Episodes

Let’s be honest: If you’re not getting canceled every couple of days, are you even living? We don’t think so. We’re T minus 10 days until the midterms, and Jonah Goldberg is raring to kick grass and take names on some of the discourse’s most cantankerous issues. Listen in as he tackles the podcastsphere, his preferred midterm losers, Abdul El-Sayed and Islamophobia, Vivek Ramaswamy and the Amy Acton ad, Trump’s egoism, The Social Reckoning, Trump’s fruity comments, the Christian right, gay MAGA,...

It may disappoint frequent Remnant listeners to learn that most episodes are not recorded in a speakeasy. In fact, recording a Remnant is one of the few occasions that can draw Jonah Goldberg away from such establishments. Nonetheless, listeners will be pleased that on this occasion Jonah is joined in a speakeasy by none other than economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin. They talk about GDP, inflation, federal stakes in private companies, Friedrich Hayek, the knowledge problem, Social Security, the feder...

Conventional wisdom will tell you to be well rested and sober before an interview to ensure peak performance. Jonah Goldberg, however, discovered long ago that he’s at his best on three minutes of sleep, a couple shots of Fireball, and a fistful of Alka-Seltzer tablets. Today, Jonah has prepared himself accordingly because he wants to be in shipshape for The Remnant’s favorite soft Marxist, Tyler Austin Harper. Join Jonah and Tyler as they dive deep into unfettered capitalism, underwater basket ...

Dear listener: There are few places Jonah Goldberg hates more than O’Hare International Airport. Yet, in a sad irony, he has spent a significant percentage of his life sitting in a Chicago terminal waiting on a plane. Though Jonah is not generally inclined to process his life through song, today’s Ruminant kicks off with a slow, mournful dirge memorializing his travel nightmares. But fret not; Jonah quickly recovers himself and holds forth admirably on all manner of subjects, including the Vladi...

Old men griping about the new generation is an old, venerable tradition, and Jonah Goldberg can grouse with the best of them. Unlike the other old men, however, Jonah gets to talk to one of the few people who can actually answer the question, “What’s wrong with the kids these days?” and back it up with data. The American Enterprise Institute’s Daniel Cox joins The Remnant to take us on a whirlwind tour of the gender divide, cultural expectations, parenting, LinkedIn, generational change, attenti...

While The Remnant has played host to many remarkable historians over the years, few have taken us on a more incredible ride than Simon Sebag Montefiore. As such, we’re proud to bestow on Simon our newly formed, not-really-endowed chair of Middle Eastern history. Tune in to hear Simon and Jonah Goldberg rove across time and space, covering Iran, Saudi Arabia, the 1979 revolution, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Israel, antisemitism, moral hysteria, Western obsession with Jerusalem, colonialism, nation...

Happy Saddam Saturday! Just kidding, we don’t do that kinda thing around here. But you know who does? That’s right, Jack Posobiec and his fellow alt-right goons. And while today’s Ruminant features more than enough of such nonsense, Jonah Goldberg doesn’t leave the high-minded among you hanging. Tune in to hear about nationalism, the Middle East, the French Revolution, Yoram Hazony’s Israeli NatCon, socialism, J.D. Vance, Trump’s short hand, the death penalty, abortion, slavery, and Hegseth’s fi...

Notorious misanthrope Jonah Goldberg is skeptical of the power of friendship in politics. Winning him over will be no easy task, but if anyone is up to the job, it’s friend of the Remnant and Hannah Arendt scholar Roger Berkowitz. Listen in as Roger and Jonah duke it out over friends, enemies, Zionism, the Nazis, fear of the people, facts, truth in politics, Alexis de Tocqueville, Madisonianism, local governance, the distribution of power, and much more. Show Notes: —A World We Share: Hannah Ar...

While AEI is filled with a lot of smart nerds, a select few have earned the Jonah Goldberg title of “great sage.” Nick Eberstadt is one of these sages, and he joins today for a banger of a Remnant on poverty, misery, social science, the economics of the family, Hungary’s pro-natal policy, the fertility crash, phones, generational stereotypes, technological adaptation, the entitlement problem, and North Korea. Put down the Tik Tok and listen up, kids. Show Notes: —Adam and Eve After the Pill: Pa...

On today’s Ruminant Jonah makes his old man proud by holding forth on the new right’s attempted rehabilitation of Richard Nixon. Along the way, he also hits on dog movies, the problems of polling, the midterms, the red undertow, the death penalty, Sen. Eric Schmitt, and the uncertain future of the GOP. Show Notes: —Heart of the Beast trailer —Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog Trailer trailer —Roger Berkowitz: A World We Share: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken Worl...

Dear listeners: For years, you’ve been asking us to get Bill Nye the Science Guy on The Remnant, and we have heard you. Today, we are pleased to present … Wait, what? Oh, I see. Apologies, listeners, but we appear to have had a bit of a mix-up. I’m sorry to say that Bill Nye wasn’t available, and instead the booking agency has sent *checks notes* Tony Mills! While Tony is sadly unwilling to drop Mentos into a 2-liter bottle of soda and stand over it with his mouth open (yes, we did ask), he is a...

This October will mark three years since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, igniting a complicated web of wars and regional conflicts across the Middle East. Jonah Goldberg is joined today by the authors of a new book that takes readers inside the minds of Israel’s decision-makers during these struggles, unveiling the complicated dynamics behind some of Israel’s biggest successes and failures. Join Jonah, Elliot Kaufman, and Yonah Jeremy Bob and they discuss Bibi Netanyahu, Iran, October 7, the be...

You remember the scene: Robert Deniro’s wife screaming at him in their apartment for being a jerk about the steak and flipping the kitchen table; Joe Pesci trying to calm them down; the neighbor calling them a bunch of animals; Deniro threatening to eat the neighbor’s dog. It’s exactly what you expect from director Martin Scorsese. But you know what it’s not? It’s not what Jonah Goldberg expected to find himself in the middle of after walking in the door the day the Stephanie Slade Remnant aired...

What can and can’t the government do? Can it ban softball on Sundays? Or perhaps prohibit little old ladies from having Bible study at the local library? What about drag queen story hour? Can it—horror of horrors—tell you that you have to mow your lawn? Joining The Remnant to help us sort through these thorny political thickets is Stephanie Slade, author of a popular new book about fusionism. Listen in as Stephanie and Jonah Goldberg cover the dissident right, Frank Meyer, Brent Bozell, liberali...

As faithful Remnant listeners know, we try to avoid having politicians on the show. It just gets kinda awkward when you have to publicly rake them over the coals for eating mac and cheese on camera. But being good Burkeans, we know that all rules have their exceptions. Gov. Spencer Cox is one of those exceptions. He joins Jonah Goldberg on the show to talk about his new book, Off Ramp. Along the way, they cover political division, technology, Mormonism, social media, local politics, the 10th Ame...

Gentle listeners, we know you’ve had a hard week, and we want to bring you a pick-me-up. Today’s episode has a little something for everyone: a riveting cult story, nudity, sports gambling, racist-bigot bashing, fanatic Texans, AI-pocalypse, an epic history of progressivism, and, most tantalizing of all, a detailed discussion of the myth of left and right. Tune in to hear Jonah Goldberg ruminate about being a grown-up, the long-forgotten BDX Cult, originalism, AI torts and liability, the social ...

Despite repeated floggings, First Mate Steve Hayes is once again up to no good. With Capt. Jonah Goldberg having gone ashore to purchase more books about Abraham Lincoln, Hayes has seized the helm of the HMS Remnant and is once again joy-cruising with his friends. And while most of the freeloaders Steve invites aboard are scalawags and ne’er-do-wells, there is one particular exception. Jim VandeHei, the co-founder and CEO of Axios, is on deck to talk about how to simplify our lives in an increa...

The Remnant has many dear old friends: Yuval Levin is the best-looking; Chris Stirewalt is the best kisser. But the oldest, going back to Episode 1, is Ben Sasse. Ben joins today’s pod for a conversation that traverses the high and the low, the sacred and the profane, starting with Gilligan’s Island and running through the healthcare system, scientific research, morphine, affluenza, being an adult, the effects of different media on our brains, screens, schools, the need for strong institutions, ...

Coming off of a discussion about 9/11 on the DisPod, Jonah Goldberg is feeling ruminative and somber. Accordingly, he has decided to address one of the most important foreign policy issues of our century: the cheese-eating surrender monkeys. That’s right. Freedom fries forever, baby. And if that’s not exciting enough, The Dispatch’s legendary Francophobe-in-chief doesn’t stop there, taking up the Texas Trumpapalooza, the Media Research Center, Abdul El-Sayed, pinkwashing, the Muslim-Queer allian...

Today a *very sober* Jonah Goldberg is joined by the *mostly sober* friend of the pod, pickled alligator aficionado, and notorious West Virginian Chris Stirewalt to talk about the midterms, the Alaska primary, GOP expectations, J.D. Vance’s presidential campaign, right-wing social engineering, the Trump midterm convention, postliberal eggheads, post-Americanism, free money, America’s dirtbag political ethos, and … America the Sandwich. Show Notes: —Jonah on NPR —Jonah’s Los Angeles Times column...

Thought we’d forgotten about Venezuela here on The Remnant? Think again! As prone as Jonah Goldberg is to getting distracted by the finer things of life—Old English dialects, zombie movies, etc.—he’s kept a weather eye fixed southward on our Bolivarian neighbor. Jonah is joined today by James Story, the former ambassador to Venezuela, to take us deep into the recent history of U.S.-Venezuelan relations, Nicolás Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez, a possible democratic transition, the oil deal, the Venezuel...

Peacefully anchored on the Potomac, the HMS Remnant rocks gently from side to side. Captain Jonah Goldberg, peg leg and all, stands at the prow gazing at the darkening horizon. To the west, the storm clouds of AI apocalypse are gathering. In the east, a midterm squall quickly bears down. In such portentous circumstances, there’s only one thing for a man to do. Captain Jonah retires to his cabin, lights a cigar, pulls down his dusty copy of Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, and girds himself to talk...

Who do you call it when American politics has got you scartchin’ your head? That’s right—the Mooch! Anthony Scaramucci joins Jonah Goldberg on today’s Remnant to talk about how the last four presidential administrations brought us to where we are today. Listen in as they dive deep into the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, gerrymandering, Citizens United, China, the George Bush tax cuts, the status of the dollar, immigration capital, tariffs, Donald Trump, and the Marshall Plan. Show Notes: —Scara...

Jonah Goldberg is not a bigot. Yet, as we all know, there are exceptions to every rule. The French are one of those exceptions. In particular, Jonah sees the cheese-eating surrender monkeys’ refusal to embrace America’s foremost gift to the civilized world—air conditioning—as an offense against all reason and good sense. Nevertheless, being a fair-minded man, Jonah is willing to give the French a hearing. Having no desire to talk to an actual Frenchy, however, he’s turned to the next best thing:...