The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Trump has been indicted. We talk about it. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast points out the unprecedented nature of Joe Biden's attack on Benjamin Netanyahu, as it involves not international conflict but internal domestic Israeli government structures. And David Bahnsen joins us to discuss the banking crisis three weeks after the run on Silicon Valley Bank. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast wonders at Joe Biden making ice cream jokes and anti-Republican quips in response to the school shooting in Nashville and how it is he is not held more to account for his simple bad taste. Also: are we going to see the shooter's manifesto and if not, why not? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast examines the horrible school shooting in Nashville and the steps that must be taken to protect institutions at risk of future assault. What is the connection between Nashville and the shock poll that reveals a decline in American attitudes on marriage, patriotism, churchgoing, and other essentials? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the podcast to talk about the protests in Israel, how we got here, the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the choices now facing Benjamin Netanyahu and the government. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we journey from the mess in Israel to the hearing on TikTok to the continuing crisis of John Fetterman to the banking story. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast ends with a conversation about the growing consensus that the Chinese military should not be dominating American social media. But before we get to that, we got some Trump, we got some DeSantis….Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses the change in tactics by the Biden administration when it comes to sending tanks to Ukraine. Then: DeSantis and Trump. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast examines Ron DeSantis’s first real salvo against Donald Trump for his personal conduct even as he criticizes the prosecutor who is apparently about to indict the ex-president—and Trump’s return volley. And: China’s Xi makes his move internationally. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday’s podcast is all about the apparently weak case Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg intends to prosecute against Donald Trump and why—if the leaks are correct about the nature of the proceedings—all it will do is strengthen Trump and hurt the country. Also, Iraq 20 years later. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the breathless claim that a new source of the COVID pandemic has been located—it comes from a raccoon dog! Hmmm. Meanwhile, China is making moves in the Middle East and with Russia as it continues to elude responsibility for its role in the deaths of 7 million people from the virus. And why is Janet Yellen saying she’ll bail out some banks but not others? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast wonders at the notion that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg might be bringing a case against the former president whose star witnesses for the prosecution would be a convicted felon and a porn-star-sex-worker. Is that wise, or just one string in a Lilliputian trap for Donald Trump? Also, will there be extended fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses the geopolitical impact of Russia’s harassment of an unmanned American drone, what this suggests about Ron DeSantis and his foreign-policy views, and the assault on free speech and simple good manners at Stanford Law School. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast features our old friend Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, who joins us to discuss Ron DeSantis’s characterization of the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” in which we should not become entangled. And then we talk about the stunning news that China has brokered a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia and what this says about American foreign... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast discusses the political impact of the sudden bank crisis in the United States before turning to the Oscars. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the astonishing effort by the research organization that found COVID masking to be ineffectual to deny that its own study said what its lead investigator says it said. (To follow the logic, listen to the podcast.) Also, jobs numbers and Chinese balloons. Eliana Johnson is in for Christine. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast is about a shameful New York Times story that offers a cheerful and positive look at a stroke victim in a profound depressive state and wonders why the paper did it. And why it is that Democrats on the committee investigating the origins of COVID took out after a journalist rather than deal with his reporting. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes apart Joe Biden’s op-ed in the New York Times that proposes to “save” Medicare. And then we talk about Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast looks at how extremists of the Left are going to make it hard for Joe Biden to get himself in a good position when it comes to crime—and how Tucker Carlson and others are going to make it hard for the GOP to get independent voters when it comes to soft-pedaling what happened on January 6. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to talk about his article, ‘ The Iraq War, 20 Years Later.” But first we discuss Donald Trump’s stemwinder at CPAC over the weekend and whether a New York Post story on Anthony Fauci’s conduct in February 2020 is a smoking gun. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up Joe Biden’s decision to violate his own party’s principles and refuse to veto a Congressional move against bad crime rules in the District of Columbia. Does this herald a new era of pragmatic politics inside the Biden White House? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about Congress’s move against the left’s ideological repurposing of retirement funds and what it means for the future of ESG investing. We also discuss Ron DeSantis’s Disney slap down, the wild success of his new book, and what he may or may not do to check Donald Trump’s gains. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today examines the stunning rejection of incumbent Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot in a Democratic primary that ended with her getting 15 percent of the vote after a landslide four years earlier. Why did it happen? And what does it say about municipal governance and crime? Also, student loans and the feeling that you’re a sucker if you work hard and play by the rules. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the New York Times story about how the Biden administration is going to layer on regulations and rules directing companies it supposedly wants to strengthen the semiconductor industry to do nice progressive things. Is this constitutional? More to the point, is it stupid? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today examines how three pillars of the American COVID response—masking, vaccination rather than natural immunity, and the denial of Chinese responsibility for the outbreak—are all collapsing at once under the harsh light of actual scientific reality. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast marks the year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the order of battle—and the order of the ideological and partisan battles inside the United States—right now. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses Trump’s trip to the site of the train derailment in Ohio—which came at the same time it began to dawn on those hopeful he would be taken down by a Georgia prosecutor that the grand-jury foreperson in that case might have been destroying the possibility of a successful proceeding against him. Also, will a Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action have the same... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses the political impact of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, especially as regards Democratic darling Pete Buttigieg; considers the presidential candidacy of Vivek Ramaswamy (who?); and assesses the presidential chances of Republican Sen. Tim Scott. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Continetti joins the podcast as permanent co-host today as we discuss the president’s trip to Kyiv and just what it was Ron DeSantis was saying about it exactly—and how the early 20th century’s politics in America might be an eerie parallel to what’s happening right now. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we say a fond farewell to our colleague Noah Rothman, who is off to National Review. We do so by discussing his favorite recent story, the continuing balloon madness. Then we move onto debilitated senators and what to do about them, and the astounding filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its case against Fox News. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast: More balloons, why is the Right growing pessimistic about Ukraine when the Russians are experiencing catastrophes anew, and the New York Times gets attacked for not being…sufficiently pro-trans? Really? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast finds us all feeling gaslighted by the blizzard of weird and contradictory details coming out about the UFO incursions. We also discuss whether it’s now inevitable that Donald Trump will be indicted by the federal special prosecutor. And why aren’t soft-on-crime politicians facing consequences? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast examines former South Carolina governor/UN ambassador Nikki Haley’s announcement video for her presidential candidacy. Are the themes good ones? How directly does she take on Trump? And what about inflation and the balloons? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast notes three more incidents in which American missiles downed unidentified flying objects and wonders what is worse: That we knew about all this and are lying about it now or that we knew nothing and are scrambling in the darkness to figure it all out. Also: McConnell takes care of business and a really fun Super Bowl. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks why the Biden administration declassified information regarding the Chinese surveillance flights via balloon and what they might suggest about the White House’s posture toward China—or whether we even have a posture toward China. Also, the Fetterman fears may have come home to roost. And what about Nikki Haley getting 11 percent in a three-way poll? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast notes Joe Biden’s pleasure at having drawn Republicans out into yelling at him during the State of the Union and how Bidenites are telegraphing that this is how they intend to win in 2024. Good strategy or not? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We analyze Joe Biden’s State of the Union, the Republican heckling, and the interesting response from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on today’s episode featuring Matthew Continetti, who will join the podcast as a permanent daily co-host in a few weeks. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the coming State of the Union speech and the fact that President Biden will have to make an accounting for himself on the bizarre week of balloon intelligence hijinks. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies at AEI and National Affairs editor, Yuval Levin, joins the show today to talk about why experts didn’t see last Friday’s jobs numbers coming. Also, what the Chinese surveillance balloon says about American national security and the Biden administration’s handling of it. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses a Chinese balloon, removing House members from committees, and Russia’s gambit in Ukraine. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hunter Biden’s legal team not only acknowledges that the “laptop from hell” was Hunter Biden’s but is now trying a newly “aggressive” strategy to go after the people who disseminated its contents—without ever stopping to acknowledge the two-plus years of lies about it. We take this up, as well as the assault on Ron DeSantis for his efforts to repair a flawed African American studies curriculum. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tevi Troy joins the podcast today to talk about his article in COMMENTARY, “Ed Koch, Ten Years Gone.” And Tevi puts on his health-care hat as a former high-ranking official at the Department of Health and Human Services to help us understand the baffling Biden White House announcement that the COVID emergency will be over…in three months. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin of Wide World of News joins us today to discuss his must-read newsletter, the probabilities of both Trump and Biden being the 2024 nominees, what the change in White House chiefs of staff might portend, Kamala Harris’s trials, and whether Ron DeSantis is overvalued. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police has reignited the debate around over-policing and race in America. But “reform” doesn’t seem to be the objective critics of police culture and those pushing a racial narrative in this killing want. Also, thoughts on the Palestinian violence against Israeli worshipers and the Israeli strike on Iranian military facilities. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The arrest-related shooting of a black suspect has captured the attention of racial activists, but the narrative is complicated by the race of the police involved, who are also black. Also, is Donald Trump’s resurgence in the polls cresting, or has it only just begun? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast brings up good economic numbers and asks whether we’re just now measuring everything badly—and how the political system is uniquely incompetent when it comes to resolving future economic crises before they happen. Also, some news about our show’s future. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frederick Kagan joins the podcast to help us understand the breakthrough in NATO thinking that has led Germany and the United States to commit high-tech tanks to the war in Ukraine, how the war is going, and what America's understanding of the war should be as we approach the end of the first year of fighting. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us to talk about the indictment of the former head of the counterintelligence unit of the FBI in New York and what it might tell us about the FBI, the Justice Department, and the ongoing obsession with the 2016 elections. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Biden says he has “no regrets” about his handling of classified information. Really? Why not? Seems like a big deal to us on the podcast. Also a big deal: Ukraine. And the Supreme Court’s inability to find the leaker of its most important decision in decades. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices