The Mad Men Pre-Game Show

Don confronts his life deceptions in Kansas, Pete is wooed by the prospect of a simpler life—maybe including Trudy—and Betty gets a devastating diagnosis. Then, Ellen calls up Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore—who's in Scotland filming season two of Outlander—to hear how a finale gets conceived, and how to stick the landing. She also talks to Carly Mensch, a TV writer who worked on the final seasons of Weeds and Nurse Jackie, and is now a writer at Orange Is The New Black. Carly drops some writers' room wisdom on where to go looking for hints about how it'll all end.

Don goes on the run, Joan battles egregious sexism at McCann and Roger and Peggy send off the SC+P offices in proper fashion. Then, Ellen talks with video producer Amy Pearl. She makes videos about New York for New York Public Radio which are strange, funny, touching short films. But we’re talking to her because she’s the creator and director of our favorite Mad Men inspired video: “Meow Men.” They talk Don, nostalgia, and of course, cats.

Peggy finally talks about the baby she gave up for adoption, and the team gets back together for one last pitch to save their agency. It was an episode people have been waiting for a long time, so what else do we expect? Mad Men has taken a lot of knocks for being - perhaps unrealistically - lily white in its depiction of the 1960s. Host Ellen Horne talks about the show's blind spots when it comes to race with Ericka Blount Danois, a writer who's tackled the topic for Ebony, and Gilbert Cruz, TV Editor for The New York Times, who says the show might not have gotten it as wrong as we think.

Don hits on a 17 year old! A grown-up Glen propositions Betty! And Sally sells herself on the idea of a one-way bus ticket. There's a whole lot of persuading going on. This is a show about advertising, after all. But how realistic is its portrayal of that topic? Host Ellen Horne talks to her brother about particularly egregious "badvertising." And Colin Mitchell and Matt Creamer—two real-life ad men—dissect a few of the show's standout product pitches.

Megan got her divorce, Don got dumped by the diner waitress and Harry Crane's true pervy nature was revealed. But whither Sally Draper? We miss that kid.  This week, we talk to On the Media's Brooke Gladstone about growing up Sally, a girl who "is going to get really angry" really soon. And we bring in writer Jess Bennett to unpack the ongoing and very disturbing war between two would-be allies, Joan and Peggy.

As we learned on last week's episode, the partners at the agency are now filthy, stinking rich. So why are they all still so unhappy? While we saw some glimmers of hope for Don, Peggy and Ken in the first episode of this second half of the season, you know it's a matter of time before self-sabotage comes into play. We'll talk with Invisibilia's Lulu Miller and Alix Spiegel, as well as Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, about how the characters on this show are "OK," but they're never actually ok. Then we pay a visit to therapist Stephanie Newman, author of "Mad Men on the Couch," to see what exactly everyone's problem is. Does it have even a name? In the case of Don, at least, she'd call it narcissistic personality disorder. 

At its best, Mad Men brilliantly deconstructs things like family dynamics, corporate influence, and the gigantic cultural shift that took us from Eisenhower's '50s to the louche '70s. It paints a vivid portrait of America in the 1960s and - at the same time - shows us just how little has changed since then. As we dive back into Season 7 for the show's final few episodes, we'll bring everyone up to speed on where we left off - the agency up for sale to McCann, Peggy leaping out from Don's shadow, and a nation newly launched into the space age. Joining us to talk about what's real, what's not and what we should be looking for is historian and writer Audra Wolfe, whose work focuses on the role of science in “soft” diplomacy during the Cold War. We'll also hear from Laura Walker, CEO of New York Public Radio, about her own connection to the heyday of boozy Madison Avenue business.