Three writers from The Simpsons, one of them now running for president, take the off-ramp to Springfield to ask whether America’s favorite fictional town is really a mirror of the country. Expect stories from the writers’ room, a few predictions that came true and an honest look at what the show gets right about America and what it gets wrong.

Bill Odenkirk wrote for Mr. Show with Bob and David, then Futurama and Disenchantment, and has written and executive produced episodes of The Simpsons. 

Josh Weinstein ran The Simpsons as showrunner alongside Bill Oakley during the show’s classic era. After leaving the show, he and Oakley created Mission Hill, and in 2018 he co-developed Netflix’s Disenchantment with Matt Groening, the two serving as co-showrunners.

Dan Greaney is an Emmy-winning writer, who wrote for The Simpsons from Season 7 through Season 11 and also wrote for The Office. He wrote “Bart to the Future,” the 2000 episode that predicted a Trump presidency. He is now running for the 2028 Republican nomination as a “progressive Republican,” and kicked off his “Springfield USA” tour on Nov. 5 at the Springfield Memorial Building in Springfield, N.H., which brings him to this stop