Podcasts and Streaming Audio: Politics

Voted “Favorite Political Podcast” by iTunes Listeners. Stephen Colbert says "Everybody should listen to the Slate Political Gabfest." The Gabfest, featuring Slate's Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz, is the kind of informal and irreverent discussion Washington journalists have after hours over drinks. Part of the Panoply Network.

In this podcast from Vox, Matthew Yglesias and his team of cohosts get into, well, the weeds—"where politics becomes policy." Together they discuss the ins and outs of the nation's most pressing issues, from healthcare to immigration.

The Axe Files is hosted by David Axelrod, founder and director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and former advisor to President Barack Obama. The episodes consist of interviews with politically significant individuals, lasting about an hour. Previous guests have included congressional representatives, governors, mayors, actors, White House officials, and experts on a variety of policy issues.

FiveThirtyEight Politics is a great source for the latest updates from the political arena. The focus is on political and electoral analysis based on empirical data from polls.

From 2006 to 2015, Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates brought Oxford-style debate to America – one motion, one moderator, two panelists for the motion and two against. From clean energy and the financial crisis, to the Middle East and the death of mainstream media, Intelligence Squared brought together the world's leading authorities on the day's most important issues.