Cross Tabs

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

Cross Tabs is a news podcast hosted by Farrah Bostic, with 62 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Farrah Bostic hosts Cross Tabs, a news show with 62 episodes published.

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  Episode #11

  The Cloud Isn't Up In the Cloud, with Zoe Padgett from SurveyMonkey

  Oct 1, 202647 minS3

  Zoe Padgett, who runs public opinion research on SurveyMonkey's survey science team, joins Farrah to walk through three years of tracking data on how Americans actually feel about AI — not the LinkedIn-hype version. They dig into an unusual generational "crisscross" (Gen Z's trust in AI dropped from 2023 to 2026 while every older generation's rose), why brands selling AI tools are still just selling the category itself rather than differentiating, and what happens to the research pipeline when AI quietly absorbs the tasks junior researchers used to cut their teeth on. The conversation ends on data centers — the physical, local, increasingly contentious infrastructure behind all of it — and the way it is scrambling normal demographic and political coalitions. Guest Zoe Padgett is a public opinion researcher on SurveyMonkey's survey science team. She previously worked on federal survey design and analysis at the American Institutes for Research, ICF, and the Department of Education and holds a Master's in Survey Methodology from the University of Maryland. Resources SurveyMonkey's latest AI & Jobs Survey Report SurveyMonkey Research: AI Sentiment Study . The quarterly AI tracker, including the data-center findings (Sam Gutierrez, July 2026). CNBC|SurveyMonkey Quarterly AI & Jobs Survey, Q2 2026 In AI We Trust (HubSpot × SurveyMonkey, 2025) 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

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  Episode #10

  Cross-Pressured with Baxter Oliphant and Gabe Borelli of the Pew Research Center

  Sep 17, 20261h 5mS3

  Every few years, Pew stops asking Americans whether they're Republicans or Democrats and instead lets the data decide where the lines actually fall. This year it landed on nine groups — and the most-discussed one is defined less by policy than by style : 53% of the "No Apologies Right" say they like it when politicians they agree with humiliate their opponents. Senior Researcher Baxter Oliphant and Research Associate Gabriel Borelli join Farrah to talk about how you build a typology from scratch, why the 62% of Americans who aren't in the four "anchor" groups are the most interesting people in the data, and why everyone wanting a third party is not the same as everyone wanting the same third party. Also: what a typology genuinely can't tell you, and why that's worth saying out loud. Guests J. Baxter Oliphant is a Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center, focusing on U.S. politics and policy — including partisan polarization, trust in government, gun policy, and U.S. foreign policy. https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/baxter-oliphant/ Gabriel Borelli is a Research Associate at the Pew Research Center focusing on U.S. politics and policy. He ran the modeling for the 2026 typology. https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/gabriel-borelli/ Notable quotes "They're the group that really stood out for saying they like it when politicians that they agree with humiliate their opponents. That just wasn't a group that would have popped fifteen years ago." — Baxter Oliphant , on the No Apologies Right "There are laws of physics, but there's not really laws of politics. There's just tendencies." — Baxter Oliphant Referenced in this episode Beyond Red vs. Blue: The 2026 Political Typology — Pew Research Center, June 10, 2026. Take the political typology quiz How political typology groups feel about the midterm elections and Trump How foreign policy values and issues cut across the political typology groups Appendix B: Typology group creation and analysis Appendix C: The history of the political typology — the nine typologies going back to 1987 (1987, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2026). Worth browsing as a set of time capsules. The 2021 political typology — the previous version, with its Stressed Sideliners and Outsider Left groups, referenced by Gabe as a comparison point. 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

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  Episode #8

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

  May 7, 202631 minS3

  <p>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. </p><p>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...

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  Episode #7

  Governing Drunk: Sleep & Power, with Lindsay Scola

  Mar 27, 202633 minS3

  <p>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 insi...

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  Episode #6

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

  Mar 19, 20261h 22mS3

  <p>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?</p><p>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 - fr...

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