Audible reckoning: How political podcasters spread unsubstantiated and false claims

Ben Shapiro hosts a daily conservative political podcast of the same name, produced by The Daily Wire.

Brookings Institution
In February 2021, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and his co-host Michael Knowles, a Daily Wire commentator, recorded a live episode of the “Verdict With Ted Cruz” podcast. In conversation about his former Senate race opponent Beto O’Rourke, the Texas Republican described his rival’s support base as primarily reporters who act like “groupies at a Rolling Stones concert throwing their underwear.” Offhandedly, he added, “If they wore underwear, yes.” With a smirk, he leaned into the microphone and asked Knowles, “Too edgy?” Knowles replied, “It’s a podcast: you can say whatever you want!”

Since the advent of the medium, podcasts have generally offered a space where, in the words of Knowles, “you can say whatever you want. Once written off as a dying medium, podcasting has undergone rapid growth and monetization, while largely avoiding content moderation and regulatory debates. Today, nearly 41% of Americans listen to podcasts monthly, and almost one in four Americans look to podcasts for their news. Globally, the medium is projected to reach an audience of 504.9 million by 2024, while ad revenue in the United States is expected to double between 2022 and 2024, jumping from $2 billion to $4 billion.

Due in large part to the say-whatever-you-want perceptions of the medium, podcasting offers a critical avenue through which unsubstantiated and false claims proliferate. As the terms are used in this report, the terms “false claims,” “misleading claims,” “unsubstantiated claims” or any combination thereof are evaluations by the research team of the underlying statements and assertions grounded in the methodology laid out below in the research design section and appendices. Such claims, evidence suggests, have played a vital role in shaping public opinion and political behavior. Despite these risks, the podcasting ecosystem and its role in political debates have received little attention for a variety of reasons, including the technical difficulties in analyzing multi-hour, audio-based content and misconceptions about the medium. Yet understanding the scope of this challenge is critically important.

Using a combination of analytical methods – including natural language processing, machine learning, and manual classifying – this research provided the first overarching assessment of the role that popular political podcasting plays in spreading unsubstantiated and false claims. These podcasters, who span the political spectrum, make up the mainstream of the medium and regularly boast audiences in the millions. Drawing on data collected from 36,603 episodes produced by 79 prominent political podcasters, 17,061 evaluations, and 184 key terms and phrases, this analysis found. MORE