The West Wing Thing
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 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 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 | # in series | 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 | |
| 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 | # in series | Date released | Episode discussed | Guests and other info |
| 26 | 1 | "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" | 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 and Will Menaker | |
| 33 | 8 | "Galileo" | with Katherine Krueger and Will Menaker | |
| 34 | 9 | "Isaac and Ishmael" | "9/11 Special" with Matt Christman ; 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | # in series | Date released | Episode discussed | Guests and other info |
| 48 | 1 | "Manchester" | – | |
| 49 | 2 | "Ways and Means" | with Amber A'Lee Frost | |
| 50 | 3 | "On the Day Before" | – | |
| 51 | 4 | "War Crimes" | with Tarence Ray | |
| 52 | 5 | "Gone Quiet" | – | |
| 53 | 6 | "The Indians in the Lobby" | with Wasté'win Young | |
| 54 | 7 | "The Women of Qumar" | with Savanna LaMaison | |
| 55 | 8 | "Bartlet for America" | – | |
| 56 | 9 | "H. Con-172" | – | |
| 57 | 10 | "100,000 Airplanes" | with Oliver Willis | |
| 58 | 11 | "The Two Bartlets" | with Luke Savage | |
| 59 | 12 | "Night Five" | – | |
| 60 | 13 | "Hartsfield's Landing" | with Josh Androsky | |
| 61 | 14 | "Dead Irish Writers" | with Mary Kate O'Flanagan | |
| 62 | 15 | "The U.S. Poet Laureate" | with Rachel Joy Larris | |
| 63 | 16 | "Stirred" | Also contains a listener mailbag | |
| 64 | 17 | "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" | with Ashley Stevens | |
| 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 |
Season 4
| # overall | # in series | Date released | Episode discussed | Guests and other info |
| 68 | 1 | "20 Hours in America" | with Tarence Ray and Tom Sexton | |
| 69 | 2 | "College Kids" | with Virgil Texas | |
| 70 | 3 | "The Red Mass" | with Trevor Beaulieu | |
| 71 | 4 | "Debate Camp" | Leslie Lee III and Jack Allison | |
| 72 | 5 | A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote | with Amber A'Lee Frost and Felix Biederman. A vodcast uploaded to Vimeo. | |
| 73 | 6 | "Game On" | with Briahna Joy Gray | |
| 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 | |
| 76 | 9 | "Swiss Diplomacy" | — | |
| 77 | 10 | "Arctic Radar" | with Amber A'Lee Frost | |
| 78 | 11 | "Holy Night" | with Nathan J. Robinson | |
| 79 | 12 | "Guns Not Butter" | with Rob Rousseau | |
| 80 | 13 | "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 | |
| 81 | 14 | "Inauguration: Part I" | with Daniel Bessner | |
| 82 | 15 | "Inauguration: Over There" | with Daniel Bessner | |
| 83 | 16 | "The California 47th" | with Aaron Thorpe | |
| 84 | 17 | "Red Haven's on Fire" | with Wyatt Cenac | |
| 85 | 18 | "Privateers" | with Tanya Turner | |
| 86 | 19 | "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 | |
| 90 | 23 | "Twenty Five" | with Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi |