The Commentary Magazine Podcast

The Commentary Magazine Podcast episodes:

• 04.22.2024

  The Horrors at Columbia

  The refusal both of Columbia University officials and New York City's mayor to confront and end the siege of the school's campus and the open threats to Jews is the culmination of 40 years of academic rot, and we describe...

  
• 04.19.2024

  Israel Hits Iran and Columbia's Turn

  Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast for an immediate after-action report on the details of the Israeli strike on Iran, whether deterrence has been reestablished, and how last night might represent the most significant game-changing moment in recent Middle Eastern history....

  
• 04.18.2024

  Israelis Need to Watch 'The Godfather'

  That's the advice of podcast guest Liel Leibovitz, zooming in from Tel Aviv to discuss the Columbia hearings before the House yesterday and how the anti-Semitism revealed there has unmistakable echoes of past horrors—and threatens future horrors. Give a listen.

  
• 04.17.2024

  Trump at the Bodega

  Joe Biden is having a good month at the polls, but Donald Trump is finding new and inventive ways to campaign for president despite his humiliating courtroom experience—will it help? And do Israelis want a strong strike against Iran or...

  
• 04.16.2024

  Return of the Weathermen?

  Yesterday's protests in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle suggest again that the pro-Hamas Left is moving into a new and more dangerous phase, one in which they are openly chanting "Death to America" and may be readying violent...

  
• 04.15.2024

  The Iran Attack

  A full house of COMMENTARY podcasters today as we try to reckon with the many possibilities relating to Iran's repelled attack on Israel—and the fact that America now seems fixated yet again on holding Israel back rather than making Iran...

  
• 04.12.2024

  OJ's Nightmarish Legacy

  The death of OJ Simpson this week prompts us to discuss everything that changed in the wake of the murders he committed, the escape he bungled, and the trial at which he was acquitted. Also, what are we to make...

  
• 04.11.2024

  The Iranian Threat

  Iran is said to be preparing or on the verge of a direct strike on Israel, and it's not clear Americans know about it. They will when it happens, and we discuss why they'd do it and what Joe Biden...

  
• 04.10.2024

  The 5 Percent Fantasy

  Joe Biden tells an interviewer Israel should do a unilateral ceasefire for six to eight weeks. Tom Friedman of the New York Times explains there's a 5 percent chance for a Palestinian state and that we should focus on that...

  
• 04.09.2024

  Trump's Abortion Buzzsaw

  Did Donald Trump help or hurt his chances in November with his statement yesterday that he did not want federal action on abortion? Did Joe Biden help or hurt his chances in November by announcing a new effort to pay...

  
• 04.08.2024

  A Dark New Reality

  Today's podcast tries to make sense out of the Biden administration's now-undeniable harsh turn against Israel and the incomprehensible behavior of the Israeli government over the last 48 hours in relation to the war in Gaza, the negotiations over the...

  
• 04.05.2024

  Biden Makes Israel the Bad Guy

  Today's podcast reels in horror from the administration response to the tragic errors that led to the Israeli attack on a food convoy and how it represents what may be the final turn of the Bidenites against the war effort...

  
• 04.04.2024

  Biden's Incoherence Exposed

  Today we talk about the increasing failure of Joe Biden's contradictory position on Israel. He's now all but accused Israel of a war crime but will continue to supply it with weapons of war. Israel's supporters are fed up with...

  
• 04.03.2024

  The Israel Pile-On

  Today's podcast takes up the question of the Biden administration's problematic response to the tragic strike on a food aid convoy in Gaza—something for which Israel took immediate responsibility and for which it apologized wholeheartedly at the highest levels with...

  
• 04.02.2024

  The Unforgivable and the Forgivable

  Today we discuss unforgivable acts of Jew-hatred—including a riot outside a synagogue where money was being raised to help a Jewish burial society—and forgivable tragic events that occur during war. There is a difference. A big difference. Also, a beautiful...

  
• 04.01.2024

  Why the Delay on Rafah?

  Today Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to talk about what's been going on in public and behind the scenes between American and Israeli officials regarding a ground operation in Rafah. How much longer can Israel afford to wait? And what...

  
• 03.29.2024

  No Excuses for Sam Bankman-Fried

  Today's podcast takes up the 25 year sentence for the $8 billion fraud committed by "effective altruist" Sam Bankman-Fried, and what his law-professor mother's effort to excuse away his criminal conduct tells us about the mindset of the leftist elite....

  
• 03.28.2024

  The Lieberman Legacy

  Today's podcast pays tribute to the life, times, and political wisdom of Joe Lieberman, who died yesterday at the age of 82. What was so special about him and why are we unlikely to see his style of politics and...

  
• 03.27.2024

  Bridge Over Troubled Nation

  Today's podcast talks about how the bridge collapse in Maryland may accelerate the trust crisis in the country, already accelerating because nobody really knows or understands the condition and strength of the president of the United States. Give a listen.

  
• 03.26.2024

  The Biden Turn

  Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss the American abstention from yesterday's UN Security Council ceasefire resolution. Why is the Biden administration saying the policy hasn't changed when the policy has changed? Who exactly is being gaslit and how does...

  
• 03.25.2024

  The No-Congressional-Body Problem

  Today's podcast considers the terrorist attack in Russia and what it means for the war in Ukraine—and what the chaos in Congress means for the war in Ukraine as well. Also, lesson #257 in what happens if you try to...

  
• 03.22.2024

  The Pursuit of Happiness

  Today we start out discussing a new Pew poll that shows, contra Chuck Schumer and others, American Jews overwhelmingly approve of Israel and its efforts to defeat Hamas since Oct. 7. We then get into the latest World Happiness Report,...

  
• 03.21.2024

  The Stakes in Gaza

  Today's podcast takes up a conversation between Israeli official Ron Dermer and our friend Dan Senor in which Dermer says a failure to secure victory in Gaza means Israel "has no future." Might this be true also of Jewry itself—especially...

  
• 03.20.2024

  An Anniversary of Sorts

  Today we note that it was just about four years ago that this podcast went daily, and we consider the lasting impact of the pandemic and the prospects of a political reckoning. But before that, we get into the significance...

  
• 03.19.2024

  The Biden Breakdown and the Middle Class

  Today's podcast begins with the Biden administration's increasing schizophrenia on the Gaza war and then proceeds to a powerful discussion of the elite war on the American middle class, based on our own Christine Rosen's landmark article in the current...

  
• 03.18.2024

  Bloodbathing

  Today's podcast takes up the weekend kerfuffle over Donald Trump's use of the word "bloodbath" and how quickly his opponents in the media and elsewhere rose in horror at a word they themselves used just a week ago to describe...

  
• 03.15.2024

  Ground Chuck

  Dan Senor joins the podcast to discuss the politics behind Chuck Schumer's dumbfounding speech calling for the deposition of Benjamin Netanyahu. What does it tell us about Democratic party politics and Israel's standing with the party Jews have historically supported...

  
• 03.14.2024

  The TikTok Political Earthquake

  James B. Meigs, our tech columnist, comes on to discuss the amazing rapidity with which a bipartisan coalition formed around the idea of forcing the Chinese-Communist company Bytedance to divest itself of TikTok. Who says the parties can't work together?...

  
• 03.13.2024

  And Now, the Threat from the North

  Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to note how, just in the last week, things have been heating up between Israel and Hezbollah on the northern border of the Jewish state. We also discuss the peculiarities of the Biden administration's approach...

  
• 03.12.2024

  Is Trump Being Railroaded?

  Andrew C. McCarthy joins the podcast today to talk about how the prosecutions of Donald Trump may be violating critical Constitutional and procedural protections for defendants who stand accused of crimes before the bar—and why that matters. Give a listen.

  
• 03.11.2024

  Joe Balaam

  Eli Lake joins today's podcast to discuss the world's now-most-prominent "AsAJew," the writer-director Jonathan Glazer, who "refuted" his "Jewishness" on the Oscar podcast on Sunday night. What did he mean? And what does what he said reveal about the nature...

  
• 03.08.2024

  So He Did OK!

  Chris Stirewalt joins us for our State of the Union recap, including the "how do you build a pier and a road without having someone on the other side to sink in the pylons" and other thrilling topics raised by...

  
• 03.07.2024

  Biden, Israel, and the SOTU

  Ruthie Blum joins the podcast from Israel to discuss the Biden administration's rough treatment of Benny Gantz, ceasefire negotiations, Bibi's political future, Israeli public opinion, and what's holding up the Rafah offensive. Also, what is Joe Biden going to say...

  
• 03.06.2024

  Not-So-Super Wednesday

  The podcast takes up the Super Tuesday results—the beginning of the Palmer era in American Samoa! No, seriously, the national race begins today and Biden is behind and, we speculate, maybe he ought to toughen up his stance on Israel...

  
• 03.05.2024

  SCOTUS, Trump, and the War on the Jews

  Adam White joins us to discuss the Supreme Court's seemingly authoritative (9-0!) and confusing (5-4) ruling that willl prevent any efforts to keep Donald Trump off the ballot this year. What's with the confusion? And we delineate the 20 year...

  
• 03.04.2024

  Did Kamala Turn on Israel?

  Today we take up the very confusing statement by Kamala Harris yesterday that the media are treating as a change in administration policy with its seeming call for an immediate ceasefire. The problem is that while Harris surely wanted the...

  
• 03.01.2024

  Men at Work

  Today David Bahnsen joins the podcast and we talk about the aid-convoy stampede in Gaza, the career of Mitch McConnell, and finally David's new book, Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life. How have we come to such a poor...

  
• 02.29.2024

  Are We Overreading Primary Results?

  Steve Kornacki joins the podcast to explain how we might be reading too much into Nikki Haley's support in Republican primaries, and he breaks down the difference between voters in the those primaries and Republican voters generally. We also get...

  
• 02.28.2024

  Who's Afraid of the 'Uncommitted'?

  Today we take up the puny results of Michigan's "Uncommitted" campaign against Joe Biden and his handling of the war in Gaza. Is a 13 percent protest vote what had the Biden camp so rattled? Maybe it's time the administration...

  
• 02.27.2024

  It's Almost Government Shutdown Time

  Yuval Levin joins us to talk about how, on Friday, a quarter of the government is going to shut down and a week from Friday, the rest of it will—barring a deal between Congress and the president no one seems...

  
• 02.26.2024

  Trump's Got Some Trouble

  Henry Olsen, election-watcher extraordinaire, joins us today to analyze the results of the interesting South Carolina primary and the fact that across three Republican primary contests, Donald Trump is winning decisively, even overwhelmingly—but with around 40 percent of the primary...

  
• 02.23.2024

  Two Years of Putin's Monstrous War

  Today's podcast points out that, as we move into the third year of Russia's effort to swallow up Ukraine whole, the great dysfunction seems not to be taking place in Ukraine, or Russia, or on the battlefield, but inside the...

  
• 02.22.2024

  Can We Trust 'Confidential Sources'?

  Eli Lake joins us today to discuss the bomb dropped in the middle of the Joe/Hunter/Jim Biden investigation with the indictment and arrest of a confidential source who alleged direct payments to the Bidens around $10 million. Does this kill...

  
• 02.21.2024

  What Is Nikki Haley Up To?

  The podcast today takes note of Nikki Haley's interesting announcement that she will be staying in the GOP race until she is mathematically eliminated. What's the purpose of such a move and what does it reveal about the relative strength...

  
• 02.20.2024

  Will Navalny's Death Change Things?

  Today's podcast asks what the practical effect of the murder of Alexei Navalny might have on the general debate over how to handle Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. Then we go into the judgment against Donald Trump in...

  
• 02.16.2024

  The Cross of Gould

  An essay in New York Magazine that tells the story of a 40something writer and the mental breakdown that leads her to want to divorce her husband tells the entire story of 21st century elite and pop culture singlehandedly. It's...

  
• 02.15.2024

  Space, Gaza, and Lina Khan

  Adam White joins today to discuss his article "The Power Broke Her," about the powerful Washington bureaucrat Lina Khan and her agenda. We begin, though, with the alarming word of an undefined national security threat and the fact that conventional...

  
• 02.14.2024

  The Rs Lose a Seat

  The special election in New York not only went to Democrat Tom Suozzi—he also won by eight points. We debate whether this means Republican hopes for immigration as a killer issue for them might be problematic, and whether the behavior...

  
• 02.13.2024

  America the Evil Dad?

  Tucker Carlson went to a conference in a Mideast oil city and announced that America was the dad of the world and was perpetuating evil the way a dad would if he took sides in a fight between his children....

  
• 02.12.2024

  Superbowling for Dollars

  Was the RFK Jr. Super Bowl ad good or bad? Was the game good or bad? Was Biden's effort to get himself into the news on Super Bowl Sunday without being interviewed good or bad? Is the polling for the...