Podcast / The West Wing Weekly

The West Wing Weekly was a podcast dedicated to reviewing every episode of The West Wing. It was hosted by Joshua Malina (who played Will Bailey in seasons 4-7 of the show) and Hrishikesh Hirway, who also hosts the "Song Exploder" podcast.

The podcast recaps each episode of the television show, in order. It started in March 2016, with the recap of the series premiere, "Pilot", and ended in 2020 (with a one-episode return engagement later that year to discuss the staged reunion special for charity that the show's cast put on during the COVID-19 pandemic). Most episodes of the podcast include a segment in which the co-hosts interview someone from the cast or crew of the series. Others have interviews with someone involved in real-life politics (such as congressmen, former White House staffers, and lobbyists) that relate in some way to the plot of the episode being discussed that week.

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This podcast provides examples of:

• Affectionate Parody: One episode interviewed Kevin T. Porter, the creator of the Sorkinisms Youtube video, lovingly detailing how many plots and even lines of dialogue series creator Aaron Sorkin tends to re-use in all his shows and films. Porter explained that a lot of people reacted to the video by applauding him for exposing Sorkin as a lazy hack, when in fact he's actually a big Sorkin fan and just thought it was fun to look at the various tricks and tools Sorkin kept coming back to.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Josh and Hrishi play up this dynamic as the core of the podcast — Hrishi is the West Wing superfan who loves all the show's more sentimental moments, while Josh tends to view them with more jaundiced eyes. This was particularly evident in their reaction to Toby's famous "You're my guys" speech in the "War Crimes" episode — Hrishi considers it one of the show's greatest moments, while Josh rolled his eyes, called it unearned and said that Toby should have just come down with the fist of an angry god on the staff he was addressing. Josh does take pains to emphasize that he genuinely loves the show.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Hrishi would routinely groan and say, "Oh, damn you" in response to a particularly groan-worthy Josh Malina pun.
• Once an Episode: Every episode ends with Josh and Hrishi (and that episode's special guest, if any) reciting the line, "Okay. Okay. What's Next?", paying tribute to how often the lines "Okay" and "What's next?" were said in The West Wing.
• One-Steve Limit: Played with; there is occasionally confusion when discussing "Josh", as it is not always immediately clear if the hosts are referring to podcast co-host and actor Joshua Malina, or The West Wing fictional character Joshua Lyman.
• Pungeon Master: Josh and Hrishi both love puns, and multiple episodes would devolve into back-and-forth pun competitions.
• Podcasters Cannot Do Math: In episode 03x10 of a 7-season long podcast, both Josh and Hrishi claimed that they were at the midpoint of the series, wishing each other a "Happy Half-iversary". The following week, they issued Mea Culpas for their inability to propertly divide 7 by 2.
• Self-Deprecation: Josh, especially, puts himself and his acting abilities down in nearly every episode. He goes so far as to apologize for ruining the show when his character was introduced, as it is generally accepted that the later seasons of The West Wing are inferior to the earlier ones (his Twitter bio literally says "I ruined The West Wing").
• Talk Show: The format of this weekly podcast
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Joshua Malina and Bradley Whitford (who played Josh Lyman on the show). Neither of them pass up an opportunity to insult each other, including appearance and acting talents (or lack thereof). Yet they both repeatedly insist that they actually are good friends, who simply like to give each other a hard time.
  • Can be exemplified by this exchange at the 2016 ATX Festival West Wing panel:
    (Melissa Fitzgerald has just finished a detailed speech about her work helping veterans through the Justice for Vets organization, to applause. Joshua Malina starts to inquire as to how they can help further but is interrupted by Bradley Whitford.)
    Bradley Whitford: And Josh has a podcast!
    (Crowd mixes between laughing and cheering)
    Joshua Malina: Brad's just jealous because I'm on a hit show that's set in DC, and for him, it's been a while!
    (Crowd "Ooohs" while Bradley Whitford laughs and joyously bounces in his seat)