The Political Orphanage

Matt Sienkiewicz and Andrea Jones-Rooy join the show to discuss the week's best, underserved headlines.   Including: a scrupulous car thief, stealing playground components, and hopes of sending human body fluids to the moon.

Former Congressman Justin Amash thinks Congress has basically turned into two oligarchs and a bunch of mouthy rubber stamps who cue off them. He joins the show to talk about the dysfunction in Congress, why that's frightening, and the reforms needed to fix the institution. SUPPORT THE SHOW Patreon.com/andrewheaton Paypal: andrew@mightyheaton.com Venmo: andrew-heaton-1 Crypto Currency: Mightyheaton.com/crypto

Alice Vaugh of "Two Girls One Mic" and comedian Mike Blejer join the show to investigate the week's best, underserved headlines. Including: Welsh goat contraceptives, an extremely helpful car thief, and rigged homecoming court elections.

Why is academia so progressive, and why are there so few conservatives or libertarian professors?  Professor Matt Sienkiewicz is the Chair of the Boston College Communication Department, and Associate Professor of Communication and International Studies.  He joins to explain why.

Comedians Turner Sparks, Michael Ira Kaplan, and Paul Morrissey join the show to explore the week's best underserved headlines, including: a guitar made out of an uncle, and why Yoda is getting Saudi Arabian history textbooks yanked.

Caleb O. Brown of the Cato Daily Podcast guest hosts this week, moderating the topic: is politics the new religion? Just how terrible is that, and how can we fix it? 

NSFK - Nick Sperdute and Andrew Young rejoin the show to discuss the week's best, underserved headlines including: horrific Scottish street brawl and/or courtship injuries, corn flake narcotics, and the world's laziest guard dog.

Politicians fear their base, so they play to their base--and disregard moderates, independents, and members of the rival party. Elected leaders can store up campaign war chests, but they can't net excess votes or store them for the next election. What are the bad structural elements we've built into our system, and how do we rearrange them? Katherine Gehl is the author of "The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy"

We're gamifying funny headlines! Everyone on the show gets a funny headline, but some are real and some are fake news. Each team hears the headlines, asks probing questions, then guesses which is real and which is fictitious.  Host: Andrew Heaton Team Captains: Andrew Young and Jeremey Kareken Guests: Nicholas Sperdute, Brian Sack, Jack Helmuth, Andrea Jones-Rooy

I swear I'm not evil. I have good reasons for believing we shouldn't spike the national minimum wage to $15 per hour. I'll explain why, as the U.S. Senate deliberates on whether or not to double it.