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.
Episodes
September 16, 2026 • 60 mins
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FULL EPISODE
1. 🧠 Dias et al. (2025), “American partisans vastly under-estimate the diversity of other partisans’ policy attitudes.”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/american-partisans-vastly-underestimate-the-diversity-of-other-partisans-policy-attitudes/CD71B9D75D10CFA0A9A07501E1CCD81A#article
2. 👥 A few corporate-focused diversity of thought resources (Sc...
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September 2, 2026 • 59 mins
**1. ⛪ Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI):**
https://prri.org/
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**2. 👩🏫 More on Dr. Melissa Deckman:**
https://www.melissadeckman.com/
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**3. 📊 2025 PRRI Census on American Religion**
https://prri.org/spotlight/2025-prri-census-of-american-religion/
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**4. 🗺️ Mapping abortion views across the 50 states: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas**
https://prri.org/research/mapping-abortion-views-...
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August 26, 2026 • 10 mins
1. 📊 Burns et al. (2025), What’s happened to the gender gap in political activity? Social structure, politics, and political participation in the United Stateshttps://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/whats-happened-to-the-gender-gap-in-political-activity/1A6EFA30E995F841B8D61D6EDEC0F777?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark
2. 📄 Burns et al. (2018), “What’s happened to the gen...
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August 19, 2026 • 54 mins
## 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. https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/US-Constitution/Connecticut-Compromise
4. https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/4.4-info-brief-compromises-of-the...
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June 17, 2026 • 42 mins
Thank you for watching/listening to this season. We hope you find the show informative and will join us in Season 2
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June 10, 2026 • 54 mins
Thanks for joining on this new endeavor.
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June 3, 2026 • 61 mins
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May 27, 2026 • 10 mins
Full Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/being-in-s01e21-159335999
Thanks to Derek Kilmer for joining us!
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May 20, 2026 • 59 mins
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: https://www.lindseycormack.com/
Follow Prof. Cormack: https://www.instagram.com/howtoraiseacitizen/
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May 13, 2026 • 10 mins
🌍 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. 📄 Boxell et al. (2024), “Cross-country trends in affective polarization,” The Review of Economics and Statisticsht...
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May 6, 2026 • 65 mins
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
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/opinion/doge-hiv-funding.html
https://scienceimpacts.org
https://www.cgdev.org/blog/update-lives-lost-usaid-cuts
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April 29, 2026 • 10 mins
https://www.patreon.com/posts/politicization-156907450
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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 Dumbhttps://www.amazon.com/Tribalism-Dumb-Where-Came-about/dp/B0DJKSZP6J
4. 🎧 Here are some of his Political Orphanage episodes that are about homeles...
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April 15, 2026 • 10 mins
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 work
https://civic.mit.edu/index.html?p=1891.html
2. 📄 Katherine J. Cramer, “Putt...
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April 8, 2026 • 54 mins
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 treaties constrain or screen? Selection bias and treaty compliance”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-p...
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April 1, 2026 • 10 mins
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 (joint and separate) is worth checking out, both on political persuasion and other topics (mo...
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March 25, 2026 • 36 mins
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 above:https://adambrown.info/p/notes/riker_and_ordeshook_a_theory_of_the_calculus_of_voting
📊 Meta-study of papers that built from this earlier work (alas, it’s behind a...
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March 18, 2026 • 10 mins
Show Notes Coming Soon
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March 11, 2026 • 52 mins
📰 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 Congressional report about Iran’s nuclear capabilities: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12665
☢️ Inte...
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