Where is online political media leaning right now?
Soapbox uses language models to quantify what political media on YouTube and podcasts says about US policy issues, and how independent creators and legacy media differ. New episodes processed daily.
Independent creators vs legacy media, same issues, same scoring.
Pulling left: Government corruption & institutions, Trump / GOP leadership, and Israel–Gaza. Pulling right: Democratic Party leadership, Crime & public safety, and Free speech & moderation.
Each bar shows how much that issue moved the Soapbox Index over the last 7 days — longer means a bigger push, and the side shows which way it pushed. The number is the issue's average lean — which way it tilts per mention. The two can disagree: an issue discussed a lot but mildly can move the Index more than one discussed rarely but intensely. How this is calculated → Click any issue for the channel-level breakdown.
Biggest movers this week
Issues earn a row for the biggest shifts this week on either axis: lean movement on the left–right scale (→ / ←) or a swing in attention (↑ / ↓ mention volume). An issue can move right (→) yet still sit in left territory, or hold steady on lean while attention spikes or collapses.