The Science of Politics

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**The Science of Politics**

The Niskanen Center’s The Science of Politics podcast features up-and-coming researchers delivering fresh insights on the big trends driving American politics today. Get beyond punditry to data-driven understanding of today’s Washington with host and political scientist Matt Grossmann. Each 30-45-minute episode covers two new cutting-edge studies and interviews two researchers.

We welcome your thoughts on this episode and the podcast as a whole. Please send feedback or suggestions to scienceofpolitics@niskanencenter.org

Latest Episodes:

How well can we predict elections? Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

How well can we predict elections? by Niskanen Center

Data center expansion and the AI backlash Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

Opposition to AI data centers has become the hot 2026 campaign issue. But many data centers are already being built, especially in places with less capacity to object. Will this moment be the start of feasible AI regulation or just empower some to shift development out of their area? Vasundhara Kaul finds that data centers tend to be built in minority communities and places hurting for economic development. Daniel Schiff joins us to discuss the broader implications of the backlash for AI governance. They both say better regulation is possible but does run up against a traditional political constraint: that the powerful tend to offload harms to those without the power to object.

Vulnerable members of Congress localize Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

Many Members of Congress are electorally vulnerable this year. Do they have to moderate to survive? They may have another strategy: going local, pointing to their constituency service and the local interests they are serving. Jaclyn Kaslovsky finds that House members facing difficult elections spend more time at home, introduce more locally focused bills, and shift to serving their constituents. They de-emphasize national policymaking rather than dramatically changing their positions.

Do boots and a truck make candidates Republican? Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Voters now associate brands and lifestyle choices with each partisan side, meaning candidates can use ostensibly non-political signals like attending NASCAR and eating Chick-fil-a to show their loyalties. When do these candidate symbols translate into ideological reputations? Can candidates use the other parties' symbols to attract their voters? Levi Allen finds that voters can intuit partisanship from symbols like cowboy boots and a truck but rely more on partisan and policy information when it is available. Yet a Republican candidate drinking Starbucks and driving a Prius can cost him with Republicans without helping him with Democrats.

Why neither party is fiscally responsible Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Headlines showed U.S. debt passing the $40 trillion mark and bond market jitters. But addressing the debt's quick rise is not a top priority for either party. Were they ever fiscally responsible or were they just paying lip service? And why has it moved even further down the agenda? Derek Epp finds that both parties introduce measures that increase spending and vote to expand the deficit. Republicans do cast more show votes for deficit reduction, but not when they count for policy.

Can housing policy overcome lousy folk economic thinking? Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Housing advocates have won state policy changes and a new federal law. But can they overcome publics that still blame landlords and developers for rising prices. Christopher Elmendorf finds that housing opinions aren’t just a problem of people wanting fewer renters in their backyard. Instead, the public fundamentally misunderstands supply and demand: they don’t believe that more supply would lower prices and instead favor crackdowns on the suppliers.

Inside the Democratic Socialist uprising Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Candidates affiliated with (or sympathetic to) the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA) have recently won several Democratic primaries. Although this rise of the left takes a different form, it draws from prior social movements and Bernie Sanders' presidential candidacies. David Purucker has been both a close observer and a participant. He studied how the DSA makes decisions and organizes. Its electoral role draws from its relationship with the labor movement and other liberal causes. He says this year will raise a lot of questions about how the group responds to electoral success and failure.

The rise of small donors is mostly making politics worse Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

Candidates celebrate when their campaigns are funded by small contributions. Small donors are playing far greater roles in American politics but they are not having the positive envisioned effects. Ray La Raja and Zach Albert find that small donors are just as advantaged, partisan, and extreme as larger donors, but more impulsive, empowering show horse celebrities and norm breakers over consensus-building lawmakers. They want to redirect reformers’ energy toward strengthening political parties and emphasizing local representation.

Can We Make Legislators More Effective? Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

We fear that legislatures are gridlocked and performative, rather than focused on actually passing new laws. But some legislators are consistently more effective than others, at the state and national levels. Can we train legislators to be more effective at advancing their bills? Mackenzie Dobson finds that training programs for state legislators don’t make them more effective than their untrained colleagues. Most of the factors that make legislators more effective are structural: the competition between the parties and the positions they hold. Some of the common advice, find bipartisan partners and become an issue area expert, may not work everywhere.

Will young Americans become long-term democrats? Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Elite polarization may be helping young people sort out their politics but it could also make them misperceive how the other side lives. Delia Baldassarri finds that millennial and gen Z are now aligning their issue positions with partisanship as much as older generations. They are choosing their party more based on cultural and moral issues and, up to now, that’s been helping Democrats. But partisans assume that the other side has more stereotypical social groups and extreme views than they do. So polarization has confused us about how divided we are.

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