The Fifth Column

* The Doppelgänger* Where do these Moynihans come from?* The journalism disease* You do not want to get a call from the New York Post* From schadenfreude to envious cruelty* Covering the powerful* What is “social proof?”* The Epstein obsession* Incompetence defeats the deep state* Epstein and language inflation* Representing the Trump voter* MTG’s difficulty with economics* Everyone’s difficulty with economics* Let’s get a Juul and watch Beetlejuice* She’s young. He’s not. But they both hate the young.* Lydia loves deportations* Her billion dollar idea is…sausage?Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comWe are joined by journalist, author, filmmaker, and chainsaw-wielder Sebastian Junger. His latest book In My Time of Dying is a touching reflection on death… and what might follow. Paid subscribers get access to this and hundreds of other Members Only episodes.•You can always start drinking again•Enough to make ⅔ of these grown men cry•Sebastian’s (most…

* The dog hasn’t barked* He knew about the girls. But we *knew* that* So what, if anything, do these emails prove?* Conspiracies, anomalies, pornography* That’s a bad, no good, awful Times headline* Enter Abby Phillip* The battle of the Caribbean* We couldn’t afford to fail* A distinct lack of psychopaths and Holocaust deniers* I care too much….* Abby’s Jesse Jackson book* Abby: Sorry Kmele, racism is real and structural* TV, before the echo chamber?* When dehumanization turns into pride* A French, Swiss, Quebecois goodbyePrefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comIt’s release day for Shadi Hamid’s new book, The Case For American Power, and we’re excited to have him back on The Fifth. Paying subscribers get access to the full interview in audio & video (plus literally hundreds more), and help us do what we do, so… In this episode: * Shadi makes the “case for American power”* A love letter to America, “despite all its faults”* Mor…

We’re joined by Jessica Tarlov, co-host of The Five on Fox News, and Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway. •Among the cons •What does it all mean? •Over performance. Under performance •AOC’s war •What if the people who you want to destroy are the same people who ensure your existence? •You can afford to live here. Just not *here* •How to moderate a trans debate •The USDA wants you to stop mutilating kids so America can sell soybeans •Oh SNAP and guess what I saw… •“Affordability” for Smith College grads •The health care costs are too damn high •Will populism, left and right, destroy us all? •So what’s the Tucker vibe within the Fox building? •Can the “Fox liberal” ignore the online hate? •Your viewers might have died, but new old ones took their place! Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com• Don’t mess with the Zoran• The opacity of hope• Inspiration is overrated• Wait, what if none of these proposals actually work…• The return of identity politics?• Is offline politics “additive, human, humane, and empathetic?”• The Dem doom loop• The online left vs. Jon Lovett vs. reality• Purity tests, left and right• The one thing that didn’t shock Hillary Clinton• Harvey Milk died so you could be governor• The right denounces its loony fringe. Sort of.• Has the left done the same?• Has Jon’s baggage shifted to the right on anything? Well…• Can you be buddies with Barack?• Is it bad to have an enormous Nazi tattoo on your chest?Prefer to watch & chat together with other members of the Fifthdom? An UNLOCKED version of this episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST. Subscribe, why dontcha?Catch Jon Lovett in Washington DC on Nov 7 for Crooked Con – a chance to hear from smart people inside and outside the Crooked universe about how to galvanize a pro-democracy movement.Get tickets to see The Fifth Column live in Burbank, CA on Sunday, Nov 23rd at Flappers Comedy Club.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

* We are now alone / He’s out of our life* The Republican rebels?* Announcing a Fifth Column live show in LA! Subscribers get first crack!* Prediction: a stadium full of lusty boos for Matt Welch* Cuomo’s nonexistent campaign* The Truth and Armpits Party* On Zohran’s vaunted “political instincts”* If the cops rough you up in Queens, it’s because the Jews told them to do it* A “brilliant” campaign of easy promises* The thrill of being in love with a politician again* In destroying both parties, they become one!* Karine Jean-Pierre is….not that bright* Oh great! More dumb race politics* You better you bet (on basketball)* A cap on intentional walks* Let’s blow up a certain cocaine smuggling group of “athletes”* That guy who slapped Andy K...Prefer to watch & chat together with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, has a new book…- The disaster of Russia- Trump’s evolving views on Putin (and Nigel’s…and Georgia’s…)- When McFaul met Putin…in 1991- Was the Maidan uprising an American-sponsored coup?- It’s not about NATO- From boring technocrat to a nationalist, imperialist ideologue- What does Putin believe?- Vlad the flat taxer - He’s not a Bolshevik- A crook, sure. But an ideological crook- Does no one care about 200,000 dead Russians?- Liberation or surveillance - Elite fatigue in Putin’s Russia- The documentary Moynihan mentioned - Mike McFaul, Soviet bootlegger

•Who subscribes to the New York Post?•One Battle After Another Redux•Myrna Opsahl and other deep cuts•F. Lee Bailey, legal consultant•Fawn Hall Gate•Double secret Nazis•Second Amendment People•The one on the right is on the left•Rehabilitation of the American radical•Omnibombers of the 1970s•I beg your pardon•An x-ray into Donald Trump’s soul•Hunter Biden & presidential power•From Whitewater to Russiagate•Jeffrey’s mea culpa•Trump’s Venezuelan boat strikes vs. Obama’s drone program•”I’m not black, I’m O.J.”Prefer to watch on YouTube? Click here. Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comRooting against the dancing Irish poorDoes One Battle After Another “whitewash left-wing violence?”LOTS OF SPOILERS, FYIIn praise of Bullitt-esque car chases…The Lockjaw cartoonThe genius of Jim DowneyMatt is hemophobicRight-wing SNLCould you reverse the politics of OBAA?Leo’s character is basically an old-school DSA guyCan there be a subtle conservative film?The best 9/11 film was a film about a French guy in a leotardThe post-9/11 liberal flirtation with neoconservatismJohn Malkovich v. Robert FiskThe lone pro-Vietnam War movieRemembering the conservative crackupThe ideological slingshotFollow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comCheck out Jake Adelstein’s new book, The Devil Takes Bitcoin•A Japanese literacy test•Chvalry is not dead•They don’t teach you how to drink in J school•The Ansel Elgortification of Jake Adelstein•The Yakuza throw a killer Halloween party•Lions, and Tigers and Joe Gallo•The Yakuza’s pension plan•What’s with the penis enlargement ads?•For relaxing times, make it Suntor…

* Misgendering Fox News* Wait, Michael was at a dinner?* Kmele tries to pronounce Normally* “Clearly we don’t fucking prepare”* “The last time I was with you guys, we were in a much smaller, darker room and I got very drunk”* Trump brings the hostages back …* … then emcees a roast* Somebody tell Bill Kristol!* A little bit psycho vs. the UN bitching at the Jews* 9/11 is a joke?* Little Marco’s big moment* Kash Patel’s shirt-coin* Trump = 1998 Democrat?* Never go full Bulworth* Debate prep for menstrual insults* MKH’s trashy tastes* The White House Octagon* Texting Comacho* 2025 Democrats: still woke!* Kushner props* D’Angelo, RIP* Yeah, that was a blowjob* Being on Melania’s list* Who succeeds Trump? 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com•One Battle After Another•Kmele’s hot take that will bring ruin to Hollywood•Separating the art from John Cusack•The kinship of Susan Sarandon & Mao Zedong•It’s not the dead kid that is most unsettling part of Stand By Me•Amity, as you know, means friendship•No dick at the Old Vic•The humbling of Russell Brand•Confidence is a preference for the habitual…

* Subscribe to our YouTube channel already!* A shirt full of toothpaste* Whiskey in a jar* Your dumb, complaining emails* A roundtable of cranks and weirdos* Happy 100 year anniversary Antifa!* People. People. It ain’t fascism. And it ain’t ISIS.* Wait, Twitter IS real life!!!!!!* The long shadow of 2020* Remembering Seattle’s WASP autonomous zone* Ted Cruz’s hoop dreams* Sammy Hagar vs. the government shutdown* Should we tariff Canadian stunt pilots?* Death to the paper tigers!* We’re cautiously optimistic...* When Bari met 60* Charm, offensive* I bet you don’t remember *this* shitty Vice deal* You CANNOT talk to TNC that way* Journo shock! Moron social media hyperventilates about unacceptable lesbian!* Norman Finkelstein does a yiddish racism* Sorry about these A*** C*** song titlesIf you prefer to watch this video over on YouTube, just click here.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This episode is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

Last month, after years of you people begging us, we finally had on the great Russ Roberts—author, educator, and proprietor of the phantasmagorically influential podcast EconTalk. The extremely wide-ranging conversation, whose pre-Pivot-to-Video video is available to Never Fly Coach subscribers, one of the most could you please unpaywall this so I can share it? episodes in recent memory, and so here we are.You SAID you wanted to share this. So share this! Pretty please?* Russ’s drinks by the pool with Hitchens* How potato chips are made. And what it tells us about economics* Backwards towards “artisanal”* How will a NatCon economy perform?* It ain’t all doom and gloom (surprisingly)* Do academic economists matter?* Russ talks to Milton Friedman* Do long-term economic trends tells us anything??* On moving to Israel* On returning to a (relatively) calm America* Notes from Russ’s father* A TikTok war* Was Moneyball wrong? Or do people just not understand Moneyball?* The Close Encounters mashed potato mountain* And much, much more 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

It’s fine if you want to listen to this episode on Apple podcasts or Spotify or Substack. We get it! That’s the way you’ve always done it! But you do realize that after 525 episodes (not including the hundreds of subscriber-only episodes), we’ve finally launched the Fifth Column video podcast, right? And you know that you are required by federal law to subscribe to the new Fifth Column YouTube channel? Ok...thanks...and now...Megyn Kelly...* Botox and Scotch* When Megyn went “temporarily insane”* To be frivolous and Oprah-like* You’re my inspiration, Ben* From traffic cop to a truncheon-wielding cop* Escalation is bad. “Yes, but one must fight fire with fire.”* Principle vs. vengeance* Does Andy McCarthy have Trump Derangement Syndrome?* Megyn “speaks fluent MAGA”* More MAGA than libertarian or NRO…* We need to talk about Candace* “Tucker is in a different camp”* Wait, Moynihan has some opinions about the awfulness of CandaceIf you prefer to watch video over on YouTube, just click here.The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comOh sure, everyone’s go-to for imperial collapse tends to be Rome, but what broad lessons are there to be gleaned from every single other civilizational implosion, from Mesopotamia to the Mayans to the forgotten pyramid builders along the Mississippi River? Such is the intriguing set-up for Goliaths Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, the…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* If you’re a Never Fly Coach subscriber, remember that you get to watch the video version of this episode! * The morning after pill and Roy Campanella’s glove* Why does Moynihan look like late-stage Nick Nolte?* Have a SoCal venue suggestion for a Fifth live show?* Comparatively, Alex Jones isn’t that bad (Ed. note: Spoke too soon! Immediately following this rec…

Matt and Michael are joined by John Spencer, Executive Director of the Urban Warfare Institute.•Gary Busey and the B-movie military raid on the Turkish Embassy•Bagging and tagging isn’t as bad as it sounds•20/20 De-Baathification•Post 9/11 Islamophilia•The hockey analogy for war with Hamas•Human shielding & bomb shelter inequities•Gaza vs Berlin 1945•Journalism in Gaza•The IDF’s absent PR operation•Starvation, genocide, and Wikipedia•Amalek•Trump’s 180 on Ukraine•Comedian Dave Smith on military aid•God bless Russian incompetence•Red Dawn had it all wrong•Cancel John’s tickets to Stalingrad•John Spencer, expert? The New York Times is on it.•NFC-level members get a video preview of this episode here!•Speaking of video, we’re launching on YouTube any day now… SUBSCRIBE! 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Pretty sure FIRE president Greg Lukianoff is the perfect guest for this moment…* A requirement of Judaism* FIRE on fire these days* Come on man, it was the FCC!* My husband got Kimmel fired!* The latest campus free speech ranking* FYI, lots of dumb young people are cool with political violence* Is does the university have a psycho incubation problem?* So who should be …