Strategic political communication hot takes with footnotes. Every episode Dave Karpf, PhD and Peter Loge look at communication campaigns in the news, explain what’s working and what’s not, and how to make it all better.
Karpf and Loge are George Washington University associate professors who think they’re smarter and funnier than they really are. Karpf is the author of several books on digital politics and once sort of accidentally made Bret Stephens cry. Loge has spent 30 years working in politics and strategic communication and is unreasonably proud of getting a 10/10 on RoomRater.
Why do elephants inspire more trust than engineers, and what do chicken carcasses have to do with safer airplanes? We discuss Dave Karpf and Nina Hall’s piece on Turning Point USA and MoveOn, make the case against the Paramount merger, and ask when Peter Loge last read a book.
How Test Engineers Decide What Counts as Good Enough | New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/10/12/kobuk-the-destroyer-alex-davies-book-review)
Why Charlie Kirk Didn’t Build a ‘MoveOn of the Right’ | Stanford Social Innovation Review (https://ssir.org/articles/entry/turning-point-usa-moveon-political-advocacy-organizations)
The MoveOn Effect | Dave Karpf (https://www.amazon.com/MoveOn-Effect-Unexpected-Transformation-Political/dp/0199898383/)
Your political message does not matter if your target audience cannot hear it. | The Future, Now and Then (https://davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/your-political-message-does-not-matter-if-your-target-audience-cannot-hear-it)
Flying Toaster Screensaver (https://www.bryanbraun.com/after-dark-css/all/flying-toasters.html)
Preorder: Vaporware, Inc. How Silicon Valley Sells the Future to Control the Present | Dave Karpf (https://bookshop.org/p/books/vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present-david-karpf/c5eebdfab3f442d1?ean=9781324106319&utm_campaign=pre-order-vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com)
Office Hours is now on Bluesky! Give us a follow. (https://bsky.app/profile/officehourspod.bsky.social)
21 Sept 2026
Afraid of AI Doom? Try Bullying Bots!
On this week's episode of Office Hours, Loge is somehow still talking about bat ecologist certifications and Karpf is too busy marathon training to play D&D. They break down how Trump's $5,000 pledge to voters went viral on prediction markets and discuss the difference between moderate politics as a rhetorical style versus an actionable ideology. Also, Karpf and Loge read the pod's first AI-generated listener email!
Links:
Trump's $5,000 checks get chilly Senate GOP reception | Axios (https://www.axios.com/2026/09/14/trump-republicans-5000-checks-mike-johnson-midterms)
The AI Tipping Point | Time (https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/ai-anthropic-researcher-quits-coxon-slowdown/)
Sex and Death in the World of Rational Defense Intellectuals | JStor (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174209)
Who Should Pace the Frontier? Not Dario Amodei | Tech Policy Press (https://www.techpolicy.press/who-should-pace-the-frontier-not-dario-amodei/)
Preorder: Vaporware, Inc. How Silicon Valley Sells the Future to Control the Present | Dave Karpf (https://bookshop.org/p/books/vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present-david-karpf/c5eebdfab3f442d1?ean=9781324106319&utm_campaign=pre-order-vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com)
Office Hours is now on Bluesky! Give us a follow. (https://bsky.app/profile/officehourspod.bsky.social)
8 Sept 2026
Who Can We Trust? Certified Bat Ecologists, Apparently.
Office Hours is back for the semester, and just in time, because Loge is getting a little too fascinated by bat ecologists. As a record high number of Americans say that government corruption is widespread, Karpf and Loge discuss why political elites get away with bad behavior, when voters will punish them and how political actors can effectively push back. Also, our hosts respond to their first listener email!
Links
Preorder: Vaporware, Inc. How Silicon Valley Sells the Future to Control the Present | Dave Karpf (https://bookshop.org/p/books/vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present-david-karpf/c5eebdfab3f442d1?ean=9781324106319&utm_campaign=pre-order-vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com)
Office Hours is now on Bluesky! Give us a follow. (https://bsky.app/profile/officehourspod.bsky.social)
Historic U.K. estate used as Wayne Manor in "Batman Begins" must be surveyed for bats, officials say | CBS News (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wayne-manor-batman-begins-mentmore-towers-england/)
Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread | Gallup Poll (https://news.gallup.com/poll/713933/record-high-say-government-corruption-widespread.aspx)
What MAGA fails to understand about Richard Nixon | Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/08/24/trumps-maga-richard-nixon-fans-would-benefit-knowing-more-about-him/)
On Digital Disinformation and Democratic Myths | Media Well | Dave Karpf (https://mediawell.ssrc.org/articles/on-digital-disinformation-and-democratic-myths/)
The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States | S. Iyengar et al (https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
15 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
21 ratings
Contact Office Hours with Karpf and Loge
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