Best Politicalscience Podcasts (2024)

1
Do City Services Move Faster for Affluent and White Neighborhoods? 47:19

3d ago47:19

47:19

Have you ever made a 311 call? This is a service provided by many cities that allows citizens to call in things like potholes, graffiti, fallen trees, ect. There is an assumption that many people have that requests made by white and more affluent neighborhoods probably get responded to faster. But is that accurate? In a recent paper, “Unequal Respo…

1
How To "Get Out The Vote" 42:02

18d ago42:02

42:02

Hello Not Another Politics Podcast listeners. We’re taking some much needed time off as the school year comes to a close; but with the elections right around the corner we still wanted to share some incredibly relevant and important political science research. Every Presidential election, we talk about “getting out the vote”. But what really works …

1
How Powerful Are October Surprises? 36:25

1M ago36:25

36:25

Hello Not Another Politics Podcast listeners. We’re taking some much needed time off as the school year comes to a close; but with the elections right around the corner we still wanted to share some incredibly relevant and important political science research. This week we’re resharing an episode all about October Surprises that has some counter in…

1
The Emotions of Dyadic Relationships: An Interview with Jenna Wells and Felicia Zerwas 41:48

2M ago41:48

41:48

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Jenna Wells and Felicia Zerwas, who at the time of the interview were Ph.D. candidates in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology. The interview was conducted by Julia Sizek, Matrix Postdoctoral Fellow. Jenna Wells is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at C…

1
Sugar and the Transformation of the American West: An Interview with Bernadette Pérez 53:08

2M ago53:08

53:08

For this episode of the Matrix Podcast, J.T. Jamieson, a 2022-2023 Matrix Communications Scholar, interviewed Bernadette Pérez, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Pérez is a historian of the United States who specializes in the histories of Latinx and Indigenous peoples in the West. Her current research focuses on migrant sugar beet wor…

1
Does The Public View The Supreme Court As Legitimate In A Post-Dobbs World ? 43:43

2M ago43:43

43:43

The Supreme Court is supposed to be our non-political branch of government, making decisions solely on the constitutional soundness of laws. But in recent years it appears as though the Court has taken a shift to the right, most notably in the Dobbs decision in 2022. Which raises a question: does the public still the view the Court as legitimate? T…

1
How Good Are We At Spotting Fake News? 48:26

2M ago48:26

48:26

If the media is to be believed, the US public has a tenuous at best grasp on accurate political news. They’re either consuming disinformation and fake news on social media or following biasedly inaccurate news outlets. Either journalistic truth is as good as dead or we’re living in separate informational universes. But is this too alarmist, could t…

1
Is Partisan Animosity Directed At Fellow Citizens Or Elites? 39:10

3M ago39:10

39:10

There is a fact of our political discourse so agreed upon that nobody thinks to question it: affective polarization…democrats and republicans disliking each other...has been getting worse, much worse. But what if that belief is actually based on polls measuring the wrong thing? That’s the argument made by Northwestern Political Scientist James Druc…

1
Should Policy Match Voters' Preferences? 42:55

3M ago42:55

42:55

How do we know if our democracy is healthy? For political scientist, the answer often comes down to things we can measure like responsiveness to voter’s wishes. But is that really the right thing to measure? There are two camps in this debate. The empiricists want to focus on what and how we can measure things like the health of our democracy, ofte…

1
Storytelling and the Climate Crisis 1:32:19

3M ago1:32:19

1:32:19

Contemporary writers and activists have described the climate crisis as, in part, a crisis of the imagination, of culture, and of storytelling. Recorded on March 11, 2024, this panel featured a group of authors and scholars of different genres — science fiction, journalism, history, literary fiction, and comedy — discussing how the climate crisis h…

1
New Directions in Greening Infrastructure 1:16:13

3M ago1:16:13

1:16:13

As the effects of climate change become more obvious, moving away from fossil fuels has only become more urgent. But to do so, new energy sources – and new infrastructure – are desperately needed. Recoreded on March 20, 2024, this panel features three early-career scholars from UC Berkeley presenting their research on the greening infrastructure an…

1
Conservatorship: Inside California’s System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness 1:24:47

3M ago1:24:47

1:24:47

Recorded on March 18, 2024, this panel focused on Professor Alex V. Barnard’s book, Conservatorship: Inside California’s System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness. The book analyzes conservatorship, a legal system used to take legal guardianship over individuals deemed unable to meet their own basic needs. This controversial system, which has …

1
Authors Meet Critics: “Terracene: A Crude Aesthetics,” Salar Mameni 1:37:27

3M ago1:37:27

1:37:27

Recorded on March 4, 2024, this Authors Meet Critics panel focused on Terracene: A Crude Aesthetics, by Professor Salar Mameni, Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies. Professor Mameni was joined by Mayanthi Fernando, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz; Sugata Ray, Associate Professor of South and Southe…

1
Are Too Many Political Appointments Harming Our Bureaucracy? 49:42

4M ago49:42

49:42

When it comes to our federal bureaucracy, there are two schools of thought. One says that an insulated group of career bureaucrats have created a deep state that corrupts the performance of government. The other says that our bureaucracy is dysfunctional because there is too much turnover or positions left vacant. Both rest on an underlying feature…

1
Should Judges Be Elected or Appointed? 49:53

4M ago49:53

49:53

There is a long running debate in political science: do we get better judges by letting the public vote in elections or by giving our leaders the power to appoint them? One side says that judges should be insulated from the influence of politics involved in elections, focusing entirely on the rule of law. The other side says that our judges should …

1
Structural Determinants of Police Violence: Interview with Kimberly Cecilia Burke 27:46

4M ago27:46

27:46

Kimberly Cecilia Burke, a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC Berkeley, researches the relationships between institutional violence and social stratification, utilizing multi-level mixed-methods analysis. Her dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine how Black-White interracial couples understand and experience police violence in thei…

1
The Scandal of Access: An Interview with Zahra Hayat 47:38

4M ago47:38

47:38

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Zahra Hayat, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, and is also trained as a lawyer with a background in intellectual property. Matrix Content Curator Julia Sizek spoke with Hayat about her research …

1
Private Firms and WTO Dispute Escalation: An Interview with Ryan Brutger 30:48

4M ago30:48

30:48

On this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Daniel Lobo, a PhD student in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology and a 2022-2023 Matrix Communications Scholar, interviewed Ryan Brutger, Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. Professor Brutger obtained his PhD in politics at Princeton University and was previously an assistant professo…

1
Why Women Are Underrepresented in U.S. Politics 50:18

4M ago50:18

50:18

Despite making up roughly half of the U.S. population, women only make up about one-quarter of representatives and senators. And this trend is not just national—it holds true globally as well. What explains why women are underrepresented in politics? If women are just as likely to win elections as men do, then why are they less likely to run for of…

1
Ala Ebtekar on Art, Iran, Hip-Hop, and Sci-Fi 1:46:16

5M ago1:46:16

1:46:16

Ala Ebtekar on Art, Iran, Hip-Hop, and Sci-Fi https://www.alaebtekar.com/ Music by AwareNess: https://awareness0.bandcamp.com/ Please support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timetalks Channel Zero Network: https://channelzeronetwork.com/ Time Talks: https://www.instagram.com/time_raps On Belonging Podcast: https://groundedfutures.co…

1
Understanding Land-based Psychological Trauma in Light of Epistemic Justice 1:13:05

4M ago1:13:05

1:13:05

Recorded on February 8, 2024, this video features a lecture by Dr. Garret Barnwell, South African clinical psychologist and community psychology practitioner. The talk was moderated and coordinated by Andrew Wooyoung Kim, Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology at UC Berkeley. A transcript of this talk is available at https://matrix.berkeley…

1
What Makes A Legislator Effective? 44:10

5M ago44:10

44:10

When it comes to passing actual legislation, putting it forward and getting it all the way through the process, it can be difficult to measure exactly which legislators are effective. Not to mention which types of legislators tend to be more effective, moderates or extremists? And does majority-party membership increase effectives? In an innovative…

1
Do Conservatives Sabotage The Administrative State? 52:08

5M ago52:08

52:08

When we talk about the interpretation and ultimately implementation of policy we’re not talking about Congress so much as the Administrative State. But what happens when those who work in those agencies decide through their positions to not only sabotage a policy they’re meant to carry out, but perhaps the whole agency? In a recent paper titled “Ad…

1
Authors Meet Critics: "The Unnaming of Kroeber Hall," by Andrew Garrett 1:24:42

5M ago1:24:42

1:24:42

Recorded on January 19, 2024, this "Authors Meet Critics" panel centered on the book, The Unnaming of Kroeber Hall: Language, Memory, and Indigenous California, by Andrew Garrett, Professor of Linguistics and the Nadine M. Tang and Bruce L. Smith Professor of Cross-Cultural Social Sciences in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Calif…

1
Vincent Bevins - "If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution" 1:11:28

6M ago1:11:28

1:11:28

Recorded on October 17, 2023, this video features a talk by Vincent Bevins, an award-winning journalist and correspondent, focused on his book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. The panel was moderated by Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and Director of the Socio-Spatial Climate Coll…

1
Who Gets Heard On Redistribution, The Rich Or Poor? 49:12

6M ago49:12

49:12

When we talk about policy choices around redistribution there is an assumption so obvious that most people never question it. That politicians are more responsive to the desires of the rich, and that policy preferences of the poor don’t hold as much sway. But what if that assumption was wrong? In a recent paper by Boston University Economist Raymon…

1
Authoritarian Absorption: An Interview with Yan Long 54:11

6M ago54:11

54:11

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Yan Long, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley who focuses on the politics of public health in China. She was formerly an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society. She obtained he…

1
Can We Believe Political Surveys? 46:06

6M ago46:06

46:06

Hello listeners! Our team took some end of the year time off, but we know your holiday travel wouldn’t be complete without some in-depth political science research. So, we’re release some episodes we think are going to be very relevant as we move into an election year. And thanks to everyone who listened to our podcast this year. We don’t make mone…

1
Mark Sedgwick on Islam, Sufism, Anarchism, and Ivan Aguéli 1:09:26

7M ago1:09:26

1:09:26

Mark Sedgwick on Islam, Sufism, Anarchism, and Ivan Aguéli https://www.driveproject.eu/team-member/prof-mark-sedgwick/ https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/anarchist-artist-sufi-9781350177895/ Music by AwareNess: https://awareness0.bandcamp.com/ Please support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timetalks Channel Zero Network: https://channelz…

1
Should It Be Illegal Not To Vote? 36:47

7M ago36:47

36:47

Hello listeners! Our team took some end of the year time off, but we know your holiday travel wouldn’t be complete without some in-depth political science research. So, we’re release some episodes we think are going to be very relevant as we move into an election year. And thanks to everyone who listened to our podcast this year. We don’t make mone…

1
Trevor Jackson, "Impunity and Capitalism: the Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830" 1:23:35

7M ago1:23:35

1:23:35

Recorded on December 5, 2023, this Authors Meet Critics panel focused on Impunity and Capitalism: the Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2022), by Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Professor Jackson was joined by Anat Admati, the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Ec…

1
Authors Meet Critics: Sharad Chari, "Gramsci at Sea" 1:18:14

7M ago1:18:14

1:18:14

Recorded on November 28, 2023 as part of the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix “Authors Meet Critics” series, this panel focused on Gramsci at Sea, a book by Sharad Chari, Associate Professor in Geography and Co-Director of Critical Theory at UC Berkeley. Professor Chari was joined in conversation by Leslie Salzinger, Associate Professor and Chair …

1
Authors Meet Critics: Dylan Penningroth, “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights” 1:21:21

7M ago1:21:21

1:21:21

Recorded on November 14, 2023 at UC Berkeley's Social Science Matrix, this "Authors Meet Critics" panel is focused on Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, by Dylan Penningroth, Professor of Law and Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History at UC Berkeley, and Associate Dean, Program in Jurisprudence and Social …

1
Matrix on Point: New Directions in Gender and Sexuality 1:19:59

7M ago1:19:59

1:19:59

While the last 20 years have marked a significant change in increased acceptance of varied gender expressions and sexual orientations, these changes haven’t made the importance of gender and sexuality as concepts disappear. If anything, they’ve become more relevant for understanding the world today. Recorded on November 30, 2023, this panel brought…

1
Racial and Ethnic Difference in South Africa and the USSR: An Interview with Hilary Lynd 43:34

7M ago43:34

43:34

How did South Africans and Soviets think about how to manage difference--in their home contexts and in decades of conversation with one another? In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Hilary Lynd, a PhD candidate in history, discusses the changing relationship between South Africa and the USSR from the 1960s through the 1980s. In this interview, Ju…

1
Is There A "Spiral of Silence" On Campus And In Our Politics? 48:10

7M ago48:10

48:10

The recent crisis in the Israel and Palestine conflict has added fuel to the already heated debate over free speech in our politics and on college campuses. Does the scientific literature having anything to tell us about the health of public discourse in these domains? A recent paper by Harvard Ph.D. candidate Yihong Huang titled “Breaking the Spir…

1
The Bargaining Strategies of Extremists 50:04

8M ago50:04

50:04

There is a political puzzle that has become prominent in the last few decades, especially with the recent turmoil over the Republican led Speaker of the House: how do a small group of extremists manage to get their way despite being a minority of members? In a recent paper, “Organizing at the Extreme: Hardline Strategy and Institutional Design” Uni…

1
Riddlore on Freestyling, Leimert Park, Project Blowed, Cuba, and Hip-Hop 1:02:32

8M ago1:02:32

1:02:32

Riddlore on Freestyling, Leimert Park, Project Blowed, Cuba, and Hip-Hop Riddlore/CVE Bandcamp: https://theriddlore.bandcamp.com/album/riddlore Born A Villain Book: https://www.lulu.com/shop/hamadi-riddlore-owens/born-a-villain-paperback-jahs-one-variant-cover/paperback/product-grz9k4.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4 Riddlore IG: https://www.instagram.com…

1
Is Gridlock Causing Polarization? 49:49

8M ago49:49

49:49

We often say on this podcast that the American electorate is not polarized but the elites are, and that this polarization causes policy gridlock. But what if it’s the other way around? Is it possible that gridlock in government is actually causing polarization and a turn toward extremist candidates? That’s the assertion of a paper called “From Grid…

1
California Spotlight: From Boom to Doom in San Francisco 1:17:46

8M ago1:17:46

1:17:46

During the peak of the most recent tech upswing, downtown San Francisco was booming. Now, after the pandemic and a new round of tech layoffs, commentators fear that the so-called “doom loop” has come to valuable commercial real estate. While boom and bust cycles are not new to The City, what can we learn from the struggles of commercial real estate…

1
Authors Meet Critics: Massimo Mazzotti, “Reactionary Mathematics: A Genealogy of Purity” 56:44

8M ago56:44

56:44

Recorded on October 17, 2023, this video features an "Authors Meet Critics" panel on the book Reactionary Mathematics: A Genealogy of Purity, by Massimo Mazzotti, Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of History and the Thomas M. Siebel Presidential Chair in the History of Science. Professor Mazzotti was joined in conversation by Matthew L. Jones…

1
Partisan Identities vs Anti-Establishment Orientations 56:44

9M ago56:44

56:44

When political commentators talk about polarization, they often mean a partisan ideological divide: the left vs the right, republicans vs democrats, progressives vs conservatives. But what if there is a different dichotomy driving our political disagreements that is orthogonal to ideological differences? That’s what University of Miami political sc…

1
Gerald Horne on Acknowledging Radical Histories, Colorado, and Palestine 56:50

9M ago56:50

56:50

Gerald Horne on Acknowledging Radical Histories, Colorado, and Palestine Acknowledging Radical Histories by Dr. Gerald Horne & chris time steele: https://www.intpubnyc.com/browse/acknowledging-radical-histories/ https://www.facebook.com/DrGeraldHorne/ https://www.uh.edu/class/history/faculty-and-staff/horne_g/ Music by AwareNess: https://awareness0…

1
Matrix on Point: The Future of College 1:21:06

9M ago1:21:06

1:21:06

The pandemic has rocked higher education. From Zoom classrooms to students leaving higher education, colleges have needed to change modalities to adapt to public health risks and the emergence of new technologies. Enrollment patterns are also shifting in a changing economy: while selective flagship public institutions and not-for-profit private ins…

1
LIVE: Does Money Distort Our Politics? 48:21

9M ago48:21

48:21

If there is one thing the right and left seem to agree on it’s that money distorts our politics. It allows the rich to shape policy, choose who gets elected, and escape consequences. But what if this common belief isn’t as true as you think? On our second live episode, we look back to famous paper in the political science literature, “Why Is There …

1
War, Diaspora, Bureaucracy: An Interview with Sherine Ebadi 42:48

9M ago42:48

42:48

How does international conflict shape immigration bureaucracy? Sherine Ebadi, a PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, researches the impact of Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) and employment-based visa programs on Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. military. For Ebadi, visa programs like the SIV are crucial lenses for under…

1
T Storm Heter on the Sonic Gaze, White Listening, and Jazz 1:20:09

9M ago1:20:09

1:20:09

T Storm Heter on the Sonic Gaze, White Listening, and Jazz The Sonic Gaze: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162613/The-Sonic-Gaze-Jazz-Whiteness-and-Racialized-Listening https://esu4.academia.edu/TStormHeter IG: https://www.instagram.com/stormheter/?hl=en Music by AwareNess: https://awareness0.bandcamp.com/ Please support the podcast on Patreon: http…

1
Voter Turnout in the United States: An Interview with Emily Rong Zhang 49:15

10M ago49:15

49:15

In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Jennie Barker, a PhD Candidate in the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley — and a Matrix Communications Scholar — spoke with Emily Rong Zhang, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley Law School, about her research on voter turnout in the United States. Voter turnout has been a …

1
Presidential Power, Parties, And The Rise Of The Administrative State 46:52

10M ago46:52

46:52

One of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign promises is to upend the modern civil service through an executive order called “Schedule F”. Democrats and Republicans have been fighting over this administrative state since its conception, but why is this area of government so divisive and what power does it really hold? The history of the civil services’ orig…

1
Does Social Media Polarize Our Politics? 59:01

10M ago59:01

59:01

It’s one of the most common refrains in political discourse today: social media is the source of polarization. It’s a difficult proposition to empirically study because companies like Meta and X don’t share their data publicly. Until now. In a landmark series of papers, three in Science and one in Nature, Princeton political scientists Andy Guess a…

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