Interest / Appropriateness of a few political podcasts...

July 22, 2016 9:56 AM

Would there be interest in adding discussions for a few political podcasts? With the size of the election threads on the blue quickly reaching into the thousands of comments, I thought maybe this might be a good way to have a more focused conversation.

I'm not sure if there's already been a memorandum preventing these kinds of political podcasts into Fanfare, but there are number of things that have been posted in that area already. Unfortunately the volume of comments on podcast episodes as a whole has been pretty low so I'm interested to know if anyone is listening to anything in particular that you deem worthy of discussion.

I don't think every episode from every one of these would be an appropriate post, but some podcasts in particular that I'd look to add would be:

The Weeds from Vox
Everyone is always warning you not to get lost in the weeds. But not Vox's Ezra Klein, Sarah Kliff, and Matthew Yglesias. They love the weeds. That's where all the policy is. This is the podcast for people who follow politics because they love thinking about health care, economics, and zoning. It is not podcast for people who like hearing talk about gaffes.

FiveThirtyEight Elections from FiveThirtyEight / ESPN
Nate Silver and the FiveThirtyEight team cover the 2016 election, tracking the issues and "game-changers" every week.
Note: they had a series of episodes called Kitchen Table Politics that have a narrower focus - their general weekly updates might not be conducive to a focused discussion.

One the Media from WNYC
Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of "making media," especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us.

posted by the_querulous_night (5 comments total)

I listen to all these, as well as Ken Rudin's Political Junkie, Slate Political Gabfest and KCRW's Left Right and Center, and would love to complain about how wrong, wrong, wrong their opinions are. Er, I mean, discuss them.
posted by dis_integration at 11:36 AM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

I listen to 538 Elections, usually; The Weeds occasionally; Political Gabfest always.

Also: The Gist? Not wholly politics-focused but there is always a current events/politics segment that is consistently intelligent (if at times horribly wrong imo). It's daily too so it might be a bit much.

Slate's Trumpcast? The Rachel Maddow Show podcast? Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick?
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:22 PM on July 22, 2016

now you know all my podcast secrets
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:23 PM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

The... the Jerry Springer Podcast?
posted by books for weapons at 10:53 PM on July 23, 2016

I listen to Political Gabfest, The Weeds, The Ezra Klein Show, On The Media and Five Thirty Eight. Would be most interested in discussing Gabfest as it's the only one I never, ever miss.
posted by triggerfinger at 10:31 AM on July 25, 2016