The Political Orphanage

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" SUPPORT THE SHOW! www. Patreon.com/andrewheaton www.thepoliticalorphanage.com

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...

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 com...

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...

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...

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-whatif...

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...

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.

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 hi...

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-gree...

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 be...

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

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.

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 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 Ree...

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 Squan...

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.

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.libsy...

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.

Legal and geographic quirks sometimes create "Terra Nullius"—land which no sovereign nation lays claim to. Literally, No Man's Land. In this weird geographic episode, we explore: Iceland, the Oklahoma Panhandle, Kowloon Walled City, Liberland, and the Kingdom of North Sudan.