Comedy

The Political Orphanage

Politics minus bile plus jokes. Comedian and avowed independent Andrew Heaton interviews authors and thought leaders about policy and big thinky stuff.

Latest Episodes:

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.

Cash for Kidneys Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

Thousands of people need kidneys, right now. They are either on the precipice of death, or suffering through dialysis and low quality of life. Jeremiah Johnson of the New Liberal Podcast joins to discuss the End Kidney Deaths Act, introduced to the House by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and Democratic Rep. Josh Harder of California.

"The Walking Dead" and Pagan Values Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

Tim Sandefur joins to discuss individualism in American culture. In this fun (but weird) conversation, we go through zombie shows, Westerns, and Star Trek, while invoking Hobbes, Ayn Rand, Epicurus, the Stoics, Plato and Aristotle. He is the author of the new book "You Don't Own Me: Individualism and the Culture of Liberty."

Past Sandefur chats:

ATA: The Last Policeman

https://alienating.libsyn.com/the-last-policeman

ATA: Let's Fight About the Undiscovered Country

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-fight-about-the-undiscovered-country/id1488171922?i=1000485799630

ATA: Is Life Worth Living in a Perfect Utopia?

https://alienating.libsyn.com/is-life-worth-living-in-a-perfect-utopia

ATA: Cold War Kirk vs. Picard the Moral Relativist

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cold-war-kirk-vs-picard-the-moral-relativist/id1488171922?i=1000456934729

SHUTDOWN: The Musical Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

Theater critic Clive Kripson of BBC Bolton joins to review "Shutdown: The Musical" in what is now the longest-running revival of the landmark Broadway favorite.

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