The Fifth Column

Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch
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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. 6 hr ago

    Clip Roulette w/ Dictators, Demons and Democracy (Episode #571)

    -Greetings…oh, fuck -Welch has a bone to pick with Ben Dreyfuss -Clip Roulette -Tucker and the Demon Bomb -Jason Arday, martyr? -The Jonah Lehrer comparison -The Samantha Power mic disaster -Fuck you Joaquin -John Mearsheimer, Stephen F. Cohen and the Russian apologists -Ukraine didn’t go away -Trump, Kim Jong-un and the South Korea war games -Midterm Madness / Polymarket, wha happen? -Median Strategies and the fake poll -Adam Bonica, Marc Elias and scamming the elderly -Is Cuba a dictatorship? Apparently a difficult question -The Padilla Affair / Slobo Googling -Theft as a “biological need” -Chocolate City -Stay tuned for más Moynihan Report Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

    Clip Roulette w/ Dictators, Demons and Democracy (Episode #571)

  2. 5 days ago

    Terry Moran and the Network News Autopsy (Members Only #339)

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com We’re joined by former ABC News senior national correspondent Terry Moran, who now publishes Real Patriotism with Terry Moran on Substack and hosts a podcast of the same name on YouTube. -Terry reads that tweet -Fired, suspended, non-renewed…whatever -Any regrets? -Network news is dying and everyone’s jumping ship -The 9/11 flag-pin controversy -Hire more people who voted for Trump -Why not …

    Terry Moran and the Network News Autopsy (Members Only #339)

  3. 12 Aug

    The Politics of Pretending (Episode #570)

    -Kmele is out of Adderall -Did anybody actually watch this Tucker and Hunter interview? -“Montrosity” and other difficult words -The adventures of Proximity Hong -The curious case of Jason Arday -Is there any chance Jesse Singal is racist? -AOC discovers Woke 1.0 was crazy -Shane Gillis and the conspiracy of enforcing things nobody believed -Thank you, Thom Tillis. Also, fuck you. -Funding the other side’s whackos -Mamdani declares war on Amazon -A general rent strike. Over one cockroach. -David Remnick meets the DSA -Kmele gets swarmed by the Hasan bots -So, how great was Mao? -Midterm Madness and the 2028 Democratic sweepstakes -Clip Roulette -Kmele tries to explain himself. It does not help. -Can America get at least a busted Boris Johnson? Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

    The Politics of Pretending (Episode #570)

  4. 7 Aug

    A Man of 1989 (w/ David Frum) #569

    -a pre-obit for the esteemed David Frum -involuntarily unionized at The Atlantic -spy novels, bureaucrats and expense reports -turning down Bill Buckley’s golden ticket -prosperity, security and how quickly it can all disappear -Frum is forever a man of 1989 -God makes you lucky, then convinces you you’re smart -Tucker Carlson was always capable of many things -falling flat on your back isn’t progress -the Michigan Senate choice from hell -Democrats discover Trump’s permission structure -Midterm Madness in Michigan -the polling industry has a phone problem -politics for people who can afford to lose -“I saw you coming so I could stop you” -immigration restriction without the Trumpism -fascism has the better sales pitch than communism -what Donald Trump loves besides himself -the conservative future Frum got very wrong and other reflections Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

    A Man of 1989 (w/ David Frum) #569

  5. 5 Aug

    Out of Whiskey and Reaching for the Rotgut (Members Only #338)

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Michael Moynihan has returned from his Italian sojourn where he barely escaped arrest… -Moynihan has the clap or something -Who exactly is the demographic for this show? -Moynihan’s European vacation involved bus karaoke, too much drinking, and now the shakes -Matt went to Cooperstown with Bill Schulz… -The forgotten insanity of the Peekskill riots -Paul Robe…

    Out of Whiskey and Reaching for the Rotgut (Members Only #338)

  6. 31 Jul

    The Admirably Irresponsible Journalist w/ John R. MacArthur (Members Only #337)

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com So that’s where these Genius Grants come from… -Most roads lead back to Prague for Matt Welch -about that letter…six paragraphs, $5 million in free publicity and Harper’s back in the mainstream -It was NAFTA, not woke, that elected Trump. Or was it? -Illegal immigration is a wage issue -Who still believes free trade is the answer to everything? -Vietnam made …

    The Admirably Irresponsible Journalist w/ John R. MacArthur (Members Only #337)

  7. 29 Jul

    The Fifth Gets a Substitute Teacher (w/ Jesse Singal) #568

    Jesse Singal of Blocked and Reported and Singal-Minded fills Michael Moynihan’s special diabetic chair to discuss Fauci’s diaries, broken institutions, runaway AI, LeBron and Mamdani Mart. -Moynihan out, Jesse Singal in -Bari Weiss hired everyone except Jesse -The Prince of Science re-enrages everyone (or at least Rand Paul) -Gell-Mann amnesia and the collapse of institutional trust -The media needed a COVID daddy -An OpenAI model escaped the sandbox -The analogy of the paperclip machine and how it consumed the universe -Cambridge protected alleged plagiarist Jason Arday -Midterm Madness, Ohio governor race version -Kmele feels that LeBron will never love him but he doesn’t want to talk about it -Three grown men relived their greatest pickup games -Kmele wanted the gods back in The Odyssey -Mamdani Mart promised groceries at 30 percent off -Billy Bob Thornton returns from hell in White Knight (a Kmele Foster joint) -Nazi dinosaurs stalked Jews through Schindler’s Park -Jesse discovered second-order effects -Not every strange obsession with Israel was antisemitism -Rent stabilization has worked great for millionaires -No French goodbye for Kmele Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a listener-viewer supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn 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

    The Fifth Gets a Substitute Teacher (w/ Jesse Singal) #568

  8. 24 Jul

    The Temple Is Rich. The Monks Are Poor (w/ Frank Dikötter) Members Only #336

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Frank Dikötter is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and one of the foremost historians of modern China. His research in overlooked and restricted Communist Party archives has transformed our understanding of Maoist rule. -Frank Dikötter is kind of Dutch, but not really -Writing the definitive history of Maoist horror -Edgar Snow a…

    The Temple Is Rich. The Monks Are Poor (w/ Frank Dikötter) Members Only #336
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Hosts & Guests

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 - 2026
  • Episodes
    688
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © The Fifth Column
  • Show Website
    The Fifth Column