The Commentary Magazine Podcast

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

Today's podcast takes up the Supreme Court's ruling on religious shutdowns, the COVID spike that doesn't quite seem as horrendous as the conventional wisdom says, and the crocodile tears being shed over the Iranian nuclear scientist who was assassinated in Tehran. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's pre-Thanksgiving podcast concludes with our heartfelt expressions of gratitude for family, friends, co-workers... and our readers and listeners. Before that, we take up new CDC guidance on quarantining and an astonishing thing Barack Obama said about Latino voters. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the news that Donald Trump is allowing the transition to begin, the post-election madness has pretty much come to an end. What will its long-term consequences be, if any? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the news that Donald Trump is allowing the transition to begin, the post-election madness has pretty much come to an end. What will its long-term consequences be, if any? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our podcast crew wonders at the disintegration of the Trump case and the dissolution of the Trump legal team and asks whether it is comic or tragic and what the fallout will be. And then we take up the incoming Biden foreign policy team and how woke or not-so-woke it will be. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What, our podcast asks, does it mean when the best thing you can say about the Trump fraud allegations are that the president is crazy and not that he's up to something politically? And what are the consequences going to be for teachers' unions as they attempt to prevent schoolchildren from, you know, learning? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast features some out-and-out ranting against the egregious behavior of New York's Andrew Cuomo before we go on to rant about the egregious headline writing in the New York Times and the egregious ideas of some Democratic officials regarding Israel and the Palestinians. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up a promising proposal for a home "contagiousness" test that everyone can take, as described by Harvard's Michael Mina in this article in Time. Will empowering the American people in this way work? We disagree on that. And we disagree on the consequences of the continuing dispute about the election results. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent revelations involving Iran’s nuclear program will leave Joe Biden with some hard choices to make about America’s foreign policy toward the region. But Biden will face resistance from his party’s left flank if he is to embrace and navigate the new geopolitical reality in the Middle East. Also, the podcast hosts discuss their articles in the forthcoming post-election issue of COMMENTARY. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020 Election Superstar Steve Kornacki joins our podcast today to discuss the fascinating and unprecedented political situation now facing Joe Biden—with what is likely to be a Republican Senate and a teeny-tiny Democratic majority in the House. How can he govern? Also, John complains about Nate Silver. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is driving the political world’s fixation with the president even as he has largely ceded the spotlight to his rival? Is it Trump’s still menacing but largely banal self-affirmations on Twitter, or is Joe Biden just such an unenthusiastic prospect for the left that they are milking the final weeks of the Trump era for all they are worth? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So the COVID surge has Andrew Cuomo banning in-home gatherings of groups larger than 10. Can he do this? Can the surge cause new lockdowns that people will follow? And what will the economic consequences be? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So the COVID surge has Andrew Cuomo banning in-home gatherings of groups larger than 10. Can he do this? Can the surge cause new lockdowns that people will follow? And what will the economic consequences be? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today examines how Joe Biden came out and calmly said he'd be president soon and didn't much care what Donald Trump was doing—and three seconds later the political world had a collective nervous breakdown over a weird series of firings and new installations at the Department of Defense. Biden wants to cool things down, but he seems to be the only one. What's going on here? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast dives deep into the hypocrisy of those who are decrying the Trump effort to claim voter fraud when they spent four years saying Russians stuffed our ballot boxes and Stacey Abrams won Georgia in 2018 when she lost by 60,000 votes. More hypocrisies abound. We go through them and get pretty riled up. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast considers how we can turn the page on the Trump presidency now that Biden is president-elect—and how conservative ideas of manliness should both govern the president's behavior going forward and what his most loyal supporters should actually expect of him. Rest assured we do not let Joe Biden off the hook—despite moderate talk during his acceptance speech, he's already kowtowing to his party's left, and we show how. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast crew talks about how things will function in a brave new world in which Joe Biden will be president—while at the same time the Republican Party lives to fight another day with an unexpected surge below the presidential level. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today examines the polling results that show net gains for the GOP in the House and surprising holds in Senate races suggesting the Republicans will maintain their majority next term. At the same time, Donald Trump seems to have lost at least three, and maybe as many as five, of the states he won last time—while issue-less Joe Biden won more votes than anyone ever by a large margin. We unpack the meaning of all this. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yes, we Commentary podcasters were up all night, like you, and so we spend some time trying to speak coherently about what happened, what is happening, and why pollsters should be put in a rocketship and fired directly at the sun. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the Election Day podcast, when it's all over but the results, we stop the punditry and look back to elections past with our friend Daniel Casse, veteran Republican campaign hand. What happened with Clint Eastwood and the empty chair? How about Chris Christie's entourage? How Bob Dole chose the seating chart on his plane? And lots more. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COMMENTARY podcast does something a little different to celebrate Election Day eve. We went back into the archives to reexamine the last podcast ahead of Election Day 2016 and, upon review, there are a lot of eerie similarities between then and now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few more hours...that's all the time we've got. (As Alfred Doolittle sings in "My Fair Lady.") So we discuss the final numbers—presidential job approval—that offer a pretty solid sense of where the election might end up. And the weird Senate situation in Georgia. And the paradox of the shy Trump voter. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with a huge economic number—33-plus percent growth. And yet we all agree the president is unlikely to get much credit and explain why. Also, why liberals are increasingly moving toward the view that anyone who disagrees with them is evil. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices