Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen

Barring an unfathomable election day surprise, the thirty-four-year-old Zohran Mamdani will be moving into New York City's Gracie Mansion in January. The Democratic Socialist has made extraordinary promises to the citizens of the nation's largest city, and it's about time to start weighing the implications. To that end, Henry sits down with E.J. McMahon of the Manhattan Institute. The two discuss the executive powers of the office itself, along with the various bodies (from the city council to the state house and up to the White House) that will either help or hinder the frontrunner's grand plans.

Listeners of this podcast have surely spent an election day evening glued to a screen as they watched results trickle in. But have you ever wondered how those results are disseminated? Or how races are called ahead of the final count? To get us up to speed on the process, Henry chats with Michael Prusser and Geoffrey Skelley of the preeminent election results provider, Decision Desk HQ. Tune in for a fascinating discussion on how data-driven political animals work around the clock to get you the right election results faster than ever — and stay tuned til the end if you're interested in what experts will be looking for as votes come in from Virginia and New Jersey.

We're one week into the government shutdown, and every day it remains thus Democrats have reason to fear what OMB Director Russ "The Reaper" Vought is planning. This is only the latest development that has conservatives optimistic about the prospects of an American restoration. To that end, Henry chats with Eric Teetsel, CEO of the Center for Renewing America. Eric explains the CRA's founding under Vought in 2021 and what they're up to today, now that the MAGA movement has its people back in the White House.

Federal employees may be out of the office indefinitely, but politics breaks for no one in America. So Henry is back with a rant to keep us up on the unsettled terrain that partisans are clamouring over. He looks into how the government shutdown blame game might play out; he dives into the latest Economist/YouGov public opinion data to disentangle the issues that animate partisans and moderates; and then leaves the drama of Washington aside to check in on the approaching races in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.

The great trouble with contemporary polling comes down to drawing a representative analysis from one-word responses. It's not just polling sceptics that have noticed this limitation, which is why Scott Rasmussen of the Napolitan Institute teamed up with Yasmin Green, CEO of Google AI incubator Jigsaw, to create the We the People project ahead of our nation's 250th birthday. The initiative incorporates chatbot technology to draw Americans from all 435 congressional districts into a conversation that allows them to voice their nuanced takes on American politics and to add substance to their stances.  Henry sits down with the duo to hear more about the just-launched program to hear more about the exciting program and the good news that has emerged from their early findings.

If you've ever been of the habit this time of year to watch primetime professional football, you will have certainly encountered today's guest, Michele Tafoya. What you may not have known was that she was an astute observer of American politics. Now, with the NBC Sunday Night Football days behind her, Michele hosts her own podcast to discuss the matters she once had to keep off the field. Michele sat down with Henry to discuss her political awakening and conversion to conservatism; her frustrations with what the DFL has done to her beloved Minnesota; and the nudges she receives to throw her hat in the ring as a candidate.

The game has changed, and it's time to throw out the old playbook. So asserts Chris Hayes, host of  MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," in his latest book, The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource. He and Henry sat down on Wednesday to discuss the most fought-after commodity of the Digital Age: attention. They explore how our sleek modern tools have altered the way campaigns are executed, and why the political winners of this century will be those who can wield the gadgets of the future while possessing the ancient charisma that moves the people.

Norwegian polls close on Monday, and a whopping 10 parties are vying to expand their share of the 169 seats in the nation's parliamentary body, the Storting. Nils Andresen of Minerva, Norway's conservative periodical, joins Henry to discuss the tightening race between the dominant Red-Green and Civic Bloc coalitions, as well as the internal shuffling among their constituents. Tune in for a survey of the Labour Party's late recovery and the rise of the right-populist Progress Party, along with commentary on the smaller players, such as the reconstruction efforts of the formerly-Maoist Red Party, the coalition shift of the agrarian Centre Party, and the objective of the independent Patient Focus.

There's no denying that Democrats are in hot water after Donald Trump's surprising big win last November. The Brookings Institution's William Galston considers the party's oft-mentioned "disarray" to be exactly what one ought to expect under the circumstances. With many years of political advising under his belt and a cool head primed for strategic thinking, he chats with Henry about the Democratic Party's advantage heading into the midterms, the leadership vacuum, and the question of whether moderates will prevail in the near future.

Texas has fired the first shots of the redistricting war of 2025, so Henry's back with a rant for all who are still a tad confused, either by the controversy as it stands and/or where it's headed now that other states are drafting their own battle plans. Tune in for a detailed analysis of various states' statutes and cartographic reserves ahead of potential gerrymanders; essential data inputs to make sense of President Trump's approval rating; and a close look at the races that will determine control of that other legislative chamber.