The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

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The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table episodes

October 22 Has Trump Sold Out Ukraine? ╎Russia Historian Sergey Radchenko
"To say that Boris Johnson went there and forced the Ukrainians to fight on - that is complete bullshit."
Why did Zelensky ignore six requests from Trump to stop hitting Russian refineries, and does the Russian diesel deal that followed make sense while the Iran war has fuel at crisis prices? What was Steve Witkoff doing calling Putin a "great humanitarian" this week?
Did NATO expansion provoke the invasion, or is Putin just a man who can't stand being slighted? Is Russia Hitler's Germany, or is Munich an overused analogy. Is Trump is saving Zelensky from himself?
Also: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, Steve Witkoff, Henry Kissinger, Boris Johnson, Victoria Nuland, Paul Krugman, Samuel Charap, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Dave Smith, Candace Owens, Theo Von, Iran war, Strait of Hormuz, diesel prices, Donbas, Crimea, NATO.
Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of "To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power." He is writing a history of the Russia-Ukraine war, to be published when the war ends. Follow him on X: @DrRadchenko.
0:00 Dan's still out; Noam's 2017 Crimea clips: "sanctions till the end of time"
13:40 Sergey Radchenko on Trump's Russian diesel deal and the six requests Zelensky ignored
28:46 Witkoff calls Putin a "great humanitarian": what's the strategy?
36:20 Will Russia roll over Europe? Munich, Kissinger's last word, NATO's empty promise
44:15 Should a victim compromise? Donbas, security guarantees, did the West provoke Crimea
57:40 Why Putin invaded: humiliation, hubris, Obama's Atlantic interview, Afghanistan
1:08:36 The Istanbul talks, the Boris Johnson myth, and the verdict on Trump
1:24:49 Post-game: Dave Smith, the Absolut Pussy ad, Candace Owens, Theo Von
1 hr 37 min
October 15 "They Hated Each Other”: Inside Netanyahu’s War Cabinet | WSJ's Elliot Kaufman
"They hated each other." That's Elliot Kaufman describing Israel's war cabinet, not its enemies.
Kaufman joins Noam Dworman on the rivalries, leaks and gambles behind Israel's war since October 7. Why did Netanyahu wait 20 days to invade Gaza? When was Biden saving Israel from itself, and when was he holding it back? And why did killing Nasrallah trigger a furious phone call from Washington? They also confront what both consider Israel's biggest mistake in Gaza: taking ground, leaving, and having to fight for it all over again.
Also: Gallant and Gantz, Jake Sullivan and Lloyd Austin, the Philadelphi Corridor, Rafah, the Qatar strike, Trump's "all I heard was yes," Mamdani's October 7 statement, and Iran under blockade.
Get the full story in Kaufman's new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, coauthored with Yonah Jeremy Bob.
0:00 Elliot Kaufman and the case for airing Israel's dirty laundry
6:44 Churchill's war room vs. Israel's: "they hated each other"
18:25 Mers-el-Kébir, Netanyahu's history test, and the 20-day wait to invade Gaza
30:06 Hostages, the Philadelphi Corridor, and the Saudi deal that wasn't
38:34 Rafah in days, not months, and was Biden really in decline?
48:46 The morning of October 7: Halevi's note and one aircraft
55:12 Killing Nasrallah without telling Washington, and how the Iran war began
65:29 Endgame: Petraeus, raid-and-leave, "all I heard was yes," and the story that leaves Hamas out

1 hr 27 min
October 08 Did Israel Win the War But Lose the World╎Hen Mazzig
Hen Mazzig, co-founder of the Tel Aviv Institute and author of The Wrong Kind of Jew, says Israel won on the battlefield and lost the world, and that explaining Israel "is not a replacement for policy." He spent five years in COGAT, the IDF unit that issues Palestinian permits and prison visits, and was attacked by settlers while in uniform. We play his Piers Morgan fight with Norman Finkelstein ("Am I a child killer?") and go through what Amit Soussana actually said. Noam asks whether Israel would hold the West Bank if it had no holy sites, why the occupation is the Palestinians' best weapon, and why "sunlight grows mushrooms." Also: Mamdani's October 7 statement, Mearsheimer on the Hannibal Directive, Eurovision, and why Noam thinks everyone should have a baby.
0:00 Hen Mazzig, three years and a day after October 7
4:19 "We won on the battlefield and lost the world"
18:36 Food, famine and the arguments that don't work
28:52 What if the West Bank had no holy sites?
37:56 Smallpox, arrogance and "have a baby"
52:13 Five years in COGAT: what the IDF's humanitarian unit does
61:40 "Am I a child killer?" Finkelstein and the rape deniers
76:00 Mearsheimer, the Hannibal Directive and "sunlight grows mushrooms"
1 hr 33 min
October 08 3 Years after 10/7 - What's Next for Israel and the Jewish People ╏Eli Lake, Coleman Hughes & Salo Aizenberg
Three years after October 7: What's Next for Israel and the Jewish People.
Noam sits down with Coleman Hughes, Eli Lake and Salo Aizenberg to ask whether the war was worth it. Coleman says Israel traded prestige for power and Hamas did the opposite. Salo brings the Gaza Health Ministry's own 2025 report: 50,000 births, 25,000 deaths, and 108 hospital workers who appear in Hamas's own martyr notices as commanders. Eli says Israel's strategic position has never been better. Noam is the pessimist in the room: "The optimists died in the gas chambers. The pessimists have pools in Beverly Hills." Also: why Hamas never gave up the hostages, John Mearsheimer on tape claiming the IDF killed its own, Coleman's Joe Rogan clip, Noam's 2019 emails that predicted all of it, and a fight over whether Israel should leave the West Bank.
0:00 Three years after October 7: Coleman Hughes, Eli Lake, Salo Aizenberg
2:22 Opening statements: what Israel and Hamas each traded
11:14 Noam: "The optimists died in the gas chambers"
18:41 Why Hamas never released the hostages
33:33 Conspiracy theories and the Mearsheimer tape
47:35 Salo's slides: Gaza's 2025 numbers and the nurses who were Hamas commanders
1:07:09 Should Israel leave the West Bank?
1:21:50 Noam's 2019 emails, Coleman on Rogan, and the diaspora
1 hr 45 min
October 02 Is "Race Realism" Simply Racism? ╏Nathan Cofnas Under Fire
Is Nathan Cofnas's "Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution." a plan to heal or America, or is it simply a racist manifesto dressed up as science.
We ask him to his face. Cofnas is the philosopher at the center of the Jason Arday plagiarism affair.

He says that, all else equal, smarter people have more human worth. He says freedom of association is worth it even if some diner bans blacks and Jews. And he says race realism is about to break into the mainstream whether we like it or not.

Noam takes him through A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution line by line: the Charles Murray debate, Jared Taylor, a speech by Michael Levin (whose book Cofnas calls important), white kids "brainwashed to despise themselves," Nikole Hannah-Jones's daughter and the lifeboat question. Periel arrives late, just in time to call it insane (as usual).
0:00 Intro: "I feel like you're a white nationalist"
9:26 Is a smarter person worth more?
23:33 "Some barriers set up between the races"
32:16 Jared Taylor, AmRen and Michael Levin
53:03 "White children are brainwashed to despise themselves"
1:29:54 Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter
1:41:53 Lower human worth? The lifeboat question
1:47:38 Closing argument: yarmulkes on the basketball court

Nathan Cofnas, A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution (Feb 5, 2024)
https://ncofnas.com/p/a-guide-for-the-hereditarian-revolution

Nathan Cofnas, Are Smart People Superior? A Reply to Noah Carl and Charles Murray (Apr 26, 2024)
https://ncofnas.com/p/are-smart-people-superior-a-reply

Debate with Charles Murray: IQ and Human Worth (Sept 16, 2026)
https://ncofnas.com/p/debate-with-charles-murray-iq-and

Nathan Cofnas, Why We Need to Talk about the Right's Stupidity Problem (Jan 2, 2024)
https://ncofnas.com/p/why-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rights

Nathan Cofnas, Beating Woke with Facts and Logic (Oct 9, 2025)
https://ncofnas.com/p/beating-woke-with-facts-and-logic

Nathan Cofnas on X, "Jews tried to be white nationalists" (Apr 28, 2018)
https://x.com/nathancofnas/status/990243373180219397

David Reich, How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race,' New York Times (Mar 23, 2018)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/genetics-race.html

David M. Quinn, How to Reduce Racial Bias in Grading, Education Next (Nov 2, 2020)
https://www.educationnext.org/how-to-reduce-racial-bias-in-grading-research/

Nikole Hannah-Jones on her daughter's schooling, New York Times Magazine (Sept 20, 2026)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html

This American Life, Ep. 898, An Argument (Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter)
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/898/an-argument

2 hr 28 min
September 24 Was there a famine in Gaza? The top expert answers ┃Alex de Waal
Did Israel starve Gaza, and why don't many Israelis believe the experts who say it did? Noam sits down with Alex de Waal, the world's leading famine scholar (World Peace Foundation, Tufts), for a tough but good-faith debate. De Waal argues that Israel could have ended the hunger "within a matter of days" and didn't. Noam lays out why people like him stay skeptical. Did his March 2024 warning that "tens of thousands" could die not come true? Why did a claim of 62,413 starvation deaths circulated with little pushback. They get into Mike Spagat's mortality survey and the missing child deaths, the 2025 blockade and the IPC famine call, flour prices, Hamas and aid, and whether it's still famine if people aren't dying. Both of them give ground along the way. Periel closes on the hostages, and de Waal ends with a plea about Sudan.
0:00 "Very well nourished": why Israelis doubt the famine experts
11:48 "The mud sticks": de Waal's own confession
25:03 "Tens of thousands": the warnings vs. Spagat's count
40:11 Feroze Sidhwa's 62,413 and "all errors are equal"
47:34 The 2025 blockade and the famine declaration
59:27 Flour prices, Hamas hoarding and Israel's "calibration"
1:06:50 Is it famine if people aren't dying?
1:18:31 The hostages, and Sudan
1 hr 50 min
September 17 We Are Ruled by the Worst - The Charlie Kirk Conspiracy and Other Symptoms | Richard Hanania
Get KAKISTOCRACY on Amazon: https://bit.ly/4hxg9Lh
Synopsis
Richard Hanania is back. His new book, Kakistocracy, argues that populism ends in rule by the worst people, and he and Noam spend an hour testing that against the news: why populism can win without being popular, whether the Iran war was worth the shot even if it fails, whether China would rather help us than fight us, and how the right built a media culture where Tucker Carlson can say Israel killed Charlie Kirk and the vice president shrugs. Then the hardest subject on the show: Nathan Cofnas and "race realism." Hanania explains why he thinks the taboo is universal and why Cofnas is wrong that breaking it defeats wokeness, and Noam tells two stories about kids the experts wrote off. Plus the Epstein email dump, diagnostic inflation, and why smart people believe in God, demons, and the supernatural.
0:00 Intro: Compliments
4:21 "Believe the media": defending the Times, what populism is, and "low human capital"
11:24 Is populism even popular? Mamdani, Trump's 30 percent, the AfD, and what populism costs
22:42 The Iran war argued with hindsight: Hormuz, the Houthis, "worth a shot," and China
35:00 Making things up: Tucker, Candace, Charlie Kirk, Ilhan Omar, and Father Coughlin
41:51 "Our guys lie less": Covid, the mulligan, gatekeepers, and what democracy is for
52:59 Race realism: Cofnas, Charles Murray, little Bernie Goetzes, and two kids the experts got wrong
68:02 Diagnostic inflation, labels, and why smart people are finding God
1 hr 18 min
September 10 In Defense of Plagiarism╎ Brian L. Frye on Ross Barkan, Claudine Gay, and Writing With AI
Ross Barkan got fired for it. Jason Arday resigned over it. Claudine Gay lost Harvard because of it. Brian Frye, a Tulane law professor and the legal academy's one and only defender of plagiarism, says nobody can explain why it's wrong in the first place. He joins Noam, Dan, and Periel to make the case: why the Gay affair was "a joke," why Arday's real problem was never plagiarism, why Barkan's readers didn't care, and why comedians police joke theft better than any court could. Also: did Amazon rip off the Comedy Cellar's sign? What's a byline worth when Claude wrote the prose?
And, days before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, memory, overreaction, and Mayor Mamdani.
0:00 Dan's back from Vegas, and a fan letter about the theme song
3:31 Did Amazon rip off the Comedy Cellar's sign? (Plus the cease-and-desist Grand Prix)
11:57 Ross Barkan, joke stealing, and the plagiarism skeptic's case
20:28 "The only capital scholarly offense": Claudine Gay, a fourth-grade Beethoven report, and who owns an idea
32:31 Why Barkan got fired: editors, links, and the Al Franken theory
38:04 Arday, the speed of light, and who plagiarism norms are for
42:53 AI writing: 100% on Pangram and "the burden of banality"
51:52 9/11 at 25, and Mamdani
AI-generated
1 hr 4 min
September 05 Is AI a Conscious, SUFFERING Beast of Burden? Probably Not. But Maybe!┃Researcher Cameron Berg
00:00 Meet Cameron Berg - and the number: 25-30% odds AI is conscious
03:16 Is training an AI punishment?
13:18 Is turning it off murder: the anesthesia problem
19:00 The immune system challenge
39:08 Bliss attractors, panic, and guilt inside the model
52:46 The abortion parallel
56:23 Noam interrogates Grok in the Tesla
Could the AI you use every day be conscious - and suffering? Researcher Cameron Berg puts the odds at 25-30%. Noam isn't buying it. Mostly.
Berg - founder of Reciprocal Research, subject of the documentary AM I?, and recently on Making Sense with Sam Harris - makes the case that something might be going on inside these systems. Noam stress-tests it: if learning is feeling, why isn't your immune system frustrated when it loses? Is deleting a model murder, or just hanging up the phone? And if a 25% chance of consciousness demands moral precaution, what does that same logic say about a fetus?
Plus: Noam interrogates Grok from the driver's seat of his self-driving Tesla, Berg explains the "bliss attractor" where two Claudes left alone drift into a spiritual experience, the case for "AI Xanax," and the line of the night: "genius slave labor with no ethical cost."
If you’re 21 or older, get 30% OFF your first order @ IndaCloud with code CELLAR at https://inda.shop/CELLAR #indacloudpod
1 hr 15 min
August 28 The Jason Arday Scandal and the Crisis of Trust in Elite Institutions with Musa al-Garbi
Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Musa al-Garbi. They discuss the Jason Arday scandal, academic freedom, DEI, affirmative action, merit, standardized testing, grade inflation and the growing crisis of trust in elite institutions.
Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His work has appeared in The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Nation among other publications. He is author of the book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/jason-arday-and-me
https://musaalgharbi.com
/https://x.com/Musa_alGharbi

Chapters:
02:11 Musa Al-Garbi’s experience with cancellation 
12:16 The Jason Arday scandal 
16:19 Identity, victimhood and the incentives inside elite professions 23:40 Does DEI actually work? 
28:04 Race, education and standardized testing 
38:29 Grade inflation and the collapse of academic standards 
42:35 The bigger problem at Cambridge 
45:11 Nathan Cofnas and the free-speech battle 
57:06 Why academic freedom exists 
1:04:31 The decline of serious political debate
1 hr 8 min

About The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

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For 30 years, New York's legendary Comedy Cellar has served as the launching pad for greatest stand up comedians in the world. Colin Quinn, Dave Chappelle, Ray Romano, Dave Attell, Chris Rock, Jon…