Fluent Politics

Why are modern democracies under such threat? How did civil society become so uncivil, fractious and polarized? And can American governance survive zero-sum politics driven by media echo chambers?

Fluent Politics invites informed, insightful journalists, scholars, politicians and reformers to provide context, depth and nuance on questions and issues of enduring importance. Issues like immigration policy and border security, energy policy and climate change, gun violence and mental health, among other complex issues; but always with attention to the political dynamics complicating consensus and problem solving.

Democracy needs you. But you need your sanity. And so much political coverage is biased and inflammatory. That’s why Fluent Politics strives for accuracy, balance and civility in all our content, avoiding hype, noise, and spin while presenting real knowledge.

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The Purple Principle episode artwork featuring headshot of podcast guest Will Hurd

Election Lessons Unheeded?

Election Lessons Unheeded? Will Hurd on the 2022 election results, congressional factions, and how bipartisan legislation gets passed. “The American people want serious people to solve serious challenges,“ declares former Texas Congressman Will B. Hurd in this season finale on the U.S. House of Representatives. “That’s the lesson we should take away from 2022.”  But…
Read More Election Lessons Unheeded?
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Doug Jones and Bob Corker

Is the Fever Breaking?

Is the Fever Breaking? Two Centrist Senators Doug Jones & Bob Corker on 2020 election results, a divided government, and Senate dynamics. “It appears to me that the fever has broken,” observes Bob Corker, former two-term U.S. Senator from Tennessee, in this episode on the upcoming Congress. ”And it appears to me that there’s gonna…
Read More Is the Fever Breaking?
purple principle episode artwork for 2022 election special programmimg

2022 Elections: Context & Perspective

2022 Elections: Context & Perspective Our best guest insights to keep in mind during these polarizing midterm elections The 2022 election results will consume us all over the coming days, weeks, even months. There are numerous razor-thin races, recounts of recounts and court decisions ahead before a new Congress takes shape. In this episode, The…
Read More 2022 Elections: Context & Perspective
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests matt buxton and doug goodman

Test Driving Ranked Choice Voting

Test Driving Ranked Choice Voting Part of our Season 3 series on state-level polarization and partisanship. After years of effort by many groups and individuals, Alaska is about to be the first state in the country to hold a ranked choice voting election for all representatives, state and federal. But can ranked choice voting moderate…
Read More Test Driving Ranked Choice Voting
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests dr. geraldo cadava, carlos mencia, and cristela alonzo

No Such Thing as The Latino Vote?

No Such Thing as The Latino Vote? Part 3 of our series on understanding Hispanic voters TPP wraps up its series on Hispanic American Swing Voters with three very different yet highly insightful guests: Kicking things off, Northwestern University historian and frequent columnist Geraldo Cadava tells us that both parties have spun overly simplistic narratives…
Read More No Such Thing as The Latino Vote?
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests mike madrid and chuck rocha

Will Latinization Bring Moderation?

Will Latinization Bring Moderation? Part 2 of our series on understanding Hispanic voters How large a role will Hispanic voters play in the 2022 elections and beyond in U.S. politics? (Hint: Huge.)  How are the major parties appealing to this voting bloc characterized by great diversity politically, economically and via country of origin, language, age,…
Read More Will Latinization Bring Moderation?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guests dr. kerry healey and dr. alexander theodoridis

End of Bay State Bipartisanship?

End of Bay State Bipartisanship? Bipartisan Massachusetts may be turning towards national polarization. Massachusetts has long been a bipartisan enigma at the state level, electing moderate GOP governors for 30 of the past 60 years while seating a Democratic legislature.  But the governor’s office is expected to revert to Democrats in 2022 and beyond. In…
Read More End of Bay State Bipartisanship?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest deval patrick

Deval Patrick Talks Governing

Deval Patrick Talks Governing The former Massachusetts Governor on his improbable American journey “There are all kinds of ways in which we, as a community, enable the American story,” says Deval Patrick, implying that too often these success stories, even his own, emphasize only the individual.    A former two-term Democratic Governor of Massachusetts, Patrick was…
Read More Deval Patrick Talks Governing
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guests Brendan Jones, Calvin Schrage, and Liz Ruskin

Less Partisan Elections in Alaska 2022?

Less Partisan Elections in Alaska 2022? Will Final Four voting have a depolarizing effect on elections? In our continuing series on state level polarization, TPP visits the state with the highest percentage of non-partisan voters (58%) on the eve of a potentially less polarizing election: the great state of Alaska. On August 16, 2022, for…
Read More Less Partisan Elections in Alaska 2022?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest andrew heaton

Andrew Heaton on Liberty, Justice, & Satire for All

Andrew Heaton on Liberty, Justice, & Satire for All Can indie-minded political humor break through without alienating polarized audiences? On this second episode featuring great American independents, The Purple Principle sits down with Andrew Heaton, political satirist, author, stand up comedian, podcast host, and let’s not forget small “l” libertarian with a fondness for the…
Read More Andrew Heaton on Liberty, Justice, & Satire for All
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest amy chua

Amy Chua on Political Tribalism

Amy Chua on Political Tribalism Can we balance celebrating our multiculturalism with sharing a national identity? The Purple Principle celebrates Independence Day with its first of two episodes in a mini-series on America’s great independent voices. Amy Chua, perhaps best known by her bestselling Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, launches our exploration of figures…
Read More Amy Chua on Political Tribalism
purple princple episode artwork with headshots of podcast guest Gustavo Arellano

2022 California Primaries by Faction & Tortilla

2022 California Primaries by Faction & Tortilla Part 2 of our California series with Gustavo Arellano If California progressives were a tortilla brand, they’d be delicious but expensive and inaccessible. By contrast, establishment Democratic tortillas would be ubiquitous but just moderately tasty. And Republican tortillas would be less widely available and pretty much tasteless… Is…
Read More 2022 California Primaries by Faction & Tortilla
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests dr. adrienne jones, ken lawler, and dr. charles bullock

Georgia On All Our Minds

Georgia On All Our Minds How is polarization affecting politics in the Peach State? It seems like all political roads lead to Georgia these days. The Peach State was so pivotal in the 2020 election of Joe Biden and soon after in the 2021 runoff election of two Democratic senators from a state in the…
Read More Georgia On All Our Minds
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest monica guzmán

Like Family, Like Nation: A Braver Angel

Like Family, Like Nation: A Braver Angel Author & Bridge Builder Mónica Guzmán Mediates Polarization At Home & Nationwide Our TPP guest this episode, Mónica Guzmán of Braver Angels, is a fascinating conversationalist who knows how to stop a conversation, particularly among blue-leaning Seattle friends and colleagues discussing politics. As she recounts in our interview,…
Read More Like Family, Like Nation: A Braver Angel
purple principle episode artwork for texas mini-series finale

Is Texas the Future of America?

Is Texas the Future of America? Our Texas Mini-Series Finale The Purple Principle brings its seven-part series on politics and identity in the already huge, yet fast-growing Lone Star State to conclusion with a guided tour of key insights from notable “Texperts” in all six episodes.  Read More The series began with the operative question:…
Read More Is Texas the Future of America?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Will Hurd

A New American Operating System?

A New American Operating System? Part 6 of our Texas series with Former Congressman Will Hurd. Purple Principle listeners know these not so United States need a new political operating system. But who’s going to code it? Based on a great new book, American Reboot (just out from Simon & Schuster), and our TPP conversation,…
Read More A New American Operating System?

Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity

Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity Part 4 of our Texas series with Dr. Henry Cisneros and Dr. Sharon Navarro on the competing identities of Hispanic Texans. The Purple Principle is visiting the Lone Star State throughout the month of March 2022 and wondering if the famously strong Texas identity is holding up under the powerful…
Read More Polarized Politics & Hispanic Identity
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Dr. James Hensen, Stephen Hawkins, and Paul Oshinski

Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics?

Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics? Part 3 of our Texas series with James Henson of The Texas Politics Project on polling, and More in Common’s Stephen Hawkins and Paul Oshinski on the seven “threads” of Texan identity. Is democracy still democracy when one party wins all the elections?  That’s a question we’ll be asking…
Read More Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of Dan Goodgame

Strongest Identity of Them Y’all?

Strongest Identity of Them Y’all? Part 2 of our Texas series with Texas Monthly’s Dan Goodgame on the continued strength of the Texas identity Texas has long had one of the most powerful and vocal identities of any American state. But how’s that unique Texas pride faring under the homogenizing power of polarization? Are more…
Read More Strongest Identity of Them Y’all?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guests jason whitely and jason wheeler

Messing with that Texas Identity?

Messing with that Texas Identity? Part 1 of our Texas series with Y’all-itics Hosts Jason Whitely and Jason Wheeler on Polarization in the Lone Star State The Purple Principle kicks off its extended Season Three series on state level polarization with a mini-series on the great state of Texas. And who better to discuss Texas…
Read More Messing with that Texas Identity?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Michael Smerconish

Voice of Reason for Independent Minds

Voice of Reason for Independent Minds Talking Media & Polarization With CNN’s Michael Smerconish “I have been paying attention for thirty years,” CNN and SiriusXM host & commentator Michael Smerconish tells us. “And during that time the country has been driven into a partisan ditch.” A well-known visage from his CNN show, Smerconish is also…
Read More Voice of Reason for Independent Minds
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Tom Nichols

The United States of Narcissism?

The United States of Narcissism? Author Tom Nichols on the risk Americans present to our own democracy “If we believe democracy has failed us,” writes author and scholar Tom Nichols in his latest book, Our Own Worst Enemy, “we should first ask ourselves whether we have failed the test of democracy.”   In this Purple Principle…
Read More The United States of Narcissism?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest sarah longwell

Wait, I’m Not the Crazy One!

Wait, I’m Not the Crazy One! Sarah Longwell, Conservative Watchdog Of Republican Sanity “I’m watching everybody slowly turn into a pro-Trump zombie that I’ve ever worked with or been around; everyone’s doing their rationalizations.” So recalls special guest this episode, Sarah Longwell, conservative strategist turned watchdog of Republican populism as Executive Director of the Republican…
Read More Wait, I’m Not the Crazy One!
purple principle episode artwork for part I of season finale featuring the top guest insights for 2021

Speaking Truth in Polarized Times

Top Guest Insights From 2021 Speaking Truth In Polarized Times The year 2021 would certainly be worth forgetting if its worst elements weren’t so clearly continuing on into the New Year 2022 and very likely beyond: the Omicron surge, the worst U.S. inflation in decades, and the maelstrom of misinformation swirling around the clear benefits…
Read More Speaking Truth in Polarized Times
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Dr. Dominique Packer

Holiday Survival Kit (Part 3)

Identity With All The Trimmings Celebration & Polarization: Part 3 Can a German town be socially divided by sneakers? Or the Canadian landmass united by a beer commercial? And is US individualism more a group identity than its ardently individualistic citizens would ever admit?  Read More Tune in to the third and final episode in…
Read More Holiday Survival Kit (Part 3)
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Dr. Lee McIntyre

Holiday Survival Kit (Part 2)

When Anti-Science Makes The Menu Celebration & Polarization: Part 2 It’s tempting to think of anti-science sentiments, such as the current pushback against COVID vaccination, as the disparate sum of misinformed individuals. But Lee McIntyre, author of the recent book How to Talk To A Science Denier has found otherwise.  “All science denial is really…
Read More Holiday Survival Kit (Part 2)
purple principle episode artwork featuring headshot of podcast guest Tania Israel

Holiday Survival Kit (Part 1)

Deflating Political Football Celebration & Polarization: Part 1 Are we Americans trapped in our end zones of polarized bubbles ever more motivated to reason away conflicting information or viewpoints? Our featured guest, psychologist Tania Israel, thinks not and she should know. Dr. Israel has been holding workshops over the past two-plus decades to help participants…
Read More Holiday Survival Kit (Part 1)
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest david mandel

Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 3

Hail the Flip-Flopping Egomania of Veep Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 3 HBO’s Veep, starring Julia Louis Dreyfuss, is quite likely the most successful American political satire in television history. Yet, in seven seasons, the show never mentions the party labels “Democrat” or  “Republican,” instead using terms like “the enemy camp” or,  more…
Read More Hollywood Presidents for a Partisan Nation, Part 3
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers

Amazing Grace For Our Partisan Times

Amazing Grace For Our Partisan Times Sarah and Beth, Creators of Pantsuit Politics Is it possible to have grace-filled conversations during these ingracious times of ours?  After 500 episodes heard by hundreds of thousands of listeners, Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers, the Kentucky-based creators of Pantsuit Politics, can decisively say that it is. In…
Read More Amazing Grace For Our Partisan Times
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest dr. omar ali

Liberty & Justice For Some

Liberty & Justice For Some Two Centuries Of Independent Black Leaders & Movements Here’s a seemingly inexplicable historical event: How did the anti-slavery Republican party take the White House in 1861, only six years after its formation?  Thanks to the work of our special guest, Dr. Omar Ali, historian at UNC-Greensboro, we know this accomplishment…
Read More Liberty & Justice For Some
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Michael Moffett, Laura Hammack, Hannah McCarthy, and Nick Capodice.

A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization?

A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization? New Vitality In Education & Legislation Is civics education in the U.S. having a moment, as in a long overdue upgrade, for a topic essential to our democracy? And will that moment translate into more substantial education on the rights and obligations of our citizens and voters-to-be at the…
Read More A Civic Way to Reverse Polarization?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Thomas Edsall

Woking up to Backlash

Woking up to Backlash New York Times Columnist Thomas Edsall on Reason & Responsibility in Polarized Politics “The rise of the conservative movement on the right and the decline of liberalism on the left have been  a preoccupation of mine for 40 years or more,” Thomas Edsall confides in our latest Season Two episode, “Woking…
Read More Woking up to Backlash
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of new co-host jillian youngblood

Passing the Mic

Passing the Mic New Co-Host Jillian Youngblood Gets A Bit Of Purple Orientation This bonus episode features the passing of the ceremonial mic from Emily Crocetti to our new co-host, Jillian Youngblood, Executive Director of Civic Genius. After a full year and 35 episodes, Emily is moving onto a newspaper position in a breathtakingly beautiful…
Read More Passing the Mic
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Chris Bail

Nicest Troll in Town

Nicest Troll in Town On- and Offline identity, Extremism, and Polarization Social media is not fundamentally a source of information or a competition of ideas, but a competition of identities.  With that and other provocative findings, Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of Breaking the Social Media Prism (Princeton…
Read More Nicest Troll in Town
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Dr. Peter Coleman

Embrace Complexity To Overcome Polarization

Embrace Complexity To Overcome Polarization Discussing a Way Out with Dr. Peter Coleman of The Difficult Conversations Lab Police reform, gun violence, global warming… When did you last have a civil, informative, productive conversation with someone of differing opinions on any of these hugely important but instantly polarizing topics? In the current U.S. political climate,…
Read More Embrace Complexity To Overcome Polarization
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests dr. doni whitsett, dr. steven hassan, and rachel bernstein

Online Conspiracies and Virtual Cults

Online Conspiracies and Virtual Cults Social Extremes In Our Hyperpartisan Age Our digital universe is full of information, and misinformation, swirling about constantly, sampled in bits and bytes, most of it rarely gaining more than passing attention.  How then does misinformation swirl up into a popular conspiracy theory? How do some conspiracy theories, such as…
Read More Online Conspiracies and Virtual Cults
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Dr. Jeanine Guidry

What combats Vax Skepticism?

What combats Vax Skepticism? An Interview with Dr. Jeanine Guidry, Director of VCU’s Health & Media Lab Battling the COVID pandemic has been a war on many fronts – disease management, the race to develop safe, effective vaccines, and now the equally trickly public relations battle against vaccine misinformation and committed skeptics of all kinds….
Read More What combats Vax Skepticism?
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Katherine Gehl

The Politics Industry at Work

The Politics Industry at Work And How Would You Like Your Gridlock? Our national legislative agenda hinges on any one Senator’s vote or abstention or last minute demand… A few months into term and the majority of U.S. House Members already anticipate their next primary battle… Meanwhile, bridges crumble, the border crisis deepens, and gun…
Read More The Politics Industry at Work
purple principle episode artwork with heashot of podcast guests Adam Jentleson and Richard Arenberg

The Senate Filibuster

The Senate Filibuster Weapon Of Obstruction Or Shield Against Polarization? The U.S. system of government is commonly known as one of checks and balances. But a careful review of legislative efforts over the past century might need to revise that description to checks and balances and filibusters.  Read More In this episode of The Purple…
Read More The Senate Filibuster

We’re Polarized: Now What?

We’re Polarized: Now What? The Hard Work Of Depolarization To some degree all Americans realize we’ve become more polarized in recent times. Those at one extreme obsess about the other, while those of us between the extremes wonder if that incessant tug of war will fray our social fabric to the breaking point. Read More…
Read More We’re Polarized: Now What?

Polarization as Plague

Polarization as Plague Season One Finale (Part One) A first presidential impeachment… the COVID pandemic with great dissension over shutdowns, social distancing and mask-wearing…Then our hotly contested 2020 election followed by major efforts at election reversal, culminating with insurrection and a second impeachment trial…  It’s been quite a year, much too full of subject matter…
Read More Polarization as Plague
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Brian Schaffner and Nathalie Jackson

2020 Polling in Hindsight

2020 Polling in Hindsight Someone Please Answer the Phone Anyone casually following the 2020 election this year may have noticed a particular pattern in polling trends and election results. That pattern, in key presidential states as well as Senate races, went something like this:  Democrat ahead… Democrats still ahead… Democrat a bit ahead, days away…
Read More 2020 Polling in Hindsight
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Stephen Hawkins and Andrew Gelman

Polarization at the Tipping Point

Polarization at the Tipping Point The Long Term and Wide Angled Views A Major Pandemic… Election 2020 that lasted weeks… And Election Denial 2020 is still going months later… Then Insurrection… Impeachment… And possibly more to come.  There’s been a lot of polarized events, responses and counter-responses over the past few months. So it seems…
Read More Polarization at the Tipping Point
purple principle episode artwork with headshots of podcast guests Avinash Bakshi and Tyler Swanson.

Civil Society and Campus Politics

Civil Society and Campus Politics Two Collegians Take on Polarization Colleges have come to be known as havens for divisive politics, cancel culture, and trollism, all miserably co-existing with academic stress, social pressure and stale pizza. In Episode 18, “Civil Society and Campus Politics.” The Purple Principle profiles two college students pushing back against the…
Read More Civil Society and Campus Politics
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Geoffrey Kabaservice

Party Dynamics and the 2020 Election

Party Dynamics and The 2020 Election Inaccurate polling… Surprising split-ticket results… Denial of election results by large numbers of Republican voters and representatives in Congress… There have been plenty of head scratching if not jaw-dropping developments related to the 2020 election. In Episode 17, “Party Dynamics in Context,” we turn to noted author and columnist,…
Read More Party Dynamics and the 2020 Election
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest trevor potter

Democracy & Elections Under Stress

Democracy & Elections Under Stress  A Discussion With Trevor Potter Of The Campaign Legal Center The 2020 election has revealed the partisan state of American politics and society like no other event in recent history. How did we get to this point? Our special guest today, Trevor Potter, Founder and President of the Campaign Legal…
Read More Democracy & Elections Under Stress
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest paul muldoon

The Second Coming Turns 100

The Second Coming Turns 100  A Discussion of W.B. Yeats’ Classic Poem of Polarization with Pulitzer winner Paul Muldoon How does a century-old poem written in Ireland as European civil wars erupted in the aftermath of  World War I still resonate as if written for our own partisan era? That is the central question The…
Read More The Second Coming Turns 100
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest shea siegert

Declaration of Independents, Alaska Style

Declaration of Independents, Alaska Style  Ballot Question Two Takes on Political Partisanship The great state of Alaska is different in many ways – its vast size (two and a half times the size of Texas), low population (730,000) and great distance from “the lower 48” (states), with a thousand miles of Canadian territory in-between.  Politics…
Read More Declaration of Independents, Alaska Style
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest David Krucoff

A Non-partisan Candidate for Congress

Non-Partisan David vs. D.C. Goliath  Discussion With David Krucoff Washington, D.C. is a living museum of political stalemates – the recent COVID relief talks, the decades long deadlock on immigration reform, but also the centuries long impasse over voting representation in Congress for D.C. citizens.  Read More Independent candidate David Krucoff is running for the…
Read More A Non-partisan Candidate for Congress
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Shane Mauss

Science, Comedy & Partisanship

Science, Comedy & Partisanship  Shane Mauss Stands up and Speaks Out What makes a stand-up comedian wake up one day and decide comedy needs more science? Or science needs more comedy?  A road comic for 13 years, Shane Mauss made one or both of these enlightened decisions five plus years ago in launching his science…
Read More Science, Comedy & Partisanship
purple principle episode artwork with headshot of podcast guest Dr. Andrew Smith

2020 Election Polling

2020 Election Polling  The Science & Psychology Of Polls In A Partisan Age During this 2020 election season, not a day goes by without another new Presidential poll result blaring from the cable networks and rebounding across the Web. But how accurate are these polls? What has been learned from the 2016 polling fiasco where many…
Read More 2020 Election Polling

The Brain on Partisan Politics

The Brain on Partisan Politics  Why Not So Great Minds Polarize Alike with NYU Scientist, Dr. Jay Van Bavel  Let’s say, for the sake of Episode 9 (The Brain on Partisan Politics), that identical twins are separated at birth and raised in very different families, politically speaking: one deep blue, the other deep red. They’re…
Read More The Brain on Partisan Politics
Artwork for Purple Principle Episode 8, featuring Myq Kaplan

Comedy & Partisanship

Comedy & Partisanship The Transcendent Laugh With Special Guest, Myq Kaplan Ok, Comedians, make America laugh with surprising, original jokes that offend absolutely no one and work equally well in our very blue, very red and very antagonized parts of the country… to the Purple Principle team, that seemed a near-impossible challenge in today’s partisan environment. …
Read More Comedy & Partisanship
purple principle artwork for season 1, episode 7, featuring Jason Altmire and purple principle logo.

Congress and Partisanship

The Outlook From Dead Center Congress and Partisanship With Former US Congressman, Jason Altmire Did you hear the one about bipartisanship? Two opposing congressmen walk into a town hall…and civil discussion breaks out.  Hard to believe in the current climate, but former three-term Congressman Jason Altmire recounts the origin and unfortunate demise of these bipartisan…
Read More Congress and Partisanship
episode artwork for purple principle episode 6. head shot of dr. robert elliott smith and purple principle logo.

Social Media & Partisanship

Social Media & Partisanship Polarizing Algorithms And A Blind Date With Dividends How do social media algorithms feed us news, entertainment, advertisements, even suggesting friends and lovers? By grossly simplifying human nature, according to featured guest Dr. Robert Elliott Smith, Research Fellow in Computer Science at University College London and author of Rage Inside the…
Read More Social Media & Partisanship
episode artwork purple principle season 1 episode 5. headshot of dr. dominik stecula of university of colorado. image is of his headshot, name and title, and the purple principle logo

Broadcast Media and Partisanship

Broadcast Media and Partisanship Side of Spin with Your Nightly News, with Dr. Dominik Stecula What the heck happened to broadcast news in recent decades? That is the burning question we ask of Dr. Dominik Stecula, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University and expert on broadcast media trends in the US over…
Read More Broadcast Media and Partisanship
episode artwork for the purple principle season 1 episode 4, titled heard from the herd, featuring dr. abigail marsh of georgetown university. image is of her headshot, the purple principle logo, and the episode number

Heard from the Herd

Heard from the herd Psychology and Partisanship, featuring Dr. Abigail Marsh, author of The Fear Factor; Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Georgetown University Are we all getting a little too musk ox these days?  In this interview-based episode, Dr. Abigail Marsh explains the centrality of fear in human behavior, motivating any social species (whether musk…
Read More Heard from the Herd
episode artwork for season 1, episode 3, america's independent voters and voices. features headshots of jacqueline salit, john opdycke, thom reilly, and laura sibilia

America’s Independent Voters and Voices

America’s Independent Voters and Voices The Forty Million Missing By most measures, the US has over 40 million independent or unaffiliated voters representing a third or more of the electorate. Yet despite large and growing numbers, independents are often missing from the national conversation.   Independents have no cable channel or national newspaper. You rarely encounter…
Read More America’s Independent Voters and Voices
episode artwork for season 1, episode 1, partisanship from all angles: priming with purple

Partisanship from All Angles

Partisanship from All Angles Priming With Purple How did these United States get so thoroughly partisan? How do we get less partisan? Can independent-minded Americans help bridge the divide?  These questions lie behind this first and every episode of The Purple Principle, a podcast about the perils of partisanship in US politics, society and daily…
Read More Partisanship from All Angles
episode artwork for the purple principle season 1 episode 2, titled the front lines of partisanship with charles wheelan. features dr. wheelan's photo and the purple principle logo

Front Lines of Partisanship

Front Lines of Partisanship With Dr. Charles Wheelan from Unite America In Episode 2, our guests include a former Republican speechwriter, a former centrist Democratic congressional candidate, a former Economist Magazine correspondent, a current Professor of Public Policy (Dartmouth College) and the founder of the non-partisan group, Unite America…. Lots of guests for one podcast?…
Read More Front Lines of Partisanship