The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

In spite of enough technical difficulties to make a grown man weep, today’s Remnant—featuring AEI senior fellow Tony Mills—delivers a thorough, punchy exploration of the COVID crisis and the cult of expertise in American politics. He and Jonah discuss increased specialization in liberal societies, the dreaded Dr. Fauci criticism, and how the idea of certainty colors our political discourse. How in...

Animated by a week’s worth of pent-up rage—inspired by the nonsensical prattling of would-be authoritarians and the dupes who love them—Jonah brings a cantankerous energy to today’s Ruminant, which quickly devolves into a rant of titanic proportions. He begins with some brief thoughts on Joe Biden’s rumored plans to announce his re-election campaign, before diving into an obscure Edmund Burke spee...

Christine Rosen, senior fellow at AEI and—alleged—cohost of the Commentary podcast, makes an overdue Remnant return today. In this obstinate exercise in counter-programming, Christine and Jonah discuss just about every topic you could imagine besides Fox News’ settlement with Dominion. From the growing influence of the transgender debate on American politics to Ron DeSantis’ chances in the coming...

Yahoo News’ Jon Ward makes his Remnant debut to discuss his new book, Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation. The resulting conversation—which fuses highfalutin theology with just a dollop of rank punditry—touches on just about everything you could want to know about America’s crisis of Christianity. Topics range from spiritual abuse, to the history of American Christi...

Jonah’s off like a herd of turtles in today’s rambling, self-indulgent behemoth of a Ruminant. After opening with a positively riveting description of The Dispatch’s approach to media training, he deftly transitions into a discussion of the Pentagon leak and the subsequent fecal festival that has consumed MAGA media. From there, listen—with all appropriate deference and awe—as Jonah delicately dan...

Fred Kagan, senior fellow at AEI and director of the Critical Threats Project, makes his long awaited Remnant debut in today’s delectably nerdish discussion of Ukraine and Taiwan. After kicking things off with a deep dive into the state of the war in Ukraine, Jonah and Fred explore Russia’s military disorder, the influence of Soviet history on Russia’s modern military, and the origins of Putin’s i...

Brace yourselves, it’s a long one. Due to popular demand, Jonah has—graciously—pulled Sarah out of the world of obscure legal nerdery and onto The Dispatch’s flagship podcast to discuss the famous Nazis-marching-in-Skokie case. After a period of extended throat clearing—featuring a list of proposed baby names from Sarah that may inspire calls to CPS—the two set the stage for their debate. Sarah be...

Jonah’s back from New York and ready to participate in his weekly therapy session, otherwise known as the Ruminant. After beginning with a look under the hood of the G-File, he moves on to the week’s various annoyances, kvetching about everything from the expulsions in Tennessee’s House of Representatives to the fallout from Biden’s brainless Afghanistan withdrawal. Stick around until the end to h...

Unable to resist the allure of rank punditry any longer, Jonah brings his trusted election sherpa, A.B. Stoddard, back to the Remnant for a journey through the depths of human depravity (or, more specifically, the burgeoning 2024 election). They kick things off with a discussion of Trump’s arraignment—and what it means for the primaries—before delving into the logistics of a Biden reelection campa...

Trump’s indictment has left serious journalists everywhere scrambling to cover the developing story, so of course, Jonah’s response is to arrange some radical counter-programming. He’s joined today by Jazz Shaw, a Navy veteran and Hot Air’s weekend editor, for an out-of-this-world discussion of UFOs. In this eagerly anticipated follow-up to last week’s episode with Avi Loeb, Jonah and Jazz tackle...

After a week spent navigating enough scheduling problems to make the Fyre Festival look like a masterclass in logistics, Jonah’s ready to relieve his frustrations with a particularly ranty Ruminant. Things get off to a fiery start thanks to a recent post from the New York Young Republican Club—whose members have apparently decided that boot-licking sycophancy is the mark of an “authentic” American...

Charles C.W. Cooke, Jonah’s go-to Remnant cheap date, makes an unplanned return to the program today due to a scheduling snafu. (No interns were harmed for their incompetence in the making of this episode.) With another tragic mass shooting in the headlines, Jonah and Charlie take the opportunity to discuss how such incidents can be deterred and whether it’s possible to stop them through legislati...

The truth is out there, and Jonah may uncover it on today’s Remnant. To boldly go where no pundit has gone before, he’s joined by Avi Loeb—Harvard astrophysicist and author of the recent book, Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars—to discuss UFOs and our place in the universe. Together, they endeavor to answer all of the most pressing questions about alien...

Live from the mean streets of midtown Manhattan, Jonah delivers a fiery and excessive—but mostly peaceful—Ruminant. After opening with a discussion of how—much like the government—Donald Trump will never love you back, he turns to the outrage provoked by the cancelation of a West Texas A&M drag show. From there, he gracefully dances between topics ranging from the ridiculous “cult of youth” to Ron...

Unprepared, scatterbrained, and guestless, Jonah returns to the AMA format on today’s program, releasing Guy, his immigrant majordomo, from the grimy basement where he normally resides to field an unusual assortment of listener questions. Things get off to an innocuous start: There’s some shameless plugging of Jonah’s books, a hefty digression into the various strands of conservatism, and a rambly...

Philip K. Howard, a prolific author and advocate for simplifying American government, joins the Remnant for the first time to discuss his new book, Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions. The resulting conversation plays out like a Remnant greatest hits, offering insights on subjects as well-trodden as institutions, our dysfunctional parties, and the banging of...

Today’s Ruminant has been recorded in video form for your viewing pleasure, which raises a terrifying question: Does this spell the end for “No you won’t, this is a podcast”? In response to having been so rudely dragged into the future, Jonah delivers an outright curmudgeonly diatribe on just about every topic under the sun. From Kamala Harris saying her stage directions out loud, to the dangerous...

James Meigs, Manhattan Institute senior fellow and contributing editor at City Journal, makes his Remnant debut in today’s wildly wonky exploration of clean energy, tech policy, and environmentalism. He and Jonah kick things off by talking about the elephant(‘s foot) in the room––nuclear power––before seamlessly transitioning to the terrifying subject of artificial intelligence. Come for the well...

Paul Bloom—Jonah’s favorite psychologist and author of the new book Psych: The Story of the Human Mind—returns to the Remnant for some intensely eggheady conversation on the workings of the human brain (a three-pound wrinkly mass, as Paul puts it). The two spend the episode leapfrogging between different controversies in the field of psychology, each more complex than the last, with enough speed t...

Today’s dyspeptic Ruminant finds Jonah wading through the swampy wreckage of the Republican intellectual movement in an attempt to give new meaning to the phrase “crushing morosity.” From the GOP’s weakness in the face of populism to the loss of objective standards, Jonah tackles all the most important questions facing the right. Why do Fox viewers need safe spaces? What made Trump’s ineffectual t...

After therapy and court ordered anger management training, Jonah is finally prepared to have David French—newly minted New York Times columnist and noted treacherous misanthrope—back on the Remnant. What follows is an especially freewheeling conversation that begins with a deep dive into the Dominion case against Fox News, then bounces back and forth between a range of topics so controversial you’...

Remnant regular Tevi Troy returns for some of the rankest punditry you’ll find this side of the Mississippi. It’s a freewheeling kind of episode that begins with a shameless plug for Tevi’s new leadership program, transitions into a discussion of the GOP presidential primary, and ends with a few musings on how AI could change the world of writing. Tune in also for ruminations on how politics becam...

Jonah’s rank wonkishness reaches a new extreme on today’s rantin’, ravin’, ramblin’ Ruminant. After beginning with a diatribe on the Dominion voting lawsuit, he redirects his ire toward cancel culture and the irritating endurance of both-sidesism. Without regard for time (or the suffering of his RA), he closes with some nerdtastic thoughts on the nature of liberalism, the irresponsibility of stude...

Live from Tel Aviv, author Oren Kessler joins the Remnant to discuss his new book, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict. The result is a deep dish slice of eggheady conversation, which mixes rank punditry with historical nerdery and a negligible amount of technical glitches. Things kick off with a history of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the 1930s to the pres...

Back from the Caribbean with a radiant glow, Jonah is joined by Stephen Eide—senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute—for an outrageously wonky discussion of homelessness in America. The two kick things off by exploring the history of transient labor and the categorical distinctions between hobos, tramps, and bums, before turning to the root causes of the growing homeless populations in big cities...