A dramatic week of big acquisitions left Jonah tired, but ranty. Brace for some I Told You So’s, “abundance” horseshoe theory, Trumpworld triangulations, and blue-on-blue violence. Show Notes:—The SCOTUSblog acquisition—Wednesday’s uncontroversial G-File—Kevin Williamson’s critique of the "abundance" Democrats—Jamie Weinstein and Larry Diamond on The Dispatch Podcast The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, c...
Apr 26, 2025•1 hr 28 min
David Bahnsen, a fan favorite and friend of the pod, stops by the show to discuss his new book, Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life with Jonah Goldberg. Jonah and David cover the China question, U.S. reliability, and Kevin Hassett’s antics. Show Notes: —David’s book, Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life —The Wall Street Journal: “Meet MAGA’s Favorite Communist” The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, ...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 26 min
Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes make their Remnant debut to discuss their buzzy new book, Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. Jonah Goldberg and the authors dig into the nitty-gritty of all three 2024 presidential bids, that debate, Kamala Harris’ ascension and missteps, and the story of Joe Biden’s decline. Show Notes: —Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Jonah Goldberg spends ninety minutes plotting his transition to telethon moderation, lambasting the youth, and reminding the new GOP that you can’t pick and choose who gets universal rights. Plus: further ruminations on the bond market and the anniversary of the shot heard ‘round the world. Show Notes: — The Fair Jessica for The Dispatch: ”Revenge of the Title IX Dads” —Advisory Opinions on Humphrey’s Executor —The Wall Street Journal: “Meet MAGA’s Favorite Communist” —G-File: “The Shot Heard Ro...
Apr 19, 2025•1 hr 16 min
Jonah Goldberg responds to Christopher Rufo and his fight to "to recapture the regime and entrench our ideas in the public sphere," using 20th-century Marxist Antonio Gramsci's ideas. This is a bonus Ruminant –– expect your regular Saturday Goldberg variation to arrive at the normal time. Show Notes: —Meet MAGA’s Favorite Communist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 18, 2025•38 min
Jonah Goldberg is rolling like a stone through Ivy League speaking events and is holed up in New Haven to conduct an AMA with the one and only Chris Stirewalt. Topics range from marmot taxonomy, Tom Selleck’s career ethics, Maserati salesman attire, and of course, rank punditry galore. Show Notes: —Continue your education on The Gay Place —Jonah for the Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Whitmer’s party should learn from what she did in the Oval Office” —Ross Douthat for the New York Times: “It’s Trump’s ...
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 29 min
Jonah Goldberg is joined by Adam Kirsch to discuss Kirsch’s new book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice. What does settler colonialism actually mean in the Israeli context? Where did the school of thought originate? And how can Israel move forward under the framework of settler colonialist ideology? Show Notes: —Order Adam’s new book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politic...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 13 min
For your Saturday listening pleasure, Jonah Goldberg ruminates upon the latest Dispatch editorial, the sibylian nature of Suicide of the West, the problems with planned economies, and the back-of-house responsibilities of the federal government. Plus: dunce caps for the “deep state” and the font choices of the first Alien movie. Show Notes: —The latest Dispatch editorial: “Slouching Towards Tyranny” —Yuval Levin: The Great Debate The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media compa...
Apr 12, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Jonah Goldberg knows many a public intellectual, but linguist extraordinaire John McWhorter is one of his favorites. John returns to the show to discuss his new book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words. Topics include: grammars of the elite, the imposition of language rules, the they-shaped elephant in the room, and the mystery behind the disappearance of “thou.” Show Notes: —Order John’s book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words, here —The Finnish Path to ...
Apr 10, 2025•58 min
Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute and a general tariff expert, took some time out of his very busy schedule to talk to Jonah Goldberg about Trump’s trade-deficit delusions,why reciprocal tariffs will harm the United States, and the likelihood of increased inflation as trade tensions rise. Show Notes: —Scott’s Capitolism newsletter for The Dispatch —Scott’s column on trade deficits The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company coveri...
Apr 09, 2025•1 hr 20 min
Siri misogyny meets trade policy, while Howard Lutnick’s idiocy fuels debates on markets and democracy. Jonah Goldberg clamors for liberal democratic capitalism supremacy and says a prayer for the global economy, as public-choice theory explains our collective hypocrisy. Show Notes: —Worship at the church of Scott Lincicome —Dominic Pino for National Review: “The Heritage Foundation Was One of Free Trade’s Strongest Supporters” The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 30 min
Frustrated with never-ending interstate repairs and constant airline delays, Jonah Goldberg looks to the sky and wonders; Why does nothing work? Marc J. Dunkelman, fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, has the answers. Marc and Jonah discuss the origins and transformation of American progressive policy, the spirit of the NIMBYs, and a bold proclamation that we need even more institutions to achieve good governance. Show Notes: —Order Marc’s book, Why...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Jonah Goldberg is joined by Luke Coffey, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and Ukraine expert extraordinaire, to discuss his recent visit to the region and the state of the Ukraine-Russia war. Luke and Jonah debate where Ukrainians stand after the infamous Oval Office debacle, the cracks in the Russian army, and the indispensable value of close European alliances—which seem to mean little to MAGA world. Show Notes: —Luke's scholar page at the Hudson Institute The Remnant is a production of T...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 19 min
Having exhausted his Jeffrey/Jonah Goldberg jokes on The Dispatch Podcast, Jonah Goldberg launches into an epic rant on the tyranny of intellectual mobs, the flaws of morally blind due process, and the emerging artificial intelligence anime art movement. Plus: long-view Signal-gate revelations and the superficial logic of the Trump administration’s tariff strategy. Show Notes: —The Maoist anime AI drawing in question —Yuval Levin’s latest Remnant appearance The Remnant is a production of The Dis...
Mar 29, 2025•1 hr 32 min
It’s fan-favorite week at Casa de Remnant.Jonah Goldberg is joined by Thomas Chatterton Williams, staff writer at The Atlantic and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss illiberalism on the right, dole out some sympathy for the most ardent defenders of wokeness, and dig into Thomas’ upcoming book, Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse. Show Notes: —Thomas’ piece in The Atlantic: “How the Woke Right Replaced the Woke Left” —Musa al-Gharbi on T...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Not since Thomas Jefferson podcasting alone has a guest been so wise as Yuval Levin, who joins Jonah Goldberg to discuss the recent trend of Lebowskian communication mishaps, the danger of obsessive abstraction in Trumpian times, and the promise of connecting with the median voter. Show Notes: —The Atlantic: "Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans" —Yuval on "The Ezra Klein Show" —Yoni Appelbaum on The Remnant —National Review: "Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!" —Yuva...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 19 min
Join Jonah Goldberg on a journey up the Northeast Regional line as he ruminates upon the impeachment of federal judges, the enemy within, the world’s laziest Congress, and the chicken and the egg game for oligarchs and plutocrats. Plus: disturbing DOGE casualties and a greatest hits reel of Jonah’s analogies. Show Notes: —Jonah’s LA Times column from this week —The New York Times: Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy Is Done. Powerful Conservatives Are Listening —Alex Tabarrok on The Remnant —Yoni Appel...
Mar 22, 2025•1 hr 39 min
Yoni Appelbaum, deputy executive editor of The Atlantic, makes his Remnant debut to discuss his new book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. Jonah Goldberg and Yoni discuss America's unique social and geographic mobility, the tricky history of tenements, and the dirty laundry of zoning. Show Notes: —Order Yoni’s book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity The Remnant is a production of The Dispatc...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Clifford D. May, founder and director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, enters The Remnant multiverse with Jonah Goldberg to reevaluate the world stage and all its conflicts. Cliff and Jonah debate who’s leading the new Axis of Evil and dig into the growing trend of expansionist politics and the depressing lack of fact-based arguments in contemporary foreign policy.Show Notes: —Listen to the "Foreign Policy" podcast —Learn more about FDD —The Wall Street Journal: “The Painting That E...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 16 min
An overserved and hungover Jonah Goldberg gets into arguments with ChatGPT, picks fights with free speech “martyrs,” and offers a unified theory of Trumpism, all in a day’s Ruminant. Show Notes: —Jim Geraghty for National Review: “Why the Ukraine Cease-Fire Deal is No Cause for Celebration” —Jake Meador for The Dispatch: “The Perils of Positive Thinking” —The Wednesday G-File in question The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture f...
Mar 15, 2025•1 hr
Jonah Goldberg has gone AWOL, and Kevin Williamson of Dispatch fame has risen to the task of Remnant hosting duties. Kevin is joined by Devin DeCiantis and Ivan Lansberg to discuss their new book, The Enduring Enterprise: How Family Businesses Thrive in Turbulent Conditions. The trio covers crony capitalism, how businesses can succeed amid political chaos, and how family enterprises can survive the breakneck speed of social change. Show Notes: —Devin and Ivan for Salon: “The Return of Crony Capi...
Mar 13, 2025•52 min
There’s a whole lot of red on various stock market indices this week, so Jonah Goldberg has conscripted Michael Strain, director of economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute, to talk money. Topics include: the likelihood of recession, tumultuous trade policy, and Jonah’s crusade against the cryptocurrency reserve. Show Notes: —Cato Institute: “The Problem of the Tariff in American Economic History, 1787–1934” The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company coverin...
Mar 12, 2025•1 hr 12 min
After sufficiently kvetching over Weimar-style cigar inflation, Jonah Goldberg ruminates upon Donald Trump tripping over tariffs, the abhorrent actions of the Department of Justice regarding the Eric Adams case, and the insanity of the proposed crypto reserve. Plus: the fallout from last week's Oval Office disaster and a grim prediction for the next three years. Show Notes: —Scott Linsciome in The Dispatch: “‘Reciprocal Tariffs’ Are Trump’s Worst Trade Idea Yet” —Burke's “Birds of Prey” speech T...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 25 min
Jonah Goldberg came to the Remnant studio exhausted by his nightshift at the cable news factory, so he enlisted one Brother Chris Stirewalt to save the show once again. Jonah and Chris analyze Trump’s Tuesday night address to Congress from all angles, including but not limited to the Democrat’s shenanigans and the reviled Wilsonian origins of the State of the Union address. Show Notes: —Brother Stirewalt for The Hill: “Separating Show and Substance as Trump Addresses Congress” The Remnant is a p...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Jonah Goldberg is joined by author and research analyst Ross Benes to discuss his new book, 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. Jonah and Ross discuss beanie babies as a precursor to crypto, the political triumph of the WWE, and the age of media deregulation. Plus: the phenomenology of moral panics and the bourgeois-ification of transgressive culture. Show Notes: —1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times The Remnan...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 6 min
From the civilizational lynchpin of gratitude to the misplaced obsession with diplomacy to MAGA’s mafia style of governance, today’s Ruminant will be a one deep cut after another for Suicide of the West readers. There will also be one or two I-told-you-so’s.Show Notes: —Return to the source material and order Suicide of the West —G-File: “The Democrats Dilemma” —Vintage Goldberg in National Review: “The European Miracle” —Infinite Scroll: “MAGA as Master Morality”The Remnant is a production of T...
Mar 01, 2025•1 hr 34 min
A Ruminant of Homeric length about the distress of the liberal world order will be released tomorrow, but the fallout from the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump today necessitated a rapid emergency rant. Enjoy your bonus episode and the sunsetting of American honor. The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Disp...
Feb 28, 2025•29 min
Christopher Scalia, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, stops by the show to drop some culture on one Jonah Goldberg. The two discuss all things literature and what great books could give the conservative movement. Plus: George Eliot’s conception of nationalism and Jonah’s thoughts on the new season of Severance. Show Notes: —Pre-order: 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven't Read) —Listen to “The Back of the Book” podcast The Remnant is a production of The Dispat...
Feb 27, 2025•1 hr 17 min
Jonah Goldberg is joined by American Enterprise Institute fellow and author Michael Rosen to discuss his new book, Silicon and Clay: What Ancient Jewish Wisdom Can Teach Us About AI. Jonah and Michael cover the difference between lunch bucket AI degrowthers vs. Butlerian jihadist doomers before diving into the lore of the mystical figures of the golem and the dybbuk and what they can teach us about our approach to artificial intelligence. Show Notes: —Pre-order Like Silicon from Clay: What Ancie...
Feb 26, 2025•1 hr 27 min
Jonah Goldberg has words for the Trump administration signaling its willingness to betray Ukraine and turn allies into vassals all in the name of a faux-realist approach to geopolitics that feels more Corleone than Kissinger. Plus: an apology to Anthony Scaramucci, ruminations on the Eric Adams case, and the MAGA-induced pressure campaign within the conservative movement. Show Notes: —Order Honor Among Nations —Wednesday G-File: “Realism for a Condo Salesman” —Friday G-File: “Faded Glory, Growin...
Feb 22, 2025•1 hr 9 min
