The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Today’s podcast wonders at the fact that 36 hours after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, the world is still obsessed with the story; could it be that we are precisely because it’s frivolous? And why is Joe Biden claiming not to have said what he said about Putin and Russia—and why did he say what he said in the first place? And what about the budget? And John Eastman? And COVID? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Continetti joins the podcast to discuss the Oscar slap and what larger meaning it might have, before we discuss what larger meaning Joe Biden improvising a regime-change policy for Russia might have, and what meaning we should assign the texts by Clarence Thomas’s wife. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Covid may not be at the forefront of most voters’ minds anymore, but has the frustration with the mitigation measures imposed on the country faded? Or will there be a reckoning in November? Also, Joe Biden’s evolving nuclear weapons policy. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast expresses aghastness at the very idea that this week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings were somehow more unfair than the ones in 2018 involving Brett Kavanaugh. And we worry over Ukraine. And see shoots of hope in New York City. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today takes up the fascinating fact that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was not a biologist and therefore could not define what it meant to be a woman. What does this self-evidently disingenuous demurral tell us about the state of play inside the progressive-liberal-Democratic coalition? And what does watching Volodymir Zelenskyy’s TV show Servant of the People on... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Continetti joins the podcast to discuss his COMMENTARY column, “Believe Them.” We also talk about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first day of confirmation hearings and Eliot A. Cohen’s optimistic salvo against pessimism, Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did Volodymyr Zelensky commit a tactical error in his address to the Israeli Knesset? Has Russia’s advance in Ukraine stalled out? And will Republicans overreach, as so many observers appear to hope they will, during Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s incendiary podcast goes after the mainstream media’s (and social media’s) disgraceful handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story before moving on to an unexpected New York Times editorial attacking “cancel culture” and the question of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses the astounding death and casualty estimates relating to the Russians in Ukraine and what they portend. Then we talk about my article in the April issue of COMMENTARY called “Neoconservatism: A Vindication.” Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast features an insta-reaction to Wlodymir Zelinskyy’s speech to Congress and what effect it will have on the already overwhelming American support for more involvement in the effort to turn back Russia’s evil. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The news of a “stealth variant” emerging in Asia has news media on edge, but are they the only constituency left in America who is still bracing for renewed Covid restrictions? James B. Meigs joins the podcast to discuss this and more. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iran’s missile attack on U.S. positions in Iraq only highlights a problem the West has been reckoning with since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; that is the seeming impotence of diplomatic and institutional conventions when they are confronted by bad actors willing to destroy them. Also, the return of Covid in East Asia and its ripple effects in the West. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Newly minted COMMENTARY contributing editor Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss his blockbuster article, “The World Has Changed and We Must Change Along With It.” What must America do now not only in relation to Russia but in relation to China as well? And we have some fiery arguments! Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration’s response to the crisis in Europe goes wobbly. Between the administration trying to demonize fossil fuel producers even as they demand more production and their warnings that Russia may use chemical weapons in Ukraine without suggesting a way to deter such an unthinkable attack, can the public’s confidence in the White House’s competency survive? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The January 6 committee’s signal that it’s going to try to criminalize the very notion that the 2020 election was stolen suggests a temptation toward overreach. Will the committee’s members squander public goodwill? Also, an update on the war in Ukraine and thoughts on Cormac McCarthy’s life and work. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to discuss the state of play in Ukraine and the West’s headlong rush into a new nuclear deal with Iran. Does isolating Russia have to come at the expense of efforts to isolate Iran? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew gets into it today over whether the American people are going to demand and force their politicians to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine and whether that would spell disaster. And we discuss the Republican party’s move toward a more familiar kind of hawkishness. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All expectations are that the Russian advance in Ukraine will only grow more brutal in the coming days and weeks. Will the West’s resolve to avoid direct engagement in the conflict weaken if we are witness to those atrocities? Also, has the January 6 Committee overstepped its bounds in a way that will only strengthen Trump? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Roberts, the foremost Churchill biographer, joins the podcast today to discuss Ukraine and grants his imprimatur to analogies suggesting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a present-day Winston. We also discuss the military strategy or lack thereof of the Russians and the surprising nature of the West’s response. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Continetti joins the podcast today to do a post-mortem on Joe Biden’s SOTU—featuring an Abe Greenwald rant about how cheap the speech was that you simply gotta hear. As you have to hear the rest of it. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Russians changing tactics and advancing relentlessly on population centers in Ukraine, the podcast crew wonders how the West will react when the horror begins to escalate. And why can’t the media accept the good news about COVID? And what can Biden do to make his State of the Union address a success? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By all accounts, Russia’s war in Ukraine is going badly for Moscow. Vladimir Putin is now confronted with a geopolitical environment that is wholly arrayed against Western interests. That’s good for civilization, but Putin may feel he has no choice but to engage in a standoff with the West in response. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the early moments of the Ukraine war and whether things are going well or badly for Russia. We also talk about Biden’s speech, the lifting of COVID restrictions by the CDC, and the new Supreme Court nominee. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Continetti joins the podcast to discuss the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine and what the next steps might be—and what it all portends for the future of American politics and the Right. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bret Stephens joins the podcast today to discuss the latest on Ukraine and Biden, and later, we finally take on the “nat-cons.” Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After weeks of waiting, Russia is making its move on Ukraine. Will the Western response meet the measure of the moment? Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss this and a report alleging that the CDC is withholding relevant Covid data because they’re afraid of what you might do with that information. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COMMENTARY podcast welcomes tech columnist James B. Meigs back to the show as Russian troops converge on Ukraine ahead of what looks like a pivotal weekend. Will Russia invade, or will it allow the exercises that have served as a pretext for mobilization to end quietly? Also, the return of “herd immunity” as a Covid off-ramp and Jim’s astute article in the March issue on “Good NASA vs Bad NASA. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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