WARNING: The following episode contains multiple references to a certain American president who shall not be named. Due to the high volume of mentions, The Dispatch production team used discretion in playing the musical cue which normally follows all such mentions. We apologize in advance.

On today’s Remnant, Jonah is joined by Robert Kagan—leading scholar of foreign policy and senior fellow at the reviled Brookings Institution, where the sweet taste of candy never gets old—to discuss his new beach read, a 700-page history of America’s role in the world in the first half of the 20th century. Their conversation covers everything from the origins of the League of Nations to the wackiness of Charles Beard, with some fiendishly nerdy musings on isolationism, nativism, and conservatism mixed in for good measure. Predictably, Jonah does not make good on his initial promise to “not get too deep into the weeds.”

Show Notes:

-Due to the insane amount of "Wilson" name drops in this episode, there will only be one Wilson theme music play

-The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of the World Order, 1900-1941

-The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

-American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis

-“Challenging the U.S. Is a Historic Mistake”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patrick Deneen has released a new book, and predictably, Jonah has some pointed opinions on it. To critique Deneen’s post-liberal vision for American society and the political right, Jonah is joined by a returning Stephanie Slade, senior editor at Reason and noted liberty-lover. With furious agreement and ornery hand-wringing, they take a deep dive into the strange world of the new right, analyzing how seriously we should take its vision for the conservative movement. They also provide a few thoughts on the state of Catholicism, what the Dobbs decision revealed about voters, and why nobody can agree about immigration.

Show Notes:

-Stephanie’s page at Reason

-Jonah: “Patrick Deneen's Otherworldly Regime”

- Stephanie: “Liberalism Isn't Rule by Elites”

-Stephanie: “The New Right Isn't So New”

-Stephanie: “The Rise of Right-Progressivism”

-Adrian Vermeule: “Integration From Within”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the desperate pleas of his wife, his RA, and his psychiatrist, Jonah insists on continuing to record the Ruminant, and his sanity may be steadily slipping away with each mumbled syllable. Today, he largely resists the temptation to discuss the Trump indictment, instead digging into Johns Hopkins’ baffling new classification of lesbians, California’s push to punish “non-affirming parents”, and the sheer lack of decorum we all must now endure. Things conclude on familiar ground with an ol’-fashioned, extra-curmudgeonly rant about the new right’s bizarre nostalgia for the Dark Ages.

Show Notes:

- The McCarthy Report on Trump’s indictment

- Advisory Opinions, also on Trump’s indictment

- The “non-men” of Johns Hopkins

- Michael Knowles and the 1220s

- Politico’s Patrick Deneen profile

- Alcohol is woke

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In what may be the most focused conversation in the history of this podcast, Jonah is joined by Rick Hess—AEI senior fellow and esteemed education policy wonk—to discuss his new book, The Great School Rethink. During COVID, it became clear that American schools could use an overhaul. But what should reform look like in practice? Rick has answers, and he also has thoughts on hot-button subjects ranging from the education-industrial complex (yes, it’s a thing) to the debate over school choice and standardized tests. Other topics addressed include the use of technology in schools, the role of parents in education, and the nature of choice. As usual, if it’s eggheadery you’re after, the Remnant will never give you up or let you down. 

Show Notes: 

-Rick’s new book, The Great School Rethink

-Rick: “Schools Are Trying to Do Too Much”

-Rick: “Moving from “Reform” to “Rethinking”

-James Q. Wilson’s Bureaucracy: What Governments Do and Why They Do It

-Arthur Bestor’s Educational Wastelands: The Retreat From Learning in our Public Schools

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live from the uncomfortably moist surroundings of Houston, Texas, Jonah’s joined by Jonathan Adler—Case Western University professor and trusted law-talking guy—for some scatterbrained political, legal, and economic geekery. Today’s topics include the Trump indictment, the full-spectrum crankery of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the slow decline of common good constitutionalism, and how free markets can help the environment. Throughout, the punditry is unfiltered, the policy talk is relentlessly eggheady, and the Hillary bashing is surprisingly pertinent. 

Show Notes:

- Jonathan: “Learning How to Fish”

- Jonathan: “Senate Goes Nuclear, Expect Fallout”

- Jonathan: “Markets and Dematerialization”

- Matthew Scully’s defense of Robert F. Kennedy Jr…

- …and Jonathan’s response

- Samoa suffered a measles outbreak after anti-vaccine sentiment rose

- Jonah: “Republicans wanted Clinton prosecuted for her emails. And now they defend Trump?”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tired, disorganized, and intent on burdening listeners with his personal problems, Jonah nonetheless approaches today’s eclectic Ruminant with aplomb. Granted, it helps that the details of the most pressing item on the docket—namely, the indictment of one Donald J. Trump—aren’t particularly clear yet, which allows Jonah to rant without sliding into too deep of a depression. Afterward, he touches on Chris Licht’s departure from CNN, why misuse of the term “isolationism” is so rampant, and what it takes to build a fulfilling life. 

Show Notes:

- The Morning Dispatch breaks down Trump’s indictment

- Tim Alberta: “Inside the Meltdown at CNN”

- A special live Remnant on Jonah, Chris, and Steve’s departure from Fox

- Jonah: “Your Life Portfolio—and Ours”

- Jonah embraces Oakeshott

- Robert Kagan’s The Ghost at the Feast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Klon Kitchen—former Dispatch national security extraordinaire turned private sector sellout—is back on the Remnant to take a deep dive into the exciting (read: terrifying) realm of artificial intelligence. With ChatGPT becoming ubiquitous, debate is raging over whether advancements in AI will bring forth an apocalyptic future or a brave new world. Klon’s prediction is that we’ll end up somewhere in the middle, and he has answers to all of the most intriguing questions of the moment: How exactly does AI work? Should we worry about machines replacing human workers? And will Jonah ever forgive David French for his treachery? 

Show Notes:

- Klon’s page at AEI

- Advisory Opinions on an infelicitous use of ChatGPT

- Marc Andreessen: “Why AI Will Save the World”

- Nearly a third of adults under 30 support surveillance in their homes

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Armed with a provocative assortment of inappropriate puns, Jonah invites AEI Senior Fellow Philip Wallach onto the Remnant for the first time to discuss the importance of Congress and what we can do to fix the legislative branch. As holders of the Remnant bingo card are well aware, reforming Congress by expanding its size and discouraging performative behavior within its ranks has been one of Jonah’s primary obsessions since the launch of this program. Today, he’s sure to indulge in as many nerdish lines of inquiry on the subject as possible, waxing Yuvalian from start to finish. What core functions is Congress failing to perform? When did the institution begin to decline? And are its deficiencies fueling broader cultural partisanship?

Show Notes:

- Phil’s page at AEI

- Phil’s new book, Why Congress

- Phil: “Time for Congress to Choose Deliberation Over Dysfunction”

- Phil: “If We Give Up on Congress, What Will We Lose?”

- Ben Sasse’s Kavanaugh hearing speech

- Lyman Stone on expanding Congress

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s predictably overlong Ruminant finds Jonah haunted by foreign language commercials, which seem to be infiltrating all of his favorite podcasts and TV shows. Fortunately, his terror provides a useful launching pad for a rant on the nature of language and its role in shaping (or, in most cases, degrading) public thought on nuanced political issues. Tune in also for some obscenely rank punditry on Donald Trump’s dishonesty, Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid, and monetary policy, a subject that Jonah can’t help but have thoughts on despite professing to know nothing about it.

Show Notes:

- The Remnant with Hal Brands

- The Remnant with David Bahnsen

- The Trump document saga continues

- The Remnant with Matt Continetti

- Rich Lowry: “How We Help People Like Megan Fox”

- The Economist: “What America has got wrong about gender medicine”

- The Wednesday G-File

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a spate of episodes crammed with mercilessly rank punditry and self-indulgent eggheadery, it’s time for the Remnant to get wonky once again. Jonah’s guest today is AEI’s Hal Brands, who’s back to discuss all things foreign policy. With the Ukraine conflict raging, tensions continuing to mount between the U.S. and China, and debates about America’s role in the world consuming the right, there’s no shortage of topics up for grabs. Does the United States actually have a strategic vision anymore? What’s the relationship between history and public policy? And will Chinese or American robots overthrow mankind first?

Show Notes:

- Hal’s page at AEI

- Hal’s new book, The New Makers of Modern Strategy

- Hal: “Biden Will Find That Breaking Up With China Is Hard to Do”

- Hal: “How the American War Machine Ran Out of Gas”

- Rank punditry and notes from Ukraine on Dispatch Live

- Kevin Williamson: “The Burial of the Dead”

- Orlando Figes’ The Story of Russia

- Jonathan Kirshner’s An Unwritten Future

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices