Hear the Bern! - Alyssa Bradley

On April 8th, 2019 Bernie Sanders launched an innovative initiative to excite potential voters, wonks, political pundits, and general people looking to find new information on the Vermont senator with his podcast, Hear the Bern. Hear the Bern is just one of many ways Sanders is hoping to reach supporters.With Hear the Bern, Sanders is hoping to give interested parties a unique insight into how his campaign works, the surrogates and leaders within it, and general opinions on current policy ideas, events, and news stories. 

Hear the Bern is described as a show hosted by Bernie himself, but since its inception he’s been on the show less than 10 times - which is understandable because he is running for President and a new episode of the show is released weekly. Instead the show’s main host is Briahna Joy Gray, National Press Secretary for his 2020 campaign. Every week she speaks with Bernie supporters on topics such as his black support, how to bridge the center with the left, climate change, views on corporations, and many other topics. In each episode she brings an expert supporter on the topic and ends the show with a call to action for supporters to donate, read the website for more information on Bernie’s views on the topic, or by letting the audience know about a televised town hall or debate coming up. 

The show not only targets voters who are already strong supporters of the campaign, but also targets critics or undecided voters. The past three episodes since Iowa voting have begun break down why Bernie won all three states and address criticisms of the campaign. In the most recent episode released February 24th Gray speaks about the campaign’s tremendous Nevada win as a “political earthquake” that caused the political establishment to lash out on television and in print. This statement is for the supporters to show that they’re breaking ground. She then goes into detail about who exactly they won - hispanic voters by over 50%, white voters, voters under 50, second place with black voters, etc. This is for the critics who say his audience is only white males (i.e. Bernie Bros). These messages serve as a way for supporters and potential supporters to get involved with the campaign. I think the biggest draw for campaign podcasting is it gives supporters message points and tips on ways to talk to people who are on the fence about their particular candidate. With Hear the Bern, Briahna Joy Gray unpacks what has happened over the past week or unpacks specific policy proposals in a human way which leads to a better understanding of what the campaign hopes to accomplish. Because of this, the podcast is able to build a strong community of listeners and activists who are interested in being high information voters. 

Additionally, the podcast is a great example of the story of us technique. With each week highlighting a different subject it allows voters to learn why they should be excited for this campaign and how his win could affect our lives. One component of the story of us technique is making sure people know why you’re organizing and why they should too and Hear the Bern does that. 

With Spotify and Apple Podcasts being more rigid, it’s difficult to be innovative with the platform. However, Gray promotes the podcast on her social media platforms, specifically Twitter which gets users more involved. There is also a version on Youtube. When she was creating the podcast on marijuana legalization she asked the Twitterverse who they thought would be the best guest on the show. This is something that can cause users to participate more and also know what’s coming for the next week and whether they’d like to listen.

 Hear the Bern is definitely a hidden gem of the campaign. It’s not talked about very much on Twitter or at rallies so unless you’re someone seeking out a lot of Bernie, you probably won’t be able to find it which is definitely a missed opportunity.  If Bernie were to give it a shoutout at a rally or link to it more often on his campaign Twitter platform, it could be much more useful and reach more people. 

Hear the Bern Spotify