Best Universityofchicagopodcastnetwork Podcasts (2025)

1
Should Judges Be Elected Like Politicians? 51:01

23h ago51:01

51:01

Hello listeners, we're taking a much-needed spring break here at the podcast, but we want to re-share one of our episodes that has become increasingly salient. One of the defining features of the Trump administration so far is its entanglement with the courts. The legality or illegality of many of its actions are currently being decided by federal …

1
Can Meritocratic Hiring Fix the Bureaucracy? 55:42

17d ago55:42

55:42

Led by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE, Americans are debating once again how our government should hire civil servants, but are we asking the right questions? In this episode, we dive into a compelling new study on the Pendleton Act, one of the most significant bureaucratic reforms in U.S. history, which introduced merit-based civil …

1
Why Does America Pay More For Infrastructure? 50:42

1M ago50:42

50:42

Infrastructure in the U.S. now costs dramatically more than in countries like Germany or Croatia—without clear signs of higher quality or better environmental outcomes. Why has infrastructure spending spiraled out of control? Could democracy itself—through litigation, regulations, and empowered citizen voices—be driving costs sky-high? George Washi…

1
Do Voters Sometimes Support Parties They Actually Disagree With? 42:13

1M ago42:13

42:13

In elections across democracies, we assume voters cast ballots for candidates whose policies align with their interests. But what happens when that's not the case? This week, we unpack a political puzzle from Japan: the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) keeps winning elections despite voters consistently rejecting their policies. Through groundbreakin…

1
How Do Political Outsiders Build Loyalty With New Administrations? 49:35

2M ago49:35

49:35

What happens when a political outsider takes power and shakes up the system? In this episode, we look at a fascinating case study that reveals how leaders outside the establishment build loyalty, push their agendas, and change the political landscape. Political scientist Renard Sexton discusses his paper “Deadly Populism: How Local Political Outsid…

1
What Can Political Science Learn from Crypto Governance? 47:10

2M ago47:10

47:10

There’s a real-world experiment in governance happening that you’ve probably not heard about. It involves decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). These online collectives are trying to run billion-dollar enterprises using direct democracy and a controversial mechanism known as “liquid democracy”—where you can delegate your vote to anyone, at…

1
Is The "Strong Economy Equals Incumbent Victory" Theory Wrong? 45:24

3M ago45:24

45:24

Conventional wisdom says that a strong economy helps incumbents, while a weak economy hurts them. But new research from University of Chicago economist Lubos Pastor titled “Political Cycles and Stock Returns” challenges this idea, suggesting that economic downturns actually push voters toward Democrats, while economic booms favor Republicans. If tr…

1
What Are The Forces Shaping Polarization in Congress? 47:37

3M ago47:37

47:37

Why does Congress feel more divided than ever? Are politicians genuinely becoming more extreme, or is something else at play? In this episode, we take on the polarization debate with a twist. Anthony Fowler sits down with University of Chicago political scientist Daniel Moskowitz to uncover new data that challenges conventional wisdom in his paper …

1
Do Voters Elect Politicians Just Based On Looks? 44:19

4M ago44:19

44:19

On our last episode we had a discussion about what voters care about when electing politicians…and we mentioned a prior episode where we discussed if something as seemingly arbitrary as looks factor into voter choice. Do more attractive politicians do better? We all know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but if we’re being honest we…

1
What Do Politicians Think Motivates Voters? 55:20

4M ago55:20

55:20

Do politicians really understand what drives voters—or are they relying on flawed assumptions that could shape democracy in troubling ways? A groundbreaking new study by University of Calgary political scientist Jack Lucas, “Politicians’ Theories of Voting Behavior,” reveals striking gaps between how politicians perceive voters and how voters see t…

1
Are Politicians or The Public More Committed to Democracy? 51:54

5M ago51:54

51:54

When it comes to defending democracy, are politicians or the public more committed to its principles—or are both equally willing to bend the rules for political gain? In his forthcoming book, Elitism vs. Populism, University of Texas at Dallas Political Scientist Curtis Bram challenges the idea that elites are the ultimate defenders of democracy. T…

1
Is Bad Government Driving The Rise of Populism? 52:29

5M ago52:29

52:29

Hello Not Another Politics Podcast Listeners. We took some time off in preparation for the Thanksgiving Holiday but given the incredible political events of the month we wanted to re-share an episode that we think is even more relevant today than when we recorded it. Why is populism on the rise across the globe? One story says this movement is driv…

1
Why Did Trump Win Again in 2024? 48:56

6M ago48:56

48:56

Trump’s back in the White House—how did it happen? This week, we break down what the political science literature has to tell us about why voters swung his way, what Kamala Harris’s loss tells us about populism and political discontent, and what’s next for American democracy. Plus, co-host Will Howell makes a big announcement!…

1
Do Democrats and Republicans Agree on What (and Who) to Censor? 46:07

6M ago46:07

46:07

When it comes to online discourse, do Americans really value free speech—or are they more comfortable with censorship than expected? A surprising new paper from University of Rochester Political Scientist Jamie Druckman, “Illusory Interparty Disagreement: Partisans Agree On What Hate Speech To Censor But Do Not Know It” reveals a surprising alignme…

1
Do Fraud Claims About The 2020 Presidential Election Stand Up To Scrutiny? 49:35

7M ago49:35

49:35

In the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, claims of widespread voter fraud have fueled political controversies and public distrust. But how credible are these claims? In this episode, we sit down with political scientist Justin Grimmer to discuss his new paper “An Evaluation of Fraud Claims from the 2020 Trump Election Contests” which sys…

1
What's Behind The Educational Realignment In Voting? 56:43

7M ago56:43

56:43

Ever thought about how your college degree might sway your political leanings? Voters with and without college degrees drifting apart, especially on issues like economics, social values, and foreign policy, but what's driving this shift, and how are party positions influencing voters across different education levels? A new paper from University of…

1
Does Election Timing Matter For Turnout And Policy Outcomes? 42:33

8M ago42:33

42:33

We talk about it every election cycle…how can we get higher voter turnout? As part of the Center for Effective Government’s primer series focusing on the scholarship covering the pros and cons of different government reforms, University of Chicago Policy Professor Christopher Berry examined whether changing the timing of elections can result in hig…

1
Do Committees Lead To Better-Informed Legislative Voting? 37:46

9M ago37:46

37:46

In a recent paper by Washington University political scientist Michael Olson, he documents a very strange phenomenon. It seems that when legislators join committees, they’re voting record becomes less aligned with their constituents’ political preferences. The question is…why? Could it be that being on a committee means they’re just better informed…

1
Do Presidents Have As Much Power As We Think? 45:20

9M ago45:20

45:20

Since Biden’s debate performance, America’s political elite have been engaged in a debate. How much does a President really matter for effective government? If his administration seems to work fine, how much of an affect can a President have? At the same time, we important Supreme Court decisions that seem to be giving more power to Presidents whic…

1
Do City Services Move Faster for Affluent and White Neighborhoods? 47:19

10M ago47:19

47:19

Have you ever made a 311 call? This is a service provided by many cities that allows citizens to call in things like potholes, graffiti, fallen trees, ect. There is an assumption that many people have that requests made by white and more affluent neighborhoods probably get responded to faster. But is that accurate? In a recent paper, “Unequal Respo…

1
How To "Get Out The Vote" 42:02

10M ago42:02

42:02

Hello Not Another Politics Podcast listeners. We’re taking some much needed time off as the school year comes to a close; but with the elections right around the corner we still wanted to share some incredibly relevant and important political science research. Every Presidential election, we talk about “getting out the vote”. But what really works …

1
How Powerful Are October Surprises? 36:25

11M ago36:25

36:25

Hello Not Another Politics Podcast listeners. We’re taking some much needed time off as the school year comes to a close; but with the elections right around the corner we still wanted to share some incredibly relevant and important political science research. This week we’re resharing an episode all about October Surprises that has some counter in…

1
Does The Public View The Supreme Court As Legitimate In A Post-Dobbs World ? 43:43

11M ago43:43

43:43

The Supreme Court is supposed to be our non-political branch of government, making decisions solely on the constitutional soundness of laws. But in recent years it appears as though the Court has taken a shift to the right, most notably in the Dobbs decision in 2022. Which raises a question: does the public still the view the Court as legitimate? T…

1
How Good Are We At Spotting Fake News? 48:26

12M ago48:26

48:26

If the media is to be believed, the US public has a tenuous at best grasp on accurate political news. They’re either consuming disinformation and fake news on social media or following biasedly inaccurate news outlets. Either journalistic truth is as good as dead or we’re living in separate informational universes. But is this too alarmist, could t…

1
Is Partisan Animosity Directed At Fellow Citizens Or Elites? 39:10

12M ago39:10

39:10

There is a fact of our political discourse so agreed upon that nobody thinks to question it: affective polarization…democrats and republicans disliking each other...has been getting worse, much worse. But what if that belief is actually based on polls measuring the wrong thing? That’s the argument made by Northwestern Political Scientist James Druc…

1
Should Policy Match Voters' Preferences? 42:55

1y ago42:55

42:55

How do we know if our democracy is healthy? For political scientist, the answer often comes down to things we can measure like responsiveness to voter’s wishes. But is that really the right thing to measure? There are two camps in this debate. The empiricists want to focus on what and how we can measure things like the health of our democracy, ofte…

1
Are Too Many Political Appointments Harming Our Bureaucracy? 49:42

1y ago49:42

49:42

When it comes to our federal bureaucracy, there are two schools of thought. One says that an insulated group of career bureaucrats have created a deep state that corrupts the performance of government. The other says that our bureaucracy is dysfunctional because there is too much turnover or positions left vacant. Both rest on an underlying feature…

1
Should Judges Be Elected or Appointed? 49:53

1y ago49:53

49:53

There is a long running debate in political science: do we get better judges by letting the public vote in elections or by giving our leaders the power to appoint them? One side says that judges should be insulated from the influence of politics involved in elections, focusing entirely on the rule of law. The other side says that our judges should …

1
Why Women Are Underrepresented in U.S. Politics 50:18

1y ago50:18

50:18

Despite making up roughly half of the U.S. population, women only make up about one-quarter of representatives and senators. And this trend is not just national—it holds true globally as well. What explains why women are underrepresented in politics? If women are just as likely to win elections as men do, then why are they less likely to run for of…

1
What Makes A Legislator Effective? 44:10

1y ago44:10

44:10

When it comes to passing actual legislation, putting it forward and getting it all the way through the process, it can be difficult to measure exactly which legislators are effective. Not to mention which types of legislators tend to be more effective, moderates or extremists? And does majority-party membership increase effectives? In an innovative…

1
Do Conservatives Sabotage The Administrative State? 52:08

1y ago52:08

52:08

When we talk about the interpretation and ultimately implementation of policy we’re not talking about Congress so much as the Administrative State. But what happens when those who work in those agencies decide through their positions to not only sabotage a policy they’re meant to carry out, but perhaps the whole agency? In a recent paper titled “Ad…

1
Who Gets Heard On Redistribution, The Rich Or Poor? 49:12

1+ y ago49:12

49:12

When we talk about policy choices around redistribution there is an assumption so obvious that most people never question it. That politicians are more responsive to the desires of the rich, and that policy preferences of the poor don’t hold as much sway. But what if that assumption was wrong? In a recent paper by Boston University Economist Raymon…

1
Can We Believe Political Surveys? 46:06

1+ y ago46:06

46:06

Hello listeners! Our team took some end of the year time off, but we know your holiday travel wouldn’t be complete without some in-depth political science research. So, we’re release some episodes we think are going to be very relevant as we move into an election year. And thanks to everyone who listened to our podcast this year. We don’t make mone…

1
Should It Be Illegal Not To Vote? 36:47

1+ y ago36:47

36:47

Hello listeners! Our team took some end of the year time off, but we know your holiday travel wouldn’t be complete without some in-depth political science research. So, we’re release some episodes we think are going to be very relevant as we move into an election year. And thanks to everyone who listened to our podcast this year. We don’t make mone…

1
Is There A "Spiral of Silence" On Campus And In Our Politics? 48:10

1+ y ago48:10

48:10

The recent crisis in the Israel and Palestine conflict has added fuel to the already heated debate over free speech in our politics and on college campuses. Does the scientific literature having anything to tell us about the health of public discourse in these domains? A recent paper by Harvard Ph.D. candidate Yihong Huang titled “Breaking the Spir…

1
The Bargaining Strategies of Extremists 50:04

1+ y ago50:04

50:04

There is a political puzzle that has become prominent in the last few decades, especially with the recent turmoil over the Republican led Speaker of the House: how do a small group of extremists manage to get their way despite being a minority of members? In a recent paper, “Organizing at the Extreme: Hardline Strategy and Institutional Design” Uni…

1
Is Gridlock Causing Polarization? 49:49

1+ y ago49:49

49:49

We often say on this podcast that the American electorate is not polarized but the elites are, and that this polarization causes policy gridlock. But what if it’s the other way around? Is it possible that gridlock in government is actually causing polarization and a turn toward extremist candidates? That’s the assertion of a paper called “From Grid…

1
Partisan Identities vs Anti-Establishment Orientations 56:44

1+ y ago56:44

56:44

When political commentators talk about polarization, they often mean a partisan ideological divide: the left vs the right, republicans vs democrats, progressives vs conservatives. But what if there is a different dichotomy driving our political disagreements that is orthogonal to ideological differences? That’s what University of Miami political sc…

1
LIVE: Does Money Distort Our Politics? 48:21

1+ y ago48:21

48:21

If there is one thing the right and left seem to agree on it’s that money distorts our politics. It allows the rich to shape policy, choose who gets elected, and escape consequences. But what if this common belief isn’t as true as you think? On our second live episode, we look back to famous paper in the political science literature, “Why Is There …

1
Presidential Power, Parties, And The Rise Of The Administrative State 46:52

1+ y ago46:52

46:52

One of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign promises is to upend the modern civil service through an executive order called “Schedule F”. Democrats and Republicans have been fighting over this administrative state since its conception, but why is this area of government so divisive and what power does it really hold? The history of the civil services’ orig…

1
Does Social Media Polarize Our Politics? 59:01

1+ y ago59:01

59:01

It’s one of the most common refrains in political discourse today: social media is the source of polarization. It’s a difficult proposition to empirically study because companies like Meta and X don’t share their data publicly. Until now. In a landmark series of papers, three in Science and one in Nature, Princeton political scientists Andy Guess a…

1
Is Partisan Gerrymandering As Bad As You Think? 55:42

1+ y ago55:42

55:42

There is no political topic that can get people’s blood boiling quite like partisan gerrymandering. Many even go so far as to call it an afront to our democracy. But what do we know about how effective it is and what the data shows about its outcomes? In a new paper, “Widespread Partisan Gerrymandering Mostly Cancels Nationally, But Reduces Elector…

1
Does Ousting Incumbents Improve The Economy? 51:54

1+ y ago51:54

51:54

The assumption in political science has always been that electing challengers can lead to a downturn in performance. It takes time to do all the hiring involved in establishing a new government, and there is always a learning curve about processes and procedures. But a surprising new paper shows the opposite might be true. In “Electoral Turnovers”,…

1
Do Partisans Really Believe Different Facts? 48:19

1+ y ago48:19

48:19

The common refrain in political coverage today says that each side of the aisle is living in an information bubble. There is a partisan knowledge gap between the facts Democrats know and the facts Republicans know. May believe this gap could be the downfall of our democracy. But what if that gap isn’t as large as we think? In a new paper by indepen…

1
Is Voter Rationality A Test Of A Health Democracy? 48:07

2y ago48:07

48:07

There’s a long tradition in political science of using voter rationality to test the health of our democracy. But could this myopia be misguided? Are there any situations where irrational and uninformed voters could actually generate a healthier democracy? We’re taking a short summer break to catch up on some incredible episodes we have in the work…

1
When Fox Viewers Watch CNN Instead 49:48

2y ago49:48

49:48

Partisan misinformation. Many people think it comes from the news people watch. When it comes to cable news, Fox and CNN have pretty partisan viewers. So, what would happen if Fox viewers tuned into CNN for a month? Would they suddenly adopt different views more aligned with CNN? We’re taking a short summer break to catch up on some incredible epis…

1
Do White Americans Favor White Politicians? 47:55

2y ago47:55

47:55

As the Supreme Court debates whether to end affirmative action, concerns about the power of implicit racial bias to shape who gets ahead in America are as salient as ever. But what do we know about the extent and power of this racism to drive voting decisions? Is there a scientific way to measure it? In a new paper “Disfavor or Favor? Assessing the…

1
Do Stimulus Checks Buy Votes? 46:50

2y ago46:50

46:50

We’ve become deeply familiar with stimulus checks in the last few years, but what isn’t clear is what affect these transfers may have on elections. Could stimulus checks be enough for citizens to change their votes to the party handing out the money and if so, is this a way for politicians to buy votes? Northwestern Professor of economics Silvia Va…

1
Can You Judge A Politician By Their Looks? 43:20

2y ago43:20

43:20

We all know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but if we’re being honest we all do it on occasion anyway. Could it be that we also elect our politicians just based on how they look? Of course, there’s the old idea of looking “presidential”, but how much power does that really have to sway an election? A famous paper by University of …

1
Can Citizen Appeals Change Government Action? 43:51

2y ago43:51

43:51

When citizens directly appeal to their government, are their concerns ignored or taken seriously? It’s an important question for understanding norms around accountability, especially in authoritarian regimes. To find some answers, University of Chicago Professor of Public Policy Shaoda Wang helped develop a clever field experiment evaluating how Ch…

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