Dive into the complete third season of the Focus Group podcast with this comprehensive seven-hour compilation, featuring all 8 episodes from early 2023.
*Timestamps*
00:00:00 - Sleepwalking Toward Catastrophe? - Whit Ayres - 2/1/2023
00:47:45 - Biden's B12 Shot? - Peter Baker - 2/11/2023
01:36:17 - DeSanctimonious Deep Dive - Tara Palmeri - 2/18/2023
02:19:36 - It's Why They Play the Game - Robert Gibbs - 2/25/2023
03:16:11 - "They" Sent This Tornado - David French - 3/4/2023
04:11:31 - The Voters Forgot God's Plan - McKay Coppins - 3/11/2023
04:59:25 - How The Culture Wars Weren’t Won - Jane Coaston - 3/28/2023
06:02:37 - The "Everybody Sucks" Foreign Policy - Tom Nichols - 3/25/2023
*Episode Summaries*
*Sleepwalking Toward Catastrophe? - Whit Ayres - 2/1/2023* - The Focus Group podcast is BACK, with a twist: We're releasing The Bulwark's first-ever poll of Republican primary voters where we're trying to figure out just how big the "Always Trump," "Maybe Trump," and "Never Trump" buckets are among Republican primary voters. For that, we brought in Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who joins Sarah to stack our poll results up against the focus groups we've done since the election.
*Biden's B12 Shot? - Peter Baker - 2/11/2023* - Ready or not, it looks like Joe Biden is running for re-election. Our swing voters liked his State of the Union speech this week, but they've got concerns under the surface. Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, joins Sarah to listen to Trump-to-Biden voters and make a broader assessment of the Biden administration's political standing.
*DeSanctimonious Deep Dive - Tara Palmeri - 2/18/2023* - The Republican establishment — and many Republican voters in our focus groups — think Ron DeSantis is the answer to their prayers that they can win in 2024. But Donald Trump has a say in this matter, and he's already offering up an early taste of the kind of attacks he's planning on DeSantis. Heads-up: Those attacks are likely to go lower. What are DeSantis' vulnerabilities as a candidate? Tara Palmeri of Puck News joins Sarah to listen to the focus groups and share some of her reporting from the Trump and DeSantis camps.
*It's Why They Play the Game - Robert Gibbs - 2/25/2023* - Voters that we talk to are iffy about Biden running for re-election given his age, but Republicans may have even larger challenges. Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joins Sarah to talk Joe Biden, the Democratic base, and the bright future of the Democratic bench.
*"They" Sent This Tornado - David French - 3/4/2023* - Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a national divorce. We don't, but we asked our focus groups about it anyway. New York Times opinion columnist David French (literally) wrote the book on a possible national divorce. He joins Sarah to talk about whether (and how) the United States holds together; and the task of rebuilding trust in our institutions.
*The Voters Forgot God's Plan - McKay Coppins - 3/11/2023* - Mike Pence seems to think that he's destined to be president. The evangelical Christians in our focus groups did NOT get the memo. McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic joins Sarah to talk about the future of social conservatism in the Republican Party and Mike Pence's 2024 prospects.
*How The Culture Wars Weren’t Won - Jane Coaston - 3/28/2023* - You've heard the terms "woke" and "cancel culture" for years now. No one seems to agree on what they mean, though — which is why our guest says the culture wars will keep morphing, and they'll go on forever. New York Times opinion writer Jane Coaston joins Sarah to hear how the focus groups respond to "wokeness," "cancel culture," and...schools and drag show bans. We promise, this is NOT the episode to miss.
*The "Everybody Sucks" Foreign Policy - Tom Nichols - 3/25/2023* - A year ago, Republican voters thought Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were badasses. Now...Zelenskyy is just as bad as Putin. Tom Nichols, Professor Emeritus at the Naval War College and staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Sarah to listen to the voters' foreign policy takes. Tom is not impressed with the voters.
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