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

Episodes

Members Only #156 - Second Sunday Live! (Rebroadcast)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Kmele at a Konference? Yup! * Moynihan spills a wee bit of tea about an old job 😬 * The New Trump U * Commie spies * The DeSantis strategy * Matt’s baseball digression (on rule changes and the WBC) * This is a very good series * That Twitter Files circus on Capitol Hill * So this is exactly what we were talking about re: purity tests * Don’t identify as anything…. * So very much…...

Mar 13, 202338 min

#397 - Just Some Bros Mainsplaining Manganese

It’s just like old times! Because the boys are back in town, recording together in an actual studio, andpregaming with listener-provided booze. So…yeah, things were pretty rough going in…Sorry about that. * We try to answer the age old question… * A handful of some, maybe, constitutes a New York Times trend * Let us, as men, explain something to you… * The sexual decline and fall of the podcast bro * “It’s not because you’re a woman. It’s because I’m an asshole.” * Does anyone at Fox believe any...

Mar 09, 20231 hr 28 min

Members Only #155 - Passports, Divorces, & Puerto Ricans

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Puerto Rican passports * Nothing works in New York * Jimmy the Deregulator * Fistfight Airlines * Kmele and Andrew Schultz at Brown * So what about Chris Rock’s Netflix special? * The travails of a listener’s white wife * In praise of Matt and Trey * A “national divorce” is dorm room, edgelord bullshit * The loss of Mayor Pepe * Number #9 dream...

Mar 06, 202334 min

#396 w/ Chris Stirewalt "Fired by Fox, Fixing the News, Eating a McRib"

* Stirewalt on calling Arizona for Biden and the Dominion lawsuit * On getting fired by Fox News * How journalism collapsed * Sean Hannity is not a conservative (he’s a Republican) * The Joe Manchin effect * This wouldn’t have happened under Roger Ailes * Overestimating the media’s influence * The inevitable conversation about mis- and disinformation * Would Chris cancel Alex Jones? * Cruz v. Carlson: the most excruciating interview ever? * Will Reaganism return?? * Post-game: lab leak lollapalo...

Mar 01, 20231 hr 54 min

Members Only #154 - Konference Kmele, Konservative MJ, and Angela Davis's Debts

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Konference Kmele * The most Jewish podcast in America? * Arguing an overcorrection * Michael Jackson, social conservative * Kmele sends Angela Davis a SASE * Slavery, King Cotton, and fighting with NHJ * The two books on slavery Moynihan mentioned * Listener question about maybe working for a racist conspiracy theorist * More thoughts on big boy mannequins * Clip from Ethan Suple…...

Feb 27, 202337 min

Members Only #153 - Make Way For the Big Boyz

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Apocalypse apparel * No country for fat men * Singal white journalist * A left-wing Matt *Walsh* stan * Books don’t make a man * Kancel Kmele Pls * On Mistaken Misgendering * Dippin toes, stepping on rakes * A message from Julia (TBC) * Moynihan engineers a Fifth Marriage * The zaps of SSRI withdrawl… * Burning down the house - followed by * A listener wonders: were my Italian grandpa…...

Feb 20, 202324 min

#395 w/ Katherine Mangu-Ward "Nothing Is True and Debate is Murder"

* Moynihan’s hobo disaster * KMW, disinformation queen, stops by for a few, tells us how she broke her kneecap * KMW: The Fifth is staffed by crotchety scare-mongering old dudes ( Ed. - This is disinformation) * So why *is* KMD the disinformation queen? * Wait, what does “disinformation” even mean?? * The movie Contact is pretty libertarian * Killing old people, dead crank doctors, and libertarian Rachel Welch * According to hundreds of stupid people, the New York Times is a hate group or someth...

Feb 16, 20231 hr 29 min

#394 w/ Jamie Kirchick "Hammer Time, Larry Craig 2024, TLDR SOTU"

* How Jamie ended up writing about Armie Hammer * So what *is* the Hammer story anyway? * How the motivated reasoning media ignores inconvenient inconsistencies * Is there a path back from an utterly destroyed reputation? * How Jamie’s book Secret City informed his reporting * Heroes and homophobia * So is it true what they say about James Webb? * The Lavender Scare and Joe McCarthy * Who was worse, JFK or RFK? * Would anyone care about Larry Craig in 2023? * Why was Moynihan at a political even...

Feb 09, 20231 hr 57 min

Members Only #151 w/ Ethan Strauss - DEI Man and the Foreskin Ceiling

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Armie of the damned * Jamie Kirchick’s piece on Armie Hammer * The Robin DiAngelo of Sports * Ethan’s piece on “DEI man” Richard Lapchick * The question that ended Ethan’s interview with Lapchick * The NBA’s Foreskin Ceiling * “In this day and age…” * Maverick Carter isn’t going to hire you * That shocking 1976 PBS documentary about racism in Queens * Kids don’t like sports any…...

Feb 06, 202333 min

#393 "Black Stalin, Objectivity Is Racist, & Tax Robots Are Super Racist Too"

* The George Wallace travel app * The genius and utter stupidity of WEB Dubois * That disgraceful Dubois obit for Stalin * A copy of the Conservation of Races book * Len Downie’s rotten, horribly written piece about objectivity in news * Jeff Gerth’s really good piece about Trump-Russia coverage * Remember Hamilton 68? Bush 911? Heaven 17? * Hunter’s sexy jobs program * Did anyone notice that Ol’ Joe said that weird lie again? * Racist tax robots * What’s good for me isn’t good for thee, silly p...

Feb 02, 20231 hr 52 min

Members Only #150 - Memphis Madness, Ubiquitous White Supremacy, and Rope-A-Dope with Mr. Burns

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * A famous Texas hat * Kmele’s Twitter beef with a former guest * The tragedy in Memphis, the predictable response * Ubiquitous white supremacy * Don’t even read Mark Twain aloud * A listener speculates on Kmele’s “blackness” * Back to Texas: they are just nice people, says Moynihan * Name this listener’s baby * The etymology of “Kmele” * Nicola Sturgeon splutters when asked about …...

Jan 31, 202346 min

#392 "Tanks for Victory, Oscars So Boring, and Ben Dreyfuss Is Here to Offend You"

A sober first segment about war and death is interrupted by our chaotic and fatphobic friend Ben Dreyfuss, who joins the Fifth to discuss his insane Twitter account and why he keeps making people really mad. * We haven’t seen many of these Oscar movies * German Leopards for Ukraine * The arrival of “Jaws star Richard Dreyfuss' actor son Ben, 36, [who was] slammed for saying he'd never have sex 'with a fat person’” * That Daily Mail article / We read Ben some of the comments * Wait, why did Ben g...

Jan 26, 20232 hr 4 min

Members Only #149 - Georgia on Our Minds

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Santos: Hotter as a lady? * Hunter is a shitty person who makes shitty art * Kmele shuts down a Netflix indoctrination session * Georgia: Stupid people play stupid games and win stupid prizes * A shooting in LA * Another shooting in LA * A tribute to a listener * More on Cormac McCarthy (and Camus and Sartre) * Objecting to Douglas Murray * On the weirdness of the Phantom of th…...

Jan 24, 202334 min

#391 "Debt Drama, DEI, and Deceased Rock* Legends*"

* Release The List * Crosby, Not So Great * A Few Nights In Chicago * Squashing Racism ($5 Million at a Time) * Reparations and the US Constitution * A Seat at the Table * Hereditary Culpability and Entitlement * Manhattan Beach * Daily Wire vs. Mug Club * Drew Carey 🖤 CDC * “We ain’t gonna talk bout dem papers (so y’all can quit asking)” * Debt Limit Hold’em * The Anti-Woke Caucus * Florida’s “Objective” Nonsense * What Students Deserve * “If We Lose, You Lose” Recorded: 1/19/23 Published: 1/2...

Jan 20, 20232 hr 17 min

#390 "Stupid People, Stupid Ideas, and Stupid Solutions" w/ Douglas Murray

* The Corvette Papers * “So my friend gets arrested for murder in South Sudan…” * No sex please, he’s British * The times, they have a’ changed * From Belfast to Pyongyang * If I Did It: Eichmann versus the neo-Nazis * Russophilia, left and right * America: a net exporter of bad ideas * Is there a war on the West? * Douglas’s new podcast, Uncancelled History * In defense of Lincoln and Churchill * Regrets, I’ve had just…one * Disqualifying Kant and Hume * That idiotic USA Today piece cited by Ma...

Jan 14, 20232 hr 13 min

#389 "We Need to Talk About Kevin (w/ former Rep. Justin Amash)

* Former Rep. Justin Amash was on the floor during the leadership fight?? * Brian Lamb question: What does the speaker actually do? * And what do the Gang of Twenty actually want? * Rep. Amash: Kevin McCarthy “isn’t that bright” and “will do whatever it takes to maintain power” * Why the system is broken and how it got that way * Congress is becoming more European * Reminder: Amash created (and named) the Freedom Caucus * Are you really putting yourself forward to be speaker? * The whole system ...

Jan 05, 20231 hr 54 min

#388 "Occasionally Honest, Unseasonably Reasonable"

* Subway Protocol * Lying, Liar * Flooding the Zone * Modest Proposal * The Real Corn Pop * Domestic Disturbance * Buffalo Electronics * Trump Tapes * Moynihan is cold * Welch isn’t paying attention * Kmele coins a good one (for the third time) * Dank Meme Party * After Trump * Read This. Read That. Recorded: 12/29/22Published: 12/30/22 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...

Dec 30, 20221 hr 34 min

#387 "Criminally Inclined, Grammatically Policed"

* Sweet Baby Jesus * Ted Cruz 🖤’s Striper * Dress for the Job You Want * Defensive Capabilities + Fiscal Profligacy * The Worst Possible Scenario * Criminalish Betrayal * Worse than Watergate? * Presidential Travel Rewards * The Stanford Grammer Experiment * Demanding or Entitled BIPOCs Recorded: 12.21.22Published: 12.22.22 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...

Dec 22, 20221 hr 51 min

#386 ""

* Irish Israeli * France vs Morocco * That Marriage Act * Biden Told The Truth That Time * What Republicans Won’t Do, But Ought to * They’re Actievly Trying to Kill us * Leaving Twitter (Because I’m Oblivious, For the Children) * Doxxing*** Elon’s Plane? * MTG (Would have won!) * Jan 6th Prosecutions * Maced Recorded 12.14.22Published: 12.15.22 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...

Dec 16, 20222 hr 25 min

#385 "Elon, NHJ, and MJ"

Recorded on Sunday afternoon, this now-vintage episode was consider lost forever, after a certain Fifth Columnist discovered that he still doesn’t understand how computers, cameras, and microphones work. Well….lost until we (i.e. Moynihan) found a weird backup copy of the episode on the Twitch servers! So…a few days late, of variable quality, and now available for download: * Back to the “Twitter files,” reluctantly * Everyone loves Joe McCarthy * Yet another James/Jim Baker * The pointlessness ...

Dec 14, 20221 hr 35 min

#384 "The Collapse of Pablo, Anti-Zionist Gimp"

* Yes, we have to talk about Kanye West Ye Kardashian again * Verdict: The man is not well. And is an anti-Semite * Kmele is sad. Matt is not. * Wild guess: Ye is unfamiliar with Theodor Herzl * Note: some people with bad views used to have not so bad views * Remember “slavery was a choice?” That was pretty dumb * Is Kanye making people '“unsafe”? * Matt Taibbi releases internal Twitter comms on the Biden laptop * Journalists: this is the wrong type of journalism * These numbers seem pretty fake...

Dec 03, 20221 hr 34 min

383 w/ Ethan Strauss "The Realest Jews, God's Favorite, Ben Collins Has... Questions (about himself)"

with/ Ethan Straus of House of Strauss (on Substack) * Does the NBA Have an Antisemitism Problem? * They control the media, our podcast, and the NBA!? * Wait, who isn’t Jewish? * “Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Hitler” * Baseball + The John Birch Society * Stolen (Jewish) Valor * “More than an Athlete” / Lebron “gettin’ that Jewish money” James * Divide & Sponsor * Was (Is) Twitter Pushing Hysteria * But is it antisemitism? (Does it even matter) * Identitarianism, Judaism, and antisemitism (real an...

Nov 23, 20222 hr 33 min

382 w/ Nadav Eyal "Revolt and Resurrection: Tel Aviv Edition"

Rejecting twelve hours with the commoners in coach, Kmele remains stateside while Moynihan and Welch make goyish aliyah in Israel. Wandering from the Egyptian border in the South all the way up to Trump Heights in the North, the lads are introduced to one of Israel’s most famous journalists and big thinkers, Nadav Eyal, author of Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization . Eyal graciously joined the Fifth at a recording studio in Tel Aviv for a very deep, very nerdy chat about whether...

Nov 19, 20221 hr 33 min

381 "The Most Important Midterm Elections Ever"

No Red Wave. No Blue Wave. No Fascist Takeover. No Democracy Dying in Darkness. The 2022 midterm elections came; they’ll take almost a month to sort out (including a runoff in Georgia) — but things are generally about as bad (and good) as they were before the election. Moynihan returns from the field, where he was covering the race in Florida. Welch and his family are momentarily clear of any exigent health emergencies. And Kmele taps in from Austin, Texas. This is a public episode. If you'd lik...

Nov 11, 20221 hr 44 min

380 w/ Robert Draper "Democracy is on the Ballot (Cause They Crazy)"

* The Libertarian Moment? * To Start A War * Weapons of Mass Delusion * Pelosi Attack * Definitely Not Bothsidesing * Voting For Anyone Else Is a Vote Against Democracy * The Gravity of Things * Reddit profiling * A Few Parting Thoughts Recorded: 11.2.22 Published: 11.3.22 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...

Nov 04, 20222 hr 13 min

379 "Midterm Closing Arguments, Killing Kanye" w/ Coleman Hughes and Nick Gillespie

* Power Strip * A Victory for Equity * Surveying the Midterms * Fetterman’s Debate Disaster * The Mystery of the AIDS Quilt * The People vs Jim Eagle * Eminent, Indefatigable Election Fraud * Yarvin - The Mastermind * Black Lives Redux * I Miss The Old Kanye * “Whatabout!?” MSNBC Montage * Antisemitic Calypsos * Antisemitic Hip hop * Crosby, Stills and Ugh * T Boz Lives * From Ken Burns to Colorblind * African Apologia Recorded 10/26/22 Published 10/28/22 This is a public episode. If you'd like ...

Oct 28, 20221 hr 55 min

378 "Nazis and Sycophants and Cynics (Oh My)"

* Moynihan has COVID (Again) * Another NYC Covid Spike * “Dangerous New Levels of Misinformation” * The Kids Are Actually All Right (but they’re mostly not getting vaccinated) * No Apologies for #DeathSantis * Ladies Who “Lead” (and cry about it) * Red Wave, Blue Wall, Purple People Eaters * Moynihan’s “Free Smoke” Preview * Republican Skullduggery * Yes, And, [ Deepest Possible Sigh ] * The “AOC to Nazi” Pipeline * Trust in Media… still virtually non-existent * The Sycophants and Cynics Coaliti...

Oct 21, 20222 hr 11 min

377 "Racist LA, Racist Brooklyn, Deplorable America"

The lads are all around the same table in New York City! And LA Times journalist Gustavo Arellano calls in at the top of the show to explain why the President is calling on four local politicians in L.A. to resign. * Gustavo explains Spanish racial slurs * Gustavo explains the racism of the LA City Council * This is the logical endpoint for dumb identity politics * We obsess over the race stuff at the expense of the naked corruption * Punching dogs for social justice * Matt is a cop-adjacent apo...

Oct 13, 20222 hr 18 min

376 “All the (Unemployed) Young Dudes”

I am usually among the most allergic to broad, immutable-characteristic-based analyses along the lines of “ The Crisis of Men and Boys .” Some of this is the usual self-loathing— Screw guys, especially if they’re 54-year-old baseball fanatics from California!, etc. But also, probably due to the extended influence of the man formerly known as Casanova Brown , I have seen too often the fact-bending, anti-individualist and too often punitive ideological temptations of sorting humans into various pe...

Oct 07, 20221 hr 7 min

375 "You Don't Know What Fascism Is"

* Only Fans is for Justice * Internet Experts * Not Even Not Fascism * Right Wing Extremists Everywhere * Blame The EU * What You’re Really Afraid Of * The Beyonce of Journalism * Call of the Wild * Lil Baby Offends * Democratic Illiberalism * Not That Big Lie * Don’t Call It a “Ban” (Even If It’s A Ban) * They Were Watching Baseball Recorded: 9.28.22Published: 9.29.22 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethef...

Sep 30, 20222 hr 16 min
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