Slate’s Will Saletan returns to The Remnant to discuss the anniversary of 9/11, the ongoing challenges of COVID-19, and oligarchs who can’t resist the sweet taste of candy. With America’s vaccine rollout gaining steam once again, Jonah and Will explore how calamity-ending miracle drugs became the subject of partisan debate, and whether any side truly got the pandemic right. They also touch on the deliciousness of GMOs and how political life may only get crazier in the coming decade. Tune in for violent agreement, but stick around for vigorous debate.

Show Notes:

- The Wednesday G-File

- Will’s author page at Slate

- Will: “Why the Party of 9/11 Couldn’t Handle COVID-19”

- The 2001 anthrax attacks

- Jonah: “The Treason of Epidemiologists”

- The pandemic freakout and the psychology of disgust

- Will on paranoia around GMOs

- The Dispatch Podcast reflects on 9/11

- What would the experts do?

- The Remnant with Peter Suderman

- So much for the new Taliban

- The Remnant with Graeme Wood

- Elite overproduction

- The iron law of oligarchy

- Pareto distribution

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Get your black robes, white wigs, and legal dictionaries ready, because David French is back on The Remnant to evaluate Texas’ controversial new abortion ruling. He and Jonah also explore the Supreme Court’s history of inventing doctrines that can’t be found in written law, before turning to the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and what America’s response to such a tragedy would look like in today’s hyperpolarized moment. Does the Second Amendment protect ownership of surface-to-air missiles? What changes have occured in the pro-life movement? And will Spider-Man: No Way Home destroy the Marvel Universe as we know it?

Show Notes:

-Advisory Opinions, for all Remnant listeners fluent in legalese

-David breaks down the Texas abortion ruling

-David and Sarah on abortion in America

-David on the state of the pro-life movement

-David’s love of qualified immunity

-Would reversing Roe have a destabilizing effect?

-Jonah on the anniversary of 9/11

-David’s latest book, Divided We Fall

-David’s previous Remnant appearance

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Jonah’s sailed the seas and seen the world over, but everything always draws him back to good ol’ New York, New York. Still, although today’s Ruminant ends with a discussion of the Big Apple’s terrifying floods (which may or may not have dealt a blow to the local rodent population), it also covers the Supreme Court’s controversial abortion ruling, the pervasive myth that big corporations are right-wing, and “closet normals” in the GOP who pretend to hold crazy views. With shameless book-plugging, Jonah also digs into how the definitions of left and right in politics have changed over time. If you’re a loyal listener, stick around until the end for a proposition you won’t be able to refuse.

Show Notes:

- David French breaks down the Texas abortion ruling

- Jonah’s previous ruminations on abortion

- Virginia’s late-term abortion bill

- Advisory Opinions takes a deep dive into abortion law

- Matt Continetti on the politics of abortion

- A disappointing August jobs report

- Richard Holbrooke’s damning diary

- The latest Dispatch Podcast on Afghanistan

- The Dispatch’s Afghanistan editorial

- The Remnant with Graeme Wood

- “Come home. America”

- Gabriel Kolko

- The Big Ripoff, by Tim Carney

- The pandemic’s effect on women in the workforce

- Ron Johnson says the quiet part loud

- Leatherhead’s revenge

- Someone call the Shredder

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Graeme Wood, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins The Remnant for the first time to discuss the future of the Taliban, the psychology of extremists, and why, depressingly, America’s political situation may only get crazier. For the sake of levity, Jonah is also sure to ask about Graeme’s experiences hitchhiking across Afghanistan and bootlegging liquor in Iraq, as well as the quirks of being bilingual. Tune in additionally for an update on Jonah’s book collection, but stick around for your periodical reminder not to immanentize the eschaton.

Show Notes:

- Graeme’s author page at The Atlantic

- Graeme on the future of ISIS

- Graeme on understanding the Taliban

- The overrepresentation of converts among jihadists

- Evangelicals who don’t go to church

- Eric Voegelin’s New Science of Politics

- Is the Muslim world ignoring the plight of the Uyghurs?

- Graeme’s profile of Peter Turchin

- The great man theory of history

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Peter Suderman, Reason magazine’s features editor and cocktail connoisseur, makes his first appearance on The Remnant today to preach the gospel of Kanye West. He also gives his thoughts on the Afghanistan withdrawal, the potential of Bitcoin to replace currency as we know it, and the government’s propensity to, as Jonah puts it, “spend like a pimp with a week to live.” Is it finally time to buy gold? Does anyone still believe that Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t be a crossover movie? And will Jonah’s rendition of “Rapper’s Delight” become the new Remnant theme song?

Show Notes:

-Peter’s author page at Reason

-Cocktails with Suderman

-Macheath spends like a sailor

-Stein’s law

-Money Mischief, by Milton Friedman

-Peter on the GOP’s lack of a clear economic policy

-The sweet taste of power

-Eco-Wilsonians

-The Parents Music Resource Center

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In the last few years, the conservative movement has gone through a number of obvious changes. But Jonah believes he’s stayed consistent in his views, and uses today’s Ruminant to explain why. He also touches on the end of Biden’s eviction moratorium, the legacy of the “intellectual dark web,” and how hyperpolarization is rotting peoples’ brains. Tune in to hear Jonah’s final thoughts on the Afghanistan tragedy, but stick around to see if he can refrain from giggling at Sidney Powell’s potential disbarment.

Show Notes:

- The Dispatch’s Afghanistan editorial

- The Dispatch Podcast on the Afghanistan evacuation

- The Economist on Afghanistan’s consequences

- Supreme Court ends Biden’s eviction moratorium

- Robert Reich, Jonah’s BFF

- “Right-wing extremists”

- The sweet taste of vaccines

- Just deserts

- “Leave the rest to me”

- Penetrating analysis from Bret Weinstein

- Jonah on the “intellectual dark web”

- Last week’s ranty-yet-sentimental Ruminant

- “Our people hate the right people”

- The Remnant with Charlie Cooke

- The Wednesday G-File

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On today’s episode, Jonah, now back in his empty nest in D.C., desperately requires a distraction from the oppressive August heat. Fortunately, RealClearPolitics associate editor and fan-favorite guest A.B. Stoddard has just the topic: infrastructure. Exceedingly rank punditry ensues, as they explore divisions within the Democratic Party, racial progress in America, and why moderate Democrats find it difficult to be loud about their moderation. Along the way, they also discuss whether COVID or the Afghanistan tragedy can be blamed for President Biden’s declining approval ratings. Brace your bingo cards.

Show Notes:

- A.B.’s author page at RealClearPolitics

- The Wednesday G-File

- Uphill breaks down the latest infrastructure developments

- Hakeem Jefferies and Josh Gottheimer launch a PAC to defend incumbents

- Drive-thru voting in Houston

- The Remnant with Tim Carney

- Suicide bombings in Kabul

- Biden’s plummeting approval ratings

- Jonah on invisible but deadly entities

- Republican anger at the unvaccinated

- A.B. on Ron DeSantis and COVID in Florida

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David French guest-hosts The Remnant today while Jonah returns home from his western voyage. He’s joined by Klon Kitchen, expert on national security and defense technology at the American Enterprise Institute. Together, they explore the state of the Afghanistan withdrawal, deficiencies in American cybersecurity, and social media censorship at the hands of Big Tech. Should the Taliban be understood as a unified or factional entity? Can we expect meaningful Big Tech legislation to be implemented anytime soon? And will David’s DC Comics bias preclude any discussion of Tobey Maguire’s inevitable appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home?

Show Notes:

-The Kitchen Sync

-David reflects on the War in Afghanistan

-The state of the Afghanistan evacuation

-2034: A Novel of the Next World War

-Klon on rethinking government access to consumer data

-Klon’s report on Section 230

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On today’s Ruminant, recorded live from the pungent parking lot of a California West Marine, Yiddish terms are required to describe Jonah’s emotional state. With his daughter Lucy leaving home, he processes his grief by exploring John Rawls’ original position, existentialist movie-making, and why American popular culture is much more conservative than most people realize. Afterward, all sentimentality fades away as an epic rant on the situation in Afghanistan and the dismal state of American politics commences. Animated by unprecedented annoyance, Jonah argues that President Biden has revealed himself to be plainly unfit for office. But that doesn’t make Trump look any more appealing.

Show Notes:

-Nine Days, which plunged Jonah into an existential crisis

-Philosophy 101

-Jonah’s pro-life ruminations

-Sweet victory

-The Remnant with Eli Lake

-The Dispatch Podcast on Afghanistan

-Jonah’s uncontroversial tweet which provoked nothing but love and praise

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Bloomberg Opinion columnist Eli Lake joins Jonah for a thorough discussion of the tragic situation in Afghanistan. Is President Biden’s leadership to blame for the catastrophe? Did Biden ignore warnings that withdrawal would result in a Taliban takeover? And how did the Afghanistan war go from being celebrated on Saturday Night Live to such a tragic conclusion? Things aren’t all doom and gloom, however, as Eli is sure to end on a note of optimism. The American experiment has endured challenges on the global stage in the past, but rejuvenation has also been accomplished. Besides, America’s adversaries have plenty of their own problems to contend with.

Show Notes:

-Eli’s page at Bloomberg Opinion

-Eli’s review of Jonathan Rauch’s The Constitution of Knowledge

-It happened

-David Sanger: “For Biden, Images of Defeat He Wanted to Avoid”

-Jonah: “Dishonor in Afghanistan”

-Well this is awkward

-Eli: “Framed and Guilty”

-Murphyism

-“Suckers and losers”

-The great debate

-Eli joins Bari Weiss’ symposium

-Biden’s latest remarks, which may or may not date this episode

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