The Political Orphanage

Latest Episodes:

Europe is Freeloading on American Healthcare Oct 08, 2026

Show notes

Americans pay vastly more for medicine than citizens of other wealthy countries, but are those countries getting a bargain at our expense? David Goldhill, author of Catastrophic Care and founder and CEO of the healthcare marketplace Sesame, joins the show to explain why he considers American healthcare a kind of "second NATO"—one in which the United States shoulders a disproportionate share of the costs of medical innovation while the rest of the world reaps the benefits. We discuss why American healthcare is so outrageously expensive, whether adopting a European-style system would undermine medical innovation, why hospitals compete on everything except price, and whether healthcare can ever function like a normal market.

The Man Who Killed Antitrust Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

When does a successful company become a dangerous monopoly? Heaton traces the strange history of American antitrust law, from railroad barons and Standard Oil to Hollywood studios and Big Tech, before diving into the intellectual cage match between Louis Brandeis and Robert Bork. Should regulators worry about corporations getting too big and powerful, or only step in when consumers actually get hurt? Along the way, Heaton encounters natural monopolies, vertical integration, glitter cartels, cowboy boots, suspiciously powerful coffin companies, and the surprisingly difficult question of what even counts as a market.

Why Childcare Will Always Be Expensive Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

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 mandated raisin cartel? Why are so many American corporations technically from Delaware? Should companies exist solely to make money? And are there times when price controls actually work?

We also dig into Baumol's cost disease—the counterintuitive reason that as society gets richer, childcare, healthcare, restaurants, haircuts, teachers, and live performances can become increasingly expensive. Plus: how rising labor costs might be contributing to the loneliness epidemic, and how Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz helped invent the modern television business.

His book: "Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life"

The A.I. Civil War Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

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 philosophical divide over artificial intelligence: accelerate innovation and reap potentially enormous benefits, or slow down before we unleash risks we don't understand. We discuss OpenAI and Anthropic, the politics of AI regulation, competition with China, whether the AI boom is a bubble, the strongest case for the AI doomers, and the possibility that advances in AI could transform medicine, work, and even human aging. Plus: Justin explains why the best way to prepare for the AI revolution is surprisingly simple—start asking it dumb questions.

Upwingers Fighting Downwingers (Rebroadcast) Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

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 different attitudes to both risk and human nature, which informs their policy decisions and the direction they want to steer society.

SUPPORT THE SHOW! www.patreon.com/andrewheaton

Dr. Fuller's book at: www.mightyheaton.com/featured

Referenced in the show today:

TPO: "Was Abraham Lincoln Leftwing or Rightwing?" https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/hyrum-lewis

"Transcendant Man" – Documentary by Ray Kurzweill about the Singularity https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transcendent-Man-Ray-Kurzweil/dp/B016V7WCLA

ATA: The Bioethics of Gattica – Discussed on Alienating the Audience https://alienating.libsyn.com/gattaca

ATA: How Cryonics Works – Interview on Alienating the Audience https://alienating.libsyn.com/we-can-freeze-you-how-cryonics-works ORIGINAL AIR DATE: August, 2023

How Do Other Countries do Healthcare? Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

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 author Sally Primus joins me to tour healthcare systems from Germany and Britain to Japan, Australia, and Estonia. We look at single payer, private insurance, wait times, doctor shortages, drug prices, bureaucracy, and the strange economics of American healthcare—and ask which ideas the United States might actually want to steal.

Guys with Swords Control the French Language Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

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 it? Andrew Heaton traces the strange history of who gets to control language, from ancient river names that survived Romans and Normans, to Cardinal Richelieu's Académie française, to Noah Webster, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and America's long refusal to appoint an official authority over English. Along the way: French language purism, loanwords, bad translations, official English, and why language usually belongs less to governments than to the people who actually speak it.

I Read the DSA's Platform. They're Socialists. Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

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 document, namely the bits about "socialism" and "democratic." We likewise go through a few articles and interviews of prominent DSA members to get an idea of what, in their own words, they're actually up to. (Spoiler: it's socialism.)

Chinese Lobbyists Hate California Pig Laws Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

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 pushed, in large part, by Chinese-owned conglomerates irritated by federalism.

Lewis Bollard is the Farm Animal Welfare Managing Director at Coefficient Giving on Substack. He joins to discuss the Save Our Bacon Act, and the economic tradeoffs of better animal welfare against higher meat prices.

Senate switchboard number: (202) 224-3121

Prior Episode: "Big Ag's Meat Ethics"

What Does Nolan Owe The Odyssey? Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

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 civilization, hospitality, identity, belonging, and what it means for a warrior to return from war.

Then we turn to adaptation itself, and the choices involved in translating an ancient epic for a modern audience. Using Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey as our case study, we ask what an adaptation is free to change, what it has to preserve, and at what point a new version stops being The Odyssey at all.

"All the Gods Suck Except Circe"

https://alienating.libsyn.com/all-the-gods-suck-except-circe

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