Joe Rogan takes center stage in an election season dominated by podcasts

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Joe Rogan has the hottest mic in America. Donald Trump is making a much anticipated stop at the Austin studio for the nation’s No.

1 podcaster, with a taping scheduled for Friday that could air as soon as Saturday. The visit to “The Joe Rogan Experience" is part of his final push to reach voters just over a week ahead of the election. Vice President Kamala Harris’s camp has also been in discussions to come on the show, but an appearance looks increasingly unlikely, with sticking points including the location and timing, according to people familiar with the talks.

Podcasts are wielding unprecedented power in this election, as the biggest names in the medium prove they can deliver audiences that rival or even surpass the viewership of network or cable news. A slot on Rogan’s show—which regularly draws 15 million listeners across platforms including Spotify and YouTube, including a lot of young men—became increasingly attractive to both campaigns in recent weeks as they duke it out in battleground states for undecided votes in a close race. Trump has opened a narrow lead in the race, according to a Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday.

The former president’s challenge appears to be in motivating the young men who lean toward him to come out and vote. Harris has run stronger with women, and has been looking for nontraditional ways to reach younger men and peel some away from Trump. “In an election where a lot of undecided voters are younger, it’s imperative to reach them where they are," said Ben Leiner, a lecturer on media, technology and democracy at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.