Political Reality

Political Reality
  • 4.8 (111)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

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.

  1. 1d ago ·  Bonus

    PREVIEW: WAR: why don't we stop having them?

    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 here)https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htmhttps://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/thucydides 3. 🌐 Morgenthau (1949), Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (overview here)http://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/04%20Conflict%20with%20States%20as%20Unitary%20Actors/Morgenthau%20-%20Politics%20among%20nations%20(selected%20chapters).pdfhttps://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/morgenthau-advances-realist-school-power-politics 4. 🎓 By the way, many of these classic texts are currently available as PDFs on Branislav Sanchez’s course page for an international relations course he teaches at UCSD. Happy reading, and thanks, Prof. Sanchez for making these available! The syllabus on this page also offers a fantastic rundown of many of the themes we covered in this episode (plus many more, and deeper divers – enjoy!).https://polisci.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/faculty-directory/currently-active-faculty/slantchev-profile.htmlhttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/ 5. 📘 Waltz (1959), Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysishttps://pages.ucsd.edu/~bslantchev/courses/ps240/02%20Levels%20of%20Analysis%20and%20Strategic%20Choice/Waltz%20-%20Man,%20The%20State,%20and%20War.pdf 6. ♟️ Schelling (1960), The Strategy of Conflicthttps://www.sackett.net/Strategy-of-Conflict.pdf 7. 💥 Blainey (1973), The Causes of Warhttps://archive.org/details/causesofwar0000blai/page/n5/mode/2up 8. 🔗 Keohane & Nye (1977), Power and Interdependencehttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/05%20Cooperation%20with%20States%20as%20Unitary%20Actors/Keohane%20&%20Nye%20-%20Power%20and%20interdependence%20%5BCh%201-3%5D.pdf 9. 🌎 Waltz (1979), Theory of International Politicshttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/03%20Anarchy,%20Hierarchy,%20and%20Sovereignty/Waltz%20-%20Theory%20of%20International%20Politics%20(Ch%205-8).pdf 10. 🤝 Keohane (1984), After Hegemonyhttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/05%20Cooperation%20with%20States%20as%20Unitary%20Actors/Keohane%20-%20After%20Hegemony%20%5BCh%204-6%5D.pdf 11. 🔄 Axelrod (1984), The Evolution of Cooperationhttps://bert.stuy.edu/pbrooks/spring2015/materials/HumanReasoning-2/Axelrod_Robert_The_Evolution_of_Cooperation.pdf 12. 🗳️ Fearon (1994), “Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes”https://web.stanford.edu/group/fearon-research/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Domestic-Political-Audiences-and-the-Escalation-of-International-Disputes.pdf 13. ⚖️ Fearon (1995), “Rationalist Explanations for War”https://web.stanford.edu/group/fearon-research/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rationalist-Explanations-for-War.pdf 14. 🕊️ B. Bueno de Mesquita et al. (1999), “An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace”https://www.jstor.org/stable/2586113 15. 🌍 Mearsheimer (2001), The Tragedy of Great Power Politicshttps://wwnorton.com/books/9780393349276 16. 📜 Fortna (2003), “Scraps of Paper? Agreements and the Durability of Peace”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/scraps-of-paper-agreements-and-the-durability-of-peace/70A924CC6B4785C30BADF415244FFA1F 17. 🏢 Koremenos et al. (2003), “The Rational Design of International Institutions”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/rational-design-of-international-institutions/29B784E99033C7B3FC0564B96A64FE21 18. 🧩 Ruggie (2005), “What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge.”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/what-makes-the-world-hang-together-neoutilitarianism-and-the-social-constructivist-challenge/0160858E3E6D4D6468C926BCD6654FE9 19. 🔎 E. Bueno de Mesquita (2005), “The Quality of Terror”https://www.jstor.org/stable/3647729 20. 🧠 Wendt (2009), “Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/anarchy-is-what-states-make-of-it-the-social-construction-of-power-politics/B03BC7C9AAC5211B6DC319C077C1A854 21. 🤝 Walter (2009), “Bargaining Failures and Civil War”https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.101405.135301 22. ❓ Ramsay (2017), “Information, Uncertainty, and War”https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051215-022729 23. 📚 Chenoweth et al. (eds.) (2019), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorismhttps://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28267 24. 🤖 Murphy, et al. (2024), “The Promise of Machine Learning in Violent Conflict Forecasting”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/data-and-policy/article/promise-of-machine-learning-in-violent-conflict-forecasting/40D559ADA18FF7308915B08956B4E8F3 25. 📊 Some datasets we mentioned: Correlates of War, Uppsala conflict data program, Fragile states index Correlates of War:https://correlatesofwar.org/ Uppsala conflict data program:https://ucdp.uu.se/ Fragile states index:https://fragilestatesindex.org/

  2. Sep 16

    How climate change got politicized

    Political Reality

  3. Season 2, Episode 4 Trailer

    Who has more diversity of thought: Democrats or Republicans? (Sorry Independents)

    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 (Scott E. Page was my Ph.D. advisor so bias alert):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_E._Page     📘 1. Page (2007; 2025 second edition), The difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies     📗 2. Page (2019), The diversity bonus: How great teams pay off in the knowledge economy     📄 3. Page & Hong (2004), “Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers”    https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0403723101 3. 📊 Democrats tend to be more diverse along many (not all) standard demographic/identity dimensions: Pew researchhttps://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/the-changing-demographic-composition-of-voters-and-party-coalitions/ 4. 🎓 Republicans tend to be more diverse along education (depending on how you measure it!): More Pewhttps://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-race-ethnicity-and-education/ 5. 📰 Older work on diversity of Democrat vs. Republican news consumption: Pew again!https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/ 6. 📱 More recent shifts in news consumption: rise of online, proliferation on the right     🌐 Rise of online:    https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/23818/2025-10-28/shifts-political-news-consumption.html     ➡️ Proliferation on the right:    https://www.mediamatters.org/google/right-dominates-online-media-ecosystem-seeping-sports-comedy-and-other-supposedly 7. 📲 Chang et al. (2025), “Liberals and conservatives share information differently on social media”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40697192/ 8. 🕸️ Lüders et al. (2023), “Attitude networks as intergroup realities: Using network-modeling to research attitude-identity relationships in polarized political contexts.”https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12665 9. 📊 American National Election Studies (ANES) data on:     ⚕️ 1. Abortion    https://electionstudies.org/data-tools/anes-guide/anes-guide.html?chart=abortion_by_law     🌎 2. Immigration    https://electionstudies.org/data-tools/anes-guide/anes-guide.html?chart=immigrants_should_be_decreased_increased     🔎 3. Guns    https://electionstudies.org/data-tools/anes-guide/anes-guide.html?chart=gun_purchase_control 10. 🤔 Other background on ways we misunderstand each other:     📄 1. Ahler (2014), “Self-fulfilling misperceptions of polarization”    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0022381614000085     📄 2. Enders & Armaly (2018), “The differential effects of actual and perceived polarization.”    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-018-9476-2     📄 3. Ahler & Sood (2018), “The parties in our heads: Misperceptions about party composition and their consequences.”    https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:605549/datastream/PDF/view     📝 4. Garton et al. (working paper; not peer-reviewed yet, but just to explore some of the latest/current/ongoing research), “Partisans overestimate their side’s intolerance.”    https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7579935/v1

  4. Sep 2

    Are Americans getting less religious? w/ Dr. Melissa Deckman

    **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 views across the 50 states: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas** https://prri.org/research/mapping-abortion-views-across-the-50-states-insights-from-prris-2025-american-values-atlas/ --- **5. ✝️ Collection of PRRI’s research on Christian Nationalism** https://prri.org/prri-research/prri-issues/christian-nationalism/ --- **6. 📚 Melissa’s most recent book: *The politics of Gen Z: How the youngest voters will shape our democracy*** https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-politics-of-gen-z/9780231560085/ --- **7. 🔬 More of Melissa’s (many!) books and (prolific!) papers and other research here** https://www.melissadeckman.com/research --- **8. 📱 Follow/watch/read/learn more from PRRI on their:**     **▶️ 1. YouTube**     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1GzzUoUV9zsSB-FEOJDryg     **📸 2. Instagram**     https://www.instagram.com/prripoll/     **💼 3. LinkedIn**     https://www.linkedin.com/company/public-religion-research-institute/     **📰 4. Substack**     https://prri.substack.com --- **9. 💝 And you can always donate to their nonprofit work if you feel so moved!** https://prri.org/donate/

  5. Aug 27 ·  Bonus

    PREVIEW: Why haven't we had a woman president?

    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 gender gap in political participation? How might we explain it?”https://academic.oup.com/book/5111/chapter-abstract/147698891?redirectedFrom=fulltext 3. 📚 Burns et al. (2009), The private roots of public action: Gender, equality, and political participationhttps://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674029088/html 4. 🗳️ Lawless & Fox (2019), “A Trump effect? Women and the 2018 midterm elections”https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/for-2018-0038/html 5. 🎯 Fox & Lawless (2023), “The invincible gender gap in political ambition”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/invincible-gender-gap-in-political-ambition/547D8E289D82299856644844269E2FC9 6. 📈 Fox & Lawless (2022), “The gender gap in political ambition: Everything you need to know in ten charts” (not a peer-reviewed research paper; rather, is a helpful PDF with some charts of broad trends)https://thelawmakers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Gender-Gap-in-Political-Ambitions_Report_Final-Jen-Lawless-2022-3-1.pdf 7. ⚖️ Hayes & Lawless (2021), “The contingent effects of sexism in primary elections”https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10659129211043134 8. 🧠 Dolan & Lawless (2021), “The importance of political science for understanding the developmental roots of gender gaps in politics”https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1047840X.2021.1930762 9. 📝 Dolan & Lawless (working paper), “Gender bias in primary elections? Survey says no” (note this is a working paper, which means it is still in progress and has not been peer reviewed)https://www.dannyhayes.org/uploads/6/9/8/5/69858539/dolan_and_lawless_ncapsa_paper.pdf 10. 🏛️ Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) graph of percentage of members of Congress who are women (plus lots of other data and historical information)https://cawp.rutgers.edu/data/levels-office/congress#Current 11. 👥 Overview of voter attitudes towards women in elections (also from CAWP)https://cawp.rutgers.edu/research-analysis/gender-and-politics-research-hub/research-Inventory/voter-attitudes-toward-women-politics 12. 🔬 In general two people to follow who are leading researchers in this space are:     👩‍🏫 1. Nancy Burns (bias alert! She was my professor for a research methods course in graduate school!)     https://lsa.umich.edu/polisci/people/faculty/nburns.html     🎓 2. Jennifer Lawless     https://www.jenlawless.com/

  6. Aug 19

    What good is the electoral college anyway?

    ## 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-convention 5. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/common/generic/Connecticut_Compromise_Unveiling.htm 6. http://www.federalism.org/encyclopedia/no-topic/connecticut-compromise/ 7. https://www.jud.ct.gov/lawlib/history/sherman.htm 8. https://connecticuthistory.org/the-connecticut-compromise/ ### ✅ Key arguments for the electoral college: 🛡️ **Prevents “tyranny of the majority”** 10. https://www.thoughtco.com/electoral-college-pros-and-cons-4686409 11. https://www.kqed.org/w/youdecide/election2008/electoral_college/02.html 12. https://www.arlnow.com/2026/02/12/bill-to-support-popular-vote-in-presidential-elections-passes-virginia-senate/ 13. https://www.sightline.org/2020/11/24/afraid-cities-would-rule-with-a-national-popular-vote-dont-be/ 🏘️ **Protects the voice of small states** 14. https://www.thepolicycircle.org/understanding-the-electoral-college/ 15. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-11-22/electoral-college-popular-vote-founders-james-madison-great-compromise 16. https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/the-importance-of-the-electoral-college/ 17. https://theconversation.com/the-electoral-college-system-isnt-one-person-one-vote-150342 🇺🇸 **Preserves federalism** 18. https://riponsociety.org/article/why-the-electoral-college-should-be-preserved/ 🏆 **Creates decisive mandates** 19. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/american-civics-parent/american-civics/v/electoral-college 20. https://www.heritage.org/the-essential-electoral-college/the-benefits 🔎 **Localizes recounts** 21. https://legislature.maine.gov/testimony/resources/VLA20210511Ross132651777911040076.pdf 22. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-005-3210-4 23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election 24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election ### ❌ Key arguments against the electoral college: 🗳️ **Conflict with popular vote** 25. https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/380960-understanding-the-us-electoral-college-who-what-why-when-and-how-we-elect-our-presidents 26. https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/virginia/virginia-bill-electoral-college-votes-national-popular-vote/291-fb82926e-ca20-4441-927b-97c491c4cdc1?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_13News_Now_-_WVEC 27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote 🎯 **Hyper-focus on swing states** 28. https://www.polyas.com/election-glossary/electoral-college 29. https://foley.wsu.edu/research/ask-the-foley-institute/afi-electoral-college/ 30. https://www.albert.io/blog/electoral-college-ap-us-government-crash-course/ ⚖️ **Unequal vote weight** 31. https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html 32. https://www.monmouth.edu/magazine/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-about-the-electoral-college/ 33. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/nation-world/electoral-college-how-it-works-history/507-90d314dd-1e0d-4d85-b336-d2612dd1ef38 📊 **Winner-take-all distortion** 34. https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/the-electoral-college-and-our-broken-presidential-election-system/ 35. https://www.lwvme.org/NPVmyths 36. https://www.uchscommander.com/opinions/2025/01/31/electoral-college-disrupts-democracy/ 37. https://indianacitizen.org/kennedy-commentary-the-electoral-college/ 📉 **Depresses local turnout** 38. https://virginiahistory.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/7.4-Activity-3-Persuasive Writing.pdf 39. https://medium.com/@dukepolis/your-vote-does-not-count-why-the-electoral-college-erodes-the-foundations-of-democracy-3bc7632d3283 ### 🔧 Possible reforms 40. https://www.insidepolitics.org/brookingsreports/AbolishElectoralCollege.pdf 41. https://news.gallup.com/poll/2323/Americans-Historically-Favored-Changing-Way-Presidents-Elected.aspx 42. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact#cite_note-FOOTNOTENealeNolan20191-104 43. https://fairvote.org/archives/the_electoral_college-past_attempts_at_reform/ 44. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-to-get-rid-of-the-electoral-college/ 45. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/different-ways-reforming-electoral-college-past-and-present 46. https://effectivegov.uchicago.edu/primers/the-electoral-college

  7. Jun 17

    What We Hope You Learned

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

  8. Jun 11

    Season 1 Recap - What We Learned

    Thanks for joining on this new endeavor.

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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 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.

Information

  • Creator
    Political Reality
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Political Reality
  • Show Website
    Political Reality

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