The Commentary Magazine Podcast

The podcast crew expresses skepticism at the notion that Biden and the Democrats have a brilliant strategy to get their $3.5 trillion spending bill passed. And we express skepticism about Joint Chiefs chair Mark Milley’s self-portrait as the man Who Saved America from the New Nazis. And we praise Olivia Rodrigo, who’s great. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins today’s podcast to discuss the Delta variant surge and the continuing refusal of many on the Right to act to contravene it. We also talk about the weirdness of Democratic senators announcing they had agreed to a $3.5 trillion deal that, in fact, they hadn’t all agreed to—and why on earth the Biden administration is giving in to Iran. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Washington Free Beacon Editor-in-Chief Elianna Johnson joins the program today in Christine Rosen’s absence to talk about Texas Democrats’ tactical retreat from their jobs, Cuba’s ongoing protests, and troublingly high inflationary signals. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman is back after a week away from the podcast to offer his two cents on the Delta variant surge and how it’s affecting conservative media and Republican politics. We also discuss the revolt in Cuba and why it’s important to support democratic rebellions abroad… and Black Widow. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s hodgepodge of a podcast takes up our personal histories of summer camp, Joe Biden’s speech on Afghanistan, the conversion of COVID into a seasonal flu, and bad documentaries. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk about the recent uptick in U.S. COVID cases, the ever-elusive end of the pandemic, and the skepticism around vaccines and lockdowns. We touch on Donald Trump’s move against Big Tech, and we close out with some old sitcom gems. Hint: Chuckles the Clown. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our friend Steve Kornacki joins the podcast today to talk about the results of the New York City primary in the Democratic party and what they say about the party’s ideological makeup—and about the future of ranked-choice voting. It’s great. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The leftist attacks on America around July 4 may prove to be the unforced error of all unforced errors, or so we say on today’s (sadly Noah-free) podcast. We also talk about tenure for critical race theorists, who really knows about critical race theory, and who should be talking about the vaccination problem. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the Fourth of July weekend and we spend the podcast defending America from the nonsense of NPR, the liberal notion that America is a bad actor on the world stage, and the idea that COVID is some form of rough justice for America’s sins. Have a glorious weekend as you give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast: What happened in the Bill Cosby case? How best can we discuss the extraordinary life of Donald Rumsfeld, RIP? What is ballot harvesting? Will people believe elections are fair ever again? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast looks at the disaster of the New York Democratic mayoral primary and what it says about the way liberal cities and states work. And more repulsive blather from Ilhan Omar. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast concludes with a commemoration of the life and career of 95-year-old Mel Brooks and what they have to teach us—and how we need to restore what he brought to American life and American comedy. Before that, we ask why Democrats and Republicans have such wildly divergent views about the end of the pandemic—and the thickets into which the Biden administration has wandered with Iran. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Continetti joins today’s podcast, which features a conversation about aliens and God so deep that you may think we were high or drunk while recording it. We weren’t. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the final podcast of the week, we try to make sense out of Joe Biden praising bipartisan dealmaking before promising to pass everything left out of the bipartisan infrastructure deal—which will likely destroy that deal. What’s the game here? Is there one? And did Mike Pence just end his Republican political career? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the conundrum of the politics within the Democratic Party that led to fantasies of a new New Deal, which have been subjected to various reality tests this week injurious to Joe Biden and his agenda going forward. Also, more reader mail about vaccinations and whether we’re mean about them. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast tries to make sense out of the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating from Democrats about the failure of their largely unconstitutional voting bill before pointing out that progressives had a setback in the New York City primary on Tuesday and what that might mean. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James. B. Meigs joins us again to discuss the important question of just why it was the idea of COVID originating from a lab leak was deemed undiscussable. We also point out that the press has a historical habit of believing that corporations will do all sorts of evil scientific things… but not Communist regimes. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The evidence is everywhere: An extraordinary number of people seem to prefer living under masks rather than accepting the data that say the pandemic is over. Why? We go into that, and the extraordinary story of the lab leak in the Soviet Union that American “experts” agreed was a naturally occurring phenomenon… because saying so was taking a side in the political-cultural-ideological war of the... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast discusses the amazing fact that conservative justices on the Supreme Court often go against what people say their political allies demand of them—but this happens far more rarely among liberal justices. Now, why would that be? Also… Donald Trump is running. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we begin the podcast with talk about Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin before getting to the hot topic of the day—an apology proffered by a showbiz legend for saying something entirely commonsensical and true. Why did Rita Moreno feel it necessary to abase herself before the gods of wokeness? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast features a response from all of us to a great letter from a listener who believes John is far too harsh about the question of who gets vaccinated. See whom you agree with! And, again, when will they say the pandemic is over when the pandemic… is… over… NOW. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What did Biden say about the GOP and Vladimir Putin on foreign shores? Attacked one and praised the other? We talk about that on today’s podcast, as well as shameful public pronouncements by columnist Michael Gerson and former Biden COVID guy Andy Slavitt. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bret Stephens joins the podcast crew today to discuss the change in Israel’s government—and the complex legacy of Benjamin Netanyahu. Then we talk NATO, Biden, and the end of the pandemic. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does Jeffrey Toobin deserve to be treated with compassion and forgiveness when woke culture is busy showing the opposite of both to anyone that crosses it? And how will the media atone for their false coverage of what happened in Lafayette Park in 2020? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The progressive left is having a fit over its more moderate members, who have failed to support their transformative designs. But aren’t they saving Joe Biden’s presidency from the unforeseen consequences of pursuing a sweeping agenda on which he didn’t even run? Also, the journalistic backlash against reporting on Israel objectively. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins us today to discuss his brilliant COMMENTARY article, “Republicans, Stop Believing Your Own Election Myth,” before we get to the question of what’s worse, wokeness or the new American aristocracy that is enshrining it? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a hilariously bad response to NBC’s Lester Holt when she was asked why she hadn’t visited the border yet amid her efforts to oversee the ongoing border crisis. The episode adds to the mounting evidence suggesting that Harris is not great at politics. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast points out our continuing cultural confusion when it comes to political correctness, law, and the mistreatment of women before moving on to the Democratic party’s insistence that Republicans are trying to destroy the voting franchise. And what spicy thing did Biden say about war? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The disappointing jobs report will be answered by an explosion of cliches, we say on today’s podcast, but the ability of the Biden administration and liberals in general to make excuses for the failures of their own policies is waning by the day. As is, perhaps, Donald Trump’s sanity. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tech Commentary columnist James Meigs joins the program to talk about his latest piece for the magazine “Thank God for Big Pharma.” We discuss the “lab leak” hypothesis and the terrifying consensus within the scientific community that shut its advocates up. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial guru David Bahnsen joins us today for a deep dive into the COVID numbers and offers his fascinating take on why the threat to the future is not inflation but deflation. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The numbers don’t lie. We’re weeks away from the pandemic being over in the United States, and yet the bitter clingers still threaten our future. Why? And why are Trump fans saying he will be “reinstated” as president? And why, if it happens, is Bibi Netanyahu on his way out? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rehabilitation of the “lab leak” theory of COVID-19’s origins in the press is now accompanied by the Biden administration calling for an investigation. But what will his administration do with that information if the worst is proven correct? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We channel Sally Field’s notorious Oscar speech in offering thanks to listeners for their kind words in response to our inquiry yesterday about whether we should continue to record daily podcasts. Then we react with horror to the Biden budget proposal! Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though it is particularly true of New York City, it’s apparent across this country: The political class has lost its enthusiasm and affection for the nation. They are focused not on revivifying and reinventing it, but on divvying up what’s left while you can. It’s not just a Democratic fixation, either. The GOP’s obsession with relitigating the 2020 election prevents them from looking forward... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New positive COVID tests are at or approaching historic lows across the United States. Deaths and hospitalizations are reaching rates associated with a typical flu season. The pandemic is on the eve of its conclusion. The only question is when elected officials will acknowledge it. Also, the Democratic Party’s advocates in the press have discovered the real problem with anti-Semitism: it detracts... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we try something new: Each panelist chooses a topic. We talk about the effort to equate anti-Semitism with Islamophobia. We talk about whether the Biden administration will hold China accountable on the virus. And we talk about the state hijacking of a commercial European jetliner. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Street violence targeting American Jews is on the rise across America. It is being provoked and condoned by progressives within the Democratic establishment, and the party is doing nothing about it. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast goes over the latest in the ideological war of the Left against Israel, the political hijinx over the January 6 commission, and what on earth is going on with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All the news is good. All the trends are great. Why are the media focusing their sympathetic attention on people who seem to want to live in perpetual lockdown? And why isn’t the Biden administration turning on Israel (yet)? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first podcast of the week takes up the continuing assaults on Israel’s defensive action against Hamas in Gaza and the continuing confusion over the lifting of the masking rules by the federal government. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks what changed that made it possible for the president to announce the end of masking for vaccinated Americans? Was this the result of the “science” or a naked political move to distract from the bad news of the week? And why are liberals clinging to their masks? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inflationary signals are glowing red hot, and it’s starting to scare the markets. Will the Biden administration and Democrats be similarly spooked? Also, the contrived effort on the part of Trump critics to use the conflict in Israel to run down the Abraham Accords, which misunderstands their purpose. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, I read my exchanges yesterday with my sister from her bomb shelter in Tel Aviv to give listeners a real-time sense of what it’s like to be under rocket attack. And then we express our outrage at the liberal effort to blame Israel for the assault upon it before we take up the ouster of Liz Cheney from House leadership and what it portends about the Republican future and Donald... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the catastrophic error made by the Centers for Disease Control in assessing the risk from outdoor transmission of COVID, as detailed by David Leonhardt in the New York Times. Then we go into the catastrophic error made by Joe Biden on pumping unemployment money into the economy, which he tried to correct on Monday. And then into the potentially catastrophic error made by... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast exults in what can only be called exit-velocity numbers about the pandemic and a shift in tone from the panjandra of the public-health community given the good news. Then we tell you the truth about what’s going on in Jerusalem before making fun of liberals trying to explain the reasons for the bad jobs report. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast: Unfortunate job numbers—job creation expected to be around 1 million coming in at 266,000 instead—may be the perfect expression of how intrusive government policy in the form of direct unemployment benefits from the federal government are actually encouraging people to stay home rather than go out to work. More bad policy is in the potential offing through the infrastructure... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Biden’s administration has inexplicably decided to abrogate the intellectual property rights of vaccine manufacturers to satisfy a fringe progressive demand. Why? And the New York Times has all but declared the pandemic behind us as vaccination rates in the U.S. crater. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The long knives are out for Liz Cheney within the GOP, but does ousting this meddlesome priest from her role in leadership really serve Republican interests ahead of the 2022 midterms? And Joe Biden supposedly revamps his vaccine strategy, but his statements make it plain that the administration has no idea what to do about declining demand for inoculations. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blue states like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are following the leads set by Texas and Florida and racing to reopen, regardless of the Biden administration’s desires. Also, the census data showing that racial characteristics aren’t immutable—they can change over time—and why it shows how the theory of Intersectionality as an organizing principle is a dead end. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices