The Political Orphanage

Updated: 05 Nov 2025 • 593 episodes
www.mightyheaton.com

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

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05 Nov 2025 • EN

SHUTDOWN: The Musical

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.

49 min
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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.

51 min
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51:32
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Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton offered two contrasting visions of what America should be and how the Constitution applies to it. Jeffrey Rosen is a legal scholar and the President of the National Constitution Center. He's the author "The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle

80 min
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Can comedians ethically perform standup for a despotic regime without endorsing it? Recently the Riyadh Comedy Festival invited furor when some comics schlepped to Saudi Arabia to perform–at great expense–while others declined in protest of supporting human rights abuses. Turner Sparks and Michael Ira Kaplan join to di

67 min
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Okay, so what constitutes "cruel and unusual"? Why was it okay to brand horse thieves in the face in old timey days, but it's barbaric now? In the final installment of this year's Judge Week, we go over the history of cruel and unusual punishments; what scared the English into outlawing it in their Bill of Rights, and

27 min
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09 Oct 2025 • EN

How Texas Blocked Pornhub

Pornhub ceased operating in the Lone Star State after Texas implemented an age verification law. Pornhub, and other adult websites, said the compliance was too onerous, and the potential fines too staggering. In response, the Free Speech Coalition sued Texas in court for an injunction to block the law, on the grounds t

104 min
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