The NPR Politics Podcast

The NPR Politics Podcast provides a platform for NPR’s top political reports to not just explain the news coming out of Washington and the campaign trail but to look at it from different angles and contextualize it for listeners. They borrow their format from NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, hearing an opinion and take from each reporter on a given subject.

‍

Surprisingly, although they’re offering their opinions, the podcast manages to stay relatively free of bias and provide a canvas of bi-partisian opinions. It can tend to lean a little left on the political spectrum but the hosts are engaging in honest journalism, not punditry and conjecture like a lot of other politics focused podcasts. I love the camaraderie between the NPR reporters. You can tell they are really enjoying themselves, and that makes the podcast more engaging. And when they do find themselves engaging in biased reporting or not providing the full picture, they always make an effort to call themselves on it and reel it in.

‍

As political podcasts go, it tends to mainly cover the surface material. A lot of politics podcasts find themselves deep in the weeds, ripping apart and questioning the fabric on which all of our politics were built-- this podcast isn’t that deep. They share what’s going on, and they share their individual takes on what it could mean for what’s coming up, but beyond that they avoid going as deep as some other political podcasts-- this could be considered a pro or a con based on what you’re looking for.