AMID THE POST-MORTEM engulfing Democrats in the United States to their defeat in the presidential election, one name has been consistently repeated: Joe Rogan.

The debate has fluctuated between ‘where is the liberal Joe Rogan?’ to ‘Why didn’t Kamala Harris just go on Joe Rogan?’. 

There seems to be little debate that the podcast, which is by many measures the most popular in the United States, played a role in Donald Trump’s decisive victory. 

Even if it’s not as simple as Trump going on the podcast and Harris not, the argument has been made that Republicans had built up an ecosystem of right-leaning influencers that drove home a strong message. 

If the recent US presidential election has in some places been called the ‘influencer election’, there is evidence that Irish politicians have been paying attention.  

With the general election campaign just over a week old, we can already get a sense about how the parties are using, or attempting to use, podcasts and social media to court voters. 

In the case of podcasts, there have been several high profile examples. 

Taoiseach Simon Harris has been a guest on the 2 Johnnies and on Ryan Tubridy’s book podcast, Micheál Martin went on Mairéad Ronan and Jenny Kelly’s podcast this week and Mary Lou McDonald also joined Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning on Free State. 

Holly Cairns, who is due to have a baby this month, has appeared on various parenting and pregnancy podcasts including Stretchmarks and The Baby Tribe. 

Heck, even criminal-turned-candidate Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch is due to appear on Crime World with Nicola Tallant this weekend. 

Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch - The Interview.

Part One out Sunday. pic.twitter.com/dcfEGKfSbN

— Crime World with Nicola Tallant (@CrimeNicola) November 14, 2024

It’s not hard to understand why politicians are increasingly going down the podcast route. Clearly, the listenership is there to reach a big swathe of voters at once, but more crucially it’s also about the nature of the connection people have with their favourite podcasts. 

In radio, listeners are at the whim of tight schedules and more rigid formats. Even if the shows are made available afterwards, the rolling nature of radio often gives them a shorter shelf-life. 

By contrast, podcast listeners make the choice of when and where to spend time when their chosen hosts.

They perhaps do it at a certain time of the day or week, or when they’re doing something specific. The result is that there’s almost a kind of parasocial relationship that exists between a podcast and its audience. 

This is clearly tempting for politicians. In the same way that product placement exists, surely making your pitch in an ostensibly apolitical space will allow people to take it in with less cynical ears?  

In addition, there is also the benefit of humanising oneself in a way that is simply not possible on Prime Time. Previously, the way politicians did this was in a lifestyle feature or interview in a magazine. Simply put, that just doesn’t carry the same bang for your buck anymore.  

For podcast hosts, there is a risk in allowing politicians into this space.

Some podcasts where politicians appear are clearly news spaces, hosted by journalists, and where the audience would not be put off by hearing talk about Rent Tax Credits or garda numbers. 

Others though have built up an audience on the back of being a ‘safe space’ where people can avoid the noise that politics brings. Indeed, when Kamala Harris made her highest profile podcast appearance on Call Her Daddy, host Alex Cooper was forced to defend allowing her on. 

How long this trend for politicians going on podcasts continues remains to be seen, but the poisoning of Twitter into X has constrained the space for politicians to engage positively with social media.  

Irish politicians have been embracing TikTok during this election but in many cases the videos are glorified election posters, designed to breed familiarity rather than engagement. 

With two weeks to go in the campaign, don’t be surprised if your feed starts to resemble an election lamppost either.