The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Today’s podcast takes up the larger meaning of Jussie Smollett’s attempt to use the criminal-justice system as his catspaw and how it reveals a crisis in the liberal understanding of crime in general. Then we discuss the inflation crisis and what it means, and offer a few choice words about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, we discuss Donald Trump’s oddly casual revelation that he believes Russia stole our hypersonic technology research—and then that research got into China’s hands. Isn’t this the biggest story ever? And why is Biden giving Putin what he wants with a big summit? And why are Democrats losing Hispanics? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did Senate Republicans make a mistake by giving in to a one-time debt ceiling increase that circumvents the legislative filibuster? Is Biden responding with appropriate force to the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine? And what do we make of the leftwing effort to frame the sinking of Saule Omarova’s nomination to the position of comptroller as cynical red baiting? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A report out of South Africa confirms the rumors: the Omicron variant is less severe even though it is more contagious. That is good news, so why isn’t it being treated as such? Also, the national crime wave continues to build and Joe Biden’s existential test in Europe. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Casse, president of the G100 Chief Executive program, joins the podcast this morning to discuss the trap in which Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats find themselves. Namely, the idea that their political fortunes are tied to Covid case rates, over which they have no control. Also, a look back on the life of the late Sen. Bob Dole. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration is improvising its way through a new Covid panic, projecting impotency along the way. Speaking of impotency, Russia is sending signals indicating that another invasion of Ukraine is imminent, and the White House’s response so far has consisted of sternly worded letters. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Constitutional law scholar Adam White joins the podcast today to discuss the abortion rights case before the Supreme Court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. What are the merits of the arguments before the Court? Will the conservative justices dismantle the precedents established by the decisions in Roe and Casey? And will the country descend into political combat when the ruling comes... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a busy podcast today as we take up the limited evidence that the new variant justifies the draconian measures now being imposed in Europe and being floated here at home. Then we go into the “indefinite suspension” of Chris Cuomo at CNN and what it means for the future of the network, whose new boss has already indicated he wants to take it in a different direction. And will the new West Side... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast wonders at Joe Biden’s inability to pronounce the name of the variant he went on national television to warn against—and tries to sort through what little evidence we have about how dangerous this thing really is. Then we come to Chris Cuomo: Why does he still have a job exactly? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks whether there’s a crazed overreaction to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. We then discuss the car that killed people in Waukesha and the continuing effort by the media to whitewash its role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story. And a final word on Stephen Sondheim. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s pre-Thanksgiving episode offers our own crushingly morose tribute to the United States as we battle the phenomenon of prosecutors letting people loose to commit horrible crimes and elite opinion-wielders trashing the United States when this country provided them with bounties untold. Happy Turkey Day and give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration is making the strategic petroleum reserve available to the markets seemingly only in response to his sagging polls, which observers believe is a response to rising consumer costs. But this is not an energy policy. Also, thoughts on the public response to the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, we discuss the reaction to the Rittenhouse verdicts, the continuing effort to talk up the Biden social-spending bill, and the horror in Waukesha. Also, Christine explains how she is the podcast’s successor to the Karate Kid. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Bahnsen joins the podcast today to talk about the Build Back Better bill and why its passage in the House might be at best politically meaningless for Democrats and at worst their Armageddon before we go on to discuss his book, There’s No Free Lunch, about economics and human flourishing. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did Paul Gosar deserve to be censured for tweeting out an anime video that appeared to threaten his colleagues? Does Lauren Boebert have a point about Eric Swalwell “sleeping with the enemy?” Did Ilhan Omar go too far with her semi-literate attack on Boebert? Or have we just elected ourselves a nightmarish reality show with no redeeming value? Also, an update on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yuval Levin joins the podcast today as we mark the fact that 70 percent of the population of the United States 12 and over is fully vaccinated—a point when we were told we would reach herd immunity and see the end of the pandemic. But clearly, the powers that be won’t say so—even though everything we see says Joe Biden desperately needs to claim a victory, any victory. Why won’t he? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the question of what the mainstream media deem permissible and praiseworthy when it comes to political coverage—and how discipline is enforced when other media professionals don’t do what the self-appointed critics and finger-waggers want them to do. Then we talk about how the same is going on, in an even more pernicious form, in academia. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast examines the Washington Post-ABC poll that has Democrats curled up in a fetal position today and the efforts to happy-talk it down. Will they work? Come on, man. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today takes up a new poll that suggests Democrats and independents are entirely at cross purposes when it comes to big spending, so if Joe Biden pleases his own base, he alienates the non-aligned voters he desperately needs as well—and vice versa. And what happened to the 2020 revolutionary moment? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the political fallout from inflation and continued COVID restrictions and the surprising events in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew is joined today by our pal Jonathan Schanzer, whose illuminating new book Gaza Conflict 2021 provides an eye-opening account of the hostilities earlier this year—and a guide to the state of play in the Middle East more broadly. We also talk about the sudden insistence of the mainstream media on especially evil Republicans just a week after Democrats got dunned in the elections—how... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast crew today to talk about the stunning developments in the investigation into the 2016 efforts to demonstrate the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia—a charge we now know to have been entirely without foundation, notwithstanding the lives this false charge affected and nearly destroyed. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should we eat crow because Democrats did pass a big spending bill? We say we have no crow to eat, but you might disagree! Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast goggles at the prospect of Democrats in the House passing a gigantic spending bill that will be dead on arrival in the Senate—and hand Republicans every weapon they need to destroy Democratic hopes in 2022. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins us on the podcast today for continued analysis of the electoral trainwreck for Democrats this week and what on earth they think they’re doing with the two bills in Congress in its wake. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The startling results in Virginia and New Jersey—not to mention on Long Island and in Buffalo and Minneapolis—mean that we’re living in a different country politically today from the one we were living in yesterday. We have many explanations for why. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More evidence of Democratic disarray in Washington yesterday, and the confusing apparent decline of Democratic hopes in the Virginia governor’s race, bring to mind Casey Stengel’s plaint about managing the 1962 Mets: “Can’t anyone here play this game?” Meanwhile, Afghanistan falls into hellfire. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast covers a panoply of topics, from the foolishness and corruption of the “Lincoln Project’ to whether a three-word slogan should be considered an act of terrorism to the Washington Post’s gargantuan January 6 investigation and on. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast features a cautious victory lap from the crew—who pretty much predicted the slapstick collapse of Joe Biden and the Democrats yesterday on Capitol Hill. The lap is cautious because we still can’t quite believe they’re as bad at this as they look. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, Joe Biden and his allies sent political observers into a frenzy with the announcement that a deal had been reached on a social safety net bill. But there was no deal, and there will be no votes. Is there anything that explains this behavior but abject incompetence? American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Matthew Continetti joins the podcast today to discuss this and more. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Democratic Party is flirting with failing to meet a deadline to pass both physical and social infrastructure in precisely the same way they failed weeks ago. Is that really possible? Also, the Chinese hypersonic missile threat and American complacency. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the so-called “billionaires tax” that is the hot topic in Washington and subjects it to scrutiny—is it constitutional? will it generate sufficient revenue? what will the consequences be for ordinary people?—which is maybe the worst (or best!) thing you could do to such a concept. Then, it’s education and why Democrats and liberals seem unable to understand why it may be... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins today’s podcast to discuss his two articles in the November issue of Commentary. One, “COVID and the Authorities: It’s Even Worse Than We Thought,” has only gained momentum over the past week as more has emerged to suggest leading figures in the public-health community might have been involved in a major cover-up at the beginning of the pandemic. The second... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bari Weiss joins the COMMENTARY podcast to discuss her article in the new issue: “We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage.” She outlines the threat posed by wokeness, and how dissenters against this authoritarian dogma can reverse course. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can laughter survive the scrutiny of self-serious social justice activists? Director, producer, and screenwriter of such hits as “Airplane!” and the “Naked Gun” series, David Zucker joins the show to discuss his article in the new issue of COMMENTARY, “Destroying Comedy,” and the woke threat to humor. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast welcomes former Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Tevi Troy back to discuss his article in the latest issue of COMMENTARY, “Wokeness, M.D.” We discuss the ideological threat to the dispassionate conduct of medical science and how ideology is guiding public health practitioners’ approach to the pandemic. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wilfred Reilly joins the podcast today to talk about his essential article, “The Whiteness of Wokeness.” As we discuss the phenomenon of well-to-do Caucasians supposedly speaking on behalf of the needs of African-Americans and those of color, we delve into the brilliant observations of George Orwell 85 years ago in his book, The Road to Wigan Pier. Then we talk about the Virginia governor’s race. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast pays tribute to Colin Powell’s extraordinary American story and asks why his memoir isn’t taught in schools while memoirs about racial bitterness are. We also wonder at the larger meaning of the DC comic book company’s decision to remove the words “American way” from the Superman slogan and what it means about the possibilities of a conservative counterculture. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last podcast of the week finds us in a ruminative mood as we discuss Dave Chappelle’s controversial special and the finger-wagging response to it—and wonder at the finger-wagging being done in response to the journey of William Shatner into space. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up Donald Trump’s statement that Republican voters will not turn out to vote unless the 2020 vote is somehow resolved in his favor. What does this portend? Will the results in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections suggest a different future? And what about all this “national divorce” stuff? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A discussion about the lingering and unknowable negative health effects of mid-pandemic mitigation measures that may not even be fully visible to us for years. Also, the center-left’s new obsession with the political strategist David Shor and his prescription for Democratic success: “popularism.”... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew takes up the new effort in Texas to prevent private businesses from requiring employees to vaccinate, and what it says about the politics of the jab nationwide. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Liberals are beginning to panic about the decline of Joe Biden’s popularity and what it might mean, and we’re there to help explain it to them! Also, what’s going on with the supply chain, and is Trump playing a role in Biden’s troubles? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the question of whether McConnell blinked, why Schumer attacked a deal that gave him a face-saving way out, why Manchin put his head in his hands while Schumer did that, why Donald Trump is doing what he’s doing, and why the Chinese are doing what they’re doing in Taiwan. Oh, and some COVID stuff. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast looks at a Quinnipiac poll that has very bad news for Joe Biden in it and wonders at the choices he’s made that have led him to this pass. How are we to understand him? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the charges of the Facebook whistleblower and asks whether her perspective is the right one or whether she misunderstands the nature of Facebook’s challenge to American society. And what exactly are Democrats up to when it comes to raising the debt ceiling? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcasters today consider crime up close and personal—yesterday I was in proximity to four different acts of violence and another was nearly burglarized. Is there a larger meaning to these actions? Do they connect somehow to the president’s seeming acceptance of the harassment of Kyrsten Sinema? And how are we to understand them in light of the Justice Department’s decision to focus on... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew expresses puzzlement at the Democratic party spin that the failure of both big spending bills this weekend needs to be viewed as some kind of ideological and partisan triumph. Why? How? What on earth is going on here? And why is Anthony Fauci threatening Christmas? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast notes that liberal opinion seems determined to cast the left’s refusal to spend $1 trillion because it wants to spend $4.5 trillion as some kind of victory—and asks whether that makes any sense. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast explains why Joe Manchin will never, ever, ever, ever do anything near what the progressives in his party want—because it would be the end of him and he wants to remain his state’s dominant politician. We also discuss the finger-pointing among Bidenites about the Afghanistan disaster, whether it’s OK to desire the political failure of your adversaries, and why we’re no longer... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices