Podcast
The Fifth Column
Hosted by Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch · EN
Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition.
www.wethefifth.com
www.wethefifth.com
83episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
State of the Union Post-Mortem with Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) - #546
Feb 2601:53:53Tap to summarize-Matt Welch’s Caribbean identity crisis at Da Pig Beach-The State of the Union aka a two-hour hostage note-A greatest hits, lowest lights compilation for President Camacho-The futility of “speeching” your way through a math-defying approval rating-You can’t talk your way through a 38% approval rating-Let the hockey boys drink-Dan Crenshaw is allowed to be mad-The RNC’s new guard of real fucking bozos and sycophantic dick-tots-JD Vance as anti-corruption czar and populist beard for the crypto-regime-Tariffs and The Gilded Age corruption engine, now with “ballroom fund” exclusions-Drug prices are down 600%,….so do you owe me money?-Moynihan screaming drug questions at his glitching phone-Marxist Republicans and the gobbledygook of corporate housing bans-Maybe let’s just abolish the State of the Union-Dispatches from the Purple State: An interview with Senator Elissa Slotkin-Stop kicking allies in the teeth to play grab-ass with dictators-Walking out on Lindsey Graham’s Danish disdain-AI thinks Moynihan is a neo-folk neo-Nazi-Four years of war and Ukraine gets a one-sentence hand wave-Anthropic vs. Hegseth: Code is speech until the Pentagon wants a frictionless kill-switch-We tried collectivism once. Everyone starved. The end.-Gemini identifies the mystery caller as Friedrich Nietzsche, chimney sweep-About that BBC BAFTA N-Word Drama….-“You’re acting like Israel” is the ultimate Park Slope breakup trump cardPrefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel NOW.The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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Locker Room Talk and the Pizzagate Reunion Tour (Members Only #304)
Feb 2400:21:59Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comKash chugs it back with the toothless championsTrump and his locker room talk with the boysState of the Union and the Six Year ItchA uniquely conspiratorial moment in an already conspiratorial nationPizzaGate nostalgia hourFact checking dies in publicA laundry list of made up shit that’s not even close to being trueBaby-eating melodrama meets Beetlejuic…
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A Big, Beautiful SCOTUS Decision (with Damon Root) MO #303
Feb 2000:09:30Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Damon Root’s book Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court * Basic civics, reintroduced* Root’s mood in five words* What becomes of this useless Congress?* Why not 9–0? Root on the three dissenters * The “major questions doctrine” translated* Profiles in inconsistenty* Doesn’t matter! Trump will “destroy your country” either way!* The hangover* Gorsu…
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Ambiguity in the Age of Outrage (w/ Jon Meacham) - #545
Feb 1901:06:33Tap to summarize-The dork Star Wars cantina of famous biographers-Jefferson’s hypocrisy and the impossibility of paragon standards-Lincoln was not an abolitionist-The Howard Zinnification of American history-Ambiguity as the ideological propagandist’s mortal enemy-The true (New Testament) saint of America-George H.W. Bush’s blunt admission-This president would cut your throat for a vote, then be the first to call 911-Exhaustion as a strategy, and the establishment’s failure to meet the moment-Autocratic narcissism and the turn toward political sadism-Despair is a sin-Political loss as seasonal, not existential-What will the next side do with inherited expanded executive power?-14th Amendment redemption clauses as high-level nerd porn-Amusing ourselves to death in a visual-media politics-Katie Britt’s private doubt, and the ecosystem that manufactured it-Lincoln couldn’t write a bad sentence; Reagan could land the linePrefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST.Buy Jon Meacham’s anthology, American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (Bookshop | Amazon)Thanks for reading/watching The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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One Hitter: Maduro Snatch 'n Grab with Thor Halvorssen (Members Only #293)
Jan 4Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comOne topic in the news. One quick podcast on that single topic (rather than just texting each other about how certain media figures are vulgar, stupid, and morally depraved). Welcome back to the Fifth Column One Hitter! This time Matt and Moyn are joined by Human Rights Foundation founder—and Venezuelan dissident, despite the Norwegian name—Thor Halvorss…
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#528: President Comacho Delivers Peace, w/ Mary Katharine Ham
Oct 1501:14:37Tap to summarize* Misgendering Fox News* Wait, Michael was at a dinner?* Kmele tries to pronounce Normally* “Clearly we don’t fucking prepare”* “The last time I was with you guys, we were in a much smaller, darker room and I got very drunk”* Trump brings the hostages back …* … then emcees a roast* Somebody tell Bill Kristol!* A little bit psycho vs. the UN bitching at the Jews* 9/11 is a joke?* Little Marco’s big moment* Kash Patel’s shirt-coin* Trump = 1998 Democrat?* Never go full Bulworth* Debate prep for menstrual insults* MKH’s trashy tastes* The White House Octagon* Texting Comacho* 2025 Democrats: still woke!* Kushner props* D’Angelo, RIP* Yeah, that was a blowjob* Being on Melania’s list* Who succeeds Trump? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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Members Only #280 - Megyn Kelly Blowback, Principled Sanity, and Nihilistic Dread
Oct 1100:18:01Tap to summarizeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com•One Battle After Another•Kmele’s hot take that will bring ruin to Hollywood•Separating the art from John Cusack•The kinship of Susan Sarandon & Mao Zedong•It’s not the dead kid that is most unsettling part of Stand By Me•Amity, as you know, means friendship•No dick at the Old Vic•The humbling of Russell Brand•Confidence is a preference for the habitual…
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#527 - War is Over (If Hamas Wants It)
Oct 901:41:25Tap to summarize* Subscribe to our YouTube channel already!* A shirt full of toothpaste* Whiskey in a jar* Your dumb, complaining emails* A roundtable of cranks and weirdos* Happy 100 year anniversary Antifa!* People. People. It ain’t fascism. And it ain’t ISIS.* Wait, Twitter IS real life!!!!!!* The long shadow of 2020* Remembering Seattle’s WASP autonomous zone* Ted Cruz’s hoop dreams* Sammy Hagar vs. the government shutdown* Should we tariff Canadian stunt pilots?* Death to the paper tigers!* We’re cautiously optimistic...* When Bari met 60* Charm, offensive* I bet you don’t remember *this* shitty Vice deal* You CANNOT talk to TNC that way* Journo shock! Moron social media hyperventilates about unacceptable lesbian!* Norman Finkelstein does a yiddish racism* Sorry about these A*** C*** song titlesIf you prefer to watch this video over on YouTube, just click here.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This episode is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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UNLOCKED: Russ Roberts, on the Weight of History & the Elasticity of Memory
Oct 701:39:45Tap to summarizeLast month, after years of you people begging us, we finally had on the great Russ Roberts—author, educator, and proprietor of the phantasmagorically influential podcast EconTalk. The extremely wide-ranging conversation, whose pre-Pivot-to-Video video is available to Never Fly Coach subscribers, one of the most could you please unpaywall this so I can share it? episodes in recent memory, and so here we are.You SAID you wanted to share this. So share this! Pretty please?* Russ’s drinks by the pool with Hitchens* How potato chips are made. And what it tells us about economics* Backwards towards “artisanal”* How will a NatCon economy perform?* It ain’t all doom and gloom (surprisingly)* Do academic economists matter?* Russ talks to Milton Friedman* Do long-term economic trends tells us anything??* On moving to Israel* On returning to a (relatively) calm America* Notes from Russ’s father* A TikTok war* Was Moneyball wrong? Or do people just not understand Moneyball?* The Close Encounters mashed potato mountain* And much, much more This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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#526 - Megyn Kelly is All Out of Generosity
Oct 201:08:58Tap to summarizeIt’s fine if you want to listen to this episode on Apple podcasts or Spotify or Substack. We get it! That’s the way you’ve always done it! But you do realize that after 525 episodes (not including the hundreds of subscriber-only episodes), we’ve finally launched the Fifth Column video podcast, right? And you know that you are required by federal law to subscribe to the new Fifth Column YouTube channel? Ok...thanks...and now...Megyn Kelly...* Botox and Scotch* When Megyn went “temporarily insane”* To be frivolous and Oprah-like* You’re my inspiration, Ben* From traffic cop to a truncheon-wielding cop* Escalation is bad. “Yes, but one must fight fire with fire.”* Principle vs. vengeance* Does Andy McCarthy have Trump Derangement Syndrome?* Megyn “speaks fluent MAGA”* More MAGA than libertarian or NRO…* We need to talk about Candace* “Tucker is in a different camp”* Wait, Moynihan has some opinions about the awfulness of CandaceIf you prefer to watch video over on YouTube, just click here.The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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