The West Wing Thing is a progressive media analysis and commentary podcast created and hosted by the screenwriters Dave Anthony and Josh Olson. First uploaded in 2019–22, the series discusses the TV drama The West Wing (1999–2006) on an episode-by-episode basis, from a left-wing political perspective.
Early episodes were recorded in All Things Comedy in Burbank, California prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; later episodes were recorded from the hosts' homes. Heavy metal musician Collyn McCoy ("Diesel Boots") provides the theme tunes, which vary each season, as well as theme tunes for regular sections such as "West Wing Brain," "Misogyny Rundown" and "Psaki Bomb." Guests on the show included David Sirota, John Rogers, Wyatt Cenac, Matt Taibbi, Blaire Erskine, Thomas Frank, Jared Yates Sexton, Abby Martin, Eddie Pepitone, Bilge Ebiri, Lee Camp, Katie Halper, several members of Chapo Trap House, Briahna Joy Gray, Gareth Reynolds, Marianne Williamson, Nathan J. Robinson, Adam McKay, Adolph L. Reed Jr., Wil Anderson and Susan Saxe.
Episodes Season 1
#overall # inseries Date released Episode discussed Guests and other info 1 1 "Pilot" – 2 2 "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" – 3 3 "A Proportional Response" – 4 4 "Five Votes Down" – 5 5 "The Crackpots and These Women" – 6 6 "Mr. Willis of Ohio" Title misspelled as "Mr Wills of Ohio"7 7 "The State Dinner" – 8 8 "Enemies" – 9 9 "The Short List" – 10 10 "In Excelsis Deo" – 11 11 "Lord John Marbury" with Faisal-Azam Qureshi 12 12 – Mid-Season Wrap, with Susan Saxe 13 13 "He Shall, from Time to Time..." – 14 14 "Take out the Trash Day" – 15 15 – "Teaser - A Very Special West Wing Thing" 16 16 – "Our Very Special To Kill A Mockingbird episode", with Chris Wade (Chapo Trap House) 17 17 "Take This Sabbath Day" – 18 18 "Celestial Navigation" – 19 19 "20 Hours in L.A." – 20 20 "The White House Pro-Am" – 21 21 "Six Meetings Before Lunch" – 22 22 "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" – 23 23 "Mandatory Minimums" – 24 24 "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics" – 25 25 "What Kind of Day Has It Been" with Luke Savage, author of the famous "How Liberals Fell In Love With The West Wing" article
Season 2
#overall # inseries Date released Episode discussed Guests and other info 26 1 "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" (both parts) with John Rogers 27 2 "The Midterms" – 28 3 "In This White House" – 29 4 "And It's Surely to Their Credit" – 30 5 "The Lame Duck Congress" – 31 6 "The Portland Trip" –32 7 "Shibboleth" with Katherine Krueger (Splinter) and Will Menaker (Chapo Trap House) 33 8 "Galileo" 34 9 "Isaac and Ishmael" "9/11 Special" with Matt Christman (Chapo Trap House); this episode of The West Wing was originally aired before the beginning of Season 3 35 10 "Noël" – 36 11 "The Leadership Breakfast" – 37 12 "The Drop-In" with Alex Press (Jacobin) 38 13 "Bartlet's Third State of the Union" – 39 14 "The War at Home" – 40 15 "Ellie" – 41 16 "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail" with Luke Savage 42 17 "The Stackhouse Filibuster" with Matt Stoller (Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy) 43 18 "17 People" – 44 19 "Bad Moon Rising" Podcast episode is titled "Bad Title Rising" 45 20 "The Fall's Gonna Kill You" with Tom Sexton (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 46 21 "18th and Potomac" – 47 22 "Two Cathedrals" Podcast episode titled "Are you there God, it’s me, Jed?"; with David Sirota
Season 3
#overall # inseries Date released Episode discussed Guests and other info 48 1 "Manchester" (both parts) – 49 2 "Ways and Means" with Amber A'Lee Frost (Chapo Trap House) 503 "On the Day Before" – 51 4 "War Crimes" with Tarence Ray (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 52 5 "Gone Quiet" – 536 "The Indians in the Lobby" with Wasté'win Young (of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests)54 7 "The Women of Qumar" with Savanna LaMaison (sex worker and activist) 55 8 "Bartlet for America" – 56 9 "H. Con-172" – 57 10 "100,000 Airplanes" with Oliver Willis (political blogger) 58 11 "The Two Bartlets" with Luke Savage 59 12 "Night Five" – 60 13 "Hartsfield's Landing" with Josh Androsky (Democratic Socialists of America) 61 14 "Dead Irish Writers" with Mary Kate O'Flanagan (screenwriter and story consultant) 62 15 "The U.S. Poet Laureate" with Rachel Joy Larris (Women's Media Center) 63 16 "Stirred" Also contains a listener mailbag 64 17 "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" with Ashley Stevens (Jog For Good) 65 18 "The Black Vera Wang" Podcast episode is titled "Black Vera Wanglord", a reference to the podcast's theme song 66 19 "We Killed Yamamoto" with Katie Halper 67 20 "Posse Comitatus" with Wil Anderson (TOFOP)
Season 4
#overall # inseries Date released Episode discussed Guests and other info 68 1 "20 Hours in America" (both parts) with Tarence Ray and Tom Sexton (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 69 2 "College Kids" with Virgil Texas (Chapo Trap House) 703 "The Red Mass" with Trevor Beaulieu (Champagne Sharks) 71 4 "Debate Camp" Leslie Lee III and Jack Allison (Struggle Session) 72 5 A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote with Amber A'Lee Frost and Felix Biederman (Chapo Trap House). A vodcast uploaded to Vimeo. 73 6 "Game On" with Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith) 74 7 "Election Night" with Briahna Joy Gray; episode released the day before the 2020 United States presidential election 75 8 "Process Stories" with Nando Vila (Weekends) 76 9 "Swiss Diplomacy" — 7710 "Arctic Radar" with Amber A'Lee Frost (Chapo Trap House) 7811 "Holy Night" with Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs) 7912 "Guns Not Butter" with Rob Rousseau (49th Parahell) 8013 "The Long Goodbye" Bored by the West Wing episode, the duo instead decide to discuss the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Past Tense", renaming the podcast The Star Trek Thing 8114 "Inauguration: Part I" with Daniel Bessner (Jacobin, advisor to the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign) 8215 "Inauguration: Over There" 8316 "The California 47th" with Aaron Thorpe (@posadist_trapgd; Trillbilly Worker's Party) 8417 "Red Haven's on Fire" with Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show; Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas) 8518 "Privateers" with Tanya Turner (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 8619 "Angel Maintenance" with Ashley Stevens 87 20 "Evidence of Things Not Seen" — 88 21 "Life on Mars" with David Sirota 89 22 "Commencement" with Branko Marcetic (Jacobin) 90 23 "Twenty Five" with Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi (Useful Idiots)
Season 5
#overall # inseries Date released Episode discussed Guests and other info 91 1 "7A WF 83429" with Aaron Maté (The Grayzone, The Nation) 92 2 "The Dogs of War" — 93 3 "Jefferson Lives" with Rebecca Bitton (Surviving Limbo) 94 4 "Han" with Daniel Bessner (Jacobin) 95 5 "Constituency of One" with Amy Westervelt (Drilled) and Josh Androsky (Democratic Socialists of America) 96 6 "Disaster Relief" with Robin Marie Averbeck (Liberalism is Not Enough) 97 7 — Crossover with Michael and Us (Luke Savage and Will Sloan) discussing Aaron Sorkin's appearance on RUMBLE with Michael Moore 98 8 "Separation of Powers" with Tom Sexton (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 99 9 "Shutdown" with Briahna Joy Gray and Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice) 10010 "Abu el Banat" with Katherine Krueger (Splinter, Elle) and Will Menaker (Chapo Trap House) 101 11 "The Stormy Present" with Felix Biederman (Chapo Trap House) 102 12 "The Benign Prerogative" with Aaron Thorpe (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 103 13 "Slow News Day" with Marianne Williamson (2020 U.S. presidential candidate) 104 14 "The Warfare of Genghis Khan" with Noah Kulwin (Jewish Currents) 105 15 "An Khe" — 106 16 "Full Disclosure" with Pete D'Alessandro (Iowa Bernie Sanders organizer) 107 17 "Eppur Si Muove" with Savannah LaMaison 108 18 — Podcast episode titled "Vamping"; No The West Wing content, as Olson and Anthony just discuss current events 109 19 "The Supremes" with Thomas Frank and Katie Halper 110 20 "Access" Episode entitled "Good Things Happen in Philly", with Susan Saxe 111 21 "Talking Points" — 112 22 "No Exit" — 113 23 "Gaza" and "Memorial Day" with Derek Davison (American Prestige) 114 24 "Talking Points" (revisited) Podcast episode titled "Season 5 wrap up", with Pete D'Alessandro (Iowa Capital Dispatch) and Richard D. Wolff
Season 6
#overall # inseries Date released Episode(s) discussed Guests and other info 115 1 "NSF Thurmont" and "The Birnam Wood" with Shanti Singh (Democratic Socialists of America) and Abby Martin 116 2 "Third-Day Story" with Shanti Singh 117 3 "Liftoff" with Lee Camp 118 4 "The Hubbert Peak" with Briahna Joy Gray 119 5 "The Dover Test" — 120 6 "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Daniel Bessner (Jacobin) 121 7 "In the Room" with Meagan Day (Jacobin) 122 8 "Impact Winter" with Josh Androsky (Democratic Socialists of America) and Adolph Reed 123 9 "Faith Based Initiative" — 124 10 "Opposition Research" with Tom Sexton (Trillbilly Worker's Party) 125 11 "365 Days" with Jared Yates Sexton 126 12 "King Corn" with Pete D'Alessandro (Iowa Capital Dispatch) 127 13 "The Wake Up Call" with Amber A'Lee Frost (Chapo Trap House) 128 14 — Podcast episode titled "Hiatus!"; No The West Wing content, as Olson presents a showcase of Diesel Boots songs, including various theme songs for the podcast 129 15 — Podcast episode titled "Mayor Pete Doc special"; No The West Wing content, with Luke Savage and Alex Press (Jacobin) 130 16 — Podcast episode titled "Special mini Crooked Media episode"; No The West Wing content, with Briahna Joy Gray 131 17 "Freedonia" — 132 18 "Drought Conditions" with Jen Briney (Congressional Dish) 133 19 "A Good Day" with Matt Stoller (Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy) 134 20 "La Palabra" with Eddie Pepitone 135 21 "Ninety Miles Away" with Gareth Reynolds 136 22 "In God We Trust" with James Fritz (comedian) and Justin Feldman (epidemiologist) 137 23 "Things Fall Apart" Podcast episode titled "Things ACTUALLY Fall Apart"; with Kate Willett (Dirtbag Anthropology) 138 24 "2162 Votes" with Walker Bragman (Paste, Jacobin) 139 25 — Podcast episode titled "Meet our free floating agent of chaos!", with Brian Siano, the podcast's researcher 140 26 — Podcast episode titled "The Hillary Clinton Master Class Part 1", with Amber A'Lee Frost (Chapo Trap House) and Catherine Liu (Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class) 141 27 — Podcast episode titled "The Hillary Clinton Master Class Part 2", with Julia Claire and Kate Willett (Reply Guys) 142 28 — Podcast episode titled "The Hillary Clinton Master Class Part 3", with Tom Sexton and Aaron Thorpe (Trillbilly Workers Party) 143 29 — Podcast episode titled "The Hillary Clinton Master Class Part 4", with Ashley Stevens and Meagan Day (Jacobin) 144 30 — Podcast episode titled "The Hillary Clinton Master Class Part 5", with Briahna Joy Gray, Katie Halper and Lee Camp
Season 7