The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Episode Title: Popping Crazy Pills
Date: March 24, 2026
Host: Jon Podhoretz
Panelists: Abe Greenwald, Eliana Johnson, Christine Rosen

Episode Overview

In this lively “Am I Taking Crazy Pills?” edition, the Commentary panel tackles issues and news stories that leave them feeling bewildered, alienated, or—as the running joke goes—like they’ve entered a parallel universe of nonsense. Each host brings forward current controversies, media phenomena, or figures that ignite this feeling, leading to sharp, skeptical discussion, frustration with political messaging, and darkly comic incredulity at the state of culture and politics in 2026. The tone is spirited, intelligent, biting, and, as always, slightly exasperated.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. TSA Shutdown, ICE Agents at Airports, and Political Messaging

Timestamps: 01:02 – 12:13

• Setup: Due to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding crisis, TSA lines at airports across the country became unmanageably long. Trump deploys ICE agents to help with ancillary tasks, speeding up lines. The media, however, frames the presence of ICE as “making travelers uncomfortable,” missing the point that the practical fix is improving airport function.
• Jon’s Rant: The issue is Democrats in the Senate holding up DHS funding to extract changes to ICE, but media coverage blames no one or obscures accountability. Additionally, Trump’s insistence on linking funding to the SAFE Act (which centers on voter ID but is overloaded with other measures) muddies the messaging advantage Republicans could’ve had.
• Notable Quotes:
  • Jon Podhoretz: “The Trump administration comes up with a fix, makes things a little better… yet the coverage says… the ICE agents… are making people uncomfortable. Am I taking crazy pills?” (03:50)
  • Christine Rosen: “Trump deploying ICE agents to airports is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic… This is a temporary bandaid on a really big wound.” (05:54)
  • Jon Podhoretz, on messaging: “These are the sole reason we were ready to pass this bill a month ago and they want DHS closed.” (10:29)
  • On political incompetence: “Because Stephen Miller is a bald idiot… His political ideas are stupid.” (11:25)

Panel Reflections

• The media fails to identify political responsibility for the shutdown, blurring the lines for the public.
• Trump’s linking of TSA fix to the SAFE Act is a messaging misstep; most Americans don’t know what the SAFE Act is.

2. Stanley McChrystal on Iran, American Foreign Policy Amnesia

Timestamps: 12:13 – 26:45

• Trigger: Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, in a public forum, blames post-1953 US actions in Iran for current Iranian hostility, suggesting an American “short memory” and unfairness in expecting quick regime change.
• Dissection by Panel:
  • Jon blasts McChrystal for what he calls incoherent historical and strategic logic, arguing that the 1979 Islamic Revolution wasn’t about Mossadegh but about creating an Islamic state.
  • Abe Greenwald: “Every enemy of this war will be elevated and celebrated by the mainstream media… McChrystal just shouldn’t talk.” (20:04)
  • Christine Rosen: “There’s this tendency to collapse strategy and tactics… You can have contradictory ideas… that’s the struggle with this current conflict with Iran.” (22:49)

Key Insights

• Old left-wing narratives about US “sins” in foreign policy are being recycled without context.
• The panel agrees that, while US tactics may have had flaws, blaming current policy challenges on decades-old events misses the point and clouds strategy.

3. Media & Cultural Memory—Obama’s Crucifix, Urban Legends

Timestamps: 26:45 – 31:01

• Funny/Weird Aside: Mike Mullen’s oral history depicting Obama, Biden, and himself all producing Christian religious items in the Situation Room counts as another “crazy pill” moment for Jon—since it seems like a forced detail for narrative effect.
• Christine Rosen: “Fear of vampires.” (29:01, joking about the cross/crucifix detail)

Key Insight

• Public figures and journalists often introduce dubious or implausible details into the historic record, which then linger in public consciousness.

4. The Michael Jackson Biopic—Celebrity Teflon & Cancel Culture Double Standards

Timestamps: 31:01 – 46:15

• Observation: A slick new Michael Jackson biopic is about to be released, despite Jackson’s documented and admitted predation on boys and massive legal settlements.

• Jon, incredulous: “Am I taking crazy pills that this is the end of civilization as we know it?” (32:59)

• Contrasts with how Cosby and Woody Allen have been entirely erased from media, while Jackson remains celebrated and widely played.

• Factors discussed:

  • The “freakishness” of Jackson’s persona (physical, racial, psychological)
  • Celebrity support and the public’s inability to turn away from spectacle
  • How society has inconsistently “cancelled” problematic artists

• Memorable Quotes:

  • Christine Rosen: “He’s an extreme of what we see in so many incredible artists, novelists, geniuses, where the output is so brilliant and the private lives are so unbelievably tortured.” (36:51)
  • Abe Greenwald: “So it doesn’t get lost in the kaleidoscope of Michael Jackson’s freakishness, he was also an antisemite.” (41:52)

Key Insight

• The panel ponders modern culture’s willingness to selectively separate (or not) the art from the artist, noting shifting boundaries and the impact of movements like MeToo.

5. Claudine Gay Teaches a Course on University Governance at Harvard

Timestamps: 46:15 – 52:28

• Situation: Ousted Harvard president Claudine Gay (resigned over plagiarism and mishandling of antisemitism issues) returns to teach a course on university governance and the politics of higher ed.
• Panel’s View: This is emblematic of academia’s inability to impose real consequences on elites, and the lunatics running the asylum.
• Notable Quotes:
  • Eliana Johnson: “If you didn’t think the lunatics were running the asylum, she’s now formalized this into a class… The whole idea of what this class is teaching undergraduate students is so bleep backwards it’s unbelievable.” (49:23)
  • Christine Rosen (sarcastic): “Those students should probably have some sort of copyright on their ideas because she’s more than likely to steal them, repurpose them, and put her name on it.” (50:33)

6. Tucker Carlson, Conservative Fractures, and the MAGA-Intellectual Rift

Timestamps: 52:28 – 59:41

• Background: Tucker Carlson delivers a pro-Islamic culture monologue, trashing Western cities (“There’s not a Western city that’s thriving”), suggesting Western decline and Islamic societal strength via Sharia law.
• Claremont Institute’s Ryan Williams publicly denounces Carlson (a notable split among a MAGA-aligned intellectual leader and one of MAGA’s biggest media stars).
• Heritage Foundation’s president sticks by Carlson despite mass resignations.
• Eliana Johnson: “It’s actually Tucker’s embrace of Islam and these Islamic countries that’s going to prove more problematic as he goes further and further down that path, because that is not popular in this country.” (56:55)
• Christine Rosen: “Even the kind of the weird MAGA intellectual class… he’s sort of forcing their hand and saying, do you believe this country’s values matter at all? He’s made his choice.” (57:27)

Key Insight

• The right is experiencing an intellectual reckoning between nationalist-populist/contrarian commentators like Carlson and traditionalists focused on US founding values.
• Carlson’s rhetoric is increasingly seen as performative provocation; even former allies are jumping ship.

7. Jon’s Conclusion—Still Some Thriving Western Cities

Timestamps: 59:41 – 61:15

• Jon closes by citing Tel Aviv as a rebuttal to the notion that no Western city is thriving: “Tel Aviv is one of the most thriving cities in the world… vibrant, exciting, thrilling, first-class food destination… with a happy populace… The future looks bright.”

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Jon Podhoretz (On political messaging):
  “Because Stephen Miller is a bald idiot… The fact that the policies in the SAFE act, several of them, including voter ID, have 80% support, does not mean that when you say I want the SAFE act, that the people who support voter ID by 80%… even know what the hell you’re talking about.” (11:25)

• Christine Rosen (On Michael Jackson):
  “He’s an extreme of what we see in so many incredible artists… where the output is so brilliant and the private lives are so unbelievably tortured.” (36:51)

• Abe Greenwald (On cancel culture double standards):
  “Anyone else, you wouldn’t hear his songs anymore. He’s got a Broadway musical about him… There’s retrospectives… There’s this… You know, just in terms of cultural force.” (33:20)

• Jon Podhoretz (On Claudine Gay):
  “I am taking crazy pills that Claudine Gay is going to teach at Harvard, not only having had to resign over her… plagiarism. But that should have been enough basically to cashier her from Harvard.” (51:57)

• Eliana Johnson (On the Harvard course):
  “If you didn’t think the lunatics were running the asylum, she’s now formalized this into a class… The whole idea… is so bleep backwards it’s unbelievable.” (49:23)

Section Timestamps

| Topic | Start | End | |------------------------------------------------|-------------|-------------| | TSA/ICE/Airport Shutdowns | 01:02 | 12:13 | | Stanley McChrystal on Iran/Policy Memory | 12:13 | 26:45 | | Obama, Crosses, & Urban Legends | 26:45 | 31:01 | | Michael Jackson Biopic/Celebrity Accountability| 31:01 | 46:15 | | Claudine Gay & Harvard Class | 46:15 | 52:28 | | Tucker Carlson/Sharia/Right-Wing Rift | 52:28 | 59:41 | | Conclusion: Tel Aviv & Final Thoughts | 59:41 | 61:15 |

Overall Tone & Takeaways

• The podcast is deeply skeptical about mainstream narratives, especially in media and academia, and frustrated by messaging failures—especially among Republicans.
• There’s real bewilderment at how cultural and institutional elites dodge accountability (from Michael Jackson to Claudine Gay).
• The “crazy pills” refrain encapsulates a pervasive mood of alienation among the panel, who see their complaints as rooted in fact but continually ignored or distorted by the powers that be.
• The episode humorously but seriously explores inconsistencies in cancel culture, the shifting sands of political alliances, and the confused state of American cultural and political authority.

For listeners seeking sharp analysis, biting humor, and a rundown of this week’s most exasperating news, this episode of Commentary delivers—and may make you feel a little less alone in your own “crazy pills” moments.