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Political Reality

by Political Reality

Our daily lives seem increasingly overwhelmed by polarization, misinformation, and dubious culture wars, while we face countless serious problems that require thoughtful and evidence-based solutions. To move forward, we need a shared reality of facts and reason with an equally shared dedication to democracy and fairness. The Political Reality podcast is here to fill that void – diving into how politics and governments work, how to make them work better, how to navigate the dizzying world of political information, and how to better understand and approach the “other side”. We can find a shared political reality if we are willing.

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Episodes

  1. The most important election of our lives (until the next one, and the next one and the next) | S02E09 | Political Reality

  2. PREVIEW: What Americans can learn from Australians about politics with Chas Licciardello | S02E08

    https://www.patreon.com/politicalreality/posts/what-americans-171733279

  3. PR ABROAD: Australian Political Primer + Panda Diplomacy | S02E07 | Political Reality

    https://www.patreon.com/c/politicalreality

  4. PREVIEW: WAR: why don't we stop having them? | S02E06 | Political Reality

    FULL EPISODE https://www.patreon.com/politicalreality/posts/war-why-dont-we-170386581 1. ⚔️ Sun Tzu (circa 500 BCE), The Art of Warhttps://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html 2. 🏛️ Thucydides (circa 400 BCE), History of the Peloponnesian War (brief overview...

  5. How climate change got politicized | S02E05 | Political Reality

  6. PREVIEW: Who has more diversity of thought: Democrats or Republicans? (Sorry Independents) | S02E04 | Political Reality

    FULL EPISODE 1. 🧠 Dias et al. (2025), “American partisans vastly under-estimate the diversity of other partisans’ policy...

  7. Are Americans getting less religious? w/ Dr. Melissa Deckman | S02E03 | Political Reality

    **1. ⛪ Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI):** https://prri.org/ --- **2. 👩‍🏫 More on Dr. Melissa Deckman:** https://www.melissadeckman.com/ --- **3. 📊 2025 PRRI Census on American Religion** https://prri.org/spotlight/2025-prri-census-of-american-religion/ --- **4. 🗺️ Mapping abortion...

  8. PREVIEW: Why haven't we had a woman president? | S02E02 | Political Reality

    1. 📊 Burns et al. (2025), What’s happened to the gender gap in political activity? Social structure, politics, and political participation in the United...

  9. What good is the electoral college anyway? | S02E01 | Political Reality

    ## Show Notes for Electoral College Ep. ### 🏛️ History & background 1. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Great_Compromise.htm 2. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/connecticut-compromise-great-compromise 3....

  10. What We Hope You Learned | S01E24 | Political Reality

    Thank you for watching/listening to this season. We hope you find the show informative and will join us in Season 2

  11. Season 1 Recap - What We Learned | S01E23 | Political Reality

    Thanks for joining on this new endeavor.

  12. How Does Democracy Score | S01E22 | Political Reality

  13. PREVIEW: Being in Congress | S01E21 | Political Reality

    Full Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/being-in-s01e21-159335999 Thanks to Derek Kilmer for joining us!

  14. How to Talk Politics with Prof. Lindsey Cormack | Political Reality | S01E20

    Prof. Cormack’s excellent book, How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It): https://howtoraiseacitizen.com/ Her DC Inbox searchable database of e-newsletters from members of Congress (well worth exploring): https://www.dcinbox.com/ More of her research and writing:...

  15. PREVIEW: European Affective Polarization | S01E19 | Political Reality

    🌍 Primary studies discussed in the episode: 1. 📄 Wagner, Markus (2024), “Affective polarization in Europe,” European Political Science Reviewhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-political-science-review/article/affective-polarization-in-europe/36BDBF804365FE0B350E610E9E7C714E 2. 📄...

  16. Damage to Science Under Trump | S01E18 | Political Reality

    https://www.npr.org/2025/12/22/nx-s1-5642965/what-cuts-to-research-under-trump-have-meant-for-science-in-2025⁠ ⁠https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html⁠ ⁠https://www.science.org/content/article/how-trump-administration-dismantling-science-u-s⁠...

  17. PREVIEW: Politicization of Science | S01E17 | Political Reality

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/politicization-156907450

  18. What would it take to solve homelessness in America? with Andrew Heaton! | S01E16 | Political Reality

    1. 🎙️ Check out Andrew Heaton’s podcast and Substack, The Political Orphanagehttps://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com 2. ▶️ You can also find his podcast and other videos on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@AndrewHeatonTPO 3. 📚 Here’s one of his many books: Tribalism is...

  19. PREVIEW: Urban Rural Bias | S01E15 | Political Reality

    Full Episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/155715368 1. 📚 Katherine J. Cramer, The Politics of Resentmenthttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo22879533.html 📝 a. Non-paywalled, non-scientific, but nevertheless helpful and short(!) student summary of a talk by Kathy about this...

  20. Alliances with Prof Paul Poast | S01E14 | Political Reality

    1. 📄 Downs et al. (2009), “Is the good news about compliance good news about cooperation?”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/is-the-good-news-about-compliance-good-news-about-cooperation/636DE333F8E1EC944825DDBFD81BE294 2. 📄 Von Stein (2005), “Do...

  21. PREVIEW: What does it take to change a mind | Political Reality | S01E13

    1. 🚪 Broockman and Kalla, “Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing” (the excellent paper that’s a great model for field experiments on this topic)https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad9713 🧠 a. In general, Joshua Kalla and David Broockman’s work…

    more

  22. The SAVE act, Voter ID laws, and turnout in America | Political Reality | S01E12

    https://politicalrealitypodcast.com Show Notes for Voter ID Ep. 📄 Riker and Ordeshook, “A Theory of the Calculus of Voting” (paper where the key equation came from):https://www.jstor.org/stable/1953324 ⚡ World’s briefest summary of the...

  23. PREVIEW: Gerrymandering: Mutually Artificial Democracy | Political Reality | S01E11

    Show Notes Coming Soon

  24. Cutting through the fog of war in Iran | Political Reality | S01E10

    📰 Reporting on extent to which 2025 US strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckglxwp5x03o ⚛️ Details about Iran’s uranium enriched to 60%: https://www.armscontrol.org/issue-briefs/2026-03/us-war-iran-new-and-lingering-nuclear-risks 📄 March 2026...

  25. PREVIEW: Which came first? The Media or The Message | Media Divides | S01E09

    Full info on https://www.patreon.com/posts/152180612

  26. How Parties Learn... if at all with Prof. Seth Masket | Political Reality | S01E08

    More about Seth & his work: https://www.sethmasket.com Seth’s book Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020 Preview of Seth’s new book (coming summer 2026): The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders Subscribe to his (excellent) Substack, Tusk Follow…

    more

  27. PREVIEW: Can we vote our way out of this? | Voting Systems | S01E07 | Political Reality

    Full Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/can-we-vote-our-151099132 https://patreon.com/politicalreality Further Reading & Resources on Voting Theory 📘 1. Kenneth Arrow's amazing 1951 book, Social Choice and Individual Values:...

  28. Fascism comes to America, it is wrapped in the flag w/ Prof. Tom Pepinsky | S01E06

    https://politicalrealitypodcast.com Follow Tom: Tom Pepinsky’s website with links to his research & books: https://tompepinsky.com Tom’s blog: https://tompepinsky.com/blog His substack: https://tompepinsky.substack.com/ Selected books and peer-reviewed works by Tom relevant to this episode…

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  29. PREVIEW: Is Polarization actually a problem? | Political Reality | S01E05

    Full Audio episode available on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-polarization-149962215 Full Video episode available on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/149974348 Many of the empirical trends mentioned come from the (still a favorite!) American National Election Studies dataset…

    more

  30. America is a nation of immigration | Political Reality | S01E04

    The graph on total immigration numbers vs. percentage of the US population is from the Migration Policy Institute. Evidence that the percentage of immigrants in the US peaked recently, but is in the ballpark of an earlier wave is from Pew Research. (n.b. I may have said in the episode that this…

    more

  31. Misinformation is bad, but not for the reasons most of us think with Prof. Joshua A. Tucker | Political Reality | S01E03

    https://politicalrealitypodcast.com How do we quantify misinformation? Thank you to Prof. Joshua A. Tucker for joining us on this episode about Misinformation.

  32. How Democratic is your Democracy? | Political Reality | S01E02

    https://politicalrealitypodcast.com How do you measure democracy? Are these standards reasonable, onerous, empirical, propagandistic, unscientific or quantifiable?

  33. We Don't Agree...Now What? S01E01

    Our daily lives seem increasingly overwhelmed by polarization, misinformation and dubious culture wars while we face countless serious problems that require thoughtful and evidence-based solutions. To move forward we need a shared reality of facts and reason with an equally shared dedication to...

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Our daily lives seem increasingly overwhelmed by polarization, misinformation, and dubious culture wars, while we face countless serious problems that require thoughtful and evidence-based solutions. To move forward, we need a shared reality of facts and reason with an equally shared dedication to democracy and fairness. The Political Reality podcast is here to fill that void – diving into how politics and governments work, how to make them work better, how to navigate the dizzying world of political information, and how to better understand and approach the “other side”. We can find a shared political reality if we are willing.

HOSTED BY

Political Reality

Produced by Jay Novella

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Political Reality have?

Political Reality currently has 33 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Political Reality about?

Our daily lives seem increasingly overwhelmed by polarization, misinformation, and dubious culture wars, while we face countless serious problems that require thoughtful and evidence-based solutions. To move forward, we need a shared reality of facts and reason with an equally shared dedication to...

How often does Political Reality release new episodes?

Political Reality has 33 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Political Reality?

You can listen to Political Reality on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Political Reality?

Political Reality is created and hosted by Political Reality.
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