Academics

#195: When AI Systems Meet Democratic Governance, with Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders

January 31, 2026 Academics

Bruce Schneier and Dr. Nathan Sanders discuss Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship (MIT Press). 

 

Bruce and Nathan share how AI becomes viable for governments when the speed, scale, scope, and sophistication of computational systems surpasses human capacity. We also discuss the relationship between AI and the Internet of Things, how AI interacts with lobbying and legislation, and how values can be construed in an automated context. Current examples of AI implementation are shared from political campaigning, public administration, and civil society. 

#193: Publicity Politicians, Public Opinion, and the Birth of Media Politics, with Dr. Betto van Waarden

January 2, 2026 Academics

Dr. Betto van Waarden, Assistant Professor of History at Maastricht University, discusses his new book Politicians and Mass Media in the Age of Empire. 

 

We begin by charting the technological developments of the 19th century and how it influenced the speed and scale of news production. Then, we discuss the rise of public opinion and how it affected the media’s role in the political system. We spend the rest of the episode discussing publicity politicians, the transnational media system, and how many of the political dynamics we see today can be traced to the Age of Empire. 

#192: 2025 Year in Review! Social Media and Politics, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

December 20, 2025 Academics

The 10th Annual Social Media and Politics Year in Review! 

 

This year, we cover the platforms’ year in review reports, the EU’s regulation on transparency of targeted ads, meta approaches to platforms, and implications of the synthetic public sphere. 

 

Here are links to reports discussed in the episode, and see you in 2026!


Google
YouTube
TikTok
Snap
Pinterest
Pornhub
Zoom

#190: Temporal Validity, Knowledge Decay, and the Meta 2020 Election Research Partnership, with Dr. Kevin Munger

November 30, 2025 Academics

Dr. Kevin Munger, Assistant Professor and Chair of Computational Social Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute, discusses the concept of temporal validity in social media research. Dr. Munger breaks down why thinking about time is an important component of meta-science, particularly when it comes to evaluating the methodologies of social media research. 

 

We also discuss the Meta 2020 Election Research partnership, new pathways in social media research, the logic of quantitative description, and the challenges of political communication in the current grant funding and interdisciplinary landscape of political research. 

 

Here are the two articles we discuss in the episode: 

Temporal Validity as Meta-Science (2023)

What Did We Learn about Political Communication from the Meta2020 Partnership? (2024)

 

And links to Dr. Munger’s latest books:

The YouTube Apparatus (2024)

The Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture (2022)

#188: Teaching Political Communication: A Database, Game, and Assignment

November 1, 2025 Academics

In this episode, I share some initiatives to help in improving the teaching and learning of political communication.

  1. Political Communication Teaching Database and the upload page.  
     
  2. Meta Oversight Board Game
     
  3. Counterfactual Case Study

#187: Election Forecasting, Prediction Markets, and Gamification, with Prof. Matthew Wall and Dr. Louis Bromfield

October 18, 2025 Academics

Professor Matthew Wall and Dr. Louis Bromfield, both at the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and International Relations at Swansea University, discuss election forecasting. We cover different types of political forecasting, such as polls and prediction models, and dive into prediction markets like Polymarket. We then discuss the concept of the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ and what attributes make a good forecaster, before turning to how betting market odds, forecasting platforms, and gamification can be used in research. 

 

Resources:


Horse Race Politics Podcast on YouTube and Spotify
Horse Race Politics Platform
Professor Wall’s study on the 2007 Irish Elections
Dr. Bromfield’s Doctoral Thesis

#183: Youth Political Expression on Social Media, with Dr. Neta Kligler-Vilenchik and Dr. Ioana Literat

April 23, 2025 Academics

Dr. Neta Kligler-Vilenchik and Dr. Ioana Literat share research from their new book Not Your Parent’s Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media.

 

We discuss how young people use social media such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to experiment with their political identity, even if they are too young to vote.  Examples from the 2016 US election, Black Lives Matter protests, and climate anxiety help illustrate the various ways that youth express their political opinions across social media platforms. We also discuss how to approach these expressions from a democratic and citizenship perspective. 

 

Dr. Kligler-Vilenchik is Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

Dr. Literat is an Associate Professor in the Communication, Media and Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College, Columbia University.

#181: AI and Political Campaigns, with Dr. Michael D. Cohen

March 28, 2025 Academics

Dr. Michael D. Cohen, CEO of Cohen Research Group and author of Modern Political Campaigns, shares how artificial intelligence is impacting political campaigns. We discuss how AI is like an automated staffer, and what types of human involvement is still needed to craft a winning strategy. We also examine AI’s role in generating copy like social media posts and speeches, as well as how it can be used for qualitative data analysis such as focus groups. In addition, we consider how AI relates to trending concepts such as authenticity and political polarization. 

 

Get a copy of the 2nd edition of Modern Political Campaigns on Amazon or directly through the publisher.

 

And you can listen to a broader discussion of the book in an earlier episode. 

#179: Digital Media Metaphors and Social Media Buzzwords, with Dr. Johan Farkas and Dr. Marcus Maloney

January 5, 2025 Academics

Dr. Johan Farkas and Dr. Marcus Maloney discuss how the language used to describe digital media frames our understanding and the actions of policymakers. We break down how terms like “toxic”, “trolls”, and “filter bubbles” are often used uncritically and limit how we understand the relationships between digital media and social problems like misogyny, racism, and harassment. 

 

Here’s a link to the book discussed in the episode: 

Digital Media Metaphors: A Critical Introduction (2024)

#178: 2024 Year in Review! Social Media and Politics, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

December 20, 2024 Academics

The 9th Annual Social Media and Politics Year in Review! 

 

This year, we cover the platforms’ year in review reports, election interference in Romania, the battle over text and the “eXodus”, and social media bans for teenagers. 

 

Here are links to resources discussed in the episode, and see you in 2025!

Meta
TikTok
Snap
Pinterest
Twitch
Google
Pornhub