Podcasts, Conservative Identity Politics, and the 2024 Election

In recent years, podcasts have soared in their prominence as media for audio communication. The 2024 U.S. presidential election provides a case for which podcasts proved crucial in the average American’s consumption of electoral information. In the days leading up to this election, we fielded a web-based survey questionnaire asking respondents about their presidential vote choice, political attitudes, podcast selection, and podcast use. We find these variables linked in significant ways, such that: (a) conservative and right-leaning entertainment podcast use is significantly linked to conservative identity politics about race and gender, (b) conservative identity politics about race and gender are linked to candidate preference (for Trump), and (c) surprisingly, left-leaning liberal podcast use is not directly associated with liberal identity politics about race and gender after controlling for partisanship, but are directly linked to more support for Harris. Our study demonstrates the importance of podcasts as spaces for news seekers and entertainment seekers to learn political information, and also how podcast use can be associated with sociopolitical attitudes and identity politics.