The Fifth Column

Kmele got a new baby!Welch is doing -- something.And a disheveled, bleary-eyed Moynihan checks in from Europe -- where he's been bouncing between checkpoints and bunkers in Ukraine. The dude is earning his WHOLE paycheck this week.Recorded: March 14th, 2022Published: March 15th, 2022 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

Does the media have this conflict wrong?The privatization of protestEurope shutting down shitty, Kremlin-funded mediaWait, did Matt Taibbi just say he was warming to intervention?Verdict: unclearNo due process for shitty, Kremlin-funded oligarchs America's overlooked role in the beginnings of PutinismCould Russia have been democratic?Mearsheimer and the interminable NATO debateThe narcissism of Twitter war tourismTaibbi post game On Biden's SOTU speechOn the forgotten trade wars See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

With Kmele waiting for his son to arrive and moving into his new East Coast digs (or something), Welch and Moynihan again find a temporary replacement. This time the honor is bestowed upon Jamie Kirchick, senior fellow for the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council and author of the forthcoming book Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. Bullet point topics for this episode seem unnecessary because....lotta Ukraine. With a bonus digression into Jamie's recent piece on Sohrab Ahmari and the right's lurch towards "national conservatism." Enjoy.Also: another Patreon coming at the end of the week. So go sign up. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

Guest: Jeffery Sachs, Lecturer in Politics @ Acadia UniversityA Huge School Board Recall in San Francisco (With National Implications)A Proposed Ban on Talking About *Gay Stuff* w/ School Kids (In Florida, Of Course)A Contoversial Federal Crackdown on Protesters in Canada (Swastikas! Swastikas! Swastikas!)Is there more? Maybe 😏Recorded: Feb 17th 2022Released: Feb 18th 2022 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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's on a plane back East, where he shall remain and where the Fifth will increasingly ditch Zoom for in-person recordings. Yay. Filling in for Comrade Foster this week? Journalist, author, inventor, CNN contributor, mother of three, and all around swell gal, Mary Katherine Ham! The triumph of the stupidThe stupid Washington PostHating friends with stupid politicsMary Katherine, like Switzerland to her ex-friendsThe right after TrumpUnharassed by AilesWhen Hammer and Moynihan metRevisiting MKH’s reporting on the Tea Party town hall madnessMore on Hitler’s truckers Broken risk analysis: MKH on schools, masking, and Covid culture warsMasked and anonymousDoes Dave Chappelle hate the poor?Don't influence the normies The electoral power of hypocrisySports bras, shaming, and misinformationAnd so much more! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

Our favorite Danish intellectual returns! After a three-plus year absence, Jacob Mchangama is back on the Fifth, this time promoting his amazing new book, Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, which P.J. O'Rourke calls "best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made." We tend to agree. The lads make quick work of a bottle of sake and still manage to blather about...The state of free speech in EuropeJoe Rogan and the crisis of speechMany of history's heroes of free speech were kind of shitty on free speechIt always comes back to NazisThe Weimar fallacyHanged for speech. Really, really bad speechThe sheep theoryJacob brings up Nazis again Tell the moon about the crying roomThe most powerful engine for social changeFree speech is a powerful engine *against* racismTwo islamists realize they were wrong about free speech See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

A freebie for the great unwashed, cheapskate masses. A little...ummm....looser than the free feed pod. And note that Moynihan's car was stuck in the snow just moments before recording, so he's slightly more unhinged than usual. When contacted, he apologized profusely and said "had I known you were releasing this to the freeloaders I wouldn't have said all of those things that I totally believe but make people pay to hear..." -TFC Snowstorms. People moving. Daughters acting crazy. Fiona Hill. Lots happening in the Fifthdom, but the lads got together this afternoon for a shouty, everyone-is-insane rant fest. The following topics were soberly discussed:- To save democracy, it must be destroyed- A left-right synthesis! Let's all abandon principles!- 16 free speech help lines- Oprah: The OG Joe- Jenny from the U of G- Smooth brown something- We need to talk about Rogan- We need to talk about (Ilya) Shapiro- Welcome to Georgetown...now into the penalty box, you racist!- A warning label for everything- A magic word supercut!- Canadian truck driving Nazis?- The Thousand Beer Reich: 14 out-of-shape Nazis stand on an Orlando bridge- Patti for SCOTUS- And much, much more.... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

Almost a year after being run out of Slate for possession of an unpopular opinion, journalist and podcaster Mike Pesca joins the Fifth for his first post-controversy conversation on how it all went down, when banal opinions became "harassment," and what we can expect from the The Gist 2.0.Is Kmele being prioritized for Covid treatment? Because, ya know...Mike Pesca gets pushed out of Slate (for referencing, but not saying, a magic word)Bull Connor's boss, SteveA "harassment-worthy" opinionWas anyone brave and did they call bullshit? Ummm...N-words and Mohammad cartoonsInsert $5 for more podcastKmele's Kovid fogThe roughest period of Mike's life, everThe new, new journalismHating Joe RoganYou don't have the truth, journalists. But you can get thereThe Gist's approchal Moynihan likes The Gist. Except that one episode...The media is atomized. Or maybe balkanizedColeman is a good rapperDon't catastrophize the normal See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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 at HereticonFallibility vs. FundamentalismA Time to ChooseIn Your Heart You Know He's RacistGerrymandering for GoodCredibility, TransparencyIgnoring Alex JonesArguing with Alex JonesThe One Thing Americans Agree On......It's All Going to Shit Alex Jones' AmericaIdiots Wrote ThisRecorded: Jan 13th, 2022Published: Jan 14th, 2022 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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

He's brilliant. He has a Pulitzer Prize, And he's totally jacked. New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, who was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and could definitely kick your ass, joins the Fifth to reflect on the riot, coup, insurrection, revolution, putsch, mass hate crime...whatever you want to call it. But hang around after the Rosenberg Coup Hour for a freewheeling postgame meditation on legal crime in New York City, upbraiding Moynihan for his bad parenting skills, and the secret ghostwriters behind Kmele's Twitter account...*Note: It's someone else's fault, obviously, but allow us to extend a half-hearted apology for the slightly subpar (occasional but not terrible) audio quality on one of our mics. If this was a Patreon episode and you forked over cash--which you really, really should do--our regrets would be far more groveling and effusive. But you skinflints and freeloaders can just deal with it.... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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