The Fifth Column - podcast cover

The Fifth Column

Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welchwww.wethefifth.com
Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition.

www.wethefifth.com
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Episodes

327 "Autumn in Kabul, Askew in Texas"

- Lead Astray - Wrong Line - Blues Traveler - Sugar in his Tank - When in Kabul - Repeal/Replace/Keep the AUMF for another 20 years? - Matt's Basement is Flooding (No, Really) - 1/2 Trimester - The Reverend Dr. James P Eagle Sr - The Rule of Law - Playin Coach - Reading Playboy for the... Ads? Recorded: 9/1/21 Published: 9/2/21 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,...

Sep 03, 20211 hr 39 min

326 w/ Eli Lake "Afghan Withdrawal, Pandemic Surrender, Daddy Issues"

W/ Eli Lake, Opinion Columnist @ Bloomberg - New Dad - Moynihan's Big Night Out - Things to Remember (or Naw) - Meet Gutter (He Kidnaps Kids) - Whose on Top - The Most Inevitable Thing in the World - Hard Limits - Public Sentiments - Vietnam Syndrome - Hip Hop Conservatives - Afghan Clean Up - The Afghanistan Variant Recorded: 8/23/21 Published: 8/25/21 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...

Aug 25, 20212 hr 2 min

325 w/ David French "Systemic Racism, Earnest Disagreement, About Those CRT Bans"

W/ David French - Various Notes on the Amy Cooper Interview - The Enablers - Earnest Disagreement - The Two Illiberal Wings of Twitter - False Dichotomies, All The Way Down - Negative Partisanship and the Politics of Animosity - When ‘Your’ Base Turns on You - The Home Teams Defect - Structural, Systemic, Real, Imagined - Revising the CRT Bans - The Empty Promise of CRT Published: 8/10/21 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discus...

Aug 10, 20211 hr 26 min

324 "Simmon's Flu Game, Why Amy Cooper Matters, Bet on the House?"

Coco Shoots Her Shot Gangs All Here New York is Back** Real Winners Don't Bother Trying Carrying MJ Off The Floor Just Quit Masks + Superstition Save the Babies Surprise 🎁 The Stories We Refuse to Tell Ourselves If It Happened Recorded: 7.27.2021 Published: 7.29.2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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...

Jul 29, 20211 hr 48 min

323 w/ Jonathan Rauch "Saving Truth, CRT Martyrs, Equal But Separate"

w/ Jonathan Rauch @ Author of "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth." Senior fellow @BrookingsInst . Contributing writer @TheAtlantic . - I Heart Lizzo - Where Things When Wrong - Flooding the Zone - Breaking Journalism - The Humanitarian Threat and Moral Clarity - Cancel Culture, Information Warfare, Social Coercion - Truth + Checking - Greatest Leap Forward - Ibram Orwell - Bans, Martyrs, Inevitable Failure - Separate, Equal. Same Great Taste. Recorded: 7.6.2021 Published: 7.9.202...

Jul 09, 20211 hr 25 min

322 w/ Chris Rufo "Banning Critical Race Theory, Robin DiAngelo's Retread, Bill Cosby - Free, Guilty"

"Well, it's my show. So, it's how I wanna do it." - Joy-Ann Reid "I can do what I wanna do." - Bobby Brown " Whateva! Whateva! I do what I want! " - Eric Cartman w/ Chris Rufo @ Senior Fellow, The Manhattan Institute -- Contributing Editor, City Journal - When Rufo Met Reid - The Art of Culture War - Activist Journalist - Critical Race Theory: Boardroom, College Campus, Neighborhood Preschool - Bans, Censorship, Pedagogy, Choice - Machiavellian Realism, Pyrrhic Victories - Classical Liberal Caut...

Jul 02, 20212 hr 23 min

321 - "Back to the Ramble, How to Gauge the Age of Outrage, Racist Car Crashes"

Kmele reveals his big secret! What on Earth is a "coupon Karen"? When Shaun Was King When Kmele was king of Juneteenth Measuring the outrage economy Measuring the wages of junk history Racist car crashes "When the people fail, the concept fails" The end of Afghanistan (the war / the country) There's a perpetual riot goin' on Another CRT digression RIP to an entertaining, insane, narcissistic, possible murderer See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. I...

Jun 24, 20211 hr 48 min

320 w/ Harry Siegel - "Bonfire of Insanity, The Unmaking of a Mayor, CRT IRL"

New York Daily News columnist Harry Siegel joins TFC for the first hour to talk all things New York (with a focus on halfwit mayoral candidates jockeying to replace a halfwit mayor). But if you don't care about kvetching, NYCentric coastal elites, the back half of the show is, as usual, about how coastal elites are dumb, joyless, and boring. Something for everyone. - New York is back? Harry is back to tell us it never went away - Harry would rather be an effete, elitist jerk wearing his mask too...

Jun 19, 20212 hr 25 min

310 - "Two Live Shows and a Key West Hangover"

Florida is open for business, so The Fifth Column flung its masks into the garbage and headed to the Sunshine State for back-to-back live shows in Miami (coming soon to Patreon!) and a poolside recording in Key West (hence that hollow sound). Nursing hangovers and gasping in the heat, the lads stumble through the following pressing (and pointless) topics: - Those Miami shows were pretty fun, eh? - Wait, why exactly are we in Florida? - Kmele thinks Creepy Joe wasn't being creepy - The global min...

Jun 09, 20211 hr 20 min

309 w/ Jane Coaston "The Argument, The Reckoning, and Unfinished Business"

w/ Jane Coaston @ (Host, "The Argument" @ The New York Times) Take Four From Vox to NYT's "Rising Libertarian Star" Coming Out John Brown The Black Community Appraisal of America's Racial Reckoning The New Culture War Anti-Racist Classrooms and Workplaces Slightly Off Mic Whole Foods Edge Lord Panics, Counter-Panics, Counter-Counter-Panics Recorded: 5.28.2021 Published: 6.2.2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this wit...

Jun 02, 20211 hr 44 min

308 - "A Year of Reckoning, Return to the Ramble, Objectivity (or Something)"

Radical Honesty A Year of (Racial) Reckoning Losing the Thread George Floyd Amy Cooper, Christian Cooper... and the other dog walkers? Covering Lab Leaks and UFOs The Death of Truth The Myth of Objectivity Journalism for the Real World Boston Basketball (and racial slurs) Trump Grand jury Recorded May 26, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefi...

May 30, 20211 hr 58 min

307 w/ Peter Meijer - "Investigating The Capitol Riot, The Truth About UFOs, Future of the GOP"

w/ Congressman Peter Meijer (R-MI) Crypto Bloodbath UFOs -- or are they UAPs The Jan 6th Commission (Part I) Lori Lightfoot Won't Talk To White Journalists Homeless in San Francisco The White Man's Burden A Call from Peter About That Vote The Revolt of the Public The Feels The Truth is Out There Recorded May 19, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www....

May 21, 20212 hr 8 min

306 w/ Gustavo Arellano - "Ask a Mexican, Trump's a Mexican, and the Republican Crackup"

The lads (minus Kmele, recently felled by his second Pfizer shot) welcome Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano, host of the new LAT podcast "The Times" and author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Note that after an hour of Gustavo's trademark Southern California/Mexican smack talk--in which he defends Taco Bell, ruminates on "LatinX," explains "Tio Tacos" and "Chicanosauruses," and describes American ethnic tensions that don't involve white people (!)--Moynihan and Welch ...

May 13, 20211 hr 48 min

305 - "Systemic and Unspecific, AbasedCamp, The Socialist Network, "

- The Fifth Column live in Miami! Is this the post-COVID Gilluming you’ve been waiting for? - Matt is Drudged: equity v. equality - Racism becomes more systemic, less specific - Basecamp asks employees to leave politics at the door…or head for the door - Are a bunch of smart libertarian legal scholars wrong or super wrong? - The Socialist Network: the GOP wants to compel Facebook to be nice to DJT - The GOP wants to compel Liz Cheney to stop being mean to DJT - Matt and Kmele yell at each other ...

May 07, 20212 hr 14 min

304 w/ Paul Rossi - "Verdicts, Reckonings, High School Indoctrination"

w/ Paul Rossi (Math Teacher and Writer) https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/i-refuse-to-stand-by-while-my-students A verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, is an undeniable milestone for the entire country with wide-ranging implications for American media, politics, and culture. Had things gone differently, America would likely have seen another outbreak of "mostly peaceful protest" -- seasons with healthy smatterings of outright political vio...

Apr 24, 20212 hr 18 min

303 w/ Alex Nowrasteh - "The Time We Fixed Policing and Immigration"

"What you think all the guns is for?" - Christopher Wallace w/ Alex Nowrasteh (Director of Immigration Studies @ The Cato Institute) A supersized dispatch, because fully resolving the various problems in America's immigration and criminal justice system -- takes a little time. Especially when you're forced to contend w/ WHITE SUPREMACY [Insert Ghost Emoji]. It's kinda like a podcast-mixtape. A - SIDE The Curious State of US Immigration Reality, Theater, Textbook Political + Bureaucratic Failure ...

Apr 16, 20212 hr 50 min

302 - "Making Arrangements, Ghost Guns, Pullin' Out"

Hunter "Squirtle" Biden Matt "Making Arrangements" Gaetz Adventures in the Havana Hilton? When Everything is Sex Trafficking? (Not Exactly) A New Era of Bipartisanship Win Ben Stein's Heart The American Metaphor Council Who's D riving the Democratic Party China and Bitcoin Self Correcting Journalism Tweets Bad. Accessory to the murder of a Judge -- we have to be understanding Kmele Loves Guns Universal Basic Income for Mom's of Color Structural Racism Tamagotchi Harrison Bergeron General Hospita...

Apr 09, 20211 hr 51 min

301 - "Five Years of Impending Doom, Chauvin on Trial, Blowin Money Fast"

(In No Particular Order) Live From New York DRINK AOC AMA CDC Press Conference Mask Etiquette DRINK Derek Chauvin on Trial (Week 1) Eight Fingers Left Tar Babies A Thing Greater Than Yourself Voter Suppression 2.0 DRINK Corporate Welfare Five Pinocchios Ending Ken Burns The Cowardly Doormen Recorded April 1st, 2021 Published April 3rd, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

Apr 03, 20212 hr 19 min

300 - "A Do Over Episode (Mostly Uncut)"

Summary Kmele Loses an Entire Dispatch Moynihan's Most Racist Voice Important Homework What We Might Have Talked About Mass Shootings Hate Crime Hysterics and Lies Ending the War in Afghanistan Nationa Building Whale Watching + 400 Years of Suffering Leaving Sesame Street Recorded March 25th, 2021 Published March 26th, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vis...

Mar 27, 20211 hr 57 min

229 w/ Jeffrey Sachs - "How to be a Dictator, Anti-Woke Hypocrisy"

Guest: Jeffery Sachs, Lecturer in Politics @ Acadia University Snyder Cut Sympathy for Dictators Useful Pretense of Justice How Did Sachs Get It So Wrong State of the New Culture War Free Speech Hypocrisy The Left Is Worse, Right? Power Imbalance Coastal Myopia What if We're Wrong (Again*) Recorded March 18th, 2021 Published March 22th, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to b...

Mar 22, 20211 hr 58 min

228 w/ Katie Herzog - "1.9 Trillion Reasons to Block and Report You"

Guest: Katie Herzog, HOST @ "Blocked & Reported" Keeping Secrets Coming 2 America Transphobia is Bad A Most Prescient Cancelation Say THE WORD, Katie They'll Never Give You A Reson The Tax Code is Racist Plato's Utopia Rescue Package in Name Only Tucker Carlson, Mean Person Tinker Taylor, Toy Soldier Virtual Ball Busting Pretending Things Ain't Complicated The Shape of A Joke The Many Trials of George Floyd RIP DC Recorded March 10th, 2021 Published March 12th, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for...

Mar 12, 20211 hr 48 min

227 w/ Ben Smith - "Sign O’ The Times, Memo to Kendi"

Guest: Ben Smith, Media Columnist @ The New York Times From BuzzFeed to The NYT When Your Bosses are Kinda THE Story Why We Can't Stop Talking About The Times Newsroom Cultural White Privilege and Employee Orientation Resignations* Caliphate vs. 1619 "My Notebook Remains Open" Losing the Newsroom You Will Sign This Letter Vanilla Mandella Biggie Smalls When Van Met Ibram X Simple, Elegant, Almost Certainly Wrong Things Get Worse for Cuomo Recorded March 2nd, 2021 Published March 4th, 2021 See ac...

Mar 05, 20211 hr 53 min

226 w/ Matt Taibbi - "Why Journalism Got Substack'd"

Guest: Matt Taibbi @ Contributing Editor @ Rolling Stone. Author, "Hate Inc" Niggarati Privilege Childhood The Art of the Substack Deal The Shift An Active Conspiracy or An Active Conspiracy The Escape, And Uncertain Horizon It's Just a Camp, For Kids, So It's Fine Trump at CPAC A Good Shoot Bidenomics Listen to Black People Didn't Even Say The Word Recorded Feb 24th, 2021 Published Feb 25th, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like ...

Feb 26, 20212 hr

225 w/ Martin Gurri - "The Revolt of the Public"

Guest: Martin Gurri @ Author, "The Revolt of the Public" Prophecy, Historical Cycles, and Modest Frameworks From Information Monopoly to Information Tsunami Public Dissatisfaction Elites in Crisis Public Nihilism Historical Amnesia The Yellow Vests, Jan 6th, 2021 Political Sectarianism Truth + Objectivity + Resentment Drama at the New York Times The Future of Media and Truth Plato's Perfect Form of Justice Fact Check Recorded Feb 17th, 2021 Published Feb 18th, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for priv...

Feb 19, 20212 hr 1 min

224 - "MTG v AOC, Merit is so Racist, Determined Incuriosity"

Pump and Dump Matt Bought Crack Real Compton City Gs Really Only One Bad Word The Public Interest Irrelevant Context MTG vs. AOC: Most Insane? Best Actress? "I Can Only Be a Non-White Person" Why The Culture War Matters Merit: The Racism of Fairness Racist Covid Cumo, And the Incurious Media Recorded Feb 3rd, 2021 Published Feb 5th, 2021 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...

Feb 06, 20212 hr 4 min

223 w/ Van Lathan - "Productive Disagreements and Common Ground"

Guest: Van Lathan @ "Higher Learning" (Co-Host), Previously @ TMZ Kmele and Van connect for a wide-ranging conversation about racism, reconciliation, and finding common ground. It's yet another exercise in constructive disagreement. In fact, it's the back half of a three-hour discussion that managed to feature vanishingly few points of agreement -- and zero personal insults. Oculus Quest THOUGHT Warriors Uncle Tom: A Most Dangerous Man If Everyone Listened to Kmele... Listing + Reconciliation Re...

Feb 04, 20211 hr 29 min

222 - "Moynihan Squeezes the Short, Cynics and Skeptics"

Make a Mint w/ Moynihan Who's Behind the Squeeze On the War Path Strange Bedfellows Popularity Contests Even Libertarians Equity and Private Prisons Coming Attractions Recorded Jan 28th, 2020 Published Jan 29th, 2020 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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...

Jan 30, 20212 hr 7 min

221 - UNLOCKED Patreon Episode - Kmele's Victory Lap (Dem Haters)

It is upon us: that very rare occasion when we unlock a Patreon episode for the masses. 🎁🎁🎁 If you are clever and don't want to miss future locked episodes, subscribe here . --------- Rather than our typical bullet-pointed show notes, we'll keep this one short and sweet. Because try as they might to pull the conversation away from Kmele's bravura performance on Real Time with Bill Maher , the lads just couldn't manage it. Although they do respond to a listener email about the Pet Shop Boys......

Jan 25, 20211 hr 22 min

220 - The Dawning of Yet Another Terrible Era

Is Melania the greatest first lady since Florence Harding? Does MC Hammer hate Kmele? Let the sycophancy begin! Qanonsense Understanding the Trump voter We're all weird and wrong The new Republican Party is awful. So is the new Democratic Party. The dumb 1776 project: "It's like Stephen Miller pooped on a legal pad" Hating big tech How not to combat bad speed See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers ...

Jan 22, 20212 hr 7 min

219 - w/ Anna Khachiyan "Double Impeachments, All the Balenciaga You Can Carry"

Guest: Anna Khachiyan @ "Red Scare" (Co-Host) Kinda Canceled Holding the Mic Outrage Boner Dirtbags Tight Sweaters, Tighter Shirts Mo' Impeachments The MAGA Riots Culpability Cultural Amnesia, Sweetest Taboos Canceling Trump Canceling the Rest of Yall? Recorded Jan 13t, 2020 Published Jan 14th, 2020 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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/sub...

Jan 15, 20211 hr 46 min
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