The Political Orphanage

Latest Episodes:

Deporting Khalil Mar 21, 2025

Show notes

Mahmoud Khalil has been detained, and will be potentially deported, by the Trump administration.

Attorney Anna Gorisch joins to discuss the implications of this case, in terms of national security, immigration law, and the difference between protected and unprotected speech.

Unabridged: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12QlJl8QgTKBffGXgtUjzMfLIrndTf3mW/view?usp=sharing

I Talk to a DEI Consultant about DEI Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

Andrea Jones-Rooy is a data scientist and former DEI consultant.

She joins to discuss what DEI is, what DEI is not, and where it goes wrong.

Your Kids and The Department of Education Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

What would happen if the Trump administration tried to abolish or defund the Department of Education?

What does it do, and is it a net positive or net negative in terms of tax dollars and dispensing knowledge?

Jeff Maurer: Revenge of the Low-Flow Toilets Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

What is the government doing which is irritating, and what is irritating that the government can assist with?

Topics covered today include: paper straws, low-flow toilets, pennies, nickels, mail, and quitting gym membership.

Jeff Maurer, author of "I Might Be Wrong" on Substack joins to discuss.

Jonathan Rauch: Christianity Dropped the Ball on Democracy Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

Jonathan Rauch asserts that as the American Church has become increasingly concerned with the culture war and politics, it has become secularized and unappealing to its members, who are abandoning it. The result is a country increasingly spiritually adrift, churches distracted from their core missions, and a nation turning to politics as a substitute.

He is the author of Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Promise with Democracy

Sex by the Numbers Feb 12, 2025

Show notes

Who's having sex, and how much of it are they having? Who's getting married and who's getting divorced? Does money, somehow, possibly, effect any of this?

Cathy Reisenwitz of "Sex & The State" joins to discuss.

TRADE WAR! (Probably) Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

Trump erected, then delayed, tariffs on Canada and Mexico, but has levied tariffs on China–which is apt to escalate things shortly. What happens in a trade war and why are they bad? And what is happening now, specifically, in whatever's going on with Canada? Heaton breaks down the macroeconomics, and James Thatcher explains the unfolding situation.

Discord: www.mightyheaton.com/discord

Trump's Whack-A-Mole with Federal Employees Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

The Trump administration is reclassifying federal workers as Schedule F, making them easier to fire, and put a stop to remote work. In hopes of compelling federal employees to quit, and thereby shrink the government workforce.

Heaton makes the case that if your goal is to shrink government, this is a counter productive way to do it.

Death Row Pen Pals Jan 24, 2025

Show notes

Kirsten Brink is pen pals with prisoners who have been sentenced to death in Texas, as well as other people currently incarcerated in our penitentiaries. She joins to discuss how she got into the program, what it's like having friendships with people inside the klink, and how others can get involved and help.

Write A Prisoner: https://writeaprisoner.com/

Wire of Hope: https://wireofhope.com/inmate-penpal-listings/

The Justice Network: https://www.thejusticenetwork.com/

How Billionaires Think About Philanthropy Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

Laura and John Arnold are the founders and co-chairs of Arnold Ventures. Started in 2008, Arnold Ventures is a self-funded philanthropy hyper-focused on pinpointing the root causes of our country's most pressing ills, whether that be disparities in health care and education, or dysfunction in our public finance systems. They advocate for evidence-based policy proposals that yield the kind of transformative change really only possible at the government level. They're also signatories of the Giving Pledge.

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