government. His research encompasses far-right extremism, political communication, and policy responses to illiberal political practices, while also exploring the dynamics of European and US politics and the global rise of authoritarianism.
Episode 3: Dr Roxana Bratu
Dr Roxana Bratu is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy in the School for Government. Her research interests and publications focus on anti-corruption public policies and practices, digitalisation and its impact on (anti)corruption, narratives of corruption and integrity development, ethics and integrity in public policy and artificial intelligence public policies and regulations.
Episode 2: Dr Olga Siemers
Dr Olga Siemers is an Associate Professor in Public Policy in the School for Government.
Her research looks at the intersection of government policy, decision-making and risk management in the context of global uncertainty and digital transformation.
Episode 1: Dame Tamara Finkelstein DCB
Tamara Finkelstein was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2019 to June 2025.
Tamara previously led the Building Safety Programme in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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Director, School for Government