Abe Lincoln's Top Hat
With a rollicking, irreverent style, the podcast Abe Lincoln's Top Hat provides plenty of laughs about the political news of the day without the smug condescension that so often seems to accompany the news-comedy genre (see: Last Week Tonight).
Hosted by Ben Kissel and Marcus Parks, the podcast doesn't hew to partisan lines, but when you consider the targets for their comic ire, the vibe could be broadly categorized as libertarian. In an episode posted just before Election Day, Kissel and Parks skewered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (and other drug warriors in elected office) for ruining lives, suggested that Hillary Clinton could rightfully be called a serial killer for her role in disastrous foreign interventions, and whacked hotel execs for using the government to kneecap home-sharing services like Airbnb.
Podcast host Kissel is also a writer for Fox News' Red Eye program. Fans of that late-night rapid-fire take-no-prisoners gabfest (which often features Reason writers as guests) will find a lot to like in Kissel's side project. "It's not like House of Cards, it's like Veep," says Kissel in his final analysis of the 2016 campaign. "Everything is chaotic, everything is run by people who are like chickens with their heads cut off."