After a brief break, Cross Tabs returns with a must-hear conversation between host Farrah Bostic and journalist-pollster Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN’s Editor of Polling and Election Analytics. Ariel shares insights from over a decade of political polling and reporting, shedding light on how polls get designed, interpreted, and communicated—and why public opinion is more nuanced, contradictory, and dynamic than we often assume.

📌 Topic Highlights

How polling serves as a form of large-scale journalism
Question design, framing effects, and the limits of hypothetical polling
Expressive responding and partisanship’s effect on perception
The challenge of polling on emerging topics like AI and crypto
Why polls often fail to capture what people mean when they talk about democracy, education, or trust in government
What polling reveals—and obscures—about voter discontent with both parties

👤 About Our Guest

Ariel Edwards-Levy is the Editor of Polling and Election Analytics at CNN. Previously, she was a senior reporter and polling editor at HuffPost. She is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and was awarded the 2019 Carey McWilliams Award by the American Political Science Association for her journalistic contributions to understanding politics. You can follow her work (and jokes!) on Bluesky.

🔗 Mentioned Resources

CNN Polling Hub: https://www.cnn.com/politics/polling-center
CNN/SSRS polling report: "A record share of Americans want the government to get more done": https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/politics/poll-government-done-party-trust
The Breakthrough Project (CNN, Georgetown, Michigan, SSRS, Verasight): https://breakthrough.cnn.com
Pew Research on AI: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/28/how-the-us-public-and-experts-view-artificial-intelligence
Roper Center for Public Opinion Archives: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu
Brian Schaffner’s research on expressive responding: https://sites.tufts.edu/brianschaffner/publications/

📣 Stay Connected

Like what you heard?

✔️ Subscribe to Cross Tabs wherever you get your podcasts

✔️ Rate and review the show—it helps others find us

✔️ Follow the show on BlueSky

✔️ Watch full episodes on YouTube

✔️ Sign up for the free weekly newsletter: https://crosstabspodcast.com

✔️ Follow Farrah Bostic on BlueSky

✔️ Learn more at: https://thedifferenceengine.co

Rev. Floyd Odom - Revelations 1 2 3