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Cross Tabs

Cross Tabs

Written by: Farrah Bostic
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Our world is governed by numbers — surveys, polling, algorithms, and data. On Cross Tabs, we bring you the stories behind these numbers. This podcast is your introduction to the people, perspectives, and agendas that shape our reality, and call it “public opinion”. We invite experts to discuss pressing issues and walk us through their methods. You’ll hear about the issues that matter from some of the brightest thinkers in policy and politics, tech and business. Join us and you’ll learn about how polling works — or doesn’t work — and how research can be manipulated to advance a political agenda. Discover the history of topics in the news and hear insights on culture and society. And learn what’s really at risk in the race to influence and optimize, well, everything. The show is hosted by Farrah Bostic, founder of The Difference Engine, where she works as a qualitative researcher and strategist working outside The Beltway to understand what drives business leaders, experts, and people like you so we can all make better decisions.Farrah Bostic Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Angrily Not Paying Attention: Polling in the UK with Matthew Price

    Angrily Not Paying Attention: Polling in the UK with Matthew Price
    May 7 2026

    Britain has spent a century as a two-party country. That may be over - and this week's local elections may be the strongest signal yet of a big breakup.

    This week, I talk with Matthew Price, analyst and strategist at Focal Data in London, about what's happening to British politics right now — and what the polls are (and aren't) able to tell us about it. They cover what the 2024 MRP polls got wrong about Labour's vote share, how public polling shapes voter behavior (including the Conservative "stop the supermajority" strategy), the unprecedented rise of five-party competition in a system built for two, and why the modeling tools that defined the last election may not be up to the next one. This episode is a shorter one to provide some background to the elections this week - a follow-up episode on MRP methodology and UK polling institutions is coming soon.

    Our Guest

    Matthew Price is a Research Manager in Focaldata's Analytics team. He previously worked as a pollster at Deltapoll, and has contributed political analysis to BBC Radio, Newsnight, and the Channel 4 election night coverage. Matthew holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin. You can follow him on Bluesky at @matthewbprice.bsky.social.

    Stay in Touch

    📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content.

    📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast

    💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social

    📍 Produced by The Difference Engine

    📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com
    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
  • Governing Drunk: Sleep & Power, with Lindsay Scola

    Governing Drunk: Sleep & Power, with Lindsay Scola
    Mar 27 2026
    What happens when the people making decisions on your behalf are running on fumes? In this episode, I talk with Lindsay Scola — former advance person for Barack Obama, Hill staffer, and now sleep health educator — about the always-on culture of American political life, and what it actually costs us. From the Celsius cans visible in every Capitol hallway walk-and-talk, to the pharmacy hand-delivering Alzheimer's medications to sitting members of Congress, to a president who prowls Air Force One checking who's asleep: the evidence that our leaders aren't getting enough rest is hiding in plain sight. Lindsay brings both the insider perspective and the science — and the result is a conversation that reframes sleep not as a personal wellness choice, but as a matter of democratic consequence.About Our GuestLindsay Scola began her career in politics the way a lot of people do: convinced it was a calling. Her first job was on the Hill, working for a congressman. From there, she joined the Obama campaign in 2007 as an advance person — one of the people responsible for building events from scratch ahead of the candidate, managing crowds of up to 75,000 people, then getting on a plane and doing it all over again somewhere new. She went on to work in the Obama administration and in entertainment before a diagnosis at age 35 changed the direction of her work entirely. After 19 years of symptoms being dismissed by doctors, Lindsay was diagnosed with narcolepsy — and spent the years since becoming an expert in what sleep actually does, and what we lose without it. She now works as a sleep health educator, offering one-on-one coaching, corporate talks, and an online course designed to help people understand their own sleep on their own terms. She is also the author of AI for ADHD: A Practical Guide for Starting and Actually Finishing the Things That Matter.🔗 lindsayscola.comReferencesOn the caffeine culture of Capitol Hill:The U.S. government runs on Celsius — The Washington PostOn the pharmacy that hand-delivers prescriptions to Congress — including Alzheimer's medications:An old-school pharmacy hand-delivers drugs to Congress — Stat News / PBS NewsHourDC pharmacist provides Alzheimer's drugs for members of Congress — Metro USOn cognitive decline among senior officials as a national security concern:Pentagon-Funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat — The InterceptOn President Trump's sleep habits and their effect on staff:‘The Superhuman President’ A good-faith attempt to ascertain the truth about Donald Trump’s health — New York MagazineAs Signs of Aging Emerge, Trump Responds With Defiance — The Wall Street JournalInside Trump’s Air Force One: ‘It’s like being held captive’ — CNN.comOn the White House Medical Unit's distribution of stimulants and sleep aids:Trump's White House Was 'Awash in Speed' — and Xanax — Rolling StoneWhite House Medical Unit's 'severe and systemic' drug problems detailed — The Washington PostWhite House clinic improperly distributed controlled substances — NBC NewsStay in Touch📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content.📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social📍 Produced by The Difference Engine📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins
  • Once You Start Asking Questions... With Kathleen Weldon of The Roper Center

    Once You Start Asking Questions... With Kathleen Weldon of The Roper Center
    Mar 19 2026

    The Roper Center at Cornell holds the world's oldest social science archive — over 25,000 data sets, nearly 900,000 survey questions, dating all the way back to the 1930s. It's a record not just of politics and elections, but of ordinary life: have you ever spent a night in jail? Would you tell a five-year-old not to lie about seeing a purple dragon? Do you remember the color of your first love's eyes?

    Kathleen Weldon, Roper's Director of Data and Communications, joins me to talk about what the archive reveals — and what it's missing. We cover a lot of ground - from Cold War surveys that tracked global opinions about American civil rights, to the women who built polling from the ground up but rarely got credit, to the data destroyed to protect respondents from the Nazis, to how pollsters understood the power not only to measure, but to shape public opinion from the very beginning.

    About Kathleen:

    Kathleen Weldon is the Director of Data Operations and Communications at the Roper Center. She joined the Roper Center in 2014 as Research Coordinator. Kathleen manages data provider relations, oversees the data curation process, plans archival development, and works closely with the IT development team in building new user tools. A graduate of Wesleyan University with a BA in English, she started her career in public opinion at Harvard University designing surveys with media and foundation partners.

    The Roper Center can be found here: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu


    Stay in Touch

    📬 Subscribe to our newsletter at crosstabspodcast.com for new episodes, insights, and behind-the-scenes content.

    📹 Watch video episodes on YouTube @CrosstabsPodcast

    💬 Follow us on BlueSky: @crosstabspod.bsky.social and @farrahbostic.bsky.social

    📍 Produced by The Difference Engine

    📨 You can also email me directly at farrah@crosstabspodcast.com
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 22 mins
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