Jonah is joined by Scott Winship – the director of Poverty Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and fresh off the heels of his position within Senator Mike Lee’s Social Capital Project. Jonah asks Scott about the persistence of poverty in American society, and what progress has been made both recently and over the long term. Then, they get into why some of the obstacles that have to be removed in order to lift poor people up are more intractable than others. In part, Scott thinks that these difficulties “show how we’re hardwired to think about these problems in economic terms rather than in terms of social bonds,” and that certain data may blind us when searching for the real issues.

Show Notes:

-Scott’s research at AEI

-Richard Burkhauser on poverty in the 60s versus now

-The Social Capital Project

-Raj Chetty on people doing better than their parents

-Mr. Piketty’s big book of Marxiness

-Jonah and Peter Beinart

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After describing the inner workings of a longstanding lunch among his friends that has become an institution unto itself and envisioning what his ideal “no rules” podcast might be like, Jonah asks the fundamental political question of our moment: What’s the matter with Texas? Jonah talks about how the state’s election lawsuit has released another swathe of intellectual dishonesty among right-wing tastemakers, as well as the “Kraken Caucus'' (or is it the Kraken Kaukus?) more generally, and how the Constitution endorses trial by combat for picking elector slates (well, kind of). This is followed by a rumination on “corruption” in both its classical and modern sense, the updated Hunter Biden story (and the reaction to it), and how imprecise language mars our debates about censorship: “We use ‘censorship’ to mean both a government action as well as the exercise of editorial judgment that we don’t like.”

Show Notes:

-GLoP: Origin Stories

-This week’s Remnant with Reihan Salam

-Martin Shkreli, DBOY

-This week’s G-File

-The Duke brothers

-“One in quadrillion”

-Burke’s “Speech to the Electors of Bristol”

-The Five Thousand Year Leap

-Happy Safe Harbor Day

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Conservative commentary has managed to find at least one point of withering criticism when it comes to America’s cities. This critique points out that, while cities are the places where unique innovation and exciting things are happening all the time, the local Democratic political machines (and, strangely, their voter base within the city) are constantly trying to zone, regulate, and tax that innovation and excitement out of existence. But here he comes—a knight in shining armor, making a glorious return to The Remnant: Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute. Reihan talks to Jonah about how conservatives might be able to envision a way out of obstinacy in America’s metropolitan centers, as well as addressing concerns about the GOP’s electoral future in cities, and explaining why politics often take a more radical left-wing form in cities compared to everywhere else in the country. (“Democrats are living in places that are immensely unequal, so arguments around redistribution carry a lot more purchase.”)

Show Notes:

-Reihan at the Manhattan Institute

-Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream

-Most—not some—people are low information voters

-Jonah: It’s a mistake for the GOP to shun big cities

-Fusion voting

-The role of think tanks

-College-educated Democrats are often more wrong than their co-partisans

-Jill Biden wants community college to be free

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On this edition of The Remnant, Jonah went around the (metaphorical) corner of the (also metaphorical) office and got colleague Sarah Isgur to come on the program for all sorts of legal-beagle nerdery. Sarah explains the constitutional provisions kicking into effect that are helping to slow down the chaos surrounding the November election results, what on earth is going on in Texas, and much more. Classic Remnant wonkery is then balanced out in the latter half of the show, as Jonah and Sarah both share their spiciest takes on The Queen’s Gambit and why it may not live up to the hype.

Show Notes:

-Sarah’s podcast with David French, Advisory Opinions

-Sarah’s newsletter, The Sweep

-Texas’ original jurisdiction suits against other states

-“The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes”

-Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 by William Rehnquist

-AEI’s After the People Vote

-The “witchcraft” of signature matching

-The Bailey Cranberry Separator

-Colorable argument

-Jonah and Queen’s Gambit

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Jonah flies solo once more in a podcast filled with the hottest of takes: Biden’s foot-breaking story is not only totally true – it’s also just kind of lame, weed saved George H.W. Bush’s life, and, most controversially of all, The Walking Dead still has some redeeming qualities. He also discusses why you should take John Bolton’s advice in The Dispatch seriously, and “Eurosclerosis,” the fanciest word of the day.

Show Notes:

-This week’s G-File

-The origins of Biden-Foot-Trutherism

-The week’s first Dispatch Podcast

-The Remnant with Jonathan Adler

-BREAKING: George H.W. Bush owes his life to hemp! Big If True!

-If you want… just … a font of wisdom in response to Jonah’s “I-told-you-so” moment, look no further than his Facebook page

-This week’s Remnant with Virginia Postrel; that’s the good nerd stuff, right there

-John Bolton’s piece for The Dispatch on the future of conservatism

-Jonah: “Too many Republicans just use conservatism as a tool”

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We have another Remnant first-timer on the show this week, as Jonah is joined by old friend, well-traveled military writer, and Marine veteran Bing West. With a discipline that only a Marine could muster, Bing joins the program to talk about his upcoming novel, The Last Platoon: A Novel of the Afghanistan War, which uses Afghanistan as a backdrop to tell the story of men in combat who “do their duty, even when it becomes clear that there will be no reward.” Jonah also probes Bing’s brain about the overall strategic value of the Afghanistan war, the abiding faith of American soldiers in an era of secularism, how to break up the perverse friendship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and most important, how a small, tri-fold shovel is sometimes the most valuable piece of equipment a soldier can have.

Show Notes:

-Pre-order The Last Platoon

-Afghani tribal groups and opium production

-Bing’s book embedded with Marines in Fallujah

-Bing in WSJ: “How to save Kabul from Saigon’s fate”

-Sebastian Junger’s Tribe

-How counterinsurgency (or COIN) really works

-The Dispatch addresses Pompeo’s thoughts on the Taliban turning on al-Qaeda

-The Pepper Dogs

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Today, Jonah is joined by Virginia Postrel – former editor-in-chief of Reason magazine and author of many of the latter-day holy tomes of libertarianism, such as The Future and Its Enemies – to talk about her new book, The Fabric of Civilization. Virginia and Jonah do a deep dive into several moments in which the changes in textile manufacturing created giant, revolutionary, consciousness-shifting ripple effects regarding how civilizations viewed their relationship to markets and the economy. In particular, Virginia addresses how the un-guilded spinners of Europe were like the Luddites before it was cool, why textile-making would be one of the most laborious processes in the world without advanced technologies, and what made cotton fabric from India so special that “the French treated it much the same as the American government treats cocaine.” At least that kind of wild protectionism confirms a long-held American instinct: Never trust the French.

Show Notes:

-Virginia’s book, The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World

-“Isaiah’s Job”

-Our first episode with Matt Ridley (on technical innovation)

-Our second episode with Matt Ridley (on more technical innovation)

-Virginia at Volokh Conspiracy: The textile industry’s relationship to literacy

-The salaries of spinners may be higher than one thinks

-The High Sparrow and the Labor Theory of Value

-Some bits from “The Bad Polanyi” on ancient Assyria

-Virginia talks about Indian cotton prints

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On this episode, Jonah is joined by Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review. It’s an eclectic mix today, as the duo gets into a good deal of punditry surrounding the Trump campaign’s election challenges and then move onto the future of conservatism (or “conservatarianism” in Charlie’s case) as a whole before tying the whole thing up around the Thanksgiving theme of gratitude. As a freshly minted American living through a relatively chaotic period in our politics, what is Cooke grateful for when it comes to the U.S.? During this holiday season, Jonah thinks we might all do well to be grateful for the fact that “we still live in a country where following politics is essentially a hobby … and isn’t a matter of survival.”

Show Notes:

-Charlie’s main podcasting gig

-Charlie’s, uh, other main podcasting gig

-Florida man saves puppy from alligator

-National Review and the John Birchers

-The Conservatarian Manifesto

-Max Boot: America’s A-Team

-Randoph Bourne: “The State”

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After filing a more-spirited-than-average G-File, Jonah joins us for the weekend Ruminant. Today, he talks about how certain individuals associated with Trump seem determined to end their careers in ignominy, as well as discussing many other phenomena, such as America’s oversaturation of elites, the necessity of reading people with whom you disagree, the inadequacy of applying the left-right spectrum to American politics, what the possible consolidation of fringe-right news stations might look like, and how genuine post-Trump conservatism “is almost, in certain way, the same as [if it was] pre-Trump.” And, of course, the most exciting news in Jonah’s world right now? How a calmer political environment means that he can write about more interesting stuff.

Show Notes:

-This week’s G-File

-Tucker Carlson almost closes the circle, but doesn’t make it quite there

-The entire Dispatch team descends on the Cuomo Emmy news

-The “Iron Law of Oligarchy”

-The midweek “news”letter

-A legendary piece of Goldbergian hagiography – Gargoyles: Guardians of the Gate

-The quotable Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Jonah’s return to The Remnant features a guest with “The most important hair in public policy,” Ryan Streeter from AEI. While Ryan’s magnificent mane isn't captured in the final product, his spot-on analysis of the causes of American stagnation (and what we can do to get out of it) certainly are. Why is fulfilling work so hard to find for a great many Americans? Which of the structures meant to stand between the individual and the government do our current policy regimes totally fail to support? Are all politicians really just heartless hacks? And what factors are the advocates of working-class Republicanism forgetting when they envision the future of the party? Lucky for us, Ryan thinks about this kind of thing for a living, and therefore has more revealing answers than you may find anywhere else.

Show Notes:

-Ryan’s page at AEI

-Imagine Blue Steel from Zoolander, but it’s Ryan’s hair

-Longstanding anti-“poaching” measures within fast food companies

-AEI’s research into civil society and volunteerism

-To Empower People: The Role of Mediating Structures in Public Policy

-Rubio and the supposed face-heel turn of “market fundamentalism”

-Ryan called some of America’s restlessness back in 2011

-The UCLA loneliness scale

-Ben Carson, doing actual interesting things while no one pays attention

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