FiveThirtyEight Politics - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I’m enjoying this podcast much more with new host and guests. I though previous group were better writers than podcasters ie Claire Malone. I felt like she failed to contribute analytical commentary, just dished out facts. Stats are being presented in a much less dry academic way and used to reinforce guests’ arguments/opinions. Overall massive improvement.

Yours is a hugely influential podcast and you are failing voters by ignoring Trump. Yes
you talk about his economic policies,
etc. You treat Trump as a normal politician. And you are not talking about his threats to America: to deport 11 million undocumented migrants and that he has “every right” to interfere in the election, which should be front page news and is not. Coupled with broad presidential immunity these are no longer empty threats. Trump is not a normal politician. The job of the press is to bring these issues to light, not accommodate them.

Smart analysis of actual data with charming hosts who have good chemistry

This podcast used to offer analysis and predictions that added color to the news. Now the host and commentators offer up “well we’re not sure how this could affect the results” as the answer to every question they’re asked. If you’re so scared of being wrong, don’t get into the polling and punditry business! If I wanted to listen to people talk about how they’re unsure of what could happen, I’d just have a chat with my friends. You guys are supposed to be experts! Like please take a position. Never have I seen a group of people demonstrate so boldly why their own jobs shouldn’t exist.

As an avid political junky (and podcast listener) I’ve really tried with this show but it’s just not great. Galen frequently makes seeming off hand generalizations that are not supported by evidence. For context, here’s an example from todays episode (and I’m paraphrasing here) “the Dems initially hated Trumps tariffs and then decided to keep them”. Zero specificity, no context to legislative challenges and fails to mention the predicted economic impact of his proposed tarifs. This kind of behavior isn’t surprising for most political hacks but as this show purports to be evidence-based (in a rather self congratulating way) it’s just extra irritating.

I listened to the debate episode and I didn’t realize this was Fox News 2.0.

The critique was over Harris not bringing up policy when she clearly articulated policies while also addressing blatant lies during the debate.

There was virtually no critique of Trump who told lies, rambled on incoherently, and frankly made things up as he glared at the screen.

There are no journalists on this podcasts, only pundits that live in fear of offending the right of center.