The Commentary Magazine Podcast

So we’re supposed to be concerned about Donald Trump and his accountants but we’re supposed to dismiss special prosecutor John Durham and his findings—this, anyway, is what the mainstream media are telling us. The podcast takes up this gaslighting as well as the gaslighting by the CDC when it comes to masking. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew expresses our heartbreak at the untimely and sudden loss of our friend and contributor P.J. O’Rourke. We discuss his legacy—and guess at how excited he would have been to see the news this morning about a recall of leftist school board members in San Francisco and what that recall might portend. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks why we should care about Canada’s decision to abrogate civil liberties in an unprecedented fashion. And why we should care about Ukraine. And why we should care about kids masking. Why. Why. Why. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks why the media are so curiously silent about the explosive allegations in the “finding” issued by special prosecutor John Durham in his investigation into efforts to interfere with the good working order of the Trump 2016 campaign. And why is Joe Biden saying it’s “probably too soon” to take off the mask? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So the podcast has noticed how liberal views are now starting to reflect opinions about inflation and COVID expressed by us FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS. Do we welcome the newly enlightened or condemn them for their Johnny-Come-Latelyism? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast: An update on Noah’s descent into activism, the brewing backlash against the political class’s reluctant decision to start paring back Covid mitigation measures, and the moral atrocity of China’s winter Olympics. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Republican National Committee’s foolish January 6 committee resolution has now drawn Mitch McConnell back into the fight over what to call that day’s violence, illustrating the idiocy of the RNC’s resolution. Also, we’re now confronted with the discomfiting fact that all it took for the Covid regime to dissolve was for Democrats to be over it, too. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks why progressives are actively trying to depress kids and their constituents and give them the sense that nothing they do will make a difference. And we try to suss out what the Biden administration’s strategy is when it comes to stopping Putin from invading Ukraine. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The campaign against Joe Rogan enters a new phase; one that has successfully forced Spotify to remove some episodes of his show from their library. Is this the price you pay for getting in bed with mainstream platforms? Also, the RNC’s hideous blunder and Stacy Abrams’ foolish photo op. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

January’s unemployment report beat all expectations, and December’s upwardly revised employment figures suggest the Omicron variant isn’t the societal disruptor many expected it would be. Democrats could make political hay of that if they wanted. But do they? Also, an update on the CNN scandal. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tablet Magazine’s senior writer, Liel Leibovitz, joins the podcast to dismantle Amnesty International’s report alleging that Israel is an apartheid state. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the case of Whoopi Goldberg and what her dismissal of the racial component of the Holocaust actually means—and the horror of her defense at the hands of the Anti-Defamation League. And there’s more! Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast looks at the precipitous decline in Omicron and wonders at the fact that the media aren’t trumpeting the end of the surge and the possible return to normalcy that should follow it. Why isn’t this the headline of all headlines? We try to answer the question, and we discuss Georgetown Law School’s shameful violation of academic freedom and Whoopi Goldberg’s moral idiocy. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The effort by Laurel Canyon soft-rock hippie totalitarians to suppress America’s leading podcaster—with the support of mainstream media figures who now side conclusively with the idea that views they don’t like should be suppressed—takes up much of today’s episode. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The left is beginning to engage in the debate over the efficacy of masking, long after that debate definitively ended on the right. But can Democrats and their progressive allies give up the talisman if it means retroactively confirming that Republicans were right all along? Also, the bizarre conflicting stories around Joe Biden’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legal scholar Adam White joins the podcast today to talk about Stephen Breyer’s retirement, his legacy, his accomplishments (or lack thereof) on the court, the fact he gets no respect from liberals, and fun facts about previous confirmation battles. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Kraushaar of National Journal joins the podcast today to discuss the electoral dangers to Democrats of their increasingly desperate efforts to talk down or belittle or deny the growing disenchantment of the nation with the status quo. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Democrats gradually awaken to the political detriments posed by their efforts to cling to Covid hawkishness, we wonder when or if they will decide that self-preservation demands that they loosen pandemic-related restrictions. Do Democrats even have a vocabulary that would allow them to do that? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the prospect of a Russian move into Ukraine looks more and more imminent, how will American voters respond to that threat to the post-Cold War geopolitical order? Can the neo-isolationism preferred by elements on the right and left win a majority, or does the voting public have a firmer grasp on what the loss of American hegemony would mean than the intellectual class? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the prospect of a Russian move into Ukraine looks more and more imminent, how will American voters respond to that threat to the post-Cold War geopolitical order? Can the neo-isolationism preferred by elements on the right and left win a majority, or does the voting public have a firmer grasp on what the loss of American hegemony would mean than the intellectual class? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast goes through a spate of criticisms of parents for daring to speak out about the education of their children and how spectacularly self-destructive such efforts are on the part of the critics. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s show is dedicated to Joe Biden’s ponderously long press conference, in which the president made more news in a shorter period than perhaps any of his predecessors, and none of it good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a rare Biden press conference commemorating his first year in office coming up, the podcast crew tries to imagine what on earth he can say that won't dig his various holes any deeper. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Democratic Party’s efforts to pass just one progressive reform bill in the Senate are now verging on the comical. The hosts discuss their strategy, or lack thereof, as well as the imminence of 5G internet and its complications and the implications of the nascent feud between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, we lay out a veritable smorgasbord of depressing developments. From the reaction to the Texas hostage crisis to horrifying violence in New York City to the West’s inability to prepare for and deter a Russian attack on Ukraine, the news is going from bad to worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with a lengthy reminiscence of our colleague and critic-at-large, Terry Teachout, who passed away unexpectedly on Thursday. Then, with our columnist James B. Meigs, we take up his blockbuster piece, "The Pandemic Public Health Disaster." And conclude with thoughts on Biden's terrible week. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast discusses the various fronts on which conservatives and ordinary sane Americans are fighting back against the revolutionary forces that are trying to rewrite the rules of American society. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the fact that inflation is rising at the fastest rate in 40 years while Joe Biden...desperately tries to change the subject to something pleasing to the Democratic base. Good luck with that. And we discuss Abe Greenwald's blockbuster piece from our February issue, "Yes, There Is a Counter-Revolution." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yuval Levin joins the podcast to talk about the Biden trip to Georgia to promote "voting rights"—and how the ideas promulgated by Democrats are both non-starters and have the effect of delegitimizing...Biden's own victory in 2020! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, the gang discusses the bleak choices available to the U.S. in the face of Putin's unceasing demands. Then there's the incoherence of the CDC on vaccines and the Democrats' attempt to paint Republicans as anti-democratic. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the Congressional treatment of January 6, including the bizarre interpolation of a song from Hamilton that offers a positive view of...a man who staged a seditious conspiracy against the United States? Also, public-health people call for more public-health people, and a bad jobs report. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Noah Rothman's absence, we're joined today by Matthew Continetti to discuss the president's speech about the January 6 riot and what it portends for the Democrats, the Republicans, and Donald Trump. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today takes up the astonishing case of the new Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who has announced he will do everything he can to keep convicted criminals out of jail. What will this do to Democrats? And what will the Chicago teachers union and its refusal to return to school do to them and to the party that serves them? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From cars stuck on a frozen highway in Virginia to the constant revisions of the public-health leaders to the conviction of Elizabeth Holmes in California, the question arises yet again: What happened to competence? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back live and on topic, and the topic is the weird shift in tone among the COVID hawks over the past week and how it may be a reflection of just how badly they think they're doing in the public's eyes—and just how badly Democrats are going to do in November. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew concludes a week of politics-free podcasts (sort of) with a look back on the best culture wars of 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though the podcast hosts have chosen nothing from the year 2021 to highlight as the best holiday fare of 2021, we nevertheless have some timeless seasonal recommendations for you to check out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast’s hosts explore their favorite television shows of 2021 and provide some binge-worthy recommendations for your holiday week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast’s hosts discuss their favorite movies of 2021 and why they found them particularly moving, interesting, visually exciting, or just not as bad as what they were expecting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the podcast will be doing something a little different: We’re talking about our favorite contributions to the culture this year. In this episode, the hosts discuss their favorite books they read over the last year, whether they were published in 2021 or not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today goes far afield, into the cooking plans of our crew, Charles Dickens and his greatness, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and, of course, COVID. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Joe Biden’s interview with ABC News, the president sought absolution for his failure to anticipate another surge of Covid. That suggests the elite consensus around this virus really did believe their were behavioral rites that would ward off the disease, and, as a corollary, that contracting the disease is a personal failure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up Joe Biden's peculiar speech yesterday, which did absolutely nothing to reassure anyone about anything (save a hopeful Dr. Monica Gandhi, who thought it said what she would want it to say). Why did he give it? What was the purpose? What gives? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast, we discuss the options for how to get around in the world today if someone in your household has contracted the virus. Do you just go about your life? Do you quarantine? Do you isolate? What? And what about Trump finally saying conservatives and his followers should express pride in the vaccines? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the continuing disbelief on the part of Democrats that Joe Manchin meant what he said and said what he meant, and what the simple act of refusing to hear him has cost them and will continue to cost them. And more Omicron craziness. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Covid to climate change, from the optimal functioning of the judicial system to normalcy itself, it has become a mark of sophistication on the left to reject good news and the happiness that accompanies it. This is madness, and Democrats will pay a steep price for inculcating depression in their voters. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The multi-trillion human, social, metaphysical Build Back Better boondoggle has been officially “shelved” for 2021, and good luck pulling it off that shelf in the election year of 2022. Indeed, that was the most likely outcome, as we repeatedly said was the case. Permit us a victory lap, because we’re already halfway around the track. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The crime wave is real, and even the most cosseted of archetypical leftwing reformers are noticing and resenting it. The backlash against permissive liberal governance is building, and they see it coming. But so, too, is the backlash against Covid mitigation measures that seem to ignore the nation’s vaccination rate. Will they wake up to that, too, in time? Kentucky State University Professor... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Continetti joins the podcast today to talk about his piece in the January COMMENTARY, “Disaster of the Senate,” about Chuck Schumer. But first, we discuss, and express our horror at, the texts to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as the January 6th riot was going on—and wonder at their long-term effect. Then we talk omicron. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The disparity between the Omicron variant’s apparent severity and the public health response to it suggests that the pandemic isn’t really about the pandemic anymore. What we’re witnessing is a competition between incompatible visions of societal organization. Also, Christine Rosen on her cover article in the new issue of COMMENTARY: “The New Misogyny.”... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices