Shows / The Political Orphanage
The Political Orphanage
Politics minus bile plus jokes. Comedian and avowed independent Andrew Heaton interviews authors and thought leaders about policy and big thinky stuff.
Episodes
- The Political Orphanage
Why Did We Close the Asylums?
Why did America close its psychiatric hospitals, and what happened to the people who needed them? Writer and cultural critic Freddie deBoer, author of All in…
The Political OrphanageWhy Corporations Are People
Corporate personhood is one of the most misunderstood concepts in American law. From ancient Rome and medieval universities to William Blackstone and the…
The Political OrphanageHow Immigration Broke German Politics
Why is Germany's anti-immigration AfD surging in popularity? And why does immigration seem to work better in America than in Europe? Harris, a Bosnian refugee…
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Europe is Freeloading on American Healthcare
Americans pay vastly more for medicine than citizens of other wealthy countries, but are those countries getting a bargain at our expense? David Goldhill…
The Political OrphanageThe Man Who Killed Antitrust
When does a successful company become a dangerous monopoly? Heaton traces the strange history of American antitrust law, from railroad barons and Standard Oil…
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Why Childcare Will Always Be Expensive
Alex Mayyasi of NPR's Planet Money joins me to explore some of the stranger forces shaping the economy. Why did the federal government create a legally…
The Political OrphanageThe A.I. Civil War
Are we racing toward an AI-powered golden age—or building something we won't be able to control? Justin Robert Young joins to explore the emerging…
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Upwingers Fighting Downwingers (Rebroadcast)
Dr. Steve Fuller of Warwick University says the meaningful split in society is not Leftwing vs. Rightwing, but rather Upwing vs. Downwing. Both have radically…
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How Do Other Countries do Healthcare?
Healthcare in America is more expensive than anywhere else in the world—but what are other countries actually doing differently? Physician and Slice of Life MD…
The Political OrphanageGuys with Swords Control the French Language
Donald Trump has renamed Lake Ontario "Lake America" for federal purposes—but can a president actually rename a place, or only change what the government calls…
The Political OrphanageI Read the DSA's Platform. They're Socialists.
The DSA recently released a policy platform establishing the goals of their political movement. In this episode we got through the main planks of that…
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Chinese Lobbyists Hate California Pig Laws
The Save Our Bacon Act, now repackaged into the Farm Bill, would upturn state rights in favor of federal prohibitions on animal cruelty laws. It's being…
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What Does Nolan Owe The Odyssey?
What is The Odyssey actually about beyond a clever guy trying to get home? Classicist Isabella Reinhardt joins to dig into the poem's deeper themes of…
The Political OrphanageWhy Can't We Have Nice Trains?
It's not that America won't spend money on mass transit, it's that we piss it away when we do. Our transit system is a mess, with a lot of problems in…
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Richard Hanania on Populism Eating America
Should you trust experts—or trust yourself? Richard Hanania, author of Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster joins to discuss why populism has become one…
The Political OrphanageWhy Nobody Trusts the News: Isaac Saul
Why has trust in the news collapsed—and is it really all the media's fault? Tangle founder Isaac Saul joins for a candid conversation about the incentives…
The Political OrphanageI Ask an Amish Guy about Everything
Is Rumpsringa real? Are Amish people happier than you? Let's visit Amish country! Heaton visits Muhlenberg County, Ohio, to investigate America's unique…
The Political OrphanageRevenge of the Non-Profits
Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast returns to The Political Orphanage for a spirited pushback episode on the modern non-profit industry. In a previous…
The Political OrphanageGeorge Washington's Anti-Daddy
Why did the United States become a stable republic while so many revolutions ended in dictatorship? The answer lies in two men pivitol to the Revolution…
The Political OrphanageHow Harlots Saved America (Rebroadcast)
What if history isn't a string of great man biopics or a struggle between conservatives and progressives? What if it's a battle of disciplinarians against…
The Political OrphanageAmerica's Dueling Enlightenments (Rebroadcast)
The Founding Fathers were all children of the Enlightenment, and they agreed on kicking King George out, but they never agreed on how to run the country. Seth…
The Political OrphanageCicero and the Founding Fathers (Rebroadcast)
Jeffrey Rosen is a legal scholar and the President of the National Constitution Center. He's the author "the Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on…
The Political OrphanageZuby Grew up in a Company Town
Zuby is a British rapper who spent his childhood on a Saudi Aramco compound—a sprawling corporate community complete with schools, recreation, housing, and…
The Political Orphanage(Preview) Vampire Bats Thwart Henry Ford
Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing, built the modern automobile industry, and amassed one of the greatest fortunes in American history. Then he decided to…
The Political OrphanageThe Dark Side of Corporate Utopia: Pullman vs. Hershey
George Pullman built his employees a sparkling company town with clean homes, parks, libraries, luxury trains, and some of the best living conditions in the…
The Political Orphanage(Preview) The Socialist Who Bought a Town
Robert Owen was a factory owner, a social reformer, the father of British socialism… and possibly the nicest company-town tyrant in history. Long before Karl…
The Political OrphanageThe Emperor of Epcot: Walt Disney and Company Towns
What if your landlord was also your boss, mayor, bartender, and moral hall monitor? This week, Andrew Heaton talks with Brian Brushwood about the strange…
The Political OrphanagePrivacy Through a Cop's Eyes
Mike is a twenty-year police officer and current sergeant supervising a squad of violent crime detectives. After Andrew's recent conversation with Naomi…
The Political OrphanageThe Old Political Order Is Dying: Stephen Davies on the Great Realignment
"Leftwing" and "Rightwing" don't mean the same thing anymore–the battle lines are redrawing. The twentieth century was about economics: low taxes or big…
The Political OrphanageThe Great Baby Shortage
For decades, intellectuals warned that overpopulation would trigger famine, ecological collapse, and mass death. Instead, humanity may now face the opposite…
The Political OrphanageFalsely Convicted of Murder (Bonus Sample)
Jeffrey Deskovic spent sixteen years in prison, from ages 17 to 32. Wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering a teenager. After obtaining exoneration he…
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Fighting Crime Like an Economist
How can we make America safer and save money to boot? What approaches don't work and what can we steal from other countries? Jennifer Doleac is the executive…
The Political OrphanageThe Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Is it a charity or a tax loophole? That's what Steve Hodge, President Emeritus of the Tax Foundation, is concerned with. And if there are effectively large…
The Political OrphanageHahaha! Warrant? What Warrant?!
Naomi Brockwell is the President and Founder of the Ludlow Institute, a non-profit dedicated to advancing freedom through technology. She is a privacy advocate…
The Political OrphanageYour Friends Are Wrong About the Supreme Court: Sarah Isgur
The Supreme Court is significantly less partisan than advertised. And there are three blocs in it, not two parties. In her new book "Last Branch Standing"…
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War Without Coffins
Why now? Why did the United States go to war with Iran this year, as opposed to last year, or ten years ago? Michael Tint is a data scientist and aerospace…
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The Travails of Afroman and Lindy West (WSPN)
The World's Smartest Podcast Network returns to discuss: Universities dumping peripheral majors in favor of practical ones The trials, tribulations, and…
The Political OrphanageHow To Deal with Political Lizard People
Sociopaths and narcissists are both drawn to politics. How do we spot folks with faulty moral compasses before they get elected, and what do we do when they…
The Political OrphanageInterview with the Mega Warden
Randall Liberty is the Commissioner for Maine's Department of Corrections, overseeing the state's entire prison system, after previously serving as a warden…
The Political OrphanageWhat's Prison Hooch Taste Like?
What's prison wine taste like? How's trade work? Where do people get the ink for prison tattoos? If someone sees you cry in the slammer, do you get beaten up?…
The Political OrphanageParenting Behind Bars
How hard is it to raise kids when you're inside a penitentiary? How do you maintain relationships in general? In this episode, Part III of Prison Week, we head…
The Political OrphanageMaine is Smarter Than Your State about Prison
In Part II of Prison Week, we meet prison teachers, visit the computer lab, and check out Anime in the prison library. The "Maine Model" is focused on…
The Political OrphanageHeaton Goes to Prison
In this special, host Andrew Heaton visits the Maine Correctional Center for a day to speak with residents, corrections officers and administrators. About life…
The Political OrphanageRicher Than Ever, Miserable Anyway
Brink Lindsey is the Senior Vice President at the Niskannen Center. He is the author of "The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to…
The Political OrphanageA.I. and the Future of Scams
Brian Brushwood is by trade a magician, but of late has become a security expert. The FBI flew him to Quantico to brief agents on how scams work, and he's…
The Political OrphanageUndeclared Wars
When was the last time the United States actually declared war? Why did it stop officially declaring war, if nonetheless bombing folks? And when is the…
The Political OrphanageHow the Court Neutered Trump
The Supreme Court just struck down Donald Trump's sweeping emergency tariffs, but this case is about far more than slinkies and sombreros. When Congress passes…
The Political OrphanageGrover Norquist at Burning Man (Rebroadcast)
Burning Man is a giant, 80,000-person party in the desert, complete with a crazy amount of neon, bicycles, and narcotics. Grover Norquist is a powerful…
The Political OrphanageGoverning through Blockchain: Techno-Communes (Preview)
Jonathan Hillis is the founder and caretaker of Cabin, a network of co-living spaces which link up and vet members in other communities via blockchain…
The Political OrphanageHow to Build a Commune: Samwise Rodriguez
If you wanted to live with a bunch of buddies in a house, how would you do it? What are the mechanics of setting up, financing, and socially maintaining a…
The Political OrphanageJeff Flake Alone on an Island with a Knife
What happens when Trump leaves office? Do the Republicans reform or catalyze? Jeff Flake is the former Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute…
The Political OrphanageThe Map That Explains Everything About America: Colin Woodard
Colin Woodard posits that America is not really a country, it's a dozen or so distinct nations with their own cultures and ideologies which are constantly…
The Political OrphanageAmerica is Eleven Different Countries (Rebroadcast)
Rudyard William Lynch is the host of WhatifAlHist, a popular history channel on YouTube. He joins to discuss how the origins and circumstances of America's…
The Political OrphanageI Time Traveled to Talk to Medieval Yokels about Economics
What did people in the Dark Ages think about economics? Why did poverty exist, and how do you alleviate it? To find out, I took my time machine to 1282 and…
The Political OrphanageMLK and Color Blindness
Clayborne Carson is the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education institute, and hand-picked by Coretta King to publish the letters of his…
The Political OrphanageThe Friendship Recession and Cocktail Parties
Or... how to host a party if you have Asperger's. Nick Gray is an entrepreneur and an author living in Austin, Texas. I met him roller skating. He started and…
The Political OrphanageI Explain Venezuela Using Lottery Tickets
How did Venezuela become an economic basket case? Not socialism. Or capitalism. Venezuela is a textbook example of a petrostate in the thrall of the Paradox of…
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Is Everyone Disabled Now? (WSPN)
College students are increasingly registering as disabled–particularly at high-end universities, which often entails longer test times and extensions on…
The Political OrphanageHeaton and Monkey: Yuletide Spysolvers
Our Annual Christmas Comedy Special. In which, our intrepid heroes must save Christmas from a debauched algorithm, navigate treacherous honeypots, and escape a…
The Political OrphanageJason Pargin on Internet Addiction and Algorithmic Horror
Former Cracked.com editor Jason Pargin explores the subject of how social media makes us insane and warps the universe we're in, in his new book "I'm Starting…