Episodes

Gather around the campfire at the RV Park in Coon Valley, Wisconsin, to hear the tale of Brother Chris Stirewalt, who has traversed land and sea to tell Jonah legends of Costco demographics, the chief of the Minnesotan fiefdom, and the looming Trumpian hangover on the GOP’s horizon. Brother Stirewalt is benevolent enough to catch Jonah up to speed on the presidential race and shoddy polls, closing it all out with a few predictions regarding the elusive unicorns of the American electorate: the re...

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 br...

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...

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...

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 Tr...

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 tha...

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 re...

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 an...

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....

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 Presi...

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 go...

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 fa...

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: —...

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 digi...

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 Isma...

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 Re...

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...

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 dig...

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 Har...

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: Dispa...

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 assassi...

On today’s episode of TheRemnant, Jonah’s guest is none other than Robert Doar, the president of the American Enterprise Institute. The two New Yorkers inevitably spend much of the episode quibbling over New York City. Fortunately for us, they also laud the Eisenhower administration and RFK’s (the first one, not the falcon one) DOJ, discuss the realities of the Jim Crow era and welfare reform, and dive into some top-tier AEI lore. Jonah remains obsessed with the topic of neoconservatism, so to c...

This week’s Ruminant is dedicated to the devoted gnostic scholars of “Trumpism,” the Holy Grail of embattled conservative intellectuals and political toadies alike. Jonah also addresses the new elephant in the room: Project 2025 (consider our fact check on the discourse as mandatory reading). Blame the early hour, but Jonah also finds himself regressing to his days of media criticism, and even doubles down with media criticism-criticism. For dessert, he responds to comments on his debate with Ni...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the octagon! The summer of 2024 has been one of epic feuds: Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake, Joe Biden vs. George Clooney, and, most notably, Jonah vs. Hoover Institute fellow and Free Press columnist Niall Ferguson. Jonah and Niall duke it out over the latter’s controversial claim: that America is the new Soviet Union. Jonah says nyet. Questions fly and accusations abound. Why is U.S. life expectancy declining? Is Jonah in denial? Is Niall just a provo...