This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * An episode that takes a break from politics? * Stars, tardigrades, and microscopy * Race in space * Matt and Moyn watch “A Complete Unknown,” come to different conclusions * Phantom and 40mg * AI’s take on this section: “Listener emails prompt discussions on art, personal struggles, and growth during the holidays.” * Books for young men searching…. * Can The Man Who Shot L…...
Dec 30, 2024•17 min
* Pivot to Zoom * Rereading books * The ex-presidents * “It’s 1,547 pages of unreadable garbage. Every year, it’s like Christmas." * Chip the RHINOOOOOO * Elon’s Political Fantasy Camp! * Is Trump losing his power to threaten? * The end of AOC? * Before his own inevitable perp walk, Mayor Adams does a hot assassin perp walk * Insurance companies redux * Kmele is a bad drinker * Don Jr. trades up * Barron is everyone’s boyfriend This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other s...
Dec 20, 2024•2 hr 42 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * If you think it’s expensive now, wait until it’s free * Unpersuasive persuasion * How race is like probiotic soda * Ends and means * "If one killing is justified, where do you draw the line—10,000? A million?" * Siouxsie and the Nazis / Bill Grundy * Tinder Trotskyists * More “memoirs about trauma and identity” * ‘Oh, they’re taxing us, let’s go murder people.’ * 23andme and Zor…...
Dec 16, 2024•24 min
* The Daniel Penny verdict * REinstitutionalization * When should the state involuntarily commit? * Remember, she was a very bad candidate * The great exhale * Joe and the Squad * A fake Portuguese guest * Barro blowback? * On the Substack revolution * The repulsive Luigi Mangioni * The failed Kaczynski * And 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...
Dec 12, 2024•2 hr 50 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com One topic in the news . One quick podcast on that single topic (rather than just texting each other about how certain media figures are vulgar, stupid, and morally depraved). Welcome to the Fifth Column One Hitter! In our inaugural episode, Matt and Moyn get pissed off about the hideous reaction from certain very online cretins to the awful murder of Uni…...
Dec 06, 2024•6 min
* Little Moynihan’s pediatric cancer fundraiser can be found here! This might be the opposite of an incentive, but a random donor will be chosen for a personalized roast video from Moyn and his daughter… * The idiot winds (That “One More Cup of Coffee” live performance MM referenced) * Pete Hegseth replaced by Ronny D? * Ok, you asked for it…with new information, the lads return to the Hunter pardon * "Is he really doing something injurious?" * Preemptive pardons? * The uselessness of cable “new...
Dec 05, 2024•2 hr 40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * The boys had just heard the Biden pardon news. So much they missed about the specifics…and this brilliant video had not yet been created. * Citizens of the Fifdom debate RFK * The professional Youtube debaters * Teens and true crime * JonBenet * How to interview your dad * A listener asks: Is Dan Crenshaw the worst? * Park Slope politics and the crotch Magen David * The M…...
Dec 02, 2024•18 min
As a Thanksgiving treat, an unlocked Members Only episode featuring Moynihan in conversation with Dr. Alan Levinovitz, author of Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science and The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat , about RFK’s view of public health, why you are fat, the myth of “natural,” and why so many people have stopped trusting “the science.” We won’t be unlocking any subscriber-only episodes for awhile so…subscribe! This is ...
Nov 27, 2024•56 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Pete’s past * Friends with a murderer * Roofie vending machines * The worst cabinet pick? * Trans snakes that play golf * Damn dirty commies * The three things reds do well * A store called Store * That truck is still with Kamala * Little Baron’s soooooooootcase * One black woman’s quest * Biased bookstores * Axios: Trump’s liberal cabinet * ChatGPT is wrong about everything * Back to Cormac...
Nov 25, 2024•25 min
An hour with Semafor founder Ben Smith discussing the sorry state of the media, followed by a Smith-free hour with the lads discussing, among other things, two very different people who nevertheless shared a very deep love of young people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 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 23, 2024•2 hr 53 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Kmele: Forever the HNIC * The Filet-O-Fish is Alaska pollock * A Swedish horror show * RFK at HHS * He forgot to mention this stuff… * Elon’s principles? * On Matt Gaetz and John Bolton * You know, we had a pretty good record on Covid… * Moulton v. a Salem Witch * A listener’s Irish-Catholic family is falling apart * That fake Netflix fight...
Nov 19, 2024•17 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Michael Moynihan sits down with Bard College professor Sean McMeekin to discuss his new book To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism , a Fifth-approved history of the global communist movement, from the ur-commie instincts of Plato to the sinister stupidities of Plekhanov. They also contemplate why so many smart people fall for ba…...
Nov 17, 2024•20 min
We’ve promised this one for a very long time. But now that Trump is returning to the White House—the mercantilist maniac who recently said “the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff’”—we finally followed through. By popular demand, we called upon Scott Lincicome, senior visiting lecturer at Duke University Law School and vice president of general economics and Cato's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, to answer all of your questions on protectionism, tariffs, and trad...
Nov 13, 2024•2 hr 59 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Our first post-election Second Sunday Zoom call! If you missed it, shame on you for choosing to spend time with your family or choosing not to pony up. But it’s all here. All three hours of it. Yes, it’s the “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” of election analysis. But to be clear, we also discuss Emperor Hirohito, Kentucky politics, Australians, New York …...
Nov 12, 2024•18 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Welch and Moynihan are back in the studio, three days after the end of democracy, counting the days before they get the midnight knock from Trump’s NKVD. So what does one do? Engage in some anticipatory obedience , obviously. But can anything save them? Subscribe to find out! Note: Matt came across this amazing video only after recording this episode. So …...
Nov 08, 2024•33 min
The Fifth did a bit of processing today with our Trump-supporting friend at her Connecticut studio. Hungover, exhausted, bedraggled, the lads then returned to the scene of last night’s Fifth-Free Press-Reason party and recorded this episode. They enjoyed it. And they suspect you will too. . 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 07, 2024•1 hr 27 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Kmele on his appearance in Thomas Chatterton Williams new Atlantic piece * The end of America! * If you don’t vote like me, you should be ashamed of yourself! * We’re not “heterodox” * On never talking policy * Authoritarianism in America * Boyz in the Hood redux * A whole lot of final election thoughts * A listener from Utah teaches us about TBCK syndrome * Kemi Badenoch on uneq…...
Nov 04, 2024•26 min
* A Thomas Jefferson freak off * The tree of liberty… * “Election integrity” * What’s happening with those Pennsylvania ballots? * Editorial page endorsements are worthless * Why won’t you resign, lady? * A slaughter at MSG * These people have lost their minds * And Bezos is correct: they don’t trust you * The end of the NYT sports page actually said something important… * The bubble * An absurd boycott * What would a Kamala victory mean for Israel? * Finally a good Downfall meme… This is a publ...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 29 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * To promote his Substack conversation with Moynihan ( live today at 5pm ET only on the Substack app !), Josh Szeps calls in from the car and talks Aussie stuff for 20 minutes. * Banning that lady from your country (“Does anything ride on this?") * Baghdad Bob on Australia * The Times and the truth * People who disappear * They are making me talk about this fascism shit * …...
Oct 28, 2024•30 min
* How to be a Navy Seal * Losing an eye in Afghanistan * Dan can’t find his glasses / “I can’t see shit” * Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan * A case study in intelligence failure and confirmation bias * On leaving the Taliban in power * Has Trump been good on foreign policy? * The Republican Party post-Trump * Tucker "is best friends with Hunter Biden!” * Why are you even in Congress? * On the mechanics of Congress * Maybe a hundred normal congressmen * What has Dan accomplished for Texas? * Is...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 16 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Dave in the Hall * Dead in the garden * All the dictators * His kampf * McDonalds troofer * Can Trump be funny? * People don’t care about what we care about * A friend attacks * BHO was a great candidate * Wham-O, Sandusky, and the kids Freak Off * On “Neighborhood Bully” * Never say “grande” * What plagiarism counts...
Oct 22, 2024•22 min
* Old wine, old bottles * Bret Baier v. Kamala * He finally asked Matt’s question. Or was it Kmele’s question? * On not answering questions * The wisdom of Bill Clinton * Back to the politics of the 90s * We always come back to it: late night is awful * Weed reparations * We always come back to it: fascism * Please come back, archive.org * Shutting down CBS? * Why the media being stupid is actually really important * Ted v Colin * Micklewaithe v. Trump This is a public episode. If you'd like to ...
Oct 17, 2024•2 hr 32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com A rebroadcast * Military propaganda for the kidz! * Jewish Columbus * A new history of communism * The brainworm burrows in again * The Italian * Obama’s code switch * There are meaningful differences between *these men* * Polling problems * The brothers Menendez * Sarah, live from Folsom * Chomsky’s Cuba book * Are there still meaningful policy differences between the two major partie…...
Oct 15, 2024•19 min
* Yes, Michael J. Fox actually actually has Parkinson’s * The MAGA hat incident * We got a journalist around here…he’s asking a lot of questions * Choppin’ it up with 60 * Young morons embrace violence * German American Bund at MSG 2.0! * Bob “Silent Coup” Woodward * Look, he was actually unfairly treated * Schultz interviews Trump * It was Jeff Gerth, actually * A tale of two natural disasters * The natural disaster of a Kamala interview * Running out the clock: “Frankly, I love the American pe...
Oct 10, 2024•2 hr 54 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * A very brief baseball convo. Relax. * Kid (and adult) anxiety * Don’t kill on snek * The science of Trump’s brain? * The worst of all the excuses * Oliver’s dad and the JJ Rule * The Big Dance on OpenLibrary , btw * Fatherhood songs * Phones, kids, rabbit holes * Pete Rose was the best…and the worst * On Kris Kristofferson * On Megyn and Moynihan...
Oct 08, 2024•18 min
* The title is correct: everyone will hate something in this episode! * Moynihan is dying? * GPT as your GP * Choc and Chiclet * $$$ for TV * J.D. says Trump won in 2020 * Jack Smith could have asked Moynihan * You hate him. But not enough . * A goomba union boss is going to choke America out * Rich and “working class” * Create jobs! End EZ-Pass! * Remembering the execrable Harry Bridges * Why is the government still mailing free Covid tests? * (MM fact-checks himself) * Lebanon and beyond This ...
Oct 04, 2024•2 hr 45 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Kmele’s voice is craggy; Moynihan is on the precipice of illness; Hasan Nasrallah has been delivered to a fiery “paradise,” last seen with his hand up own skirt, desperate to locate 70-odd sexually inexperienced coreligionists. Also: * Pat’s “thugocracy” * Hockey fights. * Johnny Turkey * Your legacy is one bad Twitter prediction * Ranking the least badly governed…...
Sep 30, 2024•21 min
* The return of the Boss POC * The veep sits for an “interview” * That’s all she had to do… * Will Michael Cohen be assassinated? * Not if he escapes the country (and his family)! * The return of Tennessee * 10 days in an uncomplicated land * That conflict is just like all things I care about (except it’s nothing like the things I care about) * Disassociating yourself from the freaks and terror supporters * So we finally got to Diddy * Sure, he’s a monster! But the Mann Act?? This is a public ep...
Sep 26, 2024•2 hr 46 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * When you think you’re right about everything * Alternate episode title: Candace Owens Discovers a New Fact Every Day—This Time, She Didn’t Blame the Jews * “The incentive for her is to be more mentally ill, because she seems to be doing quite well by losing her mind in public” * It will be like leaving a 70’s cult * Nude Africa has gone offline :( * Nobel laureates …...
Sep 21, 2024•27 min
Yet again, AI has done a bang-up of summarizing a Fifth Column episode, which mostly covers the insane economic policies of both idiot candidates and why members of Hezbollah are having their balls blown off. But according to the half-sentient supercomputers, the lads discuss how “Melania Trump's new book is a focal point, with humorous commentary on its content and implications.” True enough. And also, there is apparently some conversation about how “evidence is often disregarded in political c...
Sep 19, 2024•2 hr 34 min
