The Commentary Magazine Podcast

The podcast crew enjoys watching Andrew Cuomo's halo turn into a shackle, and wonders at the larger meaning of Ted Cruz's self-inflicted disaster of a trip to a beach while his constituents freeze in their homes. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congressional Democrats haven’t even passed their proposed $2 trillion COVID relief package and they’re already talking about teeing up a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. Are Democrats repeating the mistakes of Barack Obama’s first term? Also, the delusions of Ben Rhodes and Rush Limbaugh’s legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why are Andrew Cuomo's poll numbers still strong? Why is Joe Biden making anti-Israel personnel moves at the State Department and refusing to talk to Benjamin Netanyahu? Why is Nancy Pelosi forming a commission to investigate the January 6 storming of the Capitol? And why is a 16-year-old's mental health fodder for a reality show? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast achieves new heights, or lows, of crushing morosity today as we contemplate the botched impeachment trial—botched by Democrats!—and the new "how to open schools" guidance from the CDC that seems not to follow the science but rather the desires of liberal and leftist "stakeholders." Oh, and some interesting Democratic appointments round it all out. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the third day of the impeachment trial and raises questions about the effectiveness of the Democratic case. Then we talk about the admission of guilt by Andrew Cuomo's top aide relating to the undercounting of nursing-home deaths. And Christine Rosen's brilliant new article. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the narrative presented at the impeachment trial and how it reveals the disturbing nature of a riot whose participants seemed to have themselves taken on the roles of avenging angels and villains in a dark superhero movie. What does this say about us? And what does it say about us that a doctor trying to find willing arms into which he could inject a rapidly expiring vile of COVID vaccine was fired and charged with a crime for not pursuing "equity"? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How bad were Trump's lawyers? Does it matter? How good were the House managers? Does it matter? Does anything matter? How about opening schools—and why are John's kids' schools open while yours are closed? And what does Philip Larkin have to tell us about the world under COVID? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today takes note of the Democratic hunger to get the Senate impeachment trial over with as quickly as possible so they can hand out $2 trillion worth of goodies to the public and what this says about the seriousness of the liberal conviction about Trump being a threat to the republic. And what on earth is going on at the New York Times? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can we ever enjoy ourselves again? That's the question the podcast crew says was raised by the lame commercials at last night's Super Bowl—and by the continuing efforts of the public-health bureaucracy to tell us we will never emerge from the COVID regime. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Commentary podcast on the risks in the new stimulus, Ben Sasse’s admonition of his state’s Republicans, and warmth of the spotlight on public health officials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here’s the good news: The House Republican conference voted overwhelmingly against punishing Rep. Liz Cheney for her vote to impeach Donald Trump in defiance of the GOP’s populist wing. Here’s the bad news: That same conference also gave Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a standing ovation and is disinclined to anathematize her conspiratorial paranoia. So, is everything completely terrible or just really bad? The COMMENTARY podcast debates the proper level of despair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have liberals finally had enough? Are they going to break discipline once they get the vaccine and stop insisting everyone wear three masks? And why does the Biden administration not want to participate in legal action against racial discrimination? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast says Joe Biden's choice of negotiating with Republicans or ramming his own COVID deal through represents a hinge moment for his presidency only 13 days in! And the impeachment trial and what Donald Trump will require of Senate Republicans may be the historical hinge moment for the GOP. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast raises the specter of a negotiation between the new president and ten Republicans who offer the possibility of a bipartisan deal on COVID relief. Will he take it as an opportunity to prove he can work across the aisle or view it as a political trap? Also, more on Andrew Cuomo's perfidy and Donald Trump's GOP blackmail. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast goes at Andrew Cuomo hammer and tong as the whistle is blown by a fellow Democrat in New York state on his handling of the coronavirus. But that's not all! What about Trump and Kevin McCarthy? What about Nancy Pelosi's enemies list? What about hedge fund guys yelling on TV about people who have no right to invest the way they invest? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COMMENTARY Podcast is not the place you want to turn for stock market tips but we do have something to say about the political and cultural meaning of the extraordinary events surrounding the Gamestop stock and the runup in its value. And we wonder at the Biden administration's foot-in-mouth disease when it comes to job-destroying executive orders. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the executive order frenzy of the new administration and Biden's embrace of critical race theory and the teachers' unions' view of how no school should reopen (watch this jaw-dropping video from the teachers union in Chicago) until they decide it's safe. And, of course, the looming Senate trial in the Trump impeachment. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast asks whether the Democrats are both overplaying their hand politically and setting themselves up to seem like extremists in 2022 or whether Republicans in places like Oregon are setting up the GOP for disaster because of their embrace of conspiracy theory and lies. And what does this mean for the politicians who like to straddle fences? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast gets into the COVID confusion of the moment and the continuing refusal of elected officials and public-health people to speak the simple truth about what they know and what they don't—and the fact that tradeoffs are difficult and painful and horrible. Also, the Biden administration gets tested abroad and the GOP continues to eat its own. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast features the gang playing psychiatrist as we try to analyze the claim of a New York Times columnist that she has been in an emotional prison since the election of 2016. How will they get over their addiction to Trump hatred? And how will we be able to deal with the fact that our leaders in Washington now insist everyone wear masks but take theirs off at the least opportunity? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up Joe Biden's early executive actions and the complaints by his COVID czar that they've been left no plan to implement, which is a falsehood but politically very much in keeping with the way incoming administrations try to lower expectations. The question is: Will Biden go woke when his entire candidacy was a feint toward the non-woke? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host of ABC’s “The View,” Meghan McCain, joins the podcast today to talk about Joe Biden’s inauguration as president, the fallout from the January 6 Capitol Building riots, and what it will be like to host a daytime talk show without President Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the surreal fact that Joe Biden will be president, and Donald Trump will not be president—and yet it still feels like Trump is the only news game in town and nobody cares what Biden will say or do. Also some football talk! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bret Stephens, newly minted COMMENTARY contributing editor, joins the podcast today to discuss his blockbuster article, "Memo to President Biden: Please Don't Mess Up the Abraham Accords." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up the second impeachment and the quandary facing the Senate as regards the trial of Donald Trump. Will it involve an assault on free speech? Why are liberals so intent on cracking down on speech anyway? And what about the GOP and Trump’s continued popularity? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast anticipates the House’s vote to impeach Donald Trump a second time and where things go from here—is this the worst possible way to do something our crew does think is vitally necessary? And how badly will the Republican Party fracture over this? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress once again compelled to take up an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump, and the old political calculations are making a comeback. Republicans have a gun to their heads—if reports are to be believed, in a very literal sense, and are increasingly less inclined to support such a motion. But Democrats don’t seem inclined to make betraying Trump an enticing prospect. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our podcast today is supersized as we take on the aftermath of the riots, the removal of Trump from Twitter and the removal of Parler from the Internet, the Republican Party’s challenge, the prospects for impeachment and removal, and the very nature of reality itself. Get a cup of coffee and give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the fallout settling from the siege of the Capitol Building, it has become clear that there should be serious consequences to render that event unthinkable. But what should they be? From impeaching the president, to shaming the lawmakers who allowed this to happen, to the fight for the soul of the GOP; the podcast discusses and debates next steps. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The insurrection staged by Donald Trump yesterday is the focus of our podcast today, and what remedies should or could be adopted to deal with one of the most disgusting events in American political history. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast considers the meaning of the Democratic victories in Georgia and the fact that four years ago Republicans had secured control of the House, the Senate, and the White House—and have now, four years later, lost them all. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast steps back from day-to-day politics to feature our friend Daniel Casse discussing his fascinating Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The Future Turns 50 This Year.” How did 1971 change everything? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First podcast of 2021: Trump’s astounding phone call, Cuomo’s COVID response, conspiracy theorizing… What year is this again? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outgoing President Donald Trump issues two final insults to the American people on his way out the door by throwing a wrench into negotiations over a new COVID relief bill when the deal is already done and by pardoning three convicted former Republican officeholders. Also, Christine’s adventures in music, John and Abe’s take on film, and Noah’s abject dullness. Give a listen, and we’ll see you all... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Increasingly, the progressive left has abandoned the cause of decriminalization in favor of decarceration, expanding the terms of the debate around criminal justice reform to include the virtual abolition of criminal justice as we know it. What was the genesis of this idea, and what could its political consequences be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new round of stimulus, a more infectious strain of COVID-19 emerging in the U.K., Donald Trump’s latest episodes of impotent flailing in the general direction of November’s election results, and Joe Biden’s diminished presence on the public stage. It’s all here in the latest episode of the COMMENTARY podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast takes up the horrendous "medical ethics" talk surrounding the distribution of the vaccine, as well as the roles of luck and gratitude in American life, a surprising reversal of fortune for AOC, and the incoming Senator whose name makes him sound like a character on "Captain Kangaroo." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast concerns Biden-team attacks on "terrible" Republicans, whether Biden himself was too negative in his "I won" speech earlier this week—and why it is that Democrats have become the enemies of fun. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to talk about his blockbuster COMMENTARY essay "Guilty and Framed." Also, we ask: Why are talking-head doctors and public health officials telling everybody we'll all have to keep living this way even after we get the vaccine? Are they crazy? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast raises the prospect that it's really Joe Biden's presidency that will be unprecedented—because he'll be the first president in many decades who won't become the sun around which all the political planets revolve. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast takes up the question of whether the Right's refusal to accept Joe Biden's victory is genuinely revolutionary or more of an enraged howl against systemic media bias—which also has shown its true colors in the attack on one of COMMENTARY's most valued contributors, Joseph Epstein. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor, co-author of Start-Up Nation and host of the new “Post Corona” podcast, joins us today to talk about the electoral college and who intimidated whom (answer: Democrats sought to intimidate Trump electors in 2016) and how the transformative Abraham Accords might be derailed by a Biden administration just as Bibi Netanyahu finds himself in existential trouble as his trial is getting ready... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tech COMMENTARY columnist James B. Meigs joins us today to discuss his piece, "We're Living in a New Space Age"—and the launch of the massive rocket yesterday by Elon Musk's SpaceX that was both a triumph and a disaster. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The hosts look back on all the many crises Donald Trump’s behavior was expected to yield. And while his behavior is doubtlessly dangerous, it has not produced the kind of perilous legal circumstances Trump’s critics feared. Also, Abe Greenwald posits a unified theory of protest movements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COMMENTARY gang welcomes P.J. O'Rourke, first-time magazine contributor with his wonderful and acid piece "Shamalot" in our December issue, to the podcast to talk about JFK, Chinese spies, and Biden cabinet picks. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Ferguson joins the podcast today to discuss lockdown culture and what it's doing to small businesses, what's behind the idea that the election was "stolen" from Donald Trump, and why the story about American diplomats being attacked by foreign intelligence agencies using microwaves isn't a bigger deal. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will we split into a vaccinated/non-vaccinated society next year? That's the key subject of today's podcast, along with conspiracy theories, that old favorite. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the bizarre situation in the Senate runoffs in Georgia and the developing fights inside the Democratic party pitting actually popular national political figures (like Barack Obama) against radical local politicians (like Missouri's Cori Bush) who seem to think they know better. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What did the president-elect mean when he invoked treating Trump voters with "dignity" in an interview? And how desperate is he to go back into the Iran nuclear deal? All this, plus pardons and some really disgraceful behavior by Roger Stone and Michael Flynn on today's podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up elite condescension—in advice on how to use words to convince people to be more responsible pandemic citizens and on the credentialism that limits social mobility and privileges the already privileged. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices