The Commentary Magazine Podcast

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

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