The Focus Group Podcast

Latest Episodes:

S5 Ep1: The Caretaker Presidency (with Evan Osnos) Jan 18, 2025

Show notes

As Joe Biden leaves office, we're taking one last look at his presidency, and what we've heard said about him since 2020. The New Yorker's Evan Osnos joins Sarah to recap his interviews with Biden over the years and discusses his legacy.
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Show notes:
By Evan Osnos:
Joe Biden's Last Campaign
Joe Biden: The Life, the Presidency, and What Matters Now
Wildland: The Making of America's Fury

S4 Ep62: It's Not Like a Newscast (with Tim Miller) Dec 21, 2024

Show notes

The podcast-sphere was one of the most covered stories of the 2024 election, with Joe Rogan standing above all. Podcaster extraordinaires Sarah and Tim turn over why this medium is appealing to the newest Trump voters (specifically the Rogan fans), and what our new long-form world means for the future of politics.

S4 Ep61: Hate Was Up, Prices Were Down (with Marc Caputo) Dec 14, 2024

Show notes

We've spent plenty of time on this show discussing what Donald Trump's newest voters found wanting about Democrats in the 2024 election. This week, we're turning our attention to their affirmative case for Trump. The Bulwark's MAGA-world correspondent, Marc Caputo joins Sarah to hear them out.
show notes
The NYT's DealBook summit Sarah referenced
Harvard Kennedy School's recent election forum that Marc referenced

S4 Ep60: An 'Unserious' Show (with Jonathan V. Last) Dec 07, 2024

Show notes

We've got (Thanksgiving) leftover focus group sound we didn't get to last week. Sarah's best friend Jonathan V. Last makes his vengeful return to the show to work through his thoughts (and the voters' thoughts) on the 2024 election, and he and Sarah parry over just how serious this country is anymore. It gets spicy.

S4 Ep59: "Beyoncé Ain't Paying My Bills, B*tch." (with Astead Herndon) Nov 30, 2024

Show notes

The Focus Group Podcast is back for a post-election autopsy. We're starting with a deep dive on how Donald Trump's newest voters found Kamala Harris and the Democrats lacking. Astead Herndon, host of The New York Times podcast The Run-Up joins Sarah to write a first draft of how we got here.
show notes
The Run-Up: The Democrats' Plan to Get Skeptics on Their Side
The Run-Up: Kamala Harris on Kamala Harris
The Bulwark's Bleak Friday Sale

S4 Ep58: How [He/She] Wins (with Ron Brownstein) Nov 02, 2024

Show notes

The polls are close enough that this election could go either way. But whatever happens, the focus groups over the last year-plus have given some clues about what's motivating the swing voters voting for Trump, and those voting for Harris. Atlantic senior editor Ron Brownstein joins Sarah to listen to voters and what the Trump and Harris coalitions might look like.
show notes
By Ron Brownstein:
The Democratic Theory of Winning With Less
The Improbable Coalition That Is Harris’s Best Hope

S4 Ep57: Keystone State of the Race (with Holly Otterbein) Oct 26, 2024

Show notes

There's one thing Republican and Democratic strategists all agree on right now: no state is more likely to decide this election than Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania-based POLITICO reporter Holly Otterbein joins Sarah to break down Pennsylvania's shift to the right in recent years, and why Democratic Sen. Bob Casey is finding himself in a surprisingly close race.
Show Notes:
Spotlight PA: Democrats in Pa. approach 2024 election with slimmest voter registration advantage in decades
By Holly Otterbein:
Harris ramps up her appeals to Republican voters in the Philly suburbs
‘Pennsylvania is such a mess’: Inside Team Harris’ unusual levels of finger-pointing
Dems see warning signs for Harris with Latino men in Pennsylvania

S4 Ep56: Senate GOP Vote Desert (with Jon Ralston and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez) Oct 19, 2024

Show notes

Donald Trump may well win both Arizona and Nevada, but Republican Senate candidates there are on the struggle bus. Jon Ralston of the Nevada Independent joins to break down Sarah's recent focus groups with PBS in Nevada, and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of the Washington Post discusses Arizona's abortion rights referendum and Kari Lake's comeback attempt in the U.S. Senate race.
Editor's note: This episode was taped before the October 17 release of Ruben and Kate Gallego's divorce records.

S4 Ep55: Great Lakes, "Meh" Candidates (with Craig Gilbert and Craig Mauger) Oct 12, 2024

Show notes

Michigan and Wisconsin aren't just presidential battlegrounds; their Senate races are getting more competitive down the stretch. So how are swing voters thinking about their options?
Craig Gilbert, former DC bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Craig Mauger, political reporter for the Detroit News, join Sarah to break down the electoral landscape in the upper midwest.
Show notes:
By Craig Gilbert: What polling tells us about Wisconsin's undecided voters
The Bulwark's Swing State Swing

S4 Ep54: The Grandpa vs. the Slimy Lawyer (with John Heilemann) Oct 05, 2024

Show notes

The pundit class thought JD Vance performed better than Tim Walz in the vice presidential debate. Voters thought Vance was a good performer, but they couldn't quite shake their skepticism. Puck News's John Heilemann joins Sarah to review voters' reactions to the VP debate and the history of VP picks more broadly.

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