Political Reality

Are Americans getting less religious? w/ Dr. Melissa Deckman | S02E03 | Political Reality

**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/

PREVIEW: Why haven't we had a woman president? | S02E02 | Political Reality

1. 📊 Burns et al. (2025), What’s happened to the gender gap in political activity? Social structure, politics, and political participation in the United States https://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 participation https://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/

What good is the electoral college anyway? | S02E01 | Political Reality

## 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

What We Hope You Learned | S01E24 | Political Reality

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

Season 1 Recap - What We Learned | S01E23 | Political Reality

Thanks for joining on this new endeavor.

How Does Democracy Score | S01E22 | Political Reality

PREVIEW: Being in Congress | S01E21 | Political Reality

Full Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/being-in-s01e21-159335999 Thanks to Derek Kilmer for joining us!

How to Talk Politics with Prof. Lindsey Cormack | Political Reality | S01E20

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/

PREVIEW: European Affective Polarization | S01E19 | Political Reality

🌍 Primary studies discussed in the episode: 1. 📄 Wagner, Markus (2024), “Affective polarization in Europe,” European Political Science Review https://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 Statistics https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/106/2/557/109262/Cross-Country-Trends-in-Affective-Polarization 3. 📚 Reiljan, Andres (2025), “Affective polarization in Europe,” ch. 8 of the Handbook of Affective Polarization https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781035310609/chapter8.xml 📘 Handbook of Affective Polarization https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781035310609/9781035310609.xml 4. 📄 Iyengar et al. (2012), “Affect, not ideology: A social identity perspective on polarization,” Public Opinion Quarterly https://pcl.sites.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj22066/files/media/file/iyengar-poq-affect-not-ideology.pdf 5. 📄 Iyengar et al. (2019), “The origins and consequences of affective polarization in the United States,” Annual Review of Political Science https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034 6. 📄 Druckman & Levy (2022), “Affective polarization in the American public,” ch. 18 of the Handbook on Politics and Public Opinion https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781800379619/book-part-9781800379619-30.xml 7. 🎙️ And, of course, see our previous episode on this :). https://politicalrealitypodcast.com/videos/is-polarization-actually-a-problem-s01e05-teaser/ Finally, you may be surprised to see that Turkey is included as a European country. We were also surprised! While only 3% of Turkey’s landmass (or 15% of its population) is in Europe (the rest is considered to be in Asia), it is relatively standard practice in global measures to categorize it along with other European countries. For example, see also the latest Economist Intelligence Unit 2025 democracy index report: https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2025/ Or their Wikipedia page if you don’t feel like downloading it!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index Turkey is also a NATO member, member of the Council of Europe, and an EU candidate (though negotiations are currently frozen), among other European memberships. Most importantly, it’s also part of Eurovision ;). All of that said, this is an excellent example of how the “simple” act of classification, never mind quantification, is an enduring challenge in political science! You could certainly imagine a valid case for analyzing, say, aggregate European data both with and without Turkey included (as well as Russia, and some others). 🧠 For a primer/refresher on affective polarization in general, see:🇹🇷 A quick note on Turkey and “Europe”

Damage to Science Under Trump | S01E18 | Political Reality

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

PREVIEW: Politicization of Science | S01E17 | Political Reality

https://www.patreon.com/posts/politicization-156907450

What would it take to solve homelessness in America? with Andrew Heaton! | S01E16 | Political Reality

1. 🎙️ Check out Andrew Heaton’s podcast and Substack, The Political Orphanage https://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com 2. ▶️ You can also find his podcast and other videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@AndrewHeatonTPO 3. 📚 Here’s one of his many books: Tribalism is Dumb https://www.amazon.com/Tribalism-Dumb-Where-Came-about/dp/B0DJKSZP6J 4. 🎧 Here are some of his Political Orphanage episodes that are about homelessness: 🏚️ Homelessness, and our stupid solutions https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/homelessness-and-our-stupid-solutions/id1439837349?i=1000548447580 🦖 How Godzilla beat the housing crisis https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-godzilla-beat-the-housing-crisis/id1439837349?i=1000710268550&l=fr-FR 🏘️ The best tiny house village in America (an interview with Alan Graham, the founder of Community First! Village, an organization we discussed in the episode) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-tiny-house-village-in-america/id1439837349?i=1000549032659 🐶 We’ll watch your dog while you’re in rehab (an interview with Evan Taylor and Cindy Webb, who lead Pause for Paws, one of the organizations we talked about in the episode) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/well-watch-your-dog-while-youre-in-rehab/id1439837349?i=1000685060836 5. 🏡 More information about Community First! Village https://mlf.org/community-first/ 6. 🐾 More information about Pause for Paws https://www.pause4pawsok.org 7. 🌐 Check out all of Andrew Heaton’s goings on: https://mightyheaton.com/ 8. 😂 You can also watch him in comedy videos about politics, like this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1z_xtOmgek

PREVIEW: Urban Rural Bias | S01E15 | Political Reality

Full Episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/155715368 1. 📚 Katherine J. Cramer, The Politics of Resentment https://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, “Putting inequality in its place: Rural consciousness and the power of perspective.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/23275431 🔬 a. Somewhat unrelated, and we didn’t actually mention this in the episode, but Katherine Cramer is also involved in a project at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication that might be of interest to our audience :) https://www.ccc.mit.edu 3. 📄 Nelson & Petsko, “Race and white rural consciousness” https://www.christopherpetsko.com/uploads/1/2/5/8/125868532/race-and-white-rural-consciousness.pdf 4. 📄 Trujillo & Crowley, “Symbolic versus material concerns of rural consciousness in the United States” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0962629822000725 5. 📄 Brown & Mettler, “Rural politics in the United States” https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-040623-114017 6. 📄 Brown & Mettler, “Sequential polarization: The development of the rural-urban political divide, 1976–2020” https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/sequential-polarization-the-development-of-the-ruralurban-political-divide-19762020/ED2077E0263BC149FED8538CD9B27109 7. 🌐 Quick article summarizing some empirical trends between population density and vote share https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-urban-rural-divide 8. 📄 Kaufman, “Where are the values voters? Ideological constraint and stability among rural, suburban, and urban populations in the United States” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0743016721003259 📊 a. Relatedly, here’s a research report that underscores that urban, suburban, and rural areas are by no means monoliths https://globalaffairs.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/report_urban-rural-divide-us-foreign-policy_170524.pdf 📈 b. And here’s a Pew survey with similar findings https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-divides-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/ 9. 🤝 Braver Angels is an example of an organization working to increase conversations across political differences, including between urban and rural Americans https://braverangels.org 10. 📚 Lorrie Frasure-Yokley, Racial and ethnic politics in American suburbs (we touched on these themes a bit in our discussion of the suburbs, but certainly much more to cover in future episodes about racial and ethnic politics!) https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/racial-and-ethnic-politics-in-american-suburbs/8E23703D5C1E6DDA8D7AB7609C6C0E9F 🎤 a. Separately, here’s an interesting interview with Lorrie about the need for more high-quality data for research on this topic! https://politicalsciencenow.com/ucla-associate-professor-of-political-science-lorrie-frasure-yokley-shares-her-experiences-as-a-political-scientist-and-apsa-member/ 🏙️ b. For more on suburbs if you’re interested: Thomas Vicino is another political scientist whose body of research on the suburbs may be of interest, particularly his recent, “In what sense a post-suburban era?” in The Routledge Companion to the Suburbs https://thomasjvicino.com/research https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/89019656/9781315266442-4-libre.pdf

Alliances with Prof Paul Poast | S01E14 | Political Reality

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-political-science-review/article/abs/do-treaties-constrain-or-screen-selection-bias-and-treaty-compliance/99619F321DE63766D626E19155D69C35 3. 📄 Morrow (2000), “Alliances: Why write them down?” https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.63 4. 🌍 Wendt (1992), “Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics” https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706858 🧠 a. Brief description of constructivism https://www.e-ir.info/2020/05/19/a-brief-overview-of-alexander-wendts-constructivism/ 🤓 b. What’s that? You wanted even more on constructivism? https://institutes.abu.edu.ng/idr/public/assets/docs/Constructivism%20and%20International%20Relations%20%20Alexander%20Wendt%20and%20his%20Critics%20(The%20New%20International%20Relations)%20(%20PDFDrive%20).pdf 5. 📊 Major dataset on military alliances by Prof. Brett Ashley Leeds (whose work we also discussed) http://www.atopdata.org https://leeds.rice.edu/research/ 6. 📰 Paul’s weekly columns for the World Politics Review https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/author/paul-poast-2920/ 7. 📚 One of Paul’s (several, excellent) books, Arguing about Alliances https://www.paulpoast.com/arguing-about-alliances 8. 🌐 Recent-ish article in the Atlantic by Paul, “Not a world war but a world at war” (we didn’t talk about this specifically in the episode, but it’s a great writeup) https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/11/conflicts-around-the-world-peak/676029/ 9. 🔗 Paul’s website https://www.paulpoast.com/ 10. 💼 Follow Paul on LinkedIn – he posts regular commentary on international relations events as they unfold https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-poast-83550b79/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7446569050081710080/?originTrackingId=bnCSJxFBZsvkuC7Xqvk9nw%3D%3D

PREVIEW: What does it take to change a mind | Political Reality | S01E13

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 (mostly connected to political attitudes one way or another). https://joshuakalla.com/research/ https://polisci.berkeley.edu/people/person/david-edward-broockman 🧪 b. I particularly recommend their work as great examples of using experiments in political science 👂 c. Some of the remaining open questions about the role of listening in political persuasion conversations are discussed thoughtfully here. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421982122 2. ⚠️ The retracted paper we mentioned and a brief article about the retraction. Even more gory details about the retraction. 📄 Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1256151 📰 Article: https://www.science.org/content/article/science-retracts-gay-marriage-paper-without-agreement-lead-author-lacour 🔍 More details: https://retractionwatch.com/2025/06/06/same-sex-marriage-retraction-political-science-study-lacour-green-broockman-kalla/ 📚 a. The more senior coauthor on the retracted paper is quite prolific on persuasion specifically in the context of political campaigns and also recently in the context of AI; his other work has not been retracted as far as we know! https://donaldgreen.com 3. 📊 A comprehensive recent overview of the state of the research on persuasion, including what we don’t know and why some of the pieces don’t quite fit together still https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-110428 4. 🌱 Broader, more background review paper on where political preferences come from in the first place and what affects them. (We didn’t talk about this specifically, I just think it’s interesting and helpful — and reflects earlier thinking that shaped much of the more recent research.) https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.1 5. 💻 Experiment on reducing antisemitism, measured in terms of online browsing behavior after an intervention https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-experimental-political-science/article/combating-hateful-attitudes-and-online-browsing-behavior-the-case-of-antisemitism/05E860416F9D0B7EFEFA0AABDB88C33D 6. 📰 We may have cited him in other episodes, but Adam Berinsky’s work on combatting misinformation is always in the background whenever we talk about media, misinformation, social media, changing minds – anything along that theme – and is always worth a look. https://berinsky.mit.edu/published-papers/#overlay-context=research

The SAVE act, Voter ID laws, and turnout in America | Political Reality | S01E12

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 paywall, I’m sorry): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379412001527 📚 “Classic” (2008 lol cry) review of research on convenience voting: https://www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fulltext/pl/11/1/annurev.polisci.11.053006.190912.pdf?expires=1774472398&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=4CCCEB2034EED20DCF150C7F87AD6286 ➕ plus some specific papers (there are lots more out there but this is a decent start): 🧠 People with greater political knowledge are more likely to use convenience voting: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457289.2020.1814308 ⚖️ Convenience voting can exacerbate socioeconomic biases in composition of voters: https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.mit.edu/dist/9/583/files/2026/01/perverseconsequences_2005.pdf 📬 Voting by mail increases turnout but does so differently across groups: https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.mit.edu/dist/9/583/files/2026/01/whovotesbymail_2001.pdf 🏛️ Background on the SAVE act: 🔎 https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/five-things-to-know-about-the-save-act/ 📰 https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/9-things-to-know-about-the-proposed-save-america-act ⚠️ https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-save-act-bills-would-still-block-millions-americans-voting 📜 The SAVE act itself: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/text 🗺️ Voter ID laws by state: https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_identification_laws_by_state ⚖️ Discussion of the constitutionality and legality of the SAVE act: https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-supreme-court-and-voting-identification/ 💸 Discussion of the poll tax issue regarding the SAVE act: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5757040-save-act-voter-id-debate/

PREVIEW: Gerrymandering: Mutually Artificial Democracy | Political Reality | S01E11

Why does gerrymandering exist and what can we do about it?

Cutting through the fog of war in Iran | Political Reality | S01E10

📰 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 ☢️ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reporting on Iran’s nuclear activities and uranium stockpiles: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/iran/iaea-and-iran-iaea-board-reports 🛰️ Satellite imagery of the Feb. 28, 2026, school strike in Iran: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-school-us-strikes-naval-base.html 🚀 Evidence that the school was struck by a US Tomahawk cruise missile: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/world/middleeast/iran-minab-school-strike.html 📺 Reporter Jeremy Vine correcting himself about the dancing video: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tv/article-15616555/jeremy-vine-alan-partridge-iran-blunder-channel-5.html 🤖 Examples of AI-generated war videos and photos: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8wvz427vo 🐦 Example of a “shallowfake” posted on X: https://x.com/TehranTimes79/status/2027766149862117731? 🎬 Examples of “hype” videos shared by the US government: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/07/trump-iran-hype-videos 🔍 BBC verify: https://www.bbc.com/news/bbcverify

PREVIEW: Which came first? The Media or The Message | Media Divides | S01E09

PREVIEW. The full episode is available on patreon

How Parties Learn... if at all with Prof. Seth Masket | Political Reality | S01E08

More about Seth & his work: https://www.sethmasket.com Seth’s book Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020 Preview of Seth’s new book (coming summer 2026): The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders Subscribe to his (excellent) Substack, Tusk Follow him on Instagram and Bluesky (he’s @smotus most places)