The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

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).

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

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.

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?

0:00 Dan's back from Vegas, and a fan letter about the theme song

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

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by  Evan Barker, writer and author of the book, Nothing Left.

Previously, she worked in Democratic politics, primarily as a fundraiser for progressive politicians and organizations.

They discuss she left progressive politics, why she voted for Trump in 2024, and what she believes Democrats have misunderstood about the working class.

www.evanbarker.net

X: @Evanwch

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Evan Barker joins Live From The Table

04:00 — Why Trump connected with working-class voters

07:30 — “They have contempt for the working class”

10:30 — The Left, race and identity

15:00 — Religion, the Ten Commandments and the culture war

19:00 — Why the Left pushed voters toward Trump

21:00 — Why Democrats are losing trust

24:00 — Israel, antisemitism and the progressive left

27:00 — Mamdani, Jews and the politics of representation

31:00 — Feeling politically homeless after 2024

34:00 — What should—and shouldn't—be taught to children

49:00 — Antisemitism and the argument over Israel

52:00 — Plagiarism, journalism and double standards

Noam Dworman and Periel Aschenbrand sit down expecting to interview Evan Barker—but when she doesn't arrive, they discuss Tucker Carlson, Daryl Cooper, antisemitism, Germany, immigration, media and why Evan Barker never made it.