A remotely recorded podcast featuring Nathan Atkinson (Law School Profile), Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin.

In this episode, Professor Nathan Atkinson explores a surprising parallel: elections and corporations are both systems for turning many dispersed voices into a single decision. Prof. Atkinson explains why the ranked choice reforms popularized after the 2000 Bush-Gore-Nader election may be the wrong fix for today’s polarization, drawing on Alaska ballot data to show how instant runoff voting can produce a winner most voters didn’t actually prefer. He makes the case instead for “consensus choice” voting — a head-to-head approach designed to surface genuinely majority-preferred candidates.

Next, Prof. Atkinson shifts gears to corporate governance and how prosecutors can punish corporations. He shares proposals for placing penalties on shareholders, examines the outsized voting power of passive index funds, and reflects on why institutions so often behave differently in practice than they do on paper. Throughout the episode, Prof. Atkinson offers a practical vision of scholarship as a tool for helping busy decision-makers see the complexities they don’t have time to untangle themselves.

The interview was conducted on June 8, 2026 | 44:53 minutes; published August 12, 2026. Transcript file (PDF).

Links to the Podcast: Soundcloud | Apple Podcast  | Spotify