The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Even as he embarks on a grand adventure in India, Jonah is seduced by the siren song of U.S. punditry. After providing a brief recap of the resoundingly successful inaugural Dispatch Summit, he gives in to the uncontrollable urge to pontificate and punditrate. To mitigate his anti-malaria medication hallucinations, Jonah takes a break from the smog and samosas to discuss the deteriorating quality of the Trump cabinet nominations, the gross mischaracterization of neoconservatism, and the increasing corruption of morals and ideas on the right.

Show Notes:

—Smoggy weather

—Nick Catoggio on Matt Gaetz

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Twenty-five years ago, Jonah found himself stranded without a passport in a crowded street in Karachi. With nowhere else to turn, he spent the last of his rupees on a rescue call to none other than Commentary editor John Podhoretz. John obliged, and continued to rescue Jonah throughout the course of their friendship by coming on TheRemnant whenever Jonah is down and out for a guest.

The two start the show by workshopping some potential design choices for their future podcast studio before diving in to some post-presidential election punditry, discussing the first slew of Cabinet appointments, U.S.-Israel relations, the London underground, and the idiocy of political mandates. Plus: the race to the bottom for speaker of the House and Senate majority leader, Jonah’s pessimism and John’s optimism, and the consequences of the recess appointment system.

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Jonah made one singular endorsement this election season; he cast his presidential ballot for Paul Ryan. To thank Jonah for his lonely, intrepid work on the Ryan ’24 campaign that wasn’t, the former Speaker joins Jonah for a very special live taping of The Remnant from this year’s Dispatch Summit.

They discuss the pitfalls and peaks of Trump’s economic plan, why incumbent parties continue to lose (and ways to avoid an infinity of single term majorities), how to solve the debt crisis, and the fame game in Congress—but the party doesn’t stop there. Later in the show, Jonah and Paul debate the durability of American institutions, consider Trump’s proposed cabinet appointments, and determine how Reaganite conservatives can walk the line between supporting good policy and descending into MAGAness.

Show Notes

—Yuval Levin’s latest Dispatch piece

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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At long last, it’s over. The ever-intrepid Jonah remains trapped in the CNN studios, but was granted an hour to return to the sausage making factory for a quick rundown of what happened on Tuesday night. He discusses the potential self-fulfilling prophecy of alleging threats to democracy, the record minority turnout for Donald Trump (and what it means for the Democratic party), and the lessons to be learned from the era of language policing and the term “Latinx.” Later is the show, Jonah explains the importance of a more nationally oriented campaign strategy, the value in a digestible vocabulary of moralism, and reminds us all that despair is never the answer.

Show Notes

—A very raunchy G-File

—Dispatch Live: Election Night Stream

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. 

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Note: Things got a little heated on CNN Friday morning. It’s been a long election year. Nevertheless and always a mensch, Jonah addresses the controversy related to Donald Trump’s recent comments regarding Liz Cheney.

Manic, spiritually exhausted, and scarred from attempting to get Pippa into her Halloween costume, Jonah capitulates to a brief period of punditry until he is overwhelmed with nausea and pivots to a scathing critique of the right’s new obsession with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Later in the episode, Jonah gives a lesson on self-determination, indulges in even more Woodrow Wilson bashing, sings the praises of Yuval Levin once again, and dismantles the case for “unity.”

Show Notes

—Jonah’s statement

—Jonah’s RFK Jr. tear

—Matthew Scully on RFK Jr.

—Jonathan Adler’s response

—Jonah’s anti-endorsement endorsement

—Wilson-gate

—David Frum’s defense of Wilson

—Jonah on Mo News Podcast

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Jonah and Chris Stirewalt have been conscripted from their respective caves of sequestration and dragged into the American Enterprise Institute studio for one last round of 2024 election outcome punditry. Chris and Jonah cover the sorry state of polling practices, engage in some risky predictions, and bemoan the parties’ new political bases. Later in the episode, they take a crack at amateur demographic delineation and put on their leg warmers to take it back to the ’80s for some rehashing of partisan realignment. Chris can hardly remember who the Democratic nominee is and Jonah is full of jokes, but at the end of the day, some salient points are made for ye loyal listeners.

Show Notes

—Wednesday’s TMD on the polling industry

—Will TV viewers trust Brother Stirewalt?

—Seth Masket on The Remnant

—Seth Masket’s piece for The Dispatch

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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If Jonah had it his way, “The Fighting Uruk-hai” would be playing softly in the background of this entire episode, but he’s lost his privileges.

If that doesn’t give you an idea of what this Remnant episode entails, shame on you—but we’ll give you a few hints anyway. Jonah is joined by Christopher Cox, former congressman and SEC chair, to discuss his new book, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn.

Christopher has taken a new approach to his biography of Jonah’s arch nemeses, focusing on the women’s suffrage movement and Wilson’s views on race. Jonah and Christopher discuss the historically hagiographic treatment of Wilson, the highly un-woke construction of American progressivism, the relationship between the women’s suffrage movement and Jim Crow laws, and Jonah’s litany of grievances with the un-distinguished man of the hour.

Show Notes:

—Pre-order Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn

—The accompanying picture book

—Ichabod by John Greenleaf Whittier

—The Myth of Left and Right byVerlan and Hyrum Lewis

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Jonah has a gift for the masochists that punish themselves by running to the tune of his rants: a long, bingo-card friendly, esoteric Ruminant.First, Jonah forces everyone to listen to Tucker Carlson’s creepy “Daddy” analogy before returning to the ole reliables: gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, the incessant lizard-brain blabbering of late-stage election season, and the nebulous definition of fascism. To wrap up Ruminant el clasico, Jonah chastises Kamala Harris and the other jabronies throwing the “f” word around, comes to the defense of Liberal Fascism, and ponders the rising authoritarian tendencies of the big tech bros.

Show Notes

—"Down From Libertarianism"

—German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

—Final tickets for The Dispatch Summit

—Stellar reporting from Michael Reneau

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Team Remnant has a gift for ye loyal listeners: an entire episode where Donald Trump and Kamala Harris go unmentioned! (Almost...) Jonah is joined by Kenneth Pollack, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss the increasingly tenuous conflict in the Middle East. Ken makes the case that accusations of total war between Israel and Iran are blown far out of proportion, inevitably leading Jonah to throw a small tantrum and predict worst-case scenarios. Later in the episode, Ken and Jonah discuss the future of Hezbollah following Israel’s pager attack, Iran’s nuclear status, and the role of the U.S. in ensuring deterrence in the region.

Show Notes

—Ken’s Monday Essay for The Dispatch

—Ken’s piece in Foreign Affairs

—The Dispatch’s October 7 commemoration

—Jonah’s LA Times column

—Get your Dispatch Summit tickets!

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 Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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