show episodes
 
The non-partisan Digital Politics Podcast with Karen Jagoda explores political and advocacy campaign best practices, new technologies and innovative approaches to voter engagement, fundraising, ground game strategies, cross-media advertising, using social media to promote and persuade, and getting out the vote. Since 2007, this show has spotted trends and interviewed strategists on the campaign trail as well as candidates, elected officials, and solutions providers who are bringing new tools ...
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show series
 
Andra Watkins, The New York Times best-selling author and speaker, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to discuss the threat of Christian Nationalists to the future of our democracy. Indoctrinated as a child in Christian Nationalism, Andra understands the language of the calls to action in Project 2025 and warns about the potential impact…
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Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, shares his reaction and insights from participating in the recent commemoration of Bloody Sunday and his walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. As an activist, Deepak appreciates the importance of learning from history and the need to continue the fight for civil rights. We talk about: What m…
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Jim Margolis, Partner at GMMB, was a Senior Advisor to Barack Obama in both of his campaigns for the White House. Jim is one of the stars of the recent documentary The Bigger Hammer: Race for the White House A Look at the 2008 Obama-McCain Race for President. Taking on the challenge of introducing Barack Obama meant having a strategic plan to defin…
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Fred Davis, CEO of Strategic Perception Inc., is a well-known Republican communications expert and one of the stars of the recent documentary The Bigger Hammer: Race for the White House A Look at the 2008 Obama-McCain Race for President. As the Chief Creative Officer of McCain's presidential campaign, Fred had the challenge of running against the B…
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Varun Nikore, Executive Director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to discuss the Asian American Pacific Islanders' growing presence in the US. This group is expected to be the largest minority group by 2040 and includes first to fifth-generation family members from over 20 countries of origin. Varun's miss…
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Po Murray, Co-Founder and Chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to discuss the variations in state and federal laws protecting residents from gun violence. Since Uvalde, there have been changes in the awareness of the need for background checks and holding stakeholders responsible for public safety…
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Keith Gaby is the Director of The Bigger Hammer: Race for the White House a Look at the 2008 Obama-McCain Race for President and communications expert. This behind-the-scenes documentary is a time capsule of presidential campaigns before the proliferation of social media and mobile devices. The film presents a balanced picture of the strategies and…
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Ian Gates, a participant in the Students for Justice Vote intern program, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to talk about getting young voters involved in political campaigns and voter registration efforts. The challenge is finding young voters where they get their news and creating content that comes from trusted sources and is shared …
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Josh Klemons, Founder of Reverbal, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to talk about the need to make the audience the hero, not the candidate, when communicating with voters. An expert on first-in-category candidates, Josh has refined his storytelling skills to create compelling digital content for winning campaigns and drive relationshi…
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Ray Kingman, Founder and CEO of Semcasting, is focused on bringing a deeper understanding of the media habits of voters to campaigns. The shift from traditional linear TV advertising to Connected TV and other digital ad options is being accelerated thanks to the ability to target messages and measure the delivery and effectiveness of the ads. We ta…
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Michael Serazio is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communications at Boston College and author of The Authenticity Industries: Keeping it "Real" in Media, Culture, and Politics. Calling authenticity the moral framework of our time, Michael addresses whether politicians can fake authenticity and what gives inauthenticity away. Drawing on…
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Matt Robison is a political consultant and former chief of staff for former New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes, his co-host on the Beyond Politics Podcast. Matt shines a light on the tendencies of New Hampshire primary voters and what the results might indicate about voter strategies in 2024. We talk about Independent and unaffiliated NH voters H…
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Marta Hanson, National Program Manager, Power the Polls, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to emphasize the need for a nationwide effort to recruit the next generation of poll workers to ensure that elections run smoothly. In a presidential election year, it is estimated that one million people are needed to fill these paid positions at…
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Rajiv Bhateja, Co-Founder of They See Blue joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to discuss the need to educate and motivate Americans of South Asian origin to vote for Democrats and become involved in their local communities. Rajiv is an accidental activist bringing data analytic skills to this volunteer organization, allowing them to spec…
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Anne Christine, investigative journalist and human rights activist Stop the Coup 2025, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to address the threat to civil rights from Project 2025, a 900-page Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise from the Heritage Foundation. The key is turning the Mandate into discrete components so people can …
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Sean Duggan, Founder of SD Media has seen many political cycles as Vice President of Advertising at Pandora and SiriusXM. He notes that it is curious how some of the presidential candidates are relying so heavily on television ads. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We talk about: The pace of buying digital ads for the 2024 primar…
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David Riedman, Founder and Independent Researcher of the K-12 School Shooting Database, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to peel back the layers of the challenges of predicting and preventing school shootings. One significant step is to collect data and fill in the missing pieces to get a better sense of who is most at risk of being in…
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Matt Krayton, Founder of Publitics, shines a light on the need for a management structure in political campaigns as much as in a business. Starting from the digital perspective, Matt has developed the InfluenceIQ approach, a unified framework to break down silos for making better campaign decisions. We talk about: Mechanisms for making decisions to…
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Brian Hansbury, part of the leadership team at The Media and Democracy Project, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to shine a light on the role of local journalists in maintaining a strong democracy. Advocating for public policy solutions that benefit local communities and support diverse opinions, this group is surgically raising awaren…
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Alexis Posey, Chief Campaign Officer at The Center for Cultural Power and Political Director of the Cultural Engagement Lab, talks with Deepak Puri of The Democracy Labs about how narratives impact voter opinions. The Cultural Engagement Lab commissions a network of artists and creative people from underserved communities to use their storytelling …
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Dr. Joe Tucker, CEO of Enveric Biosciences, shines a light on the challenges of those working with psychedelic therapies to inform legislators about the need for regulation to gain acceptance for the use of these molecules for medicinal purposes. In this era of increasing mental health awareness and neurodegenerative diseases, research on the uniqu…
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Andrea Miller, Center for Common Ground joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to highlight the results of the recent election in Virginia and the impact of early voting on the outcome. As seen around the country, even school board races were contentious. Deepak and Andrea talk about: The variations in the Virginia election results in this d…
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Edward Erikson, Founder and President of Erikson Communication Group, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to discuss the possibilities of finding common interests and ways to unite local communities. As a political consultant, Edward emphasizes the value of snowball organizing to find additional supporters and the need to keep testing new…
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Josh Justice, CEO of Peerly, has been working on an AI tool for managing and responding to the volume of text messages exchanged using the Peerly peer-to-peer texting platform. Now widely available, AMP {AI} enhances the value of voter engagement and provides rich data that reveals sentiment and real-time interest. We talk about: The changing natur…
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Molly Rima Hoopes, Senior Political Account Executive, Division D at VoterX, is working in the expanding arena where targeting and media offer new options for finding and persuading voters. Though traditional media buyers are still buying linear TV ads, cross-screen reach and targeting opportunities offer incremental reach for campaigns to find cor…
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Gina Keller, Co-Founder of Distill Social, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to highlight how social media is used for grassroots activities in Michigan to drive voter awareness, voter registration, and turnout. Gina shares insights about using TikTok to offer something as simple as a sticker to raise interest and enthusiasm. Deepak and…
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Richard Rose and Raymond McClendon Communities United for Justice join Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to review relational organizing using local leaders to build awareness about candidates and ballot initiatives. The topic is how grassroots organizers are using digital and traditional tools to build robust networks of organizations target…
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Matthew Hildreth, Executive Director of Rural Organizing, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to identify the elements of rural communities often missed by candidates in their search for voters. With a background in broadcasting and local engagement, Matthew points out the need for more funding for organizing in rural areas and leadership…
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Rachel Levy, candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in the November 2023 election, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to provide a view from the front lines of running for office in a primarily rural, newly drawn district. Rachel is an activist, teacher, mom, wife, and candidate with a strong sense of the need for civic engagement…
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Michael Kaiser is the President and CEO of Defending Digital Campaigns, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization working with Federal campaigns to secure their organizations and staff against cybercrime. DDC is providing free and low-cost security tools not counted as a campaign contribution with special permission by the FEC because unsafe politic…
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Holli Holliday, lawyer and President of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, joins Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to shine a light on the obstacles that are part of the system that keep first-time candidates from succeeding. While candidates supported by the established parties are told about access to voter lists and committee support, newcomers ar…
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Annabel Roubinowitz, a high school senior living in San Francisco, surveyed her Gen-Z cohorts to find out what issues they are concerned about and why they do or do not vote. While young people seem excited about hot-button issues like reproductive rights and gun control, they are not registering to vote or turning out to vote in expected numbers. …
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Cassie Choi, Co-Founder of the Pair Team, is focused on the challenge of finding available and affordable childcare for high-risk and high-need populations and the actions that can be taken to improve the health of families. As a White House Clinician Innovators Roundtable member, Cassie is looking at the health ecosystem and how to drive civic eng…
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Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, brings his technical skills to applying AI to dense text to make it accessible to a broader audience. This episode includes a sample of turning text-to-audio from the introduction of the Georgia indictment of election fraud and demonstrates the limitations and opportunities for a tool like Audyo.ai. We talk a…
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Yemi Adewunmi is the Co-Founder and COO of Plural, part of the Higher Ground Labs portfolio of companies. Plural has recognized the opportunity to apply AI to track the discovery, creation, and iterations of legislation at the congressional and state level to inform a number of different stakeholders. Based on her experience working at the New York…
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Joann Loulan, Executive Director of Local Majority, joins Deepak Puri, CEO, of The Democracy Labs, in a story about activism at the state level and the need to pay attention to what state legislatures are doing. Local Majority is promoting research from subject experts to counteract the influences of misleading and disinformation at the state and l…
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Beth Dwyer, Vice President of Sales at Dotdash Meredith's MNI Targeted Media, worked for the Washington Post and Politico on the corporate side. Beth came to political adverting in 2017 when she realized the role digital advertising could play in political campaigns. She notes the changes since 2020 in the amount of money spent on digital ads and w…
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Jess Ellis, Senior Specialist, Client Partnerships, Politics VDX.tv, gives an orientation on how political tv advertising has expanded to include a significant investment in connected tv ads. To reach cord-cutters, campaigns increasingly realize that CTV ads find voters on the right screen at the right time to persuade, inform, and mobilize. Stream…
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Alshika Jennela, Program Manager Mis/Disinformation at Indian American Impact, and Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, TheDemLabs.org, talk about how WhatsApp is used by people all around the globe. It is seen as a trusted source of news from friends and family while, at the same time, a source of disinformation. With deep insights into the Ind…
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Ray Kingman, CEO and Founder of Semcasting, a data service company, is taking voter files to the next level by including more relevant data to support digital marketing in political campaigns. Their cookie-free approach uses IP delivery points, device information, email, and offline data and matches to online activity and other known voter characte…
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Lauren Kunis, CEO of VoteRiders, and Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, TheDemLabs.org, talk about the various voter ID laws that prevent or intimidate eligible Americans from casting a ballot that is counted. VoteRiders has a nationwide network to provide voter ID education and assistance to get the form of ID that is accepted to register and…
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Julia Bayer, solution engineer National Government team & Michelle Kinzer, Public Policy Team of Esri, join Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, to discuss the power of geographic information to gain a greater understanding of problems and as a means to engage voters in solutions. They emphasize we all share location and a sense of place, and ma…
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Ineke Mushovic, Executive Director of Wide Angle Research and Republican Rule, and Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, agree that candidates from the top of the ballot to the bottom can productively use strong images and provocative ads to draw in voters and drive a call to action. The Wide Angle Research approach brings video and storytelling …
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Sean Duggan, VP of Advertising at SXM Media, is known for his ability to spot trends and work with clients to deploy audio ads to reach voters and constituents effectively. While digital ad budgets have grown for campaigns and advocacy groups, spending on podcast advertising has yet to take off. This is another example of consumer advertisers embra…
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Ashley Robinson, Founder and Principal of the BLUE Institute, and Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, agree that politics is the business of change. During the 2018 midterm in Georgia, Ashley was the Political Director for Stacy Abrams' gubernatorial campaign and, throughout her career, has driven registration efforts and GOTV with key constitu…
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Dave Barbush, Founder and CEO of Once A Soldier, and Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, discuss the need to address the scope and significant impact of death by suicide by veterans and ways to prevent it. Dave has a background in online outreach and has used these skills to start this virtual non-profit to raise money and awareness and provide…
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Allen Carroll, Program Manager for Storytelling at Esri, talks with Deepak Puri, CEO of The Democracy Labs, about using mapping and visualization to tell compelling stories and drive change. Allen moved to Esri after 27 years at the National Geographic Society, where he gained a deep appreciation of the power of GIS data and maps. Allen and Deepak …
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Mira Weinstein, Organizer in Chief at Organizing to Win, and Deepak Puri, The Democracy Labs, discuss the challenging topic of power. They agree that strategic campaigns must go beyond winning to develop the power that can bring about real change. Mira and Deepak talk about: The relational dynamic of power What motivates organizers and activists to…
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Clinton Johnson is the Social Justice/Racial Equity Lead at Esri and an advocate for using GIS and visualization tools to highlight social challenges and opportunities for improvement. Clinton and Deepak Puri, The Democracy Labs, explore the kinds of data that can make a difference in understanding a problem and put it in a form that can lead to ac…
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Dan Gerstein, CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, shares his reflections about how and why elected officials, candidates, and advocates use ghostwriting services to create impactful speeches, books, op-eds, and other projects. We talk about: Working with Governor Hochul on her State of the State book Sweet spot for the length of a live and video speech Use…
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