The Digital Fireside: Podcasting and the Future of Political Persuasion

Political campaigns are slipping out of the studio and into the podcast feed. As trust in traditional media wanes, candidates from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris are embracing long-form conversations that let them sound relaxed, relatable, and largely unchallenged—sidestepping the fact-checking and friction of conventional interviews. In this episode, we explore why podcasts have become the new campaign trail, how their intimate, self-selecting audiences reshape political persuasion, and what this shift means for accountability in democracies from the United States to Europe. The rise of these digital fireside chats suggests a lasting change in political communication—one where connection may matter more than scrutiny.https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/10/31/how-podcasts-came-to-rule-americas-campaign-conversation