

The Political Orphanage
Andrew Heaton
Politics minus bile plus jokes. Comedian and avowed independent Andrew Heaton interviews authors and thought leaders about policy and big thinky stuff.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 16, 2019 • 48min
Ep 102 | Bernie Sanders Visits Rupert Murdoch's Death Star | Guest: Brian Brushwood
Bernie Sanders just held a town hall with Fox News...and came out on top. Brian Brushwood joins Heaton to slap socialism around, but also point out the surprising policies where Sanders and Trump converge.

Apr 15, 2019 • 34min
Ep 101 | Can Space Force Stop Somali Rocket Pirates? | Guest: Anthony Colangelo
Is a U.S. Space Force an inevitable step to protecting satellites and commercial space activities, or just an expensive exercise in shuffling Pentagon bureaucracies? Military and aerospace expert Anthony Colangelo joins Heaton to sort things out.

Apr 12, 2019 • 42min
Ep 100 | Playboy Bunny Lawn Ornaments—Friday Release Valve | Guest: Jaron Myers
Comedian Jaron Myers joins Heaton to probe the more obscure headlines of the week, from an incredibly polite Canadian car theft mystery, to robot burglars, to the world's most ominous potatoes.

Apr 11, 2019 • 55min
Ep 99 | A British Slum Doctor Tackles Poverty | Guest: Theodore Dalrymple
Poverty and low standards of living are often thought to be the outcome of those at the financial and social top standing on the backs of everyone else. But what are some other possibilities? Theodore Dalrymple, author of "Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass," comes on the program to talk to Andrew about the influence of a generational welfare state and its impoverishment of stable, family-based values.

Apr 10, 2019 • 44min
Ep 98 | I Want to Build a Moon Base | Guest: Robert Zubrin
We've been to the moon a couple of times to collect rocks and go golfing, but what benefits would we get from building a permanent colony? Robert Zubrin is the author of "The Case for Space," founder of the Mars Society, and president of Pioneer Astronautics. He joins Heaton to talk about how to build a moon base and how to get the private sector to do it cheap.

Apr 9, 2019 • 46min
Ep 97 | Is Batman Libertarian? — Alienating the Audience | Guest: Megan Sass
Comedian and comic book guru Megan Sass joins Heaton on "Alienating the Audience" to talk about superhero politics. How do Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman play out ideologically?

Apr 8, 2019 • 39min
Ep 96 | How to Make Partisan Hacks Nervous | Guest: Dan Fishman
Every election, we're told we can either vote for the lesser of two besuited sociopaths or throw our vote away on a doomed third-party candidate. (At which point, you may well spoil the election for everyone.) Dan Fishman is the incoming executive director of the Libertarian Party, and he has a solution for shifting our elections away from exercises in fear and hate toward logic and values.

Apr 5, 2019 • 37min
Ep 95 | Improve CNN by Adding Bears | Guest: Jimmy Failla
Comedian Jimmy Failla returns to help sort out the week's more obscure headlines: from marathon endurance singing, to football skulls, to why Uri Geller is a threat to us all!

Apr 4, 2019 • 1h 9min
Ep 94 | The Politics of Dune: Alienating the Audience | Guest: Ben Brockschmidt
Heaton goes on a melange-fueled sci-fi plunge in this special installment of "Alienating the Audience" about the politics and economics of Frank Herbert's "Dune." He's joined by fellow nerd and possible mentat Benjamin Brockschmidt to discuss feudalism in space, the future of humanity, technology, and the nature of power.

Apr 3, 2019 • 40min
Ep 93 | Where Can We Touch Joe Biden? | Guest: Negin Farsad
Can Uncle Joe climb out of the vat of #MeToo he seems to have fallen into? What are his policy priorities, and can he win the Democratic nomination despite being an old white guy? Comedian Negin Farsad of "Fake the Nation" joins Heaton to get the rundown on Uncle Joe.


