Hello friends, and welcome to episode 14 on interest groups! We are again returning to the realm of collective action with a focus on groups that exist outside of government but that work to affect public policy. Whether those groups are economic, ideological, or focused on foreign/international policy, they will all work to inform, lobby, and affect campaigns. This episode will explain more about these groups, political action committees (PACs and Super PACs), and address concerns like power and access including zero-sum games. The last 5 minutes are devoted to the challenges we all see with public goods and group projects: free riders and the challenge of collective action. There's just so much that goes with (and frustrates us) about working in groups!

Hi everyone, and welcome back from the midterm and either fall or spring break! We're returning to our discussion of national politics after that test and a few days off, and we begin discussing what are known as collective action politics. Collective action is really thinking about group actions rather than how we behave as political individuals. Our initial topic is political parties: we'll cover the different parties we have (with a focus on the Democratic and Republican parties but we'll also talk about third parties), what is included in party platforms, how parties exist in the electorate and in government, and all about the groups and subgroups associated with certain party identification. This episode is a longer one as I cover all the slides in a single podcast, but you can easily stop around 30 minutes and pick up where you left off!

Hello everyone, welcome to our final podcast episode before the midterm exam! We are continuing our discussion on news and social media with a focus on fake news, media bias, echo chambers, and the levels of trust we have in resources like national news, local news, and social media. This episode is heavy on definitions and examples, so there's a lot of explaining but I also offer suggestions for resources you can use to identify problems like media bias to know what you can trust. Let me know what questions or concerns you have regarding any of these topics and I'll follow up with you as soon as I can!

Hello all, and welcome to the first of our two episodes on news and social media! In today's episode, we're going to talk about the basics: concepts like mass media, news media, and social media as well as investigate our use of different news sources like newspapers, radio, television, and the internet/social media. Unsurprisingly, social media is more and more where we get our news... at least for younger generations. As you work through this episode, please think about how we get our news affects our understanding of what's going on--do people getting news from social media see the world differently from those who watch TV news? Or not?

Howdy all, and welcome to our second episode on voting and elections! In this episode, it's all about the elections baby: the primaries, the generals, and the special elections (as well as that whole invisible primary process). The rules for Congressional elections are quite different than what we do for the presidency--with that office, we run through primaries and caucuses, the national conventions, and of course the Electoral College as part of our selection process. At the end of the day, what we have is mostly a series of first-past-the-post elections that use direct democracy. But there are alternatives out there, in states like Alaska which use majority systems like ranked-choice voting. Our conversations ends on the issue of electoral integrity and fraud. While many think we have widespread election fraud, the evidence we will investigate does not support this. That said, we should be on the lookout in the future... so take your time to do that research if that issue reemerges as a key talking point post-2024!

Hello again all, and welcome to episode 9 which includes our discussion on voting! In this episode, we're going to focus on two key topics: voter turnout, aka who shows up to vote (and who doesn't), and voting rules and procedures, or the processes we are required to follow to vote. Our review of turnout data is interesting to say the least... we can see some big differences in turnout based on age, education level, and household income--but why do these things make such a difference in figuring out if we're a voter or a non-voter? What are our rules for voting? Do you need to register? Can you complete early in-person voting or can you vote by mail? What other factors affect our voting behavior? These are all questions I'd like you to consider as you listen to this podcast and as we move forward next time to our conversation about elections!

Hello students of American National Government, and welcome to our Week 5 podcast episode on public opinion! In this marathon episode (yep, it's just under an hour), we cover all things public opinion-related: concepts like polling (and how to do it well), polling resources like Pew and Gallup, the factors that affect and influence public opinion (particularly socialization, generational effects, and psychological factors like morality pillars and negativity bias), the issue of framing, and then we break down political ideology by demographic subgroups. There is a lot of divide we see in public opinion (known as polarization) but on a lot we are united... so keep that in mind as you wrap up the episode with discussion of our political knowledge, trust, and the debate we'll have during our final week of class!

Hey everybody, and welcome to Week 4 and our discussion of civil rights! This is one huge topic and given that we're going to focus on key concepts: civil rights, public discrimination, private discrimination, equality of opportunity, equality of outcome, and state action. It's important to understand what types of discrimination are and are not allowed under existing law... and that's often going to depend on which groups we define as not covered by the law (e.g. do we base it on age, sex, race, etc.). Our civil rights amendments (the 13th, 14th, and 15th along with the 19th, 24th, and 26th) will outline what limits we have on discrimination but the reality is that many times discrimination is allowed in our political realities when it should not be according to the words of those amendments. To wrap this discussion, I will ask you to complete a timeline on a group of your choosing... covering the history of all groups is simply impossible, but it's important to allow you and others to investigate civil rights more in-depth than we could ever go in class!

Hi folks, and welcome to episode 6, the continuation of our discussion about civil liberties and the Bill of Rights! In this episode, we'll continue our rather crazy journey looking at the status of our rights today by working through the remaining amendments (Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth) as well as the limitations we experience in terms of those rights in times of conflict or crisis. These rights discussions are never dull (in my opinion) whether we are dealing with what is reasonable, definitions of probable cause, trial rights, or exactly what types of punishment we would consider cruel and unusual. As with episode 5, know that we'll be getting into some boundary discussions that certainly can be uncomfortable... and take a breather from the episode when you need it!

Welcome back everyone to episode 5 in our series on American National Government! Episodes 5 and 6 are all about our civil liberties, aka our fundamental individual rights. This podcast is all about the first portions of our Bill of Rights as well as the rights we find in the Constitution itself (habeas corpus, ex post facto protections, and limitations on bills of attainder). In this conversation, I'm going to walk us through the present-day limitations on religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. And we'll quickly also get into the Second Amendment and our limits on the right to keep and bear arms. Truthfully, the limits we find are often established in extreme cases... so buckle up because the ride we're about to jump can be pretty shocking with the ways we've tested the limits of these rights!