The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

We here at The Remnant tend to evaluate statesmen according to the Lincoln-Wilson spectrum: The good ones are more like Abraham Lincoln, and the bad ones are more like Woodrow Wilson. But because Jonah Goldberg loves a good argument, we’ve invited friend-of-the-show Professor Steven Smith of Yale University to throw a few wrenches in our statesmanship formula. Listen in as Steven and Jonah discuss...

Let’s be honest: If you’re not getting canceled every couple of days, are you even living? We don’t think so. We’re T minus 10 days until the midterms, and Jonah Goldberg is raring to kick grass and take names on some of the discourse’s most cantankerous issues. Listen in as he tackles the podcastsphere, his preferred midterm losers, Abdul El-Sayed and Islamophobia, Vivek Ramaswamy and the Amy Act...

It may disappoint frequent Remnant listeners to learn that most episodes are not recorded in a speakeasy. In fact, recording a Remnant is one of the few occasions that can draw Jonah Goldberg away from such establishments. Nonetheless, listeners will be pleased that on this occasion Jonah is joined in a speakeasy by none other than economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin. They talk about GDP, inflation, fed...

Conventional wisdom will tell you to be well rested and sober before an interview to ensure peak performance. Jonah Goldberg, however, discovered long ago that he’s at his best on three minutes of sleep, a couple shots of Fireball, and a fistful of Alka-Seltzer tablets. Today, Jonah has prepared himself accordingly because he wants to be in shipshape for The Remnant’s favorite soft Marxist, Tyler...

Dear listener: There are few places Jonah Goldberg hates more than O’Hare International Airport. Yet, in a sad irony, he has spent a significant percentage of his life sitting in a Chicago terminal waiting on a plane. Though Jonah is not generally inclined to process his life through song, today’s Ruminant kicks off with a slow, mournful dirge memorializing his travel nightmares. But fret not; Jon...

Old men griping about the new generation is an old, venerable tradition, and Jonah Goldberg can grouse with the best of them. Unlike the other old men, however, Jonah gets to talk to one of the few people who can actually answer the question, “What’s wrong with the kids these days?” and back it up with data. The American Enterprise Institute’s Daniel Cox joins The Remnant to take us on a whirlwind...

While The Remnant has played host to many remarkable historians over the years, few have taken us on a more incredible ride than Simon Sebag Montefiore. As such, we’re proud to bestow on Simon our newly formed, not-really-endowed chair of Middle Eastern history. Tune in to hear Simon and Jonah Goldberg rove across time and space, covering Iran, Saudi Arabia, the 1979 revolution, the U.S. invasion...

Happy Saddam Saturday! Just kidding, we don’t do that kinda thing around here. But you know who does? That’s right, Jack Posobiec and his fellow alt-right goons. And while today’s Ruminant features more than enough of such nonsense, Jonah Goldberg doesn’t leave the high-minded among you hanging. Tune in to hear about nationalism, the Middle East, the French Revolution, Yoram Hazony’s Israeli NatCo...

Notorious misanthrope Jonah Goldberg is skeptical of the power of friendship in politics. Winning him over will be no easy task, but if anyone is up to the job, it’s friend of the Remnant and Hannah Arendt scholar Roger Berkowitz. Listen in as Roger and Jonah duke it out over friends, enemies, Zionism, the Nazis, fear of the people, facts, truth in politics, Alexis de Tocqueville, Madisonianism, l...

While AEI is filled with a lot of smart nerds, a select few have earned the Jonah Goldberg title of “great sage.” Nick Eberstadt is one of these sages, and he joins today for a banger of a Remnant on poverty, misery, social science, the economics of the family, Hungary’s pro-natal policy, the fertility crash, phones, generational stereotypes, technological adaptation, the entitlement problem, and...

On today’s Ruminant Jonah makes his old man proud by holding forth on the new right’s attempted rehabilitation of Richard Nixon. Along the way, he also hits on dog movies, the problems of polling, the midterms, the red undertow, the death penalty, Sen. Eric Schmitt, and the uncertain future of the GOP.  Show Notes: —Heart of the Beast trailer  —Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog...

Dear listeners: For years, you’ve been asking us to get Bill Nye the Science Guy on The Remnant, and we have heard you. Today, we are pleased to present … Wait, what? Oh, I see. Apologies, listeners, but we appear to have had a bit of a mix-up. I’m sorry to say that Bill Nye wasn’t available, and instead the booking agency has sent *checks notes* Tony Mills! While Tony is sadly unwilling to drop M...

This October will mark three years since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, igniting a complicated web of wars and regional conflicts across the Middle East. Jonah Goldberg is joined today by the authors of a new book that takes readers inside the minds of Israel’s decision-makers during these struggles, unveiling the complicated dynamics behind some of Israel’s biggest successes and failures. Join...

You remember the scene: Robert Deniro’s wife screaming at him in their apartment for being a jerk about the steak and flipping the kitchen table; Joe Pesci trying to calm them down; the neighbor calling them a bunch of animals; Deniro threatening to eat the neighbor’s dog. It’s exactly what you expect from director Martin Scorsese. But you know what it’s not? It’s not what Jonah Goldberg expected...

What can and can’t the government do? Can it ban softball on Sundays? Or perhaps prohibit little old ladies from having Bible study at the local library? What about drag queen story hour? Can it—horror of horrors—tell you that you have to mow your lawn? Joining The Remnant to help us sort through these thorny political thickets is Stephanie Slade, author of a popular new book about fusionism. List...

As faithful Remnant listeners know, we try to avoid having politicians on the show. It just gets kinda awkward when you have to publicly rake them over the coals for eating mac and cheese on camera. But being good Burkeans, we know that all rules have their exceptions. Gov. Spencer Cox is one of those exceptions. He joins Jonah Goldberg on the show to talk about his new book, Off Ramp. Along the w...

Gentle listeners, we know you’ve had a hard week, and we want to bring you a pick-me-up. Today’s episode has a little something for everyone: a riveting cult story, nudity, sports gambling, racist-bigot bashing, fanatic Texans, AI-pocalypse, an epic history of progressivism, and, most tantalizing of all, a detailed discussion of the myth of left and right. Tune in to hear Jonah Goldberg ruminate a...

Despite repeated floggings, First Mate Steve Hayes is once again up to no good. With Capt. Jonah Goldberg having gone ashore to purchase more books about Abraham Lincoln, Hayes has seized the helm of the HMS Remnant and is once again joy-cruising with his friends. And while most of the freeloaders Steve invites aboard are scalawags and ne’er-do-wells, there is one particular exception.  Jim V...

The Remnant has many dear old friends: Yuval Levin is the best-looking; Chris Stirewalt is the best kisser. But the oldest, going back to Episode 1, is Ben Sasse. Ben joins today’s pod for a conversation that traverses the high and the low, the sacred and the profane, starting with Gilligan’s Island and running through the healthcare system, scientific research, morphine, affluenza, being an adult...

Coming off of a discussion about 9/11 on the DisPod, Jonah Goldberg is feeling ruminative and somber. Accordingly, he has decided to address one of the most important foreign policy issues of our century: the cheese-eating surrender monkeys. That’s right. Freedom fries forever, baby. And if that’s not exciting enough, The Dispatch’s legendary Francophobe-in-chief doesn’t stop there, taking up the...

Today a *very sober* Jonah Goldberg is joined by the *mostly sober* friend of the pod, pickled alligator aficionado, and notorious West Virginian Chris Stirewalt to talk about the midterms, the Alaska primary, GOP expectations, J.D. Vance’s presidential campaign, right-wing social engineering, the Trump midterm convention, postliberal eggheads, post-Americanism, free money, America’s dirtbag polit...

Thought we’d forgotten about Venezuela here on The Remnant? Think again! As prone as Jonah Goldberg is to getting distracted by the finer things of life—Old English dialects, zombie movies, etc.—he’s kept a weather eye fixed southward on our Bolivarian neighbor. Jonah is joined today by James Story, the former ambassador to Venezuela, to take us deep into the recent history of U.S.-Venezuelan rela...

Peacefully anchored on the Potomac, the HMS Remnant rocks gently from side to side. Captain Jonah Goldberg, peg leg and all, stands at the prow gazing at the darkening horizon. To the west, the storm clouds of AI apocalypse are gathering. In the east, a midterm squall quickly bears down. In such portentous circumstances, there’s only one thing for a man to do. Captain Jonah retires to his cabin, l...

Who do you call it when American politics has got you scartchin’ your head? That’s right—the Mooch! Anthony Scaramucci joins Jonah Goldberg on today’s Remnant to talk about how the last four presidential administrations brought us to where we are today. Listen in as they dive deep into the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, gerrymandering, Citizens United, China, the George Bush tax cuts, the status o...

Jonah Goldberg is not a bigot. Yet, as we all know, there are exceptions to every rule. The French are one of those exceptions. In particular, Jonah sees the cheese-eating surrender monkeys’ refusal to embrace America’s foremost gift to the civilized world—air conditioning—as an offense against all reason and good sense. Nevertheless, being a fair-minded man, Jonah is willing to give the French a...