The Fifth Column

Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch
  • 4.4 (137)
  • NEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
The Fifth Column

Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition. www.wethefifth.com

  1. Members Only #237 - Roofies, Commies, and Sissies

    1 DAY AGO

    Members Only #237 - Roofies, Commies, and Sissies

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Pete’s past * Friends with a murderer * Roofie vending machines * The worst cabinet pick? * Trans snakes that play golf * Damn dirty commies  * The three things reds do well * A store called Store  * That truck is still with Kamala  * Little Baron’s soooooooootcase * One black woman’s quest * Biased bookstores * Axios: Trump’s liberal cabinet  * ChatGPT is wrong about everything * Back to Cormac

    25 min
  2. #480 - The Media Mess / Gaetz Pulls Out (w/ Ben Smith)

    4 DAYS AGO

    #480 - The Media Mess / Gaetz Pulls Out (w/ Ben Smith)

    An hour with Semafor founder Ben Smith discussing the sorry state of the media, followed by a Smith-free hour with the lads discussing, among other things, two very different people who nevertheless shared a very deep love of young people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

    1h 53m
  3. Members Only #236 - Here Comes the Nanny State!

    NOV 19

    Members Only #236 - Here Comes the Nanny State!

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com * Kmele: Forever the HNIC * The Filet-O-Fish is Alaska pollock * A Swedish horror show * RFK at HHS * He forgot to mention this stuff… * Elon’s principles? * On Matt Gaetz and John Bolton * You know, we had a pretty good record on Covid… * Moulton v. a Salem Witch * A listener’s Irish-Catholic family is falling apart * That fake Netflix fight

    17 min
  4. Members Only #235 - To Overthrow the World: A Conversation on Communism with Sean McMeekin

    NOV 17

    Members Only #235 - To Overthrow the World: A Conversation on Communism with Sean McMeekin

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Michael Moynihan sits down with Bard College professor Sean McMeekin to discuss his new book To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, a Fifth-approved history of the global communist movement, from the ur-commie instincts of Plato to the sinister stupidities of Plekhanov. They also contemplate why so many smart people fall for ba…

    20 min
  5. #479 - The Case Against Tariffs (w/ Scott Lincicome)

    NOV 13

    #479 - The Case Against Tariffs (w/ Scott Lincicome)

    We’ve promised this one for a very long time. But now that Trump is returning to the White House—the mercantilist maniac who recently said “the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff’”—we finally followed through. By popular demand, we called upon Scott Lincicome, senior visiting lecturer at Duke University Law School and vice president of general economics and Cato's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, to answer all of your questions on protectionism, tariffs, and trade. Don’t care about such things!? Well, this episode is a double feature! After Scott’s masterclass on free trade, the lads stick around to discuss Trump’s appointments (ummm….this was a day before the Gaetz-Gabbard selections), “neocons,” and the WNBA. And for you subscribers: we will drop Moynihan’s conversation with Bard College historian Sean McMeekin in the next few days. For you non-subscribers…what are you waiting for?? This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

    1h 59m
  6. Members Only #234 - Come On and Zoom! (Wagnerian Opera Edition)

    NOV 12

    Members Only #234 - Come On and Zoom! (Wagnerian Opera Edition)

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Our first post-election Second Sunday Zoom call! If you missed it, shame on you for choosing to spend time with your family or choosing not to pony up. But it’s all here. All three hours of it. Yes, it’s the “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” of election analysis. But to be clear, we also discuss Emperor Hirohito, Kentucky politics, Australians, New York …

    18 min
  7. Members Only #233 - A Grave New World

    NOV 8

    Members Only #233 - A Grave New World

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Welch and Moynihan are back in the studio, three days after the end of democracy, counting the days before they get the midnight knock from Trump’s NKVD. So what does one do? Engage in some anticipatory obedience, obviously. But can anything save them? Subscribe to find out! Note: Matt came across this amazing video only after recording this episode. So …

    33 min

  8. NOV 7

    #478 - The Dream of a Six-Foot-Four, Tobacco-Chewing White Savior

    The Fifth did a bit of processing today with our Trump-supporting friend at her Connecticut studio. Hungover, exhausted, bedraggled, the lads then returned to the scene of last night’s Fifth-Free Press-Reason party and recorded this episode. They enjoyed it. And they suspect you will too. . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

    1h 27m
See All (492)

Hosts & Guests

4.4
out of 5
137 Ratings

About

Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition. www.wethefifth.com

Information

  • Creator
    Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2024
  • Episodes
    492
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © The Fifth Column
  • Show Website
    The Fifth Column

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada