The Political Orphanage

(NSKF) Comedians Turner Sparks and Andrea Jones-Rooy return to make sense of the week's best, funniest, underserved headlines, from solving neighbor disputes with a chains, to the biggest threat to Venetian gondolas, to how water balloons can be productively used in deliberative bodies.  

Gerrymandering is a fun, time-honored way to rig elections on behalf of incumbents and political parties over irritants like competitive democracy. In 2010 it became industrialized. Or, rather, digitized--which had far-reaching impacts on American politics. Heaton speaks with Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance, co-directors of "Slay The Dragon," a film about a major coup in American political history.  

After much personal thought and rank media speculation, I have at last decided to run in 2020. This episode includes:  -My campaign kickoff -One of the finest spontaneous vice presidential stump speeches in all of human history -My official campaign announcement and subsequent interview with Justin Robert Young on "Politics Politics Politics"    

The Culture War isn't between the Left and the Right--it's just portrayed that way because most people have been taught to understand all conflicts as Red Team vs. Blue Team. There's definitely a Culture War afoot, but the flashpoint and fault lines aren't between liberals and conservatives.

(SNFK) Comedian Mahesh Kotagi and playwright Jeremy Kareken join Friday Release Valve to sort out the week's funnier headlines, including a scientific report on the maximum amount of hot dogs one human could conceivably consume in ten minutes, what to do if your town is overwhelmed by polar bears, and the lengths Queen Elizabeth II will go to shore up her finances during a sluggish tourism season.

Rutger Bregman is the author of "Humankind: A Hopeful History," which refutes the central premise of Thomas Hobbes and countless pessimistic legislative agendas: that human beings are, deep down, selfish monsters. He joins Heaton to discuss how to build society for the majority of its cooperative people, instead of to counteract the few fringe sociopaths.

(NSFK) Comedians Brian Brushwood and Justin Robert Young join the show to go over the week's funniest, least-scrutinized headlines, including: *A Jeffrey Epstein statue *Fight over a wooden yard phallus *The Fembot actress *News from Russia

Daryl Davis is an African American musician responsible for de-radicalizing over 200 Klansmen and Neo-Nazis in his attempts to understand racism. He joins Heaton to talk about his experience, contact science, and the best ways to overcome bigotry. This episode has been corrected for an audio error which previously occurred. If you see two episodes in your player, go with this one!

(NSFK) Who steals an 800 pound Canadian radar camera? How can we combine foliage with opera? Comedians Turner Sparks and Mike Kaplan of the Lost in America podcast join Heaton to make sense of the week's underserved headlines.

How often do climate change discussions get sidetracked by doomsday porn or hoax talk? Sheril Kirshenbaum is the host of "Serving Up Science" at PBS Digital Studios, and a contributor at Scientific American. She joins Heaton to talk about tackling the subject of climate change scientifically, and coming up with rational policy objectives in response.