The Political Orphanage

Rutger Bregman is the author of "Humankind: A Hopeful History," which refutes the central premise of Thomas Hobbes and countless pessimistic legislative agendas: that human beings are, deep down, selfish monsters. He joins Heaton to discuss how to build society for the majority of its cooperative people, instead of to counteract the few fringe sociopaths.

(NSFK) Comedians Brian Brushwood and Justin Robert Young join the show to go over the week's funniest, least-scrutinized headlines, including: *A Jeffrey Epstein statue *Fight over a wooden yard phallus *The Fembot actress *News from Russia

Daryl Davis is an African American musician responsible for de-radicalizing over 200 Klansmen and Neo-Nazis in his attempts to understand racism. He joins Heaton to talk about his experience, contact science, and the best ways to overcome bigotry. This episode has been corrected for an audio error which previously occurred. If you see two episodes in your player, go with this one!

(NSFK) Who steals an 800 pound Canadian radar camera? How can we combine foliage with opera? Comedians Turner Sparks and Mike Kaplan of the Lost in America podcast join Heaton to make sense of the week's underserved headlines.

How often do climate change discussions get sidetracked by doomsday porn or hoax talk? Sheril Kirshenbaum is the host of "Serving Up Science" at PBS Digital Studios, and a contributor at Scientific American. She joins Heaton to talk about tackling the subject of climate change scientifically, and coming up with rational policy objectives in response.

(NSFK) Leo Kearse, Scottish Comedian of the Year 2018, rejoins the program to suss out the week's better underserved headlines, from British citizens asking New Zealand to invade it to even more things that can get you arrested in Cambodia. You can follow Leo on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp1hRBGoDHKSn4HiHIzkXAw

Jeffrey Miron is an economist at Harvard University, and joins Heaton to discuss the Drug War. If we legalized the hard stuff, would usage spike? Would overdoses? What's the balance of disruption to society against revenue reclaimed from law enforcement? Also: did Coca-Cola ever really contain cocaine?

(NSKF) Brian Sack and Jack Helmuth of the Questionable Material podcast join Heaton to go through the week's underserved headlines, from funeral planning involving elephants to an inexplicably nude death in Arizona.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been advocated in various forms by Thomas Paine, Andrew Yang, Milton Friedman, and Richard Nixon: a minimum income floor available to all Americans. How does it stack up compared to our existing welfare state? How would it work, and can we afford it? Scott Santens is a UBI proponent who has advised Andrew Yang on UBI, and is now senior policy advisor to Mike Broihier. He sits on the Board of Directors for the Gerald Huff Fund For Humanity.

NSFK - Comedian Myq Kaplan and professor/humor scholar Dannagal Goldthwaite Young join the show to plumb the week's underserved headlines, from flying turtles to Outback sex work awkwardness to the going rate for human souls at an auction. The latest installment of Friday Release Valve.