Welcome to Third Party Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at third parties: who runs for a third party bid, who votes for a third party, and how much do third party candidates really matter?

Today: Semafor's Dave Weigel joins us to break down the basics of third party bids, from the candidates who are running to shape policy, to those who are running to boost their ego. Later this week we'll dive into a few specific third party candidates through history.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia