The Fifth Column

* “Zero-to-insane in the first three minutes”* The terrible 2024 election * The right’s bizarre infatuation with RFK Jr.* The immigration crisis in NYC* The cruelty isn’t always the point* How the average American thinks about illegal immigration* Eli Lake joins to wish us all a Happy Durham Week* Takeaways from the Durham Report* The “heroes of democracy” are, in fact, the villains of democracy* David Frum’s Atlantic piece* Eli on Robert Kennedy Sr., the cop* Diane Feinstein, John Fetterman, Joe Biden* That insane LA Times piece (that we will talk about more later) 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

* Charging the Islip Strangler* Moynihan’s weird bias* A bad WSJ podcast* The Trump townhall * Rating Kaitlan Collins* Journalists who hate journalism * The not Desantis response* Tucker’s Twitter take* Can he succeed?* Killing [TK], A Series* Sorry, but that guy you hate is actually really smart* That amazing Firing Line destruction of Leander Perez * Our grim election / memories of 1968 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Che jumps on the third rail * Unaliving all the bad words* Throat clearing Suedehead * Let’s come to a conclusion before we know anything, ok?* Another pretendian* You guys are like Glenn Beck too, you know* Nonsense talk about Western science from a nonsense person (and that insane Zoom intro mentioned by Moynihan)* Michael Jackson’s doll isn’t ok* A supermarket encou…

* A homicide at Broadway-Lafayette * Crazy strangers on a train * The dumb racialization of a tragic death* The “delightful” and violent Michael Jackson impersonator * Amazon’s Afrika Bambaataa impersonator goes to Cuba* On Tucker’s identitarian texts * Fox News’s leak war* The Daily Show’s 81% rating collapse* So many shitty late night talk shows* You won’t notice the writer’s strike* Hating the Correspondent’s Dinner is as boring as the Correspondent’s Dinner itself* Gas stoves and Australian vapes * Adderall nightmare updates * Send pics 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Moynihan on Maher* Los Angeles is a weird place* Kmele in Chicago with Nirvana’s producer* The mechanics of Hollywood that we don’t understand * AA and Scientology * A hockey disaster* We need more “black” hockey players* A listener on Father Coughlin and Ayn Rand* RIP Wes’s mom* First class talk* A listener in defense of MMA* Holy shit this Danny Aiello response video * Holy …

He first came on to talk about a suicide in the porn industry. Then he came back to help us explore the origins of our roiling culture wars. And now Jon Ronson returns for his third one-on-one conversation with Michael Moynihan, this time to discuss The Debutante, his brilliant new podcast about high society neo-Nazis, bad swastika tattoos, Throbbing Gr… 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

We’re back with one long episode in two cracking segments. First up, Welch and Moynihan (Ed. note: Kmele is currently peering through a telescope on the South Side of Chicago or something) catch up on all the stupid news of the last week, including…* The news of certain…errrr……media layoffs* Defenestrations at Fox News and CNN* The “they-ificaton” of Tucker Carlson * The bizarro world of Robert F. Kennedy Jr* Lil’ Bobby: Prosecute people I disagree withAnd then it’s an hour with return guest Ben Smith (his third appearance, we think?), editor-in-chief of Semafor, former editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News, and author of the new book Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. No explanation needed. It’s good. You’ll like it. 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

* Kmele MC’s the FIRE Gala* Killer Mike blows the roof off the joint * This is a hangover episode * A celebration of FIRE, the great Harvey Silverglate, and various other heroes of free speech* What cable news network has created this climate of hate….in Japan* If only we could prevent shitty speech, we would be on a forward march to utopia. Right?* The temptation, on both the right and left, to not “do the work”* The EU will control ChatGPT and all will be great* The forever instinct to “disappear” bad ideas* That very expensive Fox-Dominion settlement* The never-ending madness in Chicago * Root causes: A Pantone chart and a CPA 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Kmele, Fruit of Islam* Via Chicago* Dominion lawsuit stuff again * Biden and America’s favorite bearded terrorist Gerry Adams!* Kmele’s Dominican son?* The life and work of complete psycho Leonard Jefferies * What do you all think of Amy Wax?* Peter Popoff and James Randi * A biracial question from a drunk biracial lad * Prince’s dirty songs* Discomfort and historical memo…

* The arrest of Jack Teixeira* The bad showoff * Not a source, not a Snowden* How serious is the Teixeira leak?* Sorry, but the NYT and WaPo did the *correct* thing* The Tennessee 2 1/2: a plague of theater kids with dumb ideas* That really bad and embarrassing shout-and-holler preacher impression* That really bad and embarrassing Michael Steele clip* That really bad and embarrassing Andrea Mitchell clip* And a really bad and embarrassing Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet* Democracy wasn’t failing. It was working* I mean, at least Reverend Wright was good at it* So what the hell is happening in France?* That Trump-Tucker interview was insane 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