The Fifth Column

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 -have we met before, or did we just share a zip code? -Iran is a disaster from basically every possible angle -you don’t go to war with this president -maybe just crawl back to a worse JCPOA and call it historic -Venezuela “worked,” which is exactly why it made the next disaster easier -take the oil, burn the soft power, call it realism -Europe gets lectured,…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Comedian Ryan Long stops by to join the guys at their very special 10th year anniversary. A few live mics, a non-stop flow of mystery drinks, and audience participation: what could go wrong? -10 years later, the grievance ledger is still very much active -Brett Weinstein cannot think his way back from the moon -Andrew Schulz proves the real mistake was le…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com The border, the bombs, and can you guess how many Baldwins there are? -up at 2:30am, in by 4am, then 6 straight on-air hours before the fill-in shift even starts -Glenn Beck saved 5pm and accidentally birthed The Five -Fox News finally discovered the internet -2020 was insane and everyone got dumber -if the facts change every ten minutes, your monologue pro…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com He has spent a lifetime around fame, a heroic father, football mythology, and old Hollywood… and somehow still comes off like the calmest guy in the room. -Steve McQueen and a Mini Cooper -what Carl Reiner was really like, and why Summer School still rules -growing up with Tom Harmon: Heisman winner, broadcaster, fighter pilot, legend -the war story Mark on…

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 -Where have ye gone Chris Matthews? -California’s governor race is a freak show (Fang Fang rides again) -Bring Kevin Spacey to the table? -Barney Frank, Ted Kennedy, and different standards -The anti-gambling jihad -Talks about talks about talks -The good ‘ole days of Lebanon, Libya, Valerie Plame, Bob Novak -Dr. Jesus -Trump versus the Pope -From melting pot to…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Sarah Isgur, Executive Editor of SCOTUSblog, has a book! Last Branch Standing is out today. -The Ted Lasso version of the Supreme Court -The Supreme Court is not the 6-3 cartoon people think it is -RBG thought Roe was built on weak foundations -The Court decides legal questions, not good policy vs. bad policy -Congress is now mostly bookers, comms staff, and 535 Inst…

-The wrong Greenwald, but the actual Abe -Everyone loves our ad spots -Iran’s deranged peace menu -Ceasefire, with extra missiles -The joint Hormuz tollbooth fantasy -What Iran lost, even if nobody can sell it -Regime change, but not the fun version -Vanceworld (probably) leaks to the Times -Trump threatens apocalypse, then shrugs -Pakistan, Vance, and easier marks -Groypers and other forms of loser energy -The anti-Jewish right stops pretending -Sovereignty for me, not for thee -When the right starts sounding like the left -Israel’s image problem, and America’s deeper one -RFK Jr. enters the podcast economy Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. After 10 years, we’ve finally found a sponsor we actually like. Ground News pulls coverage of the same story into one place so you can compare headlines across sources and see how framing changes depending on the outlet. Subscribe for 40% off our Vantage plan using our unique link https://groundnews.com/fifth The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader & viewer supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @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 BEHOLD, the Mailbag (aka male-bagging, aka you-yell-at-us-and-we-tell-you-to-fuck-off) -The Easter Bunny claps for the Iran rescue -Lie long enough and eventually your conscience taps out -about that Rahm moment -who remembers Jazz Hands? -maybe woke actually is over -Bret Weinstein, vindication for the Evergreen psychos -Helen Keller and her commie ventriloqu…

The Fifth Column marks ten years with a live, loose, alcohol-assisted celebration featuring Thor Halvorssen, Pete Meijer, Olivia Reingold, Nick Gillespie, and Nancy Rommelmann, with stops along the way for Venezuela, culture war absurdity, Jewish identity, sexual politics, old stories, new grievances, and the usual refusal to keep anything on the rails. WATCH IT on Youtube: The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader & viewer supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @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 Oh, and Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of this show, yes, on April Fools’. Can you fucking believe it? Join us for the only appropriate celebration, a LIVE late-night shitfest of alcohol, probable technical mishaps, and some very special guests. -Theodore Henken, plantanified yuma -Why America still can’t quit Cuba -Cuba and the full moon were made f…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Maybe I wasn’t exactly a prince * Why nobody should want to stay in Washington too long * The worst job in politics * The ACA, “the three children,” and the birth of the Tea Party * The Great Recession and losing your ticket to the American dream * Trump didn’t invent the anger, he captured it * The no-drinking-until-the-mics-are-off rule * In the Oval Office, the choice is…

Kmele loves Apple products…maybe a little too much. But what a perfect guest to talk all things related to this monster company and how it’s shaped American culture and the globe as a whole. -The Newton saved Apple -What Kmele does with Apple products in the shower -The underdog with taste -Why Matt Welch hates Macs -On getting access to Apple -Project Titan and the $10 billion heartbreak -Apple as a medical device company -Still a Steve Jobs disciple of focus -Apple made China and China made Apple -Where there is no will, there’s a way -New locations for Apple manufacturing -On the fantasy of bringing it back to the US -Apple Intelligence, deepfakes, and doing AI the “right” way -All it takes is a Congressperson having sex with a sheep -Anthropic, cheating, and the possible jobs apocalypse -The long runway Read Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue (Bookshop | Amazon) Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader/viewer supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @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 -Celine Dion, slightly less stiff -Every headline out of Hungary is insane -The Orbán character arc -The Polish miracle -Conservative 2Pac in the Borat republic -Cuba is falling apart, Hasan Piker is thriving -Cuba’s healthcare miracle, minus aspirin -Why pseudo-intellectuals love communist field trips -The pig whose vocal cords had to go -Trump’s zigzagging is …

-Joe Kent’s weird texts and the “Israel did Iraq” brainworm -The Jews are so fucking clever -Iraq 2003, back from the dead yet again -There’s always a new monster to destroy -Iran, nukes, and the problem with crazy people holding civilization hostage -A Ron Paul guy with a war boner -Don’t you realize you’re losing America? -Norman Finkelstein has no phone -Mearsheimering, Robert Pape, and the incentives to go full crank -Megyn Kelly, the anti-Israel turn, and the warm bath of total nuttiness -Mark Levin’s penis size enters the chat -Louis CK and a Michael Barbaro hit job -the origin of Tough Crowd Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. After 10 years, we’ve finally found a sponsor we actually like. Ground News pulls coverage of the same story into one place so you can compare headlines across sources and see how framing changes depending on the outlet. Subscribe for 40% off our Vantage plan using our unique link https://groundnews.com/fifth The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader/viewer supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @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 -Gov. Chris Christie debrief -Kmele nearly dies after seeing the new hidden painting on set -K-Pop Nazi Hunters and Sinners -Joy Reid says America is basically Iran now -Straight from The Communist -Lights out in Cuba -The Gains of the Cuban Revolution -”I got my job from the New York Times” -The old broken Cuban system finally starts to crack -Hasan Piker talks…

-Gov. Chris Christie says Kmele has no excuse -Getting drunk with Colbert -No drugs, ever -RFK Jr.’s drug use -The only things Trump believes in -something is a little off about John Kasich -Olivia Nuzzi is a Freak, Crumb Cake edition -Michael Barbaro tried to take the Gov down with food -Bon Jovi, Bruce, and New Jersey loyalty tests -The Little Marco Florsheim Fib -The ultimate Kushner lore, aka The Prostitute, the Motel, and the Alarm Clock -Profiles in cowardice, Republican edition -The biggest threat to Democracy according to Chris Christie -The case for letting Republicans lose badly -Why Democrats keep blowing it -Debate prep with Trump and being with him when the Access Hollywood tape dropped -This is what Hillary should have said -Chris Christie insists Bruce Springsteen likes him now -That Obama Sandy cold embrace -Bill Clinton will hold your hand, stroke your wife’s elbow, and you’ll fucking like it -W, Barbara, and elite family-level savagery Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader & viewer supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @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 He also weighs in on populism, inequality, private credit, and why a country can be prosperous on paper while still feeling bleak to the people living in it. -“Blankfein hates minorities” -the economy is strong, unless you don’t own anything -get a grip, it’s not 1968 -semi-charmed kind of life -from Russia to China, the cycles come fast -where are the Hayeki…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com From the multiverse to time travel to bad studies and internet “experts,” and then all the way to metaphysics and belief, Sean Carroll explains why modern life makes everyone sound so sure about things they barely understand. -Moynihan is genuinely unnerved by space -a theoretical physicist’s favorite music is prog rock, which seems about right -what a physicist reads…

Hooman comes from a family that reads like a parable about modern Iran: a grandfather who was an ayatollah, an uncle who worked for the Shah, and a folk-singing aunt. Everyone’s family has a version of this, right? -Iran is a tragedy -the sense of triumph has already faded -is Hooman happy the Supreme Leader was killed? -Trump’s motive: regime change, or only regime adjustment? -a ring of fire around Israel -hijab mandates, strict social rules, and the morality police using facial recognition -did the 1979 Islamic Revolution fail on its own terms? -MEK is a cult -is there room for a homegrown anti-regime revolution, or does war smother it? -who ends up in the IRGC? -the girls’ school bombing, and the propaganda machine -internet shutdowns, VPN life, and tweeting through a war -if you want to be an authoritarian, you cannot tolerate a free press -how to consume war info without getting played -outlets reporting on the new Ayatollah -sanctions: efficacy, blowback, and who they actually punish -Can Iran function like a normal state, and can it have workable relations with Israel? -Oct. 7 and Iran’s role -concerns about civil war -the mullah stereotype -“translating” for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -death threats, anonymous phone calls, and “don’t ever come back” -defending against charges of being a regime apologist Buy Minister Without Portfolio: Memoir of a Reluctant Exile (Bookshop | Amazon) Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @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 -Matt takes off his glasses, Kmele panics -Moynihan is furious we started a war during his aggressive vomiting window -The Great Unwrapping of Liberated Iranian Women as the most convincing reason for war -Marco Rubio sells the rationale in Möbius-strip logic -the Dee Snider Doctrine -The Death of the War Powers Resolution -Is Rep. Anna Paulina Luna serious r…