Cross Tabs

Farrah Bostic
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

Our world is governed by numbers — surveys, polling, algorithms, and data. On Cross Tabs, we bring you the stories behind these numbers. This podcast is your introduction to the people, perspectives, and agendas that shape our reality, and call it “public opinion”. We invite experts to discuss pressing issues and walk us through their methods. You’ll hear about the issues that matter from some of the brightest thinkers in policy and politics, tech and business. Join us and you’ll learn about how polling works — or doesn’t work — and how research can be manipulated to advance a political agenda. Discover the history of topics in the news and hear insights on culture and society. And learn what’s really at risk in the race to influence and optimize, well, everything. The show is hosted by Farrah Bostic, founder of The Difference Engine, where she works as a qualitative researcher and strategist working outside The Beltway to understand what drives business leaders, experts, and people like you so we can all make better decisions.

  1. Sep 17

    Cross-Pressured with Baxter Oliphant and Gabe Borelli of the Pew Research Center

    Every few years, Pew stops asking Americans whether they're Republicans or Democrats and instead lets the data decide where the lines actually fall. This year it landed on nine groups — and the most-discussed one is defined less by policy than by style: 53% of the "No Apologies Right" say they like it when politicians they agree with humiliate their opponents. Senior Researcher Baxter Oliphant and Research Associate Gabriel Borelli join Farrah to talk about how you build a typology from scratch, why the 62% of Americans who aren't in the four "anchor" groups are the most interesting people in the data, and why everyone wanting a third party is not the same as everyone wanting the same third party. Also: what a typology genuinely can't tell you, and why that's worth saying out loud. GuestsJ. Baxter Oliphant is a Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center, focusing on U.S. politics and policy — including partisan polarization, trust in government, gun policy, and U.S. foreign policy. https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/baxter-oliphant/ Gabriel Borelli is a Research Associate at the Pew Research Center focusing on U.S. politics and policy. He ran the modeling for the 2026 typology. https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/gabriel-borelli/ Notable quotes"They're the group that really stood out for saying they like it when politicians that they agree with humiliate their opponents. That just wasn't a group that would have popped fifteen years ago." — Baxter Oliphant, on the No Apologies Right"There are laws of physics, but there's not really laws of politics. There's just tendencies." — Baxter OliphantReferenced in this episodeBeyond Red vs. Blue: The 2026 Political Typology — Pew Research Center, June 10, 2026. Take the political typology quiz How political typology groups feel about the midterm elections and Trump How foreign policy values and issues cut across the political typology groups Appendix B: Typology group creation and analysis Appendix C: The history of the political typology — the nine typologies going back to 1987 (1987, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2026). Worth browsing as a set of time capsules.The 2021 political typology — the previous version, with its Stressed Sideliners and Outsider Left groups, referenced by Gabe as a comparison point. Stay in Touch📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  2. Sep 10

    The Weighting Game with Ariel Edwards-Levy

    Before things get heavier this fall, a conversation about the plumbing: CNN Polling and Election Analytics Editor Ariel Edwards-Levy joins Farrah to talk about why survey response rates keep sliding, what fraud and burnout look like from the respondent's side, and a fun experiment Ariel ran called "Why Are You Talking to Me?" — which breaks down, by age, race, and party, the real reasons people bother answering a poll at all. GuestAriel Edwards-Levy is CNN's Polling and Election Analytics Editor, where she covers public opinion research and helps shape how CNN reports on polling. CNN profile: https://www.cnn.com/profiles/ariel-edwards-levyX / Twitter: @aedwardslevy In this episodeWhat actually happens at AAPOR (the annual gathering of, as Ariel puts it, "survey nerds")Why response rates keep falling, and what that forces researchers to do with weightingThe fraud problem in online panels: bots, incentive arbitrage, and people gaming their way onto U.S. panels from outside the country"Fit for purpose" research: why the right sample depends on whether you're trying to measure opinion, predict an outcome, or build a persuasion strategyLow propensity voters, low social control, and why the people least likely to say their voice is heard elsewhere are often the ones most willing to take a political surveySurvey-design experiments that backfired — including one where researchers tried to end a survey with a joke and had to kill the test because it tanked completion ratesAriel's own AAPOR presentation, "Why Are You Talking to Me?" — a 2025 survey experiment asking respondents their real motivation for answering: making their voice heard (43%), the incentive (29%), or just enjoying the questions (22%) — broken down sharply by age, race, and partisanshipWhy "make your voice heard" recruitment messaging pulls in a very different (older, more partisan) respondent than other messagingWhat it takes to get people who don't trust polling, or don't think of themselves as political, to participate anywayHow Ariel thinks about her job as a journalist covering public opinion — presenting what people think without telling readers what to do with itA behind-the-scenes moment from CNN's State of the Union video-response project, and why hearing an actual respondent's voice changes how the data lands Notable quotes"Don't jerk survey respondents around." — Ariel, on what she took away from a wave of survey-design experiments at AAPOR "When there's no incentive to lie, people tend to be lazy and not lie." — Farrah, on why paid respondents tend to answer honestly "I worry for anybody who feels very prepared for an election season — that demonstrates to me a worrying level of confidence." — ArielReferenced in this episodeAAPOR (American Association for Public Opinion Research) annual conferenceVeraSight's AAPOR omnibus (their annual free-question booth at the conference) Coming up on Cross TabsThis one's the calm before a harder run of episodes — next up, we're getting into the midterms, political identity, what people actually want out of policy, and the future of democracy. Stay in Touch📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  3. May 7

    Angrily Not Paying Attention: Polling in the UK with Matthew Price

    Britain has spent a century as a two-party country. That may be over - and this week's local elections may be the strongest signal yet of a big breakup. This week, I talk with Matthew Price, analyst and strategist at Focal Data in London, about what's happening to British politics right now — and what the polls are (and aren't) able to tell us about it. They cover what the 2024 MRP polls got wrong about Labour's vote share, how public polling shapes voter behavior (including the Conservative "stop the supermajority" strategy), the unprecedented rise of five-party competition in a system built for two, and why the modeling tools that defined the last election may not be up to the next one. This episode is a shorter one to provide some background to the elections this week - a follow-up episode on MRP methodology and UK polling institutions is coming soon. Our Guest Matthew Price is a Research Manager in Focaldata's Analytics team. He previously worked as a pollster at Deltapoll, and has contributed political analysis to BBC Radio, Newsnight, and the Channel 4 election night coverage. Matthew holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin. You can follow him on Bluesky at @matthewbprice.bsky.social. Stay in Touch 📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  4. Mar 27

    Governing Drunk: Sleep & Power, with Lindsay Scola

    What happens when the people making decisions on your behalf are running on fumes? In this episode, I talk with Lindsay Scola — former advance person for Barack Obama, Hill staffer, and now sleep health educator — about the always-on culture of American political life, and what it actually costs us. From the Celsius cans visible in every Capitol hallway walk-and-talk, to the pharmacy hand-delivering Alzheimer's medications to sitting members of Congress, to a president who prowls Air Force One checking who's asleep: the evidence that our leaders aren't getting enough rest is hiding in plain sight. Lindsay brings both the insider perspective and the science — and the result is a conversation that reframes sleep not as a personal wellness choice, but as a matter of democratic consequence. About Our GuestLindsay Scola began her career in politics the way a lot of people do: convinced it was a calling. Her first job was on the Hill, working for a congressman. From there, she joined the Obama campaign in 2007 as an advance person — one of the people responsible for building events from scratch ahead of the candidate, managing crowds of up to 75,000 people, then getting on a plane and doing it all over again somewhere new. She went on to work in the Obama administration and in entertainment before a diagnosis at age 35 changed the direction of her work entirely. After 19 years of symptoms being dismissed by doctors, Lindsay was diagnosed with narcolepsy — and spent the years since becoming an expert in what sleep actually does, and what we lose without it. She now works as a sleep health educator, offering one-on-one coaching, corporate talks, and an online course designed to help people understand their own sleep on their own terms. She is also the author of AI for ADHD: A Practical Guide for Starting and Actually Finishing the Things That Matter. 🔗 lindsayscola.com ReferencesOn the caffeine culture of Capitol Hill: The U.S. government runs on Celsius — The Washington Post On the pharmacy that hand-delivers prescriptions to Congress — including Alzheimer's medications: An old-school pharmacy hand-delivers drugs to Congress — Stat News / PBS NewsHourDC pharmacist provides Alzheimer's drugs for members of Congress — Metro US On cognitive decline among senior officials as a national security concern: Pentagon-Funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat — The Intercept On President Trump's sleep habits and their effect on staff: ‘The Superhuman President’ A good-faith attempt to ascertain the truth about Donald Trump’s health — New York MagazineAs Signs of Aging Emerge, Trump Responds With Defiance — The Wall Street JournalInside Trump’s Air Force One: ‘It’s like being held captive’ — CNN.com On the White House Medical Unit's distribution of stimulants and sleep aids: Trump's White House Was 'Awash in Speed' — and Xanax — Rolling StoneWhite House Medical Unit's 'severe and systemic' drug problems detailed — The Washington PostWhite House clinic improperly distributed controlled substances — NBC News Stay in Touch📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  5. Mar 19

    Once You Start Asking Questions... With Kathleen Weldon of The Roper Center

    The Roper Center at Cornell holds the world's oldest social science archive — over 25,000 data sets, nearly 900,000 survey questions, dating all the way back to the 1930s. It's a record not just of politics and elections, but of ordinary life: have you ever spent a night in jail? Would you tell a five-year-old not to lie about seeing a purple dragon? Do you remember the color of your first love's eyes? Kathleen Weldon, Roper's Director of Data and Communications, joins me to talk about what the archive reveals — and what it's missing. We cover a lot of ground - from Cold War surveys that tracked global opinions about American civil rights, to the women who built polling from the ground up but rarely got credit, to the data destroyed to protect respondents from the Nazis, to how pollsters understood the power not only to measure, but to shape public opinion from the very beginning. About Kathleen: Kathleen Weldon is the Director of Data Operations and Communications at the Roper Center. She joined the Roper Center in 2014 as Research Coordinator. Kathleen manages data provider relations, oversees the data curation process, plans archival development, and works closely with the IT development team in building new user tools. A graduate of Wesleyan University with a BA in English, she started her career in public opinion at Harvard University designing surveys with media and foundation partners. The Roper Center can be found here: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu Stay in Touch 📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  6. Feb 19

    "Life Is After You": Talking Gen Z Men with Charlie Sabgir of Young Men Research Project

    In this episode, I sit down with Charlie Sabgir to unpack the "unprecedented gender gap" facing Gen Z. We dive into new research concerning the economic and social behaviors of young men—from the "gamification" of their finances through crypto and sports betting to their surprising nostalgia for unions and traditional stability. The conversation explores why the "manosphere" is winning the narrative war by offering concrete (if sometimes toxic) life advice, and how a positive reframing of masculinity—centered on serving the community—might be the key to re-engaging a generation that feels politically apathetic and economically "screwed." Charlie Sabgir is the Program Director for the Young Men Research Project, a research organization that studies the political and social trends among young men. He also writes for the Young Men Research Initiative Substack. Follow their work and read their research here: https://www.ymrp.org/polling Subscribe to the substack here: https://youngmenresearchinitiative.substack.com Key Topics & Takeaways: • The Crypto Paradox: Why holding crypto and sports betting isn't just for the "basement dweller"—it’s becoming a "middle finger to the system" for employed, high-earning young men who feel traditional wealth-building tools (like 401ks) are too slow. • The Craving for Stability: Unlike the "hustle culture" pitched to Millennials, Gen Z men are showing a strong preference for the stability of unions and apprenticeships over the uncertainty of internships and college debt. • The AI Gender Gap: Men are approaching AI with excitement and frequent use, while young women report significantly higher levels of anxiety regarding the technology. • Redefining "Toughness": Message testing reveals that young men respond much better to masculinity defined as "fighting for your community" and "uplifting those around you" (+21 points) than they do to "anti-woke" grievance rhetoric. • Political Apathy vs. Engagement: Why young men are less likely to vote than women, and why successful campaigns are using "fun" community events (like scavenger hunts or UFC watch parties) to bridge the gap. Stay in Touch 📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  7. Feb 12

    Paid Leave is What Power is For, with Dawn Huckelbridge of Paid Leave for All

    It's likely that Democrats will retake the House this fall. But the most important question for a new majority is this: what will they use the power for? This conversation is part of an ongoing series of interviews and explorations I plan to do this year trying to answer a slightly modified version of that question - what should the power be for? One answer to that question is paid leave for all. In 1993, the Clinton Administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress passed FMLA - the Family and Medical Leave Act, protecting workers with unpaid family leave. Since then, paid leave has become steadily more and more popular, and very nearly passed during the Biden Administration. Our guest this week is Dawn Huckelbridge, the founding director of Paid Leave for All and founder of Paid Leave PAC. With a career spanning gender policy, political organizing, and communications, she has successfully built and led campaigns to advance paid leave and gender equity across the country. We discussed what's at stake, their approach to getting The Family Act passed, what they've learned in their polling about support for paid family leave from across the socioeconomic spectrum, how states are leading, and what the movement is up against. Our Guest Dawn Huckelbridge is the founding director of Paid Leave for All, a position she has held since 2019. With a career spanning gender policy, political organizing, and communications, she has successfully built and led campaigns to advance paid leave and gender equity across the country. Previously, Dawn served as Communications Director for Supermajority during its launch and Senior Director of the Women’s Rights Initiative at American Bridge. During the 2016 election cycle, she served as Coordinated Program Director for Community Outreach Group at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, where she directed a team to execute the organization’s largest coordinated campaigns in battleground states. Dawn has also held senior roles with People For the American Way, the Center for Women Policy Studies, and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and Political Office. She holds a master’s degree in gender and social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from Northwestern University. Her background in political and issue communications includes work with GMMB and various political and public interest projects. Dawn founded the Paid Leave PAC in 2022 and has served on the boards of several organizations, including Emerge Massachusetts, Family Values @ Work Action, and the DC Abortion Fund. Dawn’s expertise and leadership have earned her publications in outlets such as Newsweek, The Hill, The Nation, Glamour, and Marie Claire, and she has appeared on radio and network and cable TV. Further Reading "Americans Widely Support Paid Family and Medical Leave, but Differ Over Specific Policies" via Pew Research, March 2017 "New Poll Finds Strong Small Business Support for Paid Family and Medical Leave Policies" via National Partnership for Women & Families and Lake Research, October 2024 More poll findings here: https://nationalpartnership.org/report/small-businesses-support-national-paid-family-medical-leave-program/ "Creating a Nationwide Paid Leave Program and Bolstering Medicare’s Negotiating Power are Overwhelmingly Popular" via Navigator Research, September 2024 "Dads & Bonding Leave in State Paid Leave Programs", research via Paid Leave for All, June 2025 Stay in Touch 📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

  8. Jan 29

    Talking Politics With People Who Don't Want to, with Kabir Khanna of CBS News

    Cross Tabs End Notes The hardest thing to do in polling it seems is to accurately guess who the voters will be. Pollsters get better and better at weighting samples to more accurately reflect observable characteristics of voters, which is why the forecasts keep getting close to the center of the bullseye. But there are still these harder to observe characteristics that it's almost impossible to model... unless you can figure out what they are. So here's an idea - what if, instead of just throwing up our hands, we found a way to poll people who don't want to be polled? Kabir Khanna of CBS News did just that - and he came on to talk to me all about what they did, and what they learned. About the Guest Kabir Khanna, Ph.D., is Director, Election Analytics & Technical Systems at CBS News. He produces stories on elections, polling, and politics, making sure they are based on best practices and innovations in quantitative social science. He ensures surveys and statistical estimates are representative and accurate, and breaks down results on air. On election nights, he projects races for the network and manages the Data Desk, generating insights into the electorate in real time, as well as estimates of turnout, how ballots are cast, and key voter groups. Stuff We Talked About "The voters Mamdani added to the Democratic coalition in New York: CBS News analysis" "1 year in, Americans call for more inflation focus from Trump, CBS News poll finds" Polling at a Crossroads, by Michael Bailey Stay in Touch 📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content. 📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast 💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social 📍 Produced by The Difference Engine 📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com

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About

Our world is governed by numbers — surveys, polling, algorithms, and data. On Cross Tabs, we bring you the stories behind these numbers. This podcast is your introduction to the people, perspectives, and agendas that shape our reality, and call it “public opinion”. We invite experts to discuss pressing issues and walk us through their methods. You’ll hear about the issues that matter from some of the brightest thinkers in policy and politics, tech and business. Join us and you’ll learn about how polling works — or doesn’t work — and how research can be manipulated to advance a political agenda. Discover the history of topics in the news and hear insights on culture and society. And learn what’s really at risk in the race to influence and optimize, well, everything. The show is hosted by Farrah Bostic, founder of The Difference Engine, where she works as a qualitative researcher and strategist working outside The Beltway to understand what drives business leaders, experts, and people like you so we can all make better decisions.

Information

  • Creator
    Farrah Bostic
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Farrah Bostic
  • Show Website
    Cross Tabs