Theory of Change is a podcast about the future of global development — and the people trying to reshape it.Hosted by Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe, the show features candid conversations with leaders in philanthropy, foreign policy, technology, finance, media, and humanitarian aid about the forces transforming how global change actually happens: power, politics, money, influence, and ideas.Not a panel. A conversation with a real person.Episodes are published every Tuesday.Subscribe to our YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@devexThe podcast is produced by Devex Associate Editor Thomas Cserép and Mai Ylagan.
Latest episodes
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59 min
Do think tanks need a rethink?
If a Washington, D.C., think tank publishes a voluminous policy paper, but barely anyone reads it, does it have an impact? Not really, according to Todd Moss, long-time development…
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1 h 04
How to talk about failure
What happens when an organization built on maximum cost-effectiveness discovers that one of its flagship programs isn't delivering the results it promised?For Evidence Action, the…
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58 min
The lessons and warnings of PEPFAR
The recent history of U.S. foreign aid has been dominated by budget cuts, institutional dismantling, and massive workforce reductions.Against this backdrop, the U.S. President’s Em…
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1 h 02
Zipline's global drone delivery vision
The California-based drone delivery company Zipline made waves last year when it secured a $150 million pay-for-performance grant from the U.S. State Department to scale up its ope…
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56 min
Live from UNGA with Buddy Shah
In a live episode of the Theory of Change podcast, Buddy Shah, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and chair of the Anthropic Long Term Benefit Trust, shared an inside look…
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1 h 08
Live from UNGA with David Beasley
In a live episode of the Theory of Change podcast recorded at the Devex Impact House in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, David Beasley, the former…
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1 h 09
Is the global humanitarian system collapsing?
In an interview on Devex's Theory of Change podcast, Alight CEO Jocelyn Wyatt warned that the traditional humanitarian business model is facing structural failure.Following the col…
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1 h 18
Is it OK to take 'tainted money'?
In the latest episode of the Theory of Change podcast, human rights activist Kavita Nandini Ramdas discussed the deep systemic contradictions of modern philanthropy, its uneasy rel…
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1 h 16
Can communities help refugees where governments fail?
In the latest episode of the Theory of Change podcast, Nazanin Ash, CEO of Welcome.US, discussed how community-driven sponsorship could revolutionize refugee resettlement, bypass p…
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53 min
What does 'country ownership' really mean?
What is “country ownership,” really? And what gets in the way of making it a reality?Against a backdrop of historic cuts to development assistance by many of the world’s largest do…
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53 min
How Jacqueline Novogratz invests for global change
Twenty-five years ago, when Jacqueline Novogratz founded the impact investing nonprofit Acumen, she still had to prove that markets and entrepreneurship could work for people livin…
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1 h 26
Mark Dybul says this was never the plan for PEPFAR
For over two decades, the U.S. government has been a lynchpin in the global fight against HIV, pouring billions of dollars into treatment, prevention, and health systems strengthen…
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1 h 02
How Kakenya Ntaiya turned pain into progress
Philanthropists and global development donors have made a lot of promises about supporting local leaders and community-based organizations. But their insistence on finding scalable…
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1 h 13
Jim Richardson believes we can still agree about US foreign aid
U.S. foreign aid advocacy groups are soul-searching in the wake of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and deep cuts to U.S. for…
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1 h 29
Ebere Okereke believes global health is about power
Global health is entering a period of profound upheaval. As governments reassess foreign aid, donors rethink decades-old models, and African leaders push for greater ownership of t…
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57 min
Why Rachel Kyte doesn't listen to climate polls
Rachel Kyte has spent decades shaping global climate change policy — from the World Bank to the United Nations to the United Kingdom. More than a decade since the signing of the Pa…
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59 min
William Easterly still believes development is freedom
Development economist William Easterly famously does not mince words about the disappointments of anti-poverty megaprojects and far-fetched foreign aid plans.For much of his career…
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1 h 06
Gayle Smith on the next fight for foreign aid
U.S. foreign aid is undergoing one of the most tumultuous transformations in its history.The Department of Government Efficiency’s dismantling of USAID and transfer of its remainin…
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1 h 18
Seth Berkley has seen our pandemic future
Much of Seth Berkley's career has been an attempt to answer the question: How do you get vaccines to people who aren’t well-served by an inequitable global health system?When the C…
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1 h 06
How Alexander Berger weighs the world’s biggest problems
Coefficient Giving, one of the world’s largest effective-giving funders, is about to go even bigger.On the heels of its biggest funding year ever in 2025 — in which it channeled ov…