3.16: The U.S. Poet Laureate (with Television Without Pity and David Wade)

We’re joined by two of the co-founders of the website Television Without Pity, Tara Ariano (@TaraAriano) and Sarah D. Bunting (@TomatoNation), to discuss the lemonlyman.com plotline—inspired by Aaron Sorkin’s own posts on TWoP. We’re also joined by David Wade (@davideckelswade) who was national spokesman for then-Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign and who later served as Secretary Kerry’s chief of staff. We compare President Bartlet’s hot mic moment in this episode with a famous one from John Kerry when he was a candidate.

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footnotes —
Radiotopia is conducting an anonymous listener survey across all its podcasts right now, to learn more about our audiences. Got 5-10 minutes to spare? Just go to surveynerds.com/westwing. and follow the prompts. It's an easy way to show your support for TWWW, and it would mean a lot to us
previously.tv
“The Schuyler Sisters” from Hamilton
“Somebody Blew Up America” by Amiri Baraka
Hrishi’s new dog Watson:

3.15: Dead Irish Writers (With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau)

In light of Donna's brief time as a Canadian in “Dead Irish Writers,” we’re honored to be joined this week by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau). (We know. We can't believe it either.) The PM discusses political idealism – both on- and off-screen – and gives us his thoughts on what The West Wing got right, his father's tenure as Prime Minister, how he feels about President Bartlet, and more. Plus, Josh and Hrishi talk about the parallels between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and The Troubles, and the value of overcoming your fear of public failure.

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footnotes —
Gerald the Gorilla
Badinage
Superconducting Super Collider
Encounter (Israeli-Palestinian educational organization)
Background artist sings ‘O Canada,’ then apparently loses interest
This episode’s outro music

3,511 Likes, 178 Comments - The West Wing Weekly (@thewestwingweekly) on Instagram: "On the next West Wing Weekly, we discuss the episode where Donna briefly becomes a Canadian. For..."

3.14: Hartsfield’s Landing

This week, our discussion ranges from chess and poker games, to code switching, to West Wing Weekly themed fart machines. All this, plus Josh, the master prankster, ranks the pranks in CJ and Charlie’s prank war.

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footnotes —
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
Brinkmanship
Slack
Nate Silver Article
Fart Machine
Game of Thrones 
Tuvan Throat Singing

The socks that Hrishi gave to Josh —

The West Wing Weekly (@thewestwingweekly) on

3.13: Night Five

To get some real-world insight into the Sam/Ainsley/Celia scene in Night Five, we invited three West Wing Weekly listeners – Amy Carlson, Jamie Lynn Crofts, and Debora Verdier, employment attorneys in three different states, representing both plaintiffs and defendants – to give us their perspective in a panel discussion. It's our episode, it's about to become your episode, and we sleep…ehh, ok, not that well.

[ download ] [ transcript ]

footnotes —
Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen’s Ghost Ship
Ghost Ship
The Man Who Ate His Boots
The Bushlet Administration: Terrorism and War on The West Wing
Clockwatchers
The Daytrippers

3.12: The Two Bartlets (with Blanche Sindelar)

President Bartlet and his father; CJ and her father; Bob Engler and his father…this episode is the Dada of Dada issues. And Josh and Hrishi talk to Blanche Sindelar, the property master for all seven seasons of The West Wing — the keeper of Gail’s fishbowl.

Exciting news. On August 26th, we’ll be recording our discussion of the Season 3 finale live, with special guest AARON SORKIN. Posse Comitatus. San Francisco. Get your tickets now: bit.ly/twww-aaron

[ download ] [ transcript ]

footnotes — 
Amy Gardner’s WLC banner: bad design, bad typography
Smart Quotes for Smart People
Peggy Noonan on The West Wing and Aaron's politics [WSJ: paywall]
Trouble in Tahiti
Dungeons & Dragons
An Ideal Husband
Evil Dead 2