Escaping household chaos, a car-bound Jonah talks prisons with Brown University’s David Skarbek. Bolivian jails and Soviet gulags are just two choices in this long game of Where’d-You-Rather: Incarceration Edition. Skarbek takes us through the highlights of his upcoming book and touches on the delicate subject of policing. Show Notes: - Skarbeck’s upcoming book: The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World - Skarbek on EconTalk - Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers: Lesson...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 222
What to make of the many news stories of the week - the resignation of James Bennet at The New York Times, the establishment of an autarkic city-state in Seattle, and more? On the Ruminant, Jonah sees some connecting threads between them all, such as the shrinking of large, trustworthy media institutions. Show Notes: - This Friday’s G-File - "Firing Line with William F. Buckley, Jr." collection, hosted for free by the Hoover Institution - Robin Williams caricatures Buckley twice in "Aladdin" - J...
Jun 13, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 221
AEI scholar and China expert Oriana Skylar Mastro joins The Remnant to help us all understand the "Middle Kingdom" and its moves on the world stage. At a time like this, where the U.S. is retreating from its global responsibilities, how is China going to try to spin this into a positive outcome for themselves? Oriana has some ideas. Show Notes: - Oriana’s latest insights on China - Oriana’s book, on the problems with peace talks - Oriana's piece on Taiwan's future - The sheer amount of effort th...
Jun 11, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 220
Tim Carney joins The Remnant, where he talks about some of the great shoe-leather reporting he’s been doing on the protests in the D.C. area. How many of the protesters are seriously out to cause trouble, and how many are there for good reasons? Also, what can be made of the “defund the police” movement, and where have our “little platoons” gone during the pandemic? Show Notes: - Tim’s work at the Washington Examiner - Tim’s latest book, Alienated America - Subsidiarity - Tim’s Occupy reporting ...
Jun 09, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 219
Jonah returns for the weekend Ruminant to address the growing unease he gets from the national protest movements. What’s going to be more damaging: the protests, or the massive overcorrection from the critics of the protests? With a little bit of perspective, it should be easy to see that everyone is manipulating data for their own ends - the epidemiologists, the protesters, and, of course, the Executive (to put it politely). Show Notes: - This week's G-File - Wednesday's "news"letter - Epidemio...
Jun 06, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 218
In this crazy time we’re living in, what’s the most accurate historical parallel? 1968? The 1420s? UMass Boston historian and all-around smart dude Vincent Cannato returns to the show for the second time to remind us of the scary-but-true reality: we are actually living in an unprecedented era. As the ancient faux-Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.” Show Notes: - Vin’s books - Just in case you’d like to get admitted to the Vatican archives - Blue check-mark Twitter in an upr...
Jun 05, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 217
How does liberty die? According to Padmé, with thunderous applause. According to The New York Times, with an ill-timed op-ed ghostwritten by Putin. And according to John Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna, maybe with Trump? John joins the show to play Remnant bingo, but also to make the case that Trump’s oft-praised abrasiveness isn’t actually very American — and that his behavior usually stifles liberty instead of promoting it. Show Notes: - Pitney’s book, Un-American: ...
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 216
Jonah ruminates on why we can't have nice things, darling. A journey that takes us from Julien Benda’s Treason of the Intellectuals to John Courtney Murray's The Return to Tribalism . From the cigar shop to the primitive Greek usage of the word "idiot." Show Notes: - Jonah's piece Cigars: A Love Story or Two - Jonah's piece Democracy in the Tobacconist’s - Sen. Ben Sasse's civics lesson - This week's G-File - Wednesday's "news"letter - How to educate an American webinar - John Courtney Murray's ...
May 30, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 215
Has the 1 percent really rigged the economy? Why do Argentinians believe the Vatican is hiding aliens? And finally, what’s the deal with Bigfoot (and the associated erotica therein)? University of Miami political scientist and conspiracy theory expert Joseph Uscinski joins Jonah to answer these questions, explain who believes such things, and why. We suggest you listen to this truly bizarre episode before the Lizard People take it off the air. Show Notes: - FiveThirtyEight podcast with Joe - The...
May 29, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 214
Last time Matt Ridley was on, Jonah was left with so many questions that he knew he had to get him on again in short order. So he’s here again to answer more questions on the themes of his new book, How Innovation Works . Matt talks about how bureaucracy gets in the way of innovation, not by saying no to innovators, but “by saying yes too slowly,” and presents the one bit of scientific wisdom he would pass on to a future civilization. Come for the enlightenment, stay for the LED lightbulb. Show ...
May 26, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 213
Everything has a price - except The Remnant, of course. That’s free. But regardless, Jonah flies solo once more and shares some advice he learned from his father about how to appraise the worth of any activity in life. On that theme, it turns out that he puts little worth in political eschatology, partisan psychological research, and the dichotomy implied by the terms ‘left-” and “right-wing.” Show Notes: - Pastor Douglas Wilson’s show, coming soon with a Jonah Goldberg episode - Marxist eschato...
May 23, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 212
David French joins the Five-Timer’s Club on this edition of The Remnant. The conversation has just about the widest scope possible, including everything from end times prophecy, to Protestantism versus Restorationism, to methods for surviving the zombie apocalypse, to the blessed Snyder cut. Show Notes: - David’s newsletter, The French Press - David's podcast with Sarah Isgur - David, supposedly “breathing on the embers” of #BelieveAllWomen - The (very involved) eschatology of Assemblies of God ...
May 22, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 211
Amy Walter, national editor of The Cook Political Report, joins the show to talk about which polling numbers actually convey useful information during an election season. How can Trump’s job approval ratings remain relatively high, while lots of people still say they won’t vote for him? What do the parties actually need to do to keep their coalitions intact? And how strongly does Jonah feel about quality underwear? Tune in to find out. Show Notes: - Amy’s work at The Cook Political Report - Amy’...
May 19, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 210
Jonah’s back for another roundup of the week, where he takes on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R. R. Reno, Napoleon - that’s right, Napoleon - and many more. In addition to addressing current events, he also discusses the necessity of the right to police its own side, and how old-school leftists ruined the word “ideology” for the rest of us. Show Notes: - Jonah’s spat with AOC - Suicide of the West (now out in paperback!) - Jonathan V. Last, one of the early-on disparagers of R. R. Reno, on an old Re...
May 16, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 209
Paul Matzko - a historian who has charted the legacy of talk radio and the conservative movement - joins The Remnant pantheon. While conservatives may be familiar with the lasting legacy of figures like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved, Paul shows that they follow a path established by religious conservatives stretching back to the 60s. Learn about the Kennedy administration’s checkered history with AM radio, and about the differing impacts of the radio populists versus the print-magazine intell...
May 14, 2020•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 208
Why do international institutions have scary-sounding names? Why do we fall for dolphin propaganda, every time ? What form does the true Platonic Nacho take? Return guest Scott Lincicome joins The Remnant to answer these pressing questions. This episode explains more of this international man of mystery’s backstory, revealing not only what irks him about modern China-hawkishness, but also the cherished memory that reliably brings a tear to his eye. Show Notes: - Scott’s Twitter poll about animal...
May 12, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 207
It’s that time again: on this weekend Ruminant, Jonah finds himself dealing with more 2016 déjà vu, as once again the public conversation turns towards the “binary choice” between two men who have been accused of sexual assault. How did we get to a point where our standards stooped so low? Jonah has a few ideas about that, and they have to do with the cop-outs of the intellectual class and the erosion of social capital. Show Notes: - Linda Hirshman’s NYT op-ed - Julien Benda’s The Treason of the...
May 09, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 206
Libertarian guru, wisdom-dispenser, and Jonah’s good friend Ron Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine, joins us on The Remnant. Ron guides us through the myriad reasons that the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t justify expanding the government and federal bureaucracies to unprecedented levels, before spending the second half of the podcast enticing Jonah to join him in the strange exotic land of the libertarians. If anyone can pull that off, it’s Ron. Show Notes: - Ron’s page at Reason -...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 205
Steve Kornacki, national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, joins Jonah to breakdown the state of the 2020 election, and take a trip through the history of political tribalism. It helps that Steve wrote a whole book, The Red and the Blue , on the subject. Come for Steve's keen knowledge of all things politics, stay for the discussion on weak parties. Show Notes: - Steve’s book, The Red and the Blue - Ross Perot’s unique populism - Tip O’Neill’s words getting taken down - Greenwich p...
May 06, 2020•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 204
On this Ruminant, Jonah finds himself hearing the “binary choice” argument all over again, but this time about Trump vs. Biden. In his response, he also deals with the ways in which people are failing to take the Reade allegation seriously, how we have a political class of perpetual underdogs, and how dishonest arguments have snuck into our partisan debates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 02, 2020•55 min•Ep. 203
Jonah and National Review’s Charles Cooke podcast with one another from the sunny paradise of Florida on this episode of The Remnant. Why is Florida so weird, really? What is to be made of GOP governors riding the Trump Train before promptly hopping back off? And what are people actually angry about regarding the Reade/Biden allegation? Tune in to witness a disagreement that sheds more light than heat. Show Notes: - Charlie’s author page at National Review - Take a wild guess: just how many alli...
May 01, 2020•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 202
Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin makes a return appearance on this, the 200th episode of The Remnant. To celebrate, Jonah and Mike bring back the ever-popular theme of half-baked ideas, mixing many of their own ideas (that still need a bit more time in the oven) with some of our very own listener-submitted thoughts. They revisit their plan to (peacefully!) annex Greenland, Mike prolongs his beef with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, and our intrepid podcasters discover how to implement mortal combat...
Apr 28, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 201
Jonah returns to ruminate on a smorgasbord of things this week: injecting bleach to cure COVID-19 (big if true!), an extended meditation on John Rawls’ "veil of ignorance," how the veil is nonsensical from the pro-life position, and the difference between “social justice” and a “just society.” Show Notes: - Ross’ book on social decadence - Suicide of the West (now out in paperback!) - The veil of ignorance - Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors - A shrubbery! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
Apr 26, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 200
How does technological innovation actually happen? We were able to speak to Matt Ridley, who has literally written the (upcoming) book on this subject, How Innovation Works . Matt brings up fascinating points, such as whether or not innovation really relies on “great men” miraculously coming up with brilliant ideas, why we are often resistant to new technology, and how we can get out of our current innovation slump, a product of our cultural risk-aversion. And tune in to see where he places on t...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 199
This episode goes in The Remnant Hall of Fame for a few reasons: it’s both one of the longest episodes we’ve ever done, with one of the New Yorkiest guests we’ve ever had. Vincent Cannato, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, proves his New York credentials not just with stories of mayors from years past, but with the most authentic pronunciation of “Giuliani” you’ll ever hear. Stick around for Jonah and Vin reminiscing about AEI, Irving Kristol, and the least impre...
Apr 22, 2020•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 198
Another weekend, another Ruminant - this time with Jonah talking about the intellectual backdrop of conservatism, and what early conservative (and progressive) ideologies might have to say about today’s coronavirus response. Join Jonah in a cloud of cigar smoke inside his own car to talk about the New Deal, Trump’s call to LIBERATE [INSERT STATE HERE], and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 18, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 197
The vox populi has been heard, so we went with a listener-suggested guest on this episode of The Remnant. Kyle Harper is an incredibly knowledgeable historian of the Roman Empire who specializes in the origins of Christianity, but that doesn’t quite do him justice. As Jonah (or, Jonas Magnus) discovers, he’s effectively a polymath who knows about everything from the gnostics to the history of infectious disease - which is, uh, convenient? Watch out for his Oklahoma nationalism, though; he might ...
Apr 17, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 196
On the new Remnant, Jonah talks with James Pethokoukis, a fellow at AEI, about how markets are reacting to coronavirus and what the recovery might look like. (V-shaped? U-shaped? Nike swoosh-shaped?) As a result of their isolation-based hallucinations, they also get particularly animated in the rank punditry and pop culture portions - so don’t miss out on their hottest Star Trek takes, or Jim’s shocking defense of the finales of Lost and Battlestar Galactica . Show Notes: - Jim’s podcast, Politi...
Apr 14, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 195
Welcome back to Jonah’s Fortress of Solitude on this latest solo episode of The Remnant. On the docket today are topics like subsidiarity in a crisis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (which Jonah struggles to pronounce), and listener feedback from The Dispatch comments section. Show Notes: - The Quart of Blood Technique - I, Pencil - A $1,500 chicken sandwich that was “just fine.” - Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Apr 11, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 194
Steven Teles, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, joins us on the heels of his newly released book, Never Trump . Stop sharpening your pitchforks, everyone! It’s an objective treatment of the Never Trump movement that doesn’t come down one way or the other on it. It also leads into some classic Remnant wonkery, with tangents into the problems with party strength, mediating institutions, and political history, and how these things relate to the tensions within modern con...
Apr 09, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 193
