The Fifth Column

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Michael Moynihan has returned from his Italian sojourn where he barely escaped arrest… -Moynihan has the clap or something -Who exactly is the demographic for this show? -Moynihan’s European vacation involved bus karaoke, too much drinking, and now the shakes -Matt went to Cooperstown with Bill Schulz… -The forgotten...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com So that’s where these Genius Grants come from… -Most roads lead back to Prague for Matt Welch -about that letter…six paragraphs, $5 million in free publicity and Harper’s back in the mainstream -It was NAFTA, not woke, that elected Trump. Or was it? -Illegal immigration is a wage issue -Who still believes free trade i...

Jesse Singal of Blocked and Reported and Singal-Minded fills Michael Moynihan’s special diabetic chair to discuss Fauci’s diaries, broken institutions, runaway AI, LeBron and Mamdani Mart. -Moynihan out, Jesse Singal in -Bari Weiss hired everyone except Jesse -The Prince of Science re-enrages everyone (or at least Rand Paul) -Gell-Mann amnesia and the collapse of institutional trust -The media nee...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Frank Dikötter is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and one of the foremost historians of modern China. His research in overlooked and restricted Communist Party archives has transformed our understanding of Maoist rule. -Frank Dikötter is kind of Dutch, but not really -Writing the definitive...

We talk about what the media still gets wrong about Trump, what losing CNN did to him, and why he believes more political violence is coming. -Kmele sizes Chris up and… is this podcast 10% gay? -From Fox, to ABC, to CNN -Did the media make Trump president? -Celebrity, discontent and everything the media missed -Being right about what’s wrong -The duopoly is killing us. DSA isn’t helping. -Cuomo, C...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump , co-written with Jonathan Swan, is out now. -yes, he superglues the gold fixtures in the Oval Office -Maggie Haberman and her very irritating competitor Jonathan Swan -Project 2025 and Stephen Miller’s search for lawyers who would get to “yes” -what needs...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com -Bret Stephens, Mexican? -Bret’s naked grandmother and the Trotsky/Diego Rivera/Frida Kahlo connection -The family saga of Stalinists, refugees and Reagan Republicans -Learning to love America through tap water and cops you don’t have to bribe -Belgium, a sick little, horrible place -America, land of late bloomers -Th...

-The many sins of fattie John J. Cafaro - The Moynihan Report will return -Hand jobs and the intellectual life of West Hollywood -Release the Welch canceled-songs playlist -The Iran deal is dead. The war is back. -Why did Iran blow it up? Why does a dog lick his balls? -Air power has never toppled a regime -The anti-globalists discover the Strait of Hormuz -Israel’s secret Ahmadinejad project -In...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Robert Wright ’s new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning , is out now ( Bookshop | Amazon ) •“Conference” = group sex •21 years of successfully avoiding podcast wealth •Interviewing the godfather of AI •A tiger and a rattlesnake •Matt gets quizzed on LLMs •The God Test •The shock...

The great Kat Rosenfield joins us to discuss the ongoing fallout from rape allegations against Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner published Monday by Politico . When you’re a star, they let you mispronounce their name. •The Fifth Column (whiskey) sells out! •America’s birthday month •Loathing Graham Platner before it was cool •The least weird thing about Platner •The Times is on it •A work...

-The Fifth Column whiskey racket begins -Matt moves during a heat wave… Peter Meijer reports for duty -Meijer, class traitor, explains the pied-à-terre tax -Mayor Mamdani balances the budget, if you ignore the bailout -Kmele gets Hayek’d -Machine politics was bad, but graduate student politics is worse. -Bannon’s old Leninist fantasy, now available in DSA packaging -Kamala Harris genuflects toward...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Also: a serious discussion of the cinematic category known as “movies where they clearly came up with the title first.” -The N-word trap at the Hudson Yards gym -Joe Jackson dressed for the evil dad part -Phil Spector and the Wall of Sound defense -Richard Simmons slaps a cage fighter -How to respond to an asshole -Co...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com We are lucky to be joined once again by Executive Editor of SCOTUSblog , Sarah Isgur , and on a day when the Supreme Court gave everyone a lot to argue about. -Trump loses, birth tourism maybe does not -Anchor babies and America’s soccer future -The 14th Amendment gets weird -A color-blind Constitution, except when it...

-Welch enters his Charles Nelson Reilly era -Laura Branigan, Happy Mondays, and songs you didn’t know were covers -Puerto Rico’s revenge -The cadres are closing in - Reihan Salam and Larry Flynt -DAC hits the media circuit and refuses to answer the easiest question in politics -Aber Kawas explains 9/11, in a Miss South Carolina sort of way -Vaporware word clouds masquerading as policy -No borders,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Michael A. Cohen is a columnist for MSNOW, a senior fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, and co-director of its Afghanistan Assumptions Project. He also writes the Truth and Consequences newsletter. He is not the former fixer of Donald Trump. -The correct Michael Cohen stops by -Mamdani flexes in the primarie...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com -Ethnicity as performance -Manhattan politics with the president of the Manhattan Institute -Dan Goldman orders coffee, receives moral instruction -The many political personalities of Brad Lander -Taxpayer-funded activism and the Office of Mass Engagement -Mamdani and the borg beneath the campaign -AOC, cadres, and di...

-Kmele debuts his Sebastian Bach beach jeans -The Iran deal is like the JCPOA, but a lot worse -Lebanon sneaks into a U.S.-Iran deal -Strait of Hormuz, 60-day promises, and negotiating with hostage-takers -Why can’t the hawks ever learn? -Ukraine brings the war home to Russia -Drones, oil refineries, and the new cost of war -Europe wakes up… sort of -Meloni jabs her digits at Trump -Polymarket che...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Batya Ungar-Sargon , host of Batya! on NewsNation, returns!!! And with a new book, The Jews and the Left , about antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and why so much of the modern left has made Jews the enemy. -JD Vance, Tucker, and the anti-Israel right -The Iran deal, Rubio’s silence, and Trump’s trial balloon -What Batya go...

-The Knicks give New York its greatest night in years and OG makes his MVP case -Valid destruction or peaceful rioting? -A brief detour through America’s dumbest college mascots -Dave Chappelle and Shane Gillis give Moynihan a perfect Comedy Cellar night -Kmele roots for the Spurs, but only to punish Knicks fans -Spike Lee has been on the court long enough -Which celebrity row courtsider gets booe...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Throughout this entire interview, Ana remains furious that our office was stocked with whiskey, but only half a bottle of white wine and absolutely no pizza. -The White House press corps just takes it -Kristen Welker gets the Trump treatment (and would Trump have tried that with Tim Russert?) -Ana Navarro is here, fro...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Noah’s new book is Blood and Progress … not to be confused with “Blood and Soil,” a phrase Moynihan has been muttering to himself around the office. -A book squarely in the TFC wheelhouse -The teens, the twenties, the sixties, the seventies, and now -The forgotten history of left-wing violence -Italian anarchists and...

-a dog is on set and Kmele should be wearing a helmet -Bernie Sanders wants to collectivize AI -The boys bask in the warmth of collectivism -Never trust a politician giving something back to “the people” -The centrist Democrat goes missing -It’s still a Nazi tattoo, goddammit -Character is out. Winning is in -Andy the Ogre Ogles has thoughts on the gays and Ted Cruz answers the question and keeps...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Chris Murphy ’s book, Crisis of the Common Good, is out now -Murphy opens his book by dunking on his son’s NHL prospects -Pitching the common good -Trump is not the disease. He’s the symptom -Buy more stuff, feel worse, repeat until democracy collapses -Kids, phones and the algorithmic hell machine -Congress wants to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Be sure to check out Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps , Australia’s greatest podcaster and interviewer, which apparently counts. -90 minutes of Kmele cleaning his glasses -Josh is on drugs now -RIP Jack Karlson, hero of democracy manifest -we will be referring to limp penis throughout this show -Erect until...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe Check out Ben Rhodes new book: All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches -Ben Rhodes, wounded ’90s Knicks fan -Are we winning in Iran yet? -what should the President do with Iran right now? -Sanctions suck, mostly -Cuba and...