Stand-up comedy podcasts have realigned political campaigns

Stand-up Marc Maron invented the modern comedy podcast

In 2009, Marc Maron created his podcast “WTF,” featuring the stand-up holding long, candid conversations with an eclectic selection of guests. That template now defines modern podcasting, including some of the medium’s most popular shows.

Silicon Valley’s reign over tech, money, and politics

Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and others are getting into politics. From Musk’s role in President Trump’s second term to Hoffman’s spending on former Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign, more tech CEOs are expanding into politics. This podcast episode by WBUR and American Public Media discusses what the impact could be with so many tech figures engaging in American politics. Listen here.

The rise of the campaign speech

What compels an audience shifts over time, meaning yesterday's popular speeches might not go over the same way if delivered today. However, impactful campaign speeches across time share some qualities, including taking the audience seriously, inviting listeners to engage with or respond to presented materials, and using everyday, informal language. Additionally, US political candidates typically promote themselves in their speeches, an approach initially considered vulgar in Australia and Britain.

Will Rogers' political humor was an early predecessor to stand-up

Rogers got his start spinning ropes for circus shows and broke through his association with Florence Zeigfeld's Follies and Frolic. It was his humorous political commentary, though, that would solidify his celebrity status. His goodhearted ribbing of society's "big men" predated the common notion of stand-up comedians as truth-telling jesters.

Nearly a quarter of the US's 451 top-ranked podcasts belong to the true crime genre

Perhaps, Pew Research Center proposes, this popularity stems from the fame of "Serial," the 2014 hit series about a 1999 murder in Baltimore. Politics and government is the second top genre. Outside typical genre divides lie series such as fictional radio stories and Dungeons & Dragons podcasts, which account for 12% of top-ranked podcasts.

‘Saturday Night Live’ cast rank the show's best comics

"Saturday Night Live" has held a unique role in the cultural zeitgeist since its founding in 1975, providing a national stage of silly mockery and filling our Sunday feeds with the latest impressions of public figures. In its 50th year, 50 cast members weigh in on who their favorite casts and individual comedians were. Read their various opinions here.

Johnny Carson was a stand-up kingmaker

While it was on the air, “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” was a prime outlet for stand-up comedy. Getting invited over to Carson’s couch meant he’d enjoyed the set—and that the comic was destined for great success.

Chris Rock believes TV ruined stand-up

Chris Rock is one of comedy’s stand-up superstars, breaking through with several specials in the ‘90s. In this interview with stand-up legend David Steinberg, Rock explains how comics began working towards landing a spot on TV rather than focusing on creating a long, inspired stand-up set.

Mo Amer shares his immigration journey through comedy and storytelling

In the 2025 "Code Switch" podcast, comedian Mo Amer discusses how his Netflix series, "Mo," and other stand-up specials draw on his real-life experience as a Palestinian refugee navigating the US immigration system.

Satirists sometimes use ironic personas

Satirists often embody a character to mock the kind of person who would believe what they argue are ridiculous ideas. One famous example was Stephen Colbert on “The Colbert Report,” who satirized right-wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly through a bombastic persona. When O’Reilly asked whether that meant he was owed money, Colbert responded with more satire: “There’s a difference between imitation and emulation … If you imitate someone, you owe them a royalty check. If you emulate them, you don’t.”

Listen to a podcast exploring reported UFO and alien sightings

From the most shocking accounts of abductions and UFO sightings to an interview with a Harvard professor about these claims, dive into fascinating stories about run-ins with ETs that have continued to be told for decades.

Listen to 'We the People,' a weekly podcast from the National Constitution Center

Hosted by Jeffrey Rosen, this weekly podcast from the National Constitution Center brings leading legal scholars together to debate major constitutional questions, presenting competing arguments in a balanced, nonpartisan format.

Listen to a deepfake robocall of President Joe Biden

Bad actors are not solely using deepfake technology to manipulate images. They can also manipulate audio for political purposes. In this example, eligible voters are asked to skip the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary.

Donald Trump redefined presidential communication in the social media age

Trump used platforms like Twitter (now X) to bypass traditional media, announce policy, and confront opponents directly. His online presence reshaped political messaging, blurred the line between official and personal communication, and transformed how presidents engage the public.

Election 101 podcast

What’s actually at stake when someone casts their vote in a US election? CNN’s “Election 101” podcast series provides ten episodes summarizing some of the basics of democratic elections. The ins and outs of voting are highlighted in 15-minute episodes on voter registration and voting by mail. Additional segments highlight how the electoral system works, how ballots are counted, the Electoral College, why it takes so long to get election results, and more.

Behind the scenes on tariff politics

Economist Gene Grossman joined the Trade Talks Podcast to discuss why tariffs really happen. The episode digs into how voters, politicians, lobbyists, and even campaign cash can affect when protectionist trade policies are put forward. Produced in 2019, the podcast also discusses how populist trade policies and identity politics accounted for Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 Presidential election.

Memes can influence politics and culture

Although internet memes are typically considered trivial and humorous, they're also powerfully persuasive political tools used to convey mainstream ideas.

The official podcast of A24 film studio

They've made arthouse cinema mainstream while winning critical acclaim at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and more. Catch up on the latest episode of A24's official podcast here with interview of actors, directors, and more.

Travel in time to how people felt about major US events

Pollsters track more than just politics: From civil rights to war declarations, go back and see how people felt about major events in the US with this timeline.

Existential dread still informs popular comedies

Although the Theater of the Absurd was primarily a 20th-century trend, a similar kind of existentialist-minded comedy still exists in popular culture. Films like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and television shows like “BoJack Horseman” tackle the same issues that existentialist thinkers like Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus explored, transforming those profound questions into thought-provoking and crowd-pleasing works of comedy.

Hear how the Super Bowl went from a risky experiment to America's unofficial holiday

In this podcast episode, former Emmy award-winning ESPN producer Dennis Deninger traces the Super Bowl's unlikely rise from the AFL-NFL merger era to a national spectacle, explaining how it reshaped advertising, gambling, television, and American culture.

How to bridge political divides

Can people who believe in opposing ultimate views of the world really live in peace together? That's a core requirement of individuals living in pluralistic societies. Law professor Samar Ali and public affairs strategist Clint Brewer don't agree on much, but they're great friends. In this TED Talk, the two share why political polarization in the US isn’t as intractable as we might think. Learn some tips for getting along in the free world here.

John Oliver explains the student debt problem

From serious policy approaches to novelty giveaways from fast food chains, paying down student loans has become a central issue in public consciousness. John Oliver takes an entertaining look at the problem, how it became a political hot potato, why it’s difficult to solve, and more (warning—strong language).

A TV show put 1 unsuspecting man on a fake jury surrounded entirely by actors for 3 weeks

In the Amazon comedy "Jury Duty," Ronald Gladden believed he was participating in a documentary about the judicial process, unaware that everyone involved with the entire trial was an actor. In this podcast, Gladden and director Jake Szymanski reflect on the experience.

Some attorneys are using true crime fans to their advantage

True crime fans are notorious for falling down rabbit holes. Now that passionate interest is being exploited by attorneys marshaling influencers to serve as informal public relations representatives, a trend that's blurring the lines between fan theories and reality.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

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After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.