Policy-makers are often seen as being out of touch with the communities they serve. But closing the “gap” between policy makers and people is not straightforward. An experimental initiative in Bangladesh known as the “reality check” attempted to influence policy makers in the health and education sectors by providing them with ‘light touch’ ethnographic data about how ongoing reforms were experienced at community level over a five year period. The case is analyzed through a lens of a “methodological populism” and while it achieved only limited traction with policy makers it generated important questions about what can be considered as acceptable evidence for policy.