The Top US Election Podcasts to Follow in 2024

How Podcasts Stack Up Across the Political Spectrum

Many avoid politics like the plague, whereas others just can’t get enough. I am one of those “can’t get enough” listeners. In the 2024 US election cycle, political podcasts provide one of the richest sources of conversation and insights, helping shape political opinion while offering a unique platform for long-form conversations that haven’t existed in previous election cycles. 

With the 2024 general election on the horizon, we’ve compiled a list of 65 political podcasts covering the US elections and segmented them by sentiment. To lead off, let’s look at the political podcasts vertical from a bird’s eye view.

The goal is to remain as A-political as possible while unveiling key insights into the political podcast space. 

If you’re here for the podcasts and not the data, here are some lists of political podcasts for you to binge: 

• 2024 US Election Podcasts | Podcast List on Podchaser (Sectioned by Sentiment)
• Best Conservative Podcasts | Podcast List on Podchaser
• Best Liberal Politics Podcasts | Podcast List on Podchaser
• Best Podcasts about Politics | Podcast List on Podchaser

Bird’s eye view of US Political Podcasts: 

• Of the 65 shows, 43 skewed toward the 18-24 age bracket, showing that young listeners are tuning into podcasts for political news and, more often, political conversation. 
• The total reach of the 65 shows across the political spectrum is 275,232,825
  • Median reach 1,453,891
• Over half, or 34 of the 65 shows skewed toward “non-parent” listeners 
• Political podcast listeners across the political spectrum are highly educated, with 50 of the 65 shows marking listeners as mostly highly educated or with a bachelor’s degree+ 
• Of the 65 shows, the highest brand affinity was for NPR and the Associated Press, with Walt Disney and Wikileaks following with a close second and third. 

Examining Political Podcast Sentiment

We used Podchaser Pros’ database and collections feature to analyze this list of 65 popular political podcasts, from transcript mentions to titles and descriptions, over the last 90 days.

Leveraging data from social graph, we’ve uncovered the following key points of influence with each audience: 

Left-Leaning Podcasts | Podcasts with reporting or content skewed toward conversation and reporting on left-leaning issues, politicians, and key news issues.

Listener influences from Podchaser Data: 

• Former Presidents or presidential candidates like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren marked as the highest influence individuals with this audience 
• MSNBC Hosts Lawrence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow, and Chris Hayes ranked as top points of influence across this side of the political spectrum  
• Political commentators and established political podcasters like Ezra Klein ranked high, with Jon Favreau and John Lovett ranking especially high with Crooked Media listeners. 

Right-Leaning Podcasts | Podcasts with a reporting or content skew toward conversation and reporting on right-leaning issues.

Listener influences from Podchaser Data: 

• Former Presidents or presidential candidates like Donald J. Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio marked as the highest influence individuals with this audience 
• Conservative-leaning TV hosts like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, Dana Perino, and Dana Loesch are ranked as top points of influence across this side of the political spectrum. Many of these hosts have left their television audiences behind favoring the podcast medium. 
• Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder ranked as the highest individual points of influence with this audience.

Alternative Media Podcasts | Podcasts with a reporting or content skew toward conversation and reporting on issues that the right and left tend to miss or not report on due to sensitive content nature or lack of interest with their audience.

Listener influences from Podchaser Data: 

• Names like Cenk Uygur and Anna Kasparian of the Young Turks – formerly alternative media vanguards are now legacy names in the space with high influence marks with these podcast listeners. 
• HBO television host Bill Maher and popular science media personality Neil deGrasse Tyson also held high influencer marks on this show.  

The Impact of Podcasts on Political Conversations

Whether left, right, or center, the political podcast space has created a diverse ecosystem of voices and opinions covering all of the political spectrum. Unlike traditional media, you’ll find former top-rated TV hosts on the same list as independent content creators. This demonstrates the openness of political speech in the podcast space, allowing more voices to share their opinions. 

What sets podcasts apart is their unique ability to foster lengthy, meaningful conversations around complex topics. Podcasts allow for a deeper dive than the brief overviews often found in traditional media, encouraging listeners to think critically while offering podcasters a platform to go beyond the headlines.

How Campaigns and Elections Professionals Can Use Our Data

Beyond lists of binge-able podcast content, Podchaser data offers unique insights that public affairs, campaigns, and election workers can use to mobilize an audience around a cause in 2024.

With Podchaser Pro, you’ll gain access to: 

• Voter activation efforts, issue campaigns, and eventual get-out-the-vote or “GOTV” efforts can utilize our reach and audience information to target podcasts by age, parental status, and gender
• Verified podcaster contact information to pitch your candidate or campaign to shows of interest
• Brand Safety data, leveraging Podchaser transcription technology, you’ll uncover whether a podcast’s content aligns with your desired image and tone.
• Estimated Ad Rate Card information so political ads professionals don’t go into negotiations blind 

Monitoring Political Podcasts in 2024

It’s impossible to listen to all the political podcast content out there, but by using Podchaser’s transcriptions and pairing them with our one-of-a-kind, advanced database of audience insights, you can easily pull insights for the political podcast ecosystem in one place. 

This research into US election Podcasts is just a glimpse at the power available when you partner with Podchaser. This same methodology can be used in various PR and brand marketing contexts, such as market intelligence, competitor analysis, and more. 

One of the most robust use cases is podcast sponsor data, so we’ve built that into Podchaser Pro with our Sponsor History add-on.

Learn more about Podchaser Pro.

Request info about Podchaser’s podcast API.