Episodes

Jonah Goldberg is joined by Virginia Postrel, the former editor of Reason magazine, best-selling author, and contributing editor for Works In Progress to discuss technocrat schadenfreude, selective dynamism, and Jonah’s Burkean sympathies. Plus: a discussion on the right-wing version of utopia and the myths of American nostalgia. Show Notes: —Virginia’s latest book, Fabric of Civilization —Virginia’s Substack —A Video Introduction to Dynamism The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digit...

Jonah Goldberg jubilantly welcomes the new year with a responsible intake of schadenfreude, as MAGAworld tumbles into disarray over immigration. Will the unprecedented wisdom of tech bros solve all the intractable problems that have plagued our country for years or just most of them? Tune in to this Ruminant for a tour of the race-baiting and loathing on the far right. Warning: Please consult a doctor if your schadenfreude lasts longer than four hours. Show Notes: -Elon's God Complex, per Mr. ...

Once again, Jonah Goldberg has received countless requests from the children of the world for some serious conservative eggheadery for Christmas. Ever benevolent, Jonah has obliged by hosting Richard Reinsch, the Editor in Chief of the Civitas Outlook at the University of Texas to discuss how conservatives can reform existing institutions from the inside out. Jonah and Richard also cover the legitimacy of Trump’s perceived mandate, the merits of competitive federalism, the storied history of con...

In the spirit of the holidays, Remnant-verse Uncle Tevi Troy joins Jonah Goldberg to lament the changing times, discuss the downstream effects of the Obama years, debate the best time travel references, and spitball some solutions to the chaos in the Democratic Party. Later in the show, Tevi and Jonah cover the future of Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s love affair and remind everyone to stay in their own lanes. Show Notes: —Tevi’s Commentary piece —Wall Street Journal report on Grandpa Joe The Rem...

As the holiday season reaches its zenith, the gods of punditry have forced one Jonah Goldberg to cover a looming government shutdown at the hands of the de facto president. He predicts Elon Musk’s aims in his congressional meddling, expounds upon the difference between being wrong and being evil, and reminds us all that liberal democratic capitalism will not fill the gaping hole in the soul of man. Plus: Jonah makes a list of his favorite historians—check it twice in the show notes. Show Notes:...

It’s high time to start the postmortem of the latest Great Awokening. Jonah is joined by sociologist and author Musa al-Gharbi to discuss his new book, We Have Never Been Woke. Musa makes the casethat many of the maladies of the woke movement stem from a desire to achieve social justice without individual sacrifice and that wealth redistribution is much more complicated than the Macbook Marxists have been led to believe. Jonah and Musa discuss the capitalist soul of a seemingly altruistic elite,...

Jonah Goldberg has been feeling censored by the tyranny of Sarah Isgur lately, so he’s decided to bring in the big guns: Greg Lukianoff, the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Greg and Jonah discuss the current state of free speech writ large, the legal distinction between defamation and free expression as it relates to artificial intelligence and deepfakes, and what it really means to defend morally reprehensible speech. Plus: a closer investigatio...

It’s Friday the 13th, and little rodents are crawling around inside Jonah Goldberg’s brain. What else is new? This week’s Ruminant considers the drones flying over the Garden State, Jonah’s best Tucker impression, a redux of Liberal Fascism featuring Luigi Mangione, and a clapback to those opposed to impeaching Joe Biden. Plus: transport by elephant, a critique of Time magazine, and Trump’s faith in tariffs. Show Notes: —New GLoP —No ifs, ands, or buts about it —Jonah’s G-File: Impeach Joe Bide...

There are many pressing questions plaguing the mind of modern man. Where do we go when we die? What is the meaning of life? Was Christopher Columbus Jewish? Razib Khan, the unofficial geneticist of The Remnant, stops by to answer the latter, arguing that cultural identities are very different from genetic identities. Jonah and Razib get into the 23&Me craze, the Dalai Lama’s microaggressions, and genomes from the old world. Plus: what happened to epigenetics, some Nazi myth debunking, and some h...

Amid a flurry of calls for Jonah Goldberg’s resignation as flagship podcaster lead by disgruntled Dispatch employee Sarah Isgur, our intrepid host has decided to dive into the question of impeachment power. Jonah is joined by Yale Law School professor Keith Whittington to discuss why the Founders included impeachment in the Constitution, what actually qualifies as high crimes and misdemeanors, and how presidential pardon power ought to be used. Show Notes: —Jonah calls for impeachment —Keith’s ...

Intra-Dispatch disputes dominate today's Ruminant. But don't worry, Jonah also talks about other things on this Ruminant, including some perennial questions: What is a deep state and how can I join? Why does Pete Hegseth want to be defense secretary? Will Sarah be pardoned by Joe Biden for her egregious crimes against lexicology? Show Notes: —Nick Catoggio on pardons —The history of Horatio Nelson —Vikings and Vivek The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering p...

Jonah may have readjusted to Eastern Standard Time, but his mind remains preoccupied with India. In order to get some further clarity, Jonah is joined by his American Enterprise Institute colleague and Wall Street Journal columnist Sadanand Dhume. Jonah picks Sadanand’s brain on the R.S.S. (the Indian right), the principles of conservatism in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the economic progress of the country. Later in the episode, they discuss what happened to Indian liberalism, Japan...

The days are getting shorter, the weather is growing colder, and the Trump cabinet nominees keep getting stranger. Jonah is joined by Free Press columnist Eli Lake to discuss effective intelligence agency reform, what the term “deep state” actually means, and Jonah’s plan to abolish the FBI and negotiate the ransom price for Sarah Isgur with Kash Patel. Plus: ruminations on the Warren Commission, the debunking of the Eyes Wide Shut analogy, and a masterclass in making s—t up. Take out your bingo...

For your Thanksgiving entertainment, Jonah rethinks his latest conversation with his non-mentor Yuval Levin and ruminates on how both the left and the right Gesellschaft all the Gemeinschaft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the masses prepare their turkey basters, side dishes, and psyches for Thanksgiving, Jonah is giving thanks to the things he holds most dear: institutions, conservatism, and Yuval Levin. Yuval and Jonah take some time to express their gratitude for the great American miracle, discuss the treason of the clerks phenomenon plaguing modern institutions, and consider how the exhausted majority can finally get what they want. Later in the episode, Jonah brings up politics at the table and forces Y...

Move over, Kerouac: Jonah Goldberg is back from India, and he has some tales to tell. Delusional, exhausted, and chock full of new ideas, Jonah pontificates upon the scalable logic of Judeo-Christian frameworks, fermented Tibetan yak cheese, and the ongoing saga of who will be the next U.S. attorney general. His hallucinations grow more intense as the episode devolves into discussions of some in-house controversy, the plight of being caught in the middle, and some dental hygiene advice. Show No...

Reality Check for Democrats

Even as he embarks on a grand adventure in India, Jonah is seduced by the siren song of U.S. punditry. After providing a brief recap of the resoundingly successful inaugural Dispatch Summit, he gives in to the uncontrollable urge to pontificate and punditrate. To mitigate his anti-malaria medication hallucinations, Jonah takes a break from the smog and samosas to discuss the deteriorating quality of the Trump cabinet nominations, the gross mischaracterization of neoconservatism, and the increasi...

Twenty-five years ago, Jonah found himself stranded without a passport in a crowded street in Karachi. With nowhere else to turn, he spent the last of his rupees on a rescue call to none other than Commentary editor John Podhoretz. John obliged, and continued to rescue Jonah throughout the course of their friendship by coming on TheRemnant whenever Jonah is down and out for a guest. The two start the show by workshopping some potential design choices for their future podcast studio before divin...

Jonah made one singular endorsement this election season; he cast his presidential ballot for Paul Ryan. To thank Jonah for his lonely, intrepid work on the Ryan ’24 campaign that wasn’t, the former Speaker joins Jonah for a very special live taping of The Remnant from this year’s Dispatch Summit. They discuss the pitfalls and peaks of Trump’s economic plan, why incumbent parties continue to lose (and ways to avoid an infinity of single term majorities), how to solve the debt crisis, and the fa...

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At long last, it’s over. The ever-intrepid Jonah remains trapped in the CNN studios, but was granted an hour to return to the sausage making factory for a quick rundown of what happened on Tuesday night. He discusses the potential self-fulfilling prophecy of alleging threats to democracy, the record minority turnout for Donald Trump (and what it means for the Democratic party), and the lessons to be learned from the era of language policing and the term “Latinx.” Later is the show, Jonah explain...

Note: Things got a little heated on CNN Friday morning. It’s been a long election year. Nevertheless and always a mensch, Jonah addresses the controversy related to Donald Trump’s recent comments regarding Liz Cheney. Manic, spiritually exhausted, and scarred from attempting to get Pippa into her Halloween costume, Jonah capitulates to a brief period of punditry until he is overwhelmed with nausea and pivots to a scathing critique of the right’s new obsession with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Later in...

Jonah and Chris Stirewalt have been conscripted from their respective caves of sequestration and dragged into the American Enterprise Institute studio for one last round of 2024 election outcome punditry. Chris and Jonah cover the sorry state of polling practices, engage in some risky predictions, and bemoan the parties’ new political bases. Later in the episode, they take a crack at amateur demographic delineation and put on their leg warmers to take it back to the ’80s for some rehashing of pa...