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.
Episodes
Naomi Brockwell is the President and Founder of the Ludlow Institute, a non-profit dedicated to advancing freedom through technology. She is a privacy advocate and expert, who has come on to scare us about online privacy, and how the government can bypass the Constitution through private companies' data.
The Supreme Court is significantly less partisan than advertised. And there are three blocs in it, not two parties. In her new book "Last Branch Standing" Sarah Isgur demystifies the Supreme Court, gives a basic primer on everything from certiorari to judicial philosophies, and identifies the threats to the courts independence, and possible solutions.
Why now? Why did the United States go to war with Iran this year, as opposed to last year, or ten years ago? Michael Tint is a data scientist and aerospace expert, and is here to talk about the Iran War–and why it's a different sort of conflict.
The World's Smartest Podcast Network returns to discuss:
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Universities dumping peripheral majors in favor of practical ones
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The trials, tribulations, and musical comeback of Afroman
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Lindy West, and Millennial Feminism
TURNER'S COMEDY SPECIAL, "Turner Sparks: Buttoned Up and Unhinged: https://www.angel.com/watch/
Sociopaths and narcissists are both drawn to politics. How do we spot folks with faulty moral compasses before they get elected, and what do we do when they slip by?
Bill Eddy is a therapist, lawyer, and mediator. He is the Director of Innovation at the High Conflict Institute. He is the author of over twenty books on high-conflict behavior and how to manage it, but we will be discussing the most pertinent...
Randall Liberty is the Commissioner for Maine's Department of Corrections, overseeing the state's entire prison system, after previously serving as a warden, and a sheriff. He's largely responsible for implementing the "Maine Model," and shifting the state's prison resources away from punitive emphases to rehabilitation.
Part V of Prison Week
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What's prison wine taste like? How's trade work? Where do people get the ink for prison tattoos? If someone sees you cry in the slammer, do you get beaten up? If they beat you up, can you whittle your toothbrush down and shank 'em later? And, crucially, how is prison debate different than high school debate, if at all?
How hard is it to raise kids when you're inside a penitentiary? How do you maintain relationships in general? In this episode, Part III of Prison Week, we head to the Maine Correctional Center's Women Prison to interview a resident.
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In Part II of Prison Week, we meet prison teachers, visit the computer lab, and check out Anime in the prison library. The "Maine Model" is focused on rehabilitation and trying to get residents prepped for life on the outside. It's a method contrasted to older penitentiary models in the United States, which focus primarily on punishment and deterrence.
In this special, host Andrew Heaton visits the Maine Correctional Center for a day to speak with residents, corrections officers and administrators. About life in prison in general, and the "Maine Model," focused on rehabilitation specifically.
Part I of "Prison Week"
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Brink Lindsey is the Senior Vice President at the Niskannen Center. He is the author of "The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing." You can find it at mightyheaton.com/featured
Brian Brushwood is by trade a magician, but of late has become a security expert. The FBI flew him to Quantico to brief agents on how scams work, and he's become a popular speaker and consultant for large corporations on how to shield against sophisticated scams. The host of "World's Greatest Con" joins to advise Heaton on how not to get screwed.
On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/_5PnMjvxTDg
When was the last time the United States actually declared war?
Why did it stop officially declaring war, if nonetheless bombing folks?
And when is the president authorized to attack another country without explicit congressional authorization?
What is the War Powers Act, and why did it piss of Nixon?
All that and more in this history and constitutional deep dive.
The Supreme Court just struck down Donald Trump's sweeping emergency tariffs, but this case is about far more than slinkies and sombreros. When Congress passes an ambiguous law, does the president get broad discretion, or only the specific powers clearly granted to him? We unpack the Major Questions Doctrine, Justice Roberts' loaded-gun theory of taxation, Gorsuch's blistering concurrence calling out judicial inconsistency, and the...
Burning Man is a giant, 80,000-person party in the desert, complete with a crazy amount of neon, bicycles, and narcotics. Grover Norquist is a powerful Republican, alternately famous or infamous for compelling GOP leaders to pledge never to increase spending, who attends Burning Man every year. He joins the podcast to talk about Burning Man, influential secret societies, his foray into standup comedy, and of course, taxes.
Jonathan Hillis is the founder and caretaker of Cabin, a network of co-living spaces which link up and vet members in other communities via blockchain technology. His "neighborhood" of intentional living is in beautiful Texas Hill Country an hour outside of Austin, where he lives with friends in a hub-and-spoke model of private accommodation surrounding communal social spaces.
He's the former CTO of Coinba...
If you wanted to live with a bunch of buddies in a house, how would you do it? What are the mechanics of setting up, financing, and socially maintaining a commune? Samwise Rodriguez runs a commune—which combines their skills as a philanthropist, entrepreneur (and to some extent, as a polyamorist). This week we explore: how do you build your own commune?
What happens when Trump leaves office? Do the Republicans reform or catalyze?
Jeff Flake is the former Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute, Ambassador to Turkey, and representative and then Senator from the great state of Arizona. He is also a Knight of the Kingdom of Sweden.
He joins to discuss what a post-Trump Republican Party will look like.
Colin Woodard posits that America is not really a country, it's a dozen or so distinct nations with their own cultures and ideologies which are constantly battling for supremacy. His new book "Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America." In it he argues that
argues that deep-seated cultural divisions, stemming from different colonial settlement patterns, are the root cause of modern A...
Rudyard William Lynch is the host of WhatifAlHist, a popular history channel on YouTube.
He joins to discuss how the origins and circumstances of America's regions permanently imprinted on its cultures and political outlooks.
Colin Woodard's Map: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-nations-of-the-united-states-2015-7
Rudyard's Map: https://preview.redd.it/cultural-map-of-america-done-by-whatifalthist-on-youtube-v0-7clddg9nunpa1....
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