Initial disclaimer: I’m very much a progressive person.
Recently listening to podcasts like Heavyweight, Reply All, Invisibilia, Underunderstood etc, I noticed that while the episode - or podcast overall - is investigative journalism lite, something incidental but progressive might happen (using the correct pronouns for a trans person, for example.) I also recently rewatched the Some More News episode on why conservative comedy is so awful, which sparked my pondering.
So… while I’m not interested in veering to the right, this did get me wondering what content might be out there that I’ve not been exposed to at all. Are there (relatively) apolitical podcasts out there that mirror those lite journalism examples above?
How could it be both right-leaning and apolitical?
Sounds like OP means right-leaning, topic-wise, but not getting into the politics of it. If I had a good example, I’d have replied with it. lol
As a left-leaning example, NPR is pretty apolitical, but the stories they cover and the words/phrasing they choose to use are designed to appeal to those who lean left. While they’re not a podcast, they do have radio shows.
I’m not a podcast person, so I can’t really offer any of either bias.
Uh… NPR absolutely gets into the politics of things. Maybe not a deep dive, but 90% of what I hear that isn’t music I’d describe 100% as politics.
Sounds like too may only be listening to news shows.
Fresh Air, This American Life, Car Talk, Something Wild are all largely non-political, but many cover liberal topics, but not from a political standpoint.
They also tend to cover factual stories about science and the environment, which— unfortunately for the right—tends to involve topics that the right wing have made political.
How would one ever discover that a given podcaster is right wing if they are apolitical?
Dog whistles? Jokes that punch down?
Wouldn’t that count as political?
Not explicitly. The whole point of dog whistles is that they’re not supposed to sound political so someone can hide their intentions from people who don’t know and signal their beliefs to the in-group.
What’s an example of an apolitical dog whistle that cannot be identified as right or left wing?
Dog whistles are political, but they don’t sound political. They could be used in apolitical podcasts to signal the host’s political affiliation without explicitly stating it.
OK, what’s an example of one?
It can’t…
Okay, that’s a good question. Tbh I wasn’t sure anyone would respond so I tried to keep the post succinct.
I just meant that I’d been listening to podcasts about a neutral topic and then the host would say something to show their leaning. And my only exposure to the right was mostly via the alt right. So I was wondering if there was interesting content out there where the focus is mostly neutral also