The Political Orphanage

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I Time Traveled to Talk to Medieval Yokels about Economics Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

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 1314, to speak to barflies and a priest.

Fr. Richard Kirby is a fourteenth century prior of Whitby Abbey and formerly the sacrist of St. Mungo's. He is a specialist in Just Price Theory, and joins the show to discuss how his fellows in the Dark Ages approach economics.

MLK and Color Blindness Jan 19, 2026

Show notes

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 late husband. He's one of the foremost historians on MLK and his legacy. He joins to discuss King, color blindness, and the three approaches of the Civil Rights movement.

The Friendship Recession and Cocktail Parties Jan 14, 2026

Show notes

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 sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. His YouTube and short videos have been seen by over 55 million people. He's been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine called him a host of "culturally significant parties."

Leading him to write the book, "The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: a step-by-step handbook that teaches you how to build big relationships by hosting small gatherings." You can find that book, as all books discussed on this program, by going to mightyheaton.com/featured.

Nick Gray's PersonalWebsite.org and PersonalWebsites.net

Nick Gray's Patron View donor database

Nick Gray's Website and Blog

Patron View Patron Leaderboards

The 2-Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray

Friendship Recession

I Explain Venezuela Using Lottery Tickets Jan 09, 2026

Show notes

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 Plenty, or "the Dutch Disease."

Bonus: Norway's Big Bucket of Oil Money

https://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com/p/bonus-norways-big-bucket-of-oil-money

Why Trump Wants Greenland

https://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com/p/why-trump-wants-greenland

What Happens when the Ayotallah Falls

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-happens-when-the-ayatollah-falls/id1439837349?i=1000724729486

Is Everyone Disabled Now? (WSPN) Dec 31, 2025

Show notes

College students are increasingly registering as disabled–particularly at high-end universities, which often entails longer test times and extensions on papers. Does the growing rate of accommodation mean American universities are simply better at identifying disabilities; evidence of students and their families gaming the system for advantages; or a cultural shift wherein students increasingly believe they are disabled, but aren't?

Dr. Andrea Jones-Rooy (a former university educator) and Michael Ira Kaplan (a parent) weigh in.

Heaton and Monkey: Yuletide Spysolvers Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

Our Annual Christmas Comedy Special. In which, our intrepid heroes must save Christmas from a debauched algorithm, navigate treacherous honeypots, and escape a federal penitentiary in this modern yuletide spy epic.

Happy Holidays!

Starring:

Andrew Heaton

Josh Jennings

Andrew Young

Austin Bragg

Justin Robert Young

Kourtni Beebe

Brian Brushwood

Anna Gorisch

Brett Weaver

Brian Sack

Jack Helmuth

Jason Pargin on Internet Addiction and Algorithmic Horror Dec 17, 2025

Show notes

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 to Worry About This Black Box of Doom." He joins to discuss.

The Secret Map of Supreme Court Justices Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

Sarah Isgur is a senior editor at SCOTUS Blog, host of the Advisory Opinions podcast, and a contributor at ABC News. She is the author of the forthcoming book "Last Branch Standing," which available for pre-order on Amazon. She joins to discuss the recent oral arguments before the Supreme Court on whether or not the Trump administration can invoke IEEPA to levy emergency tariffs.

Freddie deBoer: What It's Like to Have a Mental Breakdown Dec 03, 2025

Show notes

Freddie deBoer is a writer, academic, and cultural critic. He is a widely-read author on Substack, an old-school Marxist, who has previously been on the program to explain what Marxists actually think.

He's struggled with mental health issues and frequently discusses the intersection of culture and mental health. And he has a new book out which explores those issues, his debut novel, "The Mind Reels."

LINK: "What Do Marxists Actually Think?"

https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/what-do-marxists-actually-think

Squanto the Power Broker Nov 26, 2025

Show notes

The real story of Thanksgiving is stranger, darker, and far more interesting than what you learned in kindergarten (or college).

It's a tale of slavery, plagues, ecological engineering, diplomacy, betrayal, and realpolitik—and yes, an actual feast where everyone sucked down eel while negotiating an alliance that would hold for fifty years.

We dive into the world of Tisquantum—better known as Squanto—a kidnapped teenager who crossed the Atlantic twice, lived among Spanish friars and English merchants, and returned to find his entire people gone. Only to reinvented himself as one of the most cunning political operators in early America.

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