The Fifth Column

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 …

* See below for the video version of this episode!* On Candace and Megyn* That source, says Thor, the Venezuelan, is a big booster of the shittiest people on Earth* How they shot my mother (Hugo Chavez edition)* The failure of the Human Rights Industry™* How Venezuela collapsed* It’s not a country. It’s a drug cartel* The hierarchy of South American drug trafficking* The real reason the US struck those “drug boats”* So the 93% cannot defeat the 7%?* Was former congressman Aaron Shock corrupted by Venezuelan commies?* Crooked congressmen. Crooked Kennedys?* A crooked American oil magnate?* On dissident heroism—and American cynicism* The nobility of the human spirit* The useless UN* The million dollar roller bag* How the bad guy$ $pread their influence* And much, much more!As previously mentioned, Never Fly Coach-level subscribers have access to our early video efforts. Wonky angles, swiveling chairs, ugly timecodes, no title sequence…you get the idea. BUT…your feedback has been amazingly positive thus far. If you want to add your two cents (and see our ugly mugs), upgrade and get access to the ever-evolving pilot episodes! 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* See below for the video version of this episode!* 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 …

A very bad day for American politics, recorded within an hour of a young father’s death. Political violence, outgroup hatreds, and a side of media malpractice. With a sidebar conversation on 9/11, plus extended outro on the murder in Charlotte and subsequent discussion about race. 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* You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both…* Waiting for Bill and Ted* A catalogue of bad prophecies* 7th Day Youtube* Jamicanon* Yakub and the Atlantians* War with Venezuela?* Was Katrina racist* “Heritage Americans”* A listener is mad about…one of our friends* The Zionist silence* I’ll always take your free trips* We are the (piss) pigs* Own your ethnic failures!* G…

* The video age is upon us * Sweet Jane* Crazy Nancy* I’m a survivor, I'm not gon' give up* You have a microphone. Just TELL US.* Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, pedo hunter* A revolt at HHS* The conspiratorial mind* Failing the logic test* Malcolm Gladwell comes clean. Moynihan doesn’t forgive* Taboo busting b/w forbidden topics* A hunch that they were lying…* Europe changed. Everyone pretended not to notice* The UK’s decent into mindless illiberalism * Graham Linehan demands something from the Fifth…we demurred* Reanimating the dead, only to kill them again* And so 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