Harris Public Policy Premieres "Not Another Politics Podcast"

CHICAGO (January 29, 2020) – Do contentious primaries have an effect on general election results? How does bigotry permeate public policy? What are the true forces driving polarization today?

Not Another Politics Podcast delves into these questions and more in its first season – not through opinion and anecdotes, but rigorous scholarship, massive data sets, and a deep understanding of what has actually happened. The show, which debuts today, is hosted by three scholars from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy who explore what the most important political research really tells us about the issues that are so often fiercely debated – and often times obscured or misunderstood – within our government and our broader society.

Each episode features a guest scholar from around the world who will discuss their research with an eye toward the implications for politics today, with hosts Professor William Howell, one of the world’s preeminent presidential scholars, and assistant professor Wioletta Dziuda, who currently studies legislative bargaining, and associate professor Anthony Fowler, whose emphasis is on elections and representation. 

Not Another Politics Podcast can be found on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Episode one, which is available now, examines research into the effects of party primary fights on who wins general elections. It’s a question many are asking as the Democratic president primary heats up ahead of the Iowa caucuses.  

“The hope is that listeners who are keenly interested in politics will find Not Another Politics Podcast to be a valuable dialogue that cuts through the noise and dives into what we really know about the topics that drive our news cycle. This is a vehicle for serious people to examine the political topics that matter most in today’s contentious atmosphere,” Howell said.

The three Harris Public Policy scholars who host Not Another Politics Podcast are:

• William Howell is the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and a professor in the Department of Political Science and the College, and the academic director of the Center for Effective Government at Harris. He has written widely on separation-of-powers issues and American political institutions, especially the presidency. Howell is the author, most recently, of Relic: How Our Constitution Undermines Effective Government—and Why We Need a More Powerful Presidency (Basic Books, 2016). A new book will be released this year.
• Wioletta Dziuda is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Her main interests lie in applied game theory, political economy, and the economics of information. Her current research focuses on analyzing how legislative bargaining affects the nature and the efficiency of policies. She shows that in uncertain economic or political environments, policymaking may lead to legislators’ polarization and inefficient policy inertia. She is currently applying her findings to the economics of regulations, in particular trying to explain the frequent use of inefficient economic instruments.
• Anthony Fowler is an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. His research applies econometric methods for causal inference to questions in political science, with particular emphasis on elections and political representation. Specific interests include the causes and consequences of unequal voter turnout, explanations for incumbent success, the politics of policymaking in legislatures, and the credibility of empirical research.

About Harris Public Policy

For more than three decades, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy has been steadfastly committed to advancing policy based on evidence, not ideology. Today, Harris represents the second-largest professional school at the University of Chicago, offering a full-range of undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programs designed to empower a new generation of data-driven leaders to make a real social impact in our city and around the world.