"The Walking Dead" and Pagan Values
The Political Orphanage
Andrew Heaton
4.9 • 1000 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tim Sandefur joins to discuss individualism in American culture. In this fun (but weird) conversation, we go through zombie shows, Westerns, and Star Trek, while invoking Hobbes, Ayn Rand, Epicurus, the Stoics, Plato and Aristotle. He is the author of the new book "You Don't Own Me: Individualism and the Culture of Liberty."
Past Sandefur chats:
ATA: The Last Policeman
https://alienating.libsyn.com/the-last-policeman
ATA: Let's Fight About the Undiscovered Country
ATA: Is Life Worth Living in a Perfect Utopia?
https://alienating.libsyn.com/is-life-worth-living-in-a-perfect-utopia
ATA: Cold War Kirk vs. Picard the Moral Relativist
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky misfits and problem solvers. |
| 0:14.8 | I'm your host, Andrew Heaton, and we've got a fun, albeit eclectic, show today. |
| 0:21.8 | One of my favorite guests, Tim Sandifred, joins us for a snappy chat on culture. |
| 0:26.9 | We're going to cover zombie television shows, westerns, and even Star Trek, all the while weaving in Hobbs, Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus. |
| 0:38.5 | It's going to be sloppy but thinky today right here on the political orphanage. |
| 0:44.6 | Enjoy. |
| 0:46.5 | My guest today is Mr. Tim Sandifer. |
| 0:48.7 | He is vice president for legal affairs at the Goldwater Institute. |
| 0:51.9 | He was the Goldwater Chair at AZU and is an adjunct fellow at the Cato Institute. You've heard him on Judge Week. You might have heard him on my sci-fi podcast, alienating the audience. We always have a very good chat, which is why I am excited to talk to him about his new book, You Don't Own Me, Individualism, and the Culture of Liberty. You can find that book, as with all books |
| 1:12.0 | discussed on this program, by going to Mightyheaton.com slash featured. Hello, Tim, and congratulations |
| 1:16.7 | on your new book. Thanks for having me back. My pleasure. I'm excited to talk to you, Tim, |
| 1:21.3 | because we've had many a conversation about Star Trek in the past. We've never talked about |
| 1:25.2 | anarchism and zombies. And you have an essay that I very |
| 1:30.1 | much enjoyed in your book about The Walking Dead and what it teaches us about politics. So why the |
| 1:36.6 | walking dead? Why zombies? Well, so I got into The Walking Dead like a lot of people when it was |
| 1:43.4 | new and gradually lost interest. |
| 1:46.2 | But one of the reasons why I gradually lost interest is because of the unrelenting cynicism of the show. |
| 1:53.3 | And particularly, the show has this view, I argue, that political society is really not possible and the show lionizes the what |
| 2:05.7 | you would call the aristocratic virtues of strength and power instead of the civilized virtues |
| 2:12.8 | of dialogue and and respect for others. |
| 2:24.0 | And time and time again on the show, the point seems to be that all society is really an illusion and a temporary one at that. |
| 2:27.5 | And after a while, that starts to wear thin. |
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