Bucking The System

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: This TED Radio Hour episode explores how individuals can expose failures in major institutions by gathering data and pushing for accountability. It features Emily Oster on collecting school COVID data when governments weren’t, Preeti Krishdel on reforming patent law to lower drug prices, and Philip Atiba Goff on measuring police behavior to rethink public safety and reduce racial inequity.

Main Topics: School COVID data and accountability (Priority: 5/5): Emily Oster explains how she and her team filled a data vacuum by surveying schools directly about mitigations, cases, and reopening patterns during the pandemic. Data-driven parenting and personal decision-making (Priority: 4/5): Oster’s broader philosophy is that clear evidence helps families make better choices and understand risk rather than relying on fear or slogans. Patent reform and drug pricing (Priority: 5/5): Preeti Krishdel argues the U.S. patent system has become a tool for extending monopolies on medicines, driving up prices and limiting access. Public health, monopolies, and global access to medicine (Priority: 4/5): The segment links patent policy to drug affordability, insulin access, and inequitable global vaccine distribution during the pandemic. Racial bias and policing as measurable behavior (Priority: 5/5): Philip Atiba Goff reframes racism from an issue of attitudes to one of measurable actions, enabling accountability through data. Reimagining public safety (Priority: 4/5): The episode highlights experiments like Ithaca’s alternative response model, where civilians and social workers handle some crises instead of armed police.

Key Arguments: When official institutions fail to collect needed information, individuals and researchers can create accountability by building their own datasets. Emily Oster’s school-data project suggested schools were not major super-spreader sites when mitigations were in place, challenging early fears and political narratives. Public decisions about schools became politicized, but data can still help families and policymakers make better, less fearful choices. The patent system was designed to reward invention with limited monopoly, but it now often extends monopolies through dense patent thickets. Drug prices and lack of access are not accidental; they are linked to policy choices that favor corporations over the public. Real reform requires raising patent standards, changing incentives at the patent office, increasing public participation, allowing legal challenges, and improving oversight. Racism in policing is better understood as harmful behavior and outcomes, not just biased intentions, because behavior can be measured and changed. Public safety should be delivered by the right responders for the right crisis, not by asking police to do every job. Alternative models like Ithaca’s show that social workers and outreach staff can de-escalate crises more effectively than armed response in some situations.

Data Points: Schools surveyed: over 5,000 - Emily Oster’s team built a national COVID-in-schools database by surveying districts directly Survey frequency: every two weeks - School districts were asked for updated information on mitigations, in-person attendance, and cases Mitigations tracked: 12 - Oster’s school survey asked whether districts used any of 12 possible mitigation measures Patent applications on top U.S. drugs: 131 on average - Average number of patent applications across the 10 best-selling drugs in America Patent duration expansion: 20 years to nearly 40 years - Oster’s guest argued patent thickets effectively double monopoly periods on medicines Americans lacking affordable access to medicines: over 2 billion people worldwide - Krishdel described the global scale of medicine access problems Americans who lost someone due to unaffordable medicine: 34 million - Krishdel cited U.S. losses tied to affordability rather than lack of treatment People who know someone who died because they couldn’t afford medication: 13% - U.S. survey figure cited in the patent reform segment Same statistic for people of color: twice as high - Affordability-related death impact was described as disproportionately affecting people of color Patent applications on Keytruda: nearing 100 - Used as an example of a drug accumulating many patents to extend exclusivity Additional exclusivity for Keytruda: at least 8 more years - Krishdel argued this is added on top of the original 20-year patent term Projected cost during Keytruda’s extended exclusivity: $137 billion - Estimated U.S. spending during the extension period Price reduction from patent challenge in India: up to 87% - Krishdel cited HIV drug patent litigation that lowered medicine prices Police shootings involving serious mental illness: 25% - Goff used this figure to argue for non-police crisis responders Minneapolis ballot outcome: proposal rejected - The episode notes voters rejected a plan to replace the police department with a public safety department

Pivotal Quotes: "There was kind of no data collection effort on that." — Emily Oster: Describing the lack of information about COVID transmission in schools early in the pandemic "A definition that cares about the intentions of abusers more than the harms to the abused, that definition of racism is racist." — Philip Atiba Goff: Explaining why racism should be defined by behavior and impact, not just intent "We can't rely on the voluntary actions of entities that are not incentivized to do this. This is why we need government." — Preeti Krishdel: Arguing that market forces alone will not make medicines or vaccines broadly accessible

Implications: The episode argues that systemic change starts with measuring what powerful institutions hide. Better data, legal reform, and redesigned response systems could improve schools, medicine access, and policing outcomes.