The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Jonah, under the anvil of God and parked outside a Colorado Walmart, gives an update on his current cross-country trek. He ruminates on Kamala Harris' first interview and whether her connection to the Biden administration will actually matter to voters. His psephological Tourette syndrome subsides so he gets into the minutiae of his Wednesday G-File on how Christianity rewired the Western mind and why that's good news even if it’s not quite the good news. Something about a Walmart parking lot brings out the Thomistic. Plus: more on the Bulwark Front of Judea vs. the Judean Dispatch Front. Show Notes: —Dominion: How The Christian Revolution Remade the World —Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy —Friday's Dispatch Podcast roundtable The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonah has chosen to heed the advice of Horace Greeley to go west and get away from the crowds of idlers and imbeciles, anointing none other than Dispatch senior editor Mike Warren as Remnant guardian extraordinaire. Mike is joined by Semafor’s Dave Weigel for some punditry a la carte. Mike and Dave (who do not need wedding dates) cover RFK Jr.’s recent Trump endorsement, the state of the undecided voting bloc, what to make of the swing state map, and how Americans are feeling about Kamala Harris.Show Notes: —Mike’s Dispatch Politics item on RFK —Dave’s "Americana" newsletter The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a very hot summer in Washington, and Jonah wants someone to blame. To get to the bottom of things, AEI scholar Roger Pielke stops by the studio to discuss the dissonance between politicized science and perspicacious reality. Jonah wants to know: How do we manage our energy supply? Is climate change really an existential threat? Should we nuke hurricanes? What happens when you mix science with ideology? Roger has the answers, and then some: AI models, Olympic controversies, and the wild world of degrowth. Tune in for a tour through the storm, where science meets politics and common sense fights for a seat at the table. Show Notes: —Roger’s Substack The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a beautiful Friday morning in Washington, D.C., and Jonah has decided to pick a fight with Alexander Graham Bell. He ruminates upon the long decline of the convention (and who’s to blame), the insidious lying and mudslinging from both parties (Breaking: It’s wrong to bully children), and the parameters of minding your own business. Once Jonah has eaten his spinach and completed his convention punditry speed run, he ponders the ethics of critiquing patriotic sincerity, arguing that Donald Trump is not the patriot he pretends to be. Show Notes: —“Doug Emhoff, Modern-Day Sex-Symbol” The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, enough. It’s time for a break from all the news. To lighten things up, Jonah brings on AEI senior fellow Fred Kagan to talk about war. Fred is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project and a leader in strategic military analysis, so this installment of The Remnant gives you a front row seat in the situation room. Fred and Jonah discuss the next steps for the Ukrainian army, how the U.S. can mitigate future conflict with Russia, and the minutia behind Russian military strategy that may place Putin at a disadvantage. They review the Kursk incursion, draw a distinction between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine, and consider the future of the war in Israel. Show Notes: —Fred’s AEI Page —Ukraine and the Problem of Restoring Maneuver in Contemporary War —Critical Threats Project The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2024 Democratic National Convention is in full swing, leading Jonah to summon Mike Pesca of The Gist to provide ye loyal listeners with an insider look into the galactic gnostic council of podcasting elders. Mike and Jonah debate the existence of structural antisemitism and the weaponization of the term “genocide,” explore the contrast between the online perceptions and real-world implications of Tim Walz's candidacy, and question whether Kamala Harris has reached the point of diminishing returns in avoiding the media. Violent agreement is had all around, platform questions are proposed for the Harris campaign, and the duo review Joe Biden's swan song before the elders return to their respective punditry fiefdoms. Show Notes: —Mike’s podcast The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s Ruminant, Jonah attempts to talk himself out of a hangover, which inevitably leads back to vintage Hillary Clinton punditry. Ah, the good old days.Jonah’s quest back to the world of the sober begins with the demystification of price gouging and federal minimum wage hikes, followed by further thoughts on the divorced parent interpretation of partisan politics. Then, we find Jonah reminiscing on days of productions past, bringing us the beauty of discussions devoid of journalists and politicians.The rehashing of Hillary Clinton leads Jonah to argue that Trump may just be feeling insecure, which explains why the former president is having such a dang hard time staying on message. When all is said and done, there is a Skiff episode to be recorded, and Jonah will remain forever cursed to spend his days talking his way out of something. Show Notes: —Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this installment of The Remnant, Jonah bestows dear friend of the pod Tevi Troy with his black velvet eight-timer guest club blazer. To celebrate, Jonah and Tevi discuss Tevi’s upcoming book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry. This Trojan epic has it all: the tension between big government and big business during the rapid changes of the early 20th century, Woodrow Wilson screwing up, how business tends to mix with political pleasure. Pay close attention to catch some top-tier Jonah lore, the pet presidents of history’s biggest business tycoons, and the sneaky motivations of woke corporatism. Apologies to Henry Ford. Show Notes: —Pre-order The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry —Rave reviews for The Power and the Money —Tevi’s event in Jerusalem —The tale of Henry Luce —The return to the smoke-filled room —National Affairs: “Liberal Practice v. Liberal Theory” —1600 Lessons leadership program The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By rule of Remnant law, if Jonah doesn’t have fellow Dispatcher Chris Stirewalt on the show at least once every ninety days, frogs will fall from the sky and the oceans will turn to ice. To avert global catastrophe, Chris is back to check in on the electoral dumpster fire. Jonah and Chris discuss the difficulty of maintaining the upper hand in a vibes election, the Republican obsession with media coverage, and the domestic disputes between the Mommy and Daddy parties. In addition, the 2004 Presidential election is rehashed to shed light on the mimetic warfare waging in the vice presidential race as Jonah and Chris put the pressure on Tim Walz to talk to the press and make some predictions regarding the upcoming Democratic National Convention.Show Notes: —Trump turned politics into reality TV. Now Harris is the show to watch. —The windsurfing adThe Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a lot on Jonah’s mind this morning. He’s gaslighting himself about being gaslit, lamenting the diminishing standards of acceptable presidential candidate behavior, and waltzing back some of his initial reactions to VP candidate Tim Walz. Critiques of Wednesday’s G-File are addressed (shame on you, Willem Dafoe), noting the death of true cultural criticism in the age of identity politics. Once that whole fiasco is cleared up, Jonah ponders the bigger questions: Is there such a thing as good dogma? What are we worshipping when we worship politics? Will Jonah’s producers and assistant besmirch him for the length of this Ruminant? All will be revealed. Show Notes: —Wednesday’s G-File —“The A(braham) Bomb” —Dictionary of Voegelinian Terminology The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The inimitable Walter Russell Mead, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, stops by to enjoy what can only be described as an intellectual smorgasbord. Jonah and Walter evaluate the ongoing war in Israel, diving into the land-for-peace fallacy, questions about what constitutes nationhood and patriotism, and how to orient American foreign policy toward a more peaceful future. The duo then pivots to a more theological realm, discussing the apocalypse, how liberalism and Marxism mirror Abrahamic faiths, and the conflation between political conviction and moral intuition. Show Notes: —Mead’s Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World —Mead’s The Arc of the Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People —How Team Biden can aid peace in Israel —Jonah’s Soviet special —“The A(braham) Bomb” —Immanentize the what?? The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Set your VCR’s for a one-of-a-kind, super-epic, think tank crossover episode! Brookings Institution senior fellow Jonathan Rauch is the special guest star today, joining Jonah to discuss all things party politics. Topics range from primary reform and the introduction of rank-choice voting to the newly announced Democratic vice presidential pick Tim Walz. Jonathan and Jonah also discuss two unique immunities to partisan diseases: populism on the left and antisemitism on the right. Show Notes: —Jonathan’s Brookings page —The return to the smoke-filled room The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sweaty, hot, and unprepared. Jonah is listening to the Cranberries and driving his car over nails on the way to CNN, where they will likely lock him in the studio and force him to pundit until the full moon rises. To distract himself, he ruminates upon social Darwinism, pronunciation, the National Association for Black Journalists, and the stunning lack of seriousness on the Right. Show Notes: -AO eviscerates Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Jonah finds himself in times of trouble, John Podhoretz comes on TheRemnant. The theme for today’s episode is something all pundits enjoy: the blissful embrace of intellectual schadenfreude. Jonah and John make the case for equivocation within the Harris campaign strategy, discuss the definition of weird and the be-clowning of Project 2025, and call out the astounding lack of outrage regarding the Democrats’ antisemitism problem. To close it all out, the duo covers the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of Hamas. Show Notes: —Nick Catoggio on flip-flopping —The O.G. “To Hell with You People” The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a much-needed break from the 2024 election news cycle, Jonah visits his Floridian friend, Dr. Will Inboden, who serves as the director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. Jonah and Will discuss UF’s unique approach to higher-education reform, preach a sermon of Reaganite revival, and project some fears regarding the future of foreign policy. Show Notes: —Learn more about the Hamilton Center —Will’s book: The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ruminant is usually a very indulgent ninety minutes for Jonah, but today’s episode is dark-chocolate-mousse-topped-with-caviar indulgent. It’s only fair, after all; Jonah was right about a lot of things, so we’ll give him this one. The New Right (and the media coverage of the faction) remain the target of Goldbergian ire, Joe Biden’s true character (and, by rule of Remnant law, destiny) is revealed, and progressive shibboleths (and their human incarnations) are critiqued. Jonah speculates on the viability of Mayor Pete’s potential vice presidential bid and experiments with a very grand dark-web hypothesis. Show Notes: —Jonah on The Gist with Mike Pesca —Brand new GLoP episode —Bret Weinstein’s grand hypothesis —The Fair Jessica's new piece in The Atlantic The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a crazy few weeks, so The Remnant’s editorial czars have allowed Jonah to bring back Dispatch CEO Steve Hayes to engage in some classic punditry. After Steve forces Jonah to make some monocausal arguments about Joe Biden’s withdrawal and Kamala Harris’ ascension, the pair lay out some soft predictions regarding the outcome of the 2024 race, call out some DEI-hire hypocrisy, and consider the pros and cons of flip-flopping politicians. The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Call her an oracle or consider her a wise observer of Occam’s razor, but Bulwark contributor A.B. Stoddard saw this coming. A.B. returns to The Remnant to discuss her longstanding—and ultimately correct—prediction that Joe Biden wouldn’t be on the presidential ballot in November. Among the questions discussed in this Biden-Harris post-mortem: Is Jill Biden the American Eva Perón? Is Nancy Pelosi a bene gesserit? Jonah and A.B. have the answers, helping ye loyal listeners make sense of Kamala Harris’ coronation and her potential running mates, J.D. Vance’s growing pains, and the causes of conspiracy. Show Notes: —A.B. told you so —A.B. told you so, again The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though we all got precious little sleep the past two weeks, we are nothing if not devoted to our listeners. In this belated Ruminant, Jonah looks back at a week that contained years (yet also very little). Is there much to say about J.D. Vance's nomination and RNC speech? Did Trump, having survived an assassination attempt, cross the Hegelian threshold and become a nigh-Napoleonic age spirit? Will Jonah get to sleep in his own bed this weekend? Important questions all. Show Notes: -WATCH: Dispatch after hours reacting to The Neverending Trump Speech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Jonah predicted in the outro of yesterday’s Remnant episode, everything is indeed on fire. To help interpret what is perhaps the most chaotic news cycle in recent memory, Jonah is joined by Bulwark contributor Damon Linker. Tune in for Jonah and Damon’s referendum on newly selected VP candidate J.D. Vance, the state of the GOP at the 2024 convention, and the conversions of conservative think tanks. To close it out, they discuss the great Republican schism and the fallout of the Trump assassination attempt. Show Notes: —Damon’s Substack: Notes from the Middle Ground The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, weekly livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices