I love listening to podcasts and I bet you love listening to podcasts, too. Why wouldn’t you? Try getting through any Joey Diaz-Joe Rogan episode without laughing your ass off. You can’t do it! They’re fun, they’re free and there’s more content and fewer interruptions than you’d see on TV. On top of that, podcasts are not subject to as much red tape compared to YouTube’s insane Community Guidelines for videos or the FCC’s censorship of live television — as evidenced by George Carlin’s seven dirty words routine. For better or worse, anyone can say anything for as long as they want on podcasts, and that includes speaking one’s mind about the 2024 presidential election. In fact, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are tiptoeing away from traditional legacy media and presidential debates like 60 Minutes in favor of podcasts: Trump with podcasters like Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz and Harris with Alex Cooper. And honestly, this is for the better. Podcasts will help humanize our candidates and potentially increase Gen Z’s voter turnout.
As mentioned before, podcasts have a clear advantage in length. If you look at a typical Rogan episode, for example, they’ll run between three and four hours on average. Think about how much you can cover with an open, respectful host in three-something hours — provided you have the patience to sit through the entire episode, of course — opposed to a one-and-a-half-hour debate on a legacy media channel like CNN overrun with ads, petty screaming matches and arguably biased moderators.
It is no surprise that more and more adults show less and less faith in mass media. No one knows what’s biased or not; no one knows who or what source to trust anymore. The words “fake news” have been branded into our subconscious by this point! Only 32% of the population reports having “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence that the media reports the news in a full, fair and accurate way; that goes for Republicans, Independents and Democrats! Just a little over 50 years ago, a 1972 poll declared Walter Cronkite — the acclaimed CBS anchor who covered the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. — the most trusted voice in America. We have fallen far since then. With podcasts, the content is much simpler. You just pop in your earbuds and listen to unedited conversation, so there’s less room to take words out of context or see misleading titles and transitions.
I watched Rogan’s interview of Trump and, personally speaking, it’s more interesting, wholesome, unique and genuine than any of the memes and out-of-context clips I’ve seen of him on the internet. Throughout the interview, I heard Trump talk about the policies he wants to implement, why he thinks the election was stolen, potential cabinet picks like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and even his love of the UFC. Nowhere in the interview was Trump screamed at, talked down to or completely shut down. Rogan certainly debated Trump and pushed back on some of his points, but he wasn’t doing it in anger or fragile emotion, he was doing it out of curiosity. This helps the listener to humanize and make informed decisions about Trump and his policies. You don’t have to like the guy, but it’s essential you fully grasp who you’re voting for before you vote for them. That goes for Trump, Harris and even Jill Stein — though I didn’t think she had much of a chance no matter how many of her yard signs her staffers put around campus, and it showed on Election Day.
The same could be said for Harris’ episode on Alex Cooper’s podcast “Call Me Daddy,” a compelling 45-minute-long interview. Despite the shorter runtime, Harris also delved deep into political issues like abortion rights, student loan forgiveness, tax credits for middle-class families and even sexual abuse. She also talked a little bit about herself, including her relationship with her stepchildren and their family dynamic, as well as J.D. Vance’s notable comments about “childless cat ladies.” In this interview as well, I noticed a lot of respect and craft from Cooper as she was interviewing Harris. No smarminess, no shadiness, no sleaziness, just good, pure, old-fashioned interviewing skills that helped get down to the heart of the matter and humanized Harris, her campaign and her issues.
The fact that presidential candidates are discussing their platform openly on podcasts will help increase voter turnout amongst young adults over time. According to a Fortune poll, 53% of 18–29-year-olds said they planned to vote in the Nov. 5 election, compared to 70% of baby boomers. A lot of youngsters with the ability to vote are increasingly discouraged from voting. They don’t see any change happening anytime soon. They don’t see a reason to have faith in their government. They don’t see a reason to have faith in the candidates who say they will restore faith in the government and, unfortunately, it showed on Election Day. The voter turnout for people aged 18-29 was 42% in this election, down 8% from the 2020 election. However, even though voter turnout didn’t increase this election, podcasts could still play a role in increasing it in the future because of their accessible and digestible format. Perhaps after hearing the candidates speak like regular people, more of us will see them as being like regular people, connect to them and maybe even support their agenda at the ballot box.