The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Eli Lake joins us today to discuss the question of what might come after the mullahs in Iran, and we ask: What is the president doing, calling for Republicans to nationalize elections? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The shocking result of a special election in Texas marks yet another political bungle by the GOP and the Trump White House. Can they stop self-owning and get themselves back on track? Also, landmark events relating to transgenderism, Epstein files horrors, and the wondrous career of Catherine O'Hara. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quiet revolution is underway on the Temple Mount, where for six decades Jews have been forbidden to pray due to the rules established by a Muslim authority with dominion over the Dome of the Rock mosque—rules allowed to stand by the Israeli government. What changed and why is this so important? And why are the grounds for arresting former CNN anchor Don Lemon for participating in the disruption of a church service in Minneapolis stronger than you might think? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The least isolationist president of our time—despite the neo-isolationists who seem to think he's on their side—may be poised to hit the mullahs as early as this weekend. How to explain the decision to do so? We give it a go. And we look at the new video of the tragically killed Alex Pretti and what it says about the events in Minneapolis. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The political fallout in Minnesota has had a boomerang effect on the Trump administration because of its predisposition to take the hardest-line position on every matter and be provocative rather than resolute and calm. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The president's decision to try and get himself out of the Minneapolis mess offers us a chance to assess just how much trouble he's in, and who's responsible for the trouble—is it his advisers, is it the media-Democratic complex, or is it Trump alone? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The behavior of the administration's mouthpieces in the wake of the tragic shooting in Minneapolis this weekend cannot be overlooked or forgotten—unless Trump wants to. The return of the final Israeli hostage ends a period far longer than the time since October 7. Will Iran pay for its monstrous crimes against its own people? Today's Recommends: HBO Max's "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year-Old Man." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins us to today to discuss how good economic numbers suggest the Fed's behavior over the past year has been pretty effective—so why is Trump so obsessed with turning it upside down. And we take note of the horrifying op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on how "American studies" is really "anti-American studies." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we ask whether a proposal by Rahm Emanuel for a mandatory retirement age for politicians and judges makes sense and whether it might be a populist issue that could really gain traction—along with, maybe, pardon reform. Also, why do people who work at CBS News think their dumpster fire of an organization should be run the way it was being run when it was being run into the ground? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we try to figure out why Donald Trump wants to start a fight with Europe over Greenland, to what extent his Justice Department is going after the right and wrong targets in Minnesota, whether some Supreme Court judges will soon be stepping down, and what went on when protesters in New York canceled a show by a Jewish comedian. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cascade of frenetic actions on the part of the Trump administration over the past week—even as Trump seemed to blink on acting when it came to Iran—is unnerving. Is there good news? Can someone cheer us up? And what about the Harris campaign going full-on dual-loyalty accuser in interviewing Josh Shapiro? Meanwhile, a recommendation for a remarkable novel called Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos, by Nash Jenkins. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bad polling for the president raises the question of whether his pursuit of aggressive anti-immigration aims in Minneapolis and elsewhere is hurting his standing. Even more important: He's not convincing the American people he's good for the country when it comes to economics. And why are Hollywood opinion leaders going ballistic about a certain scene on the show Landman? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After days of looking like America was going to intervene in the Iranian crisis, Donald Trump pulled way back yesterday. Was this tactical? Or was he told it wasn't a layup and he didn't want to risk his capital? Is this refusal part of a larger foreign policy theme? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An interesting day at the Supreme Court as the justices discussed two cases involving the issue of transgenderism in girls' sports—with some of the justices pretty badly embarrassing themselves and others punching holes the size of the Marianas Trench in the arguments of the ACLU. Also: the difference between 1960s civil rights protests and what we're seeing now from the left. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us to go through the history of the resistance to the Iranian regime, what makes this moment so different, and what the United States has to do to ensure the kind of outcome that will make the world a better place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So much of what's been going on in this country seems performative and almost cinematic that we might need to consider how much Hollywood and pop-culture fantasy in general is leaching into our reality. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to discuss the remarkable events unfolding in Iran, with the nation possibly in full-scale revolt against its barbaric regime. And I take exception to some mail we've been getting about the goings-on in Minnesota. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The split-second confrontation between ICE officers and a woman driving a car that appeared to aim at one of them, leading to her death, threatens yet another unraveling of the American civilizational thread. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is Mrs. Stephen Miller promoting the views of Jenny McCarthy—and what does it mean that the Trump administration is so intimate with the world of right-wing podcasting? What does it mean that former Trump official Dan Bongino is returning to the podcast airwaves in full attack mode against the Tucker Carlson podcast wing? What does it mean that legacy media outlets are rooting for Bari Weiss to fail at the failing CBS News? What does it all mean, I ask you? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We note that the airwaves yesterday were filled with desperate efforts to distract from the Venezuela story by focusing instead on Greenland or the Epstein files. What's happening here? Could it be that this is the way the media are trying to protect their friends in politics? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We begin with Venezuela, of course, but move on to the startling announcement by Tim Walz that he is not running for reelection as governor of Minnesota owing to the burgeoning fraud scandal there—a staggering fall for a man who was almost vice president. And who's coming up the pike? Why, it's Zohran Mamdani! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump's decision to arrest Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a massive and brilliant kinetic military action may prove to have long-lasting political, ideological, and strategic ramifications of an almost unprecedented scale. That's what we talk about on this rare emergency edition. Happy New Year and give a listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, John returns to discuss the life of his father, Norman Podhoretz. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we discuss the life, work, and ideas of longtime COMMENTARY editor and intellectual giant Norman Podhoretz, who died yesterday at age 95. From there, we move on to the strange developments in the Brown University shooting investigation, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles's unusual interview with Vanity Fair, and the Trump administration generally. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss "The Palestine Firsters," his lead article in the January issue of COMMENTARY. Why do Ben Rhodes and a cast of others on the left and right want America to work against its core interests by breaking the U.S.-Israel alliance? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The attack on Bondi Beach is not an isolated incident; it's the export of the Islamist war against the Jews to areas far from Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Trump losing the thread as we head into 2026? And what's this—secular saint Oliver Sacks, the man who brought empathy to discussions of human weakness, made a lot of stuff up? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the boarding and seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker, the United States's confrontation with Venezuela ascends to a higher level. What's going on? And why are Democrats making crazy commercials and going with crazy candidates for 2026? And why am I recommending a movie from 1946–It's a Wonderful Life—that everyone has already seen? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us for a conversation that begins with Christmas music and ends with man's search for meaning. Today's COMMENTARY RECOMMENDS: The Bible. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast tries to make sense out of the incoherent Trump administration posture toward China, AI chips, tariffs, farmers, and the economy. Also, Christine Rosen recommends Chip War by Chris Miller and Philip A. Wallach's Why Congress? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A full house today takes up Pete Hegseth's speech on American defense and the national security strategy document released by the administration—Good? Bad? Ugly? And how about that New York Times story revealing the way the Biden administration self-destructed on immigration? Plus, I recommend (with the provisos that it's very very very long and very very very violent) Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair—a merger of his two Kill Bill films from 20 years ago. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Enough with the pomposity about gerrymandering—each party does it and the other one has a cow and then they switch positions and do it all over again. Latest example: Texas. Also, Tom Cotton defends the boat strike, JD Vance puts a "Golden Noel" label on an event celebrating a Jewish holiday, and we answer listener mail. Plus I recommend the hilarious performances of Walter Matthau in The Sunshine Boys and Edith Evans in The Importance of Being Earnest. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Pete Hegseth really in more trouble than he was last week? You'd think that from the network news, but it's probably wrong. Is anyone even watching network news? How about cable news? Or is everybody just listening to podcasts? We discuss these matters, and Trump's pardons, today, and Christine Rosen recommends a work of Japanese crime fiction called Out. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesse Arm of the Manhattan Institute joins us as we examine the results of the special election in Tennessee that had a Republican candidate winning with a greatly reduced margin from Trump's showing in the district in 2024. Arm then shares with us some pathbreaking research into attitudes and ideas inside the Trump electoral coalition. And Abe Greenwald recommends a new HBOMax documentary called Paul Anka: His Way. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the New York Times and its implicit takedown of the Washington Post story claiming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike in an attack on a drug-smuggling boat in September. Then we wonder what possible incentive the U.S. can offer Russia to take its "peace deal." And for today's COMMENTARY RECOMMENDS, I choose the actor Tim Blake Nelson's novel Superhero. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did the U.S. military commit a war crime with a strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, or is the story made up? What exactly is President Trump up to regarding Venezuela? How do we fix immigration and asylum policy so that Muslim immigrants are better assimilated? And what's the mood in Israel regarding Netanyahu's pardon request? We raise these and other issues on today's podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special post-Thanksgiving episode, I ask COMMENTARY's editor about everything from endless ideological fights to Israel's supposed information-war failure to his favorite TV show. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we try to parse the game behind Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff coaching his Russian counterpart on how to win Trump's favor before moving on to Zohran Mamdani's repulsive transition team. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam White joins the podcast today to discuss the latest developments in the legal controversies surrounding Donald Trump and his administration, from the Comey case to the tariffs at the Supreme Court. Also: Why is JD Vance complaining about the "Beltway GOP" when he is the crown prince of the Beltway GOP? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins today to discuss the torrent of developments from Gaza to Ukraine, from Trump-Mamdani to Rubio vs. his former Senate colleagues, from Twitterbot foreign agents to Muslim Brotherhood terrorist designations. Wow! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up Zohran Mamdani's spokesman's appalling declaration that a meeting inside a synagogue about how to move to Israel was a violation of international law—in effect justifying an anti-Semitic demonstration outside it. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a genocidal protest breaks out in front of an Orthodox synagogue in New York City, elsewhere in the cultural capital, a books-awards group hands out garlands to explicitly anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic work. This continues a trend that is alienating readers and movie audiences and others—the wild politicization of forms of education and entertainment. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk about the remarkable new relationship developing between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the remarkable developing hostility between the U.S. and Venezuela, and the remarkable breakup journalism of Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins us to talk about how scared, or not, we should be by AI. Also: What gives with NASA? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Kirchick joins the podcast to discuss his new COMMENTARY article, "Neither American nor Conservative," about the isolationists of the American Conservative throwing a tantrum over Donald Trump's muscular support for Israel. And what does it mean that the Heritage Foundation board member Robert P. George just resigned? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes eerily similar stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post on Trump's supposed troubles with MAGA—leading us to ask, is there such a thing as MAGA without Trump or independent from Trump? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the shutdown over, it's time to ask the question: What do Democrats actually want? We can't quite figure it out but we try. Also, Epstein. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late-breaking news of communications relating to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump provide us with a chance to talk about conspiracy theories and how Trump's deployment of them is biting him now with the continued questions relating to the now-dead half-billionaire sex criminal. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with continuing fallout from the end of the shutdown before moving on to worrying signs that President Trump doesn't understand how he sounds when he talks about the economy—and what he could do to sound better. Also, we're supposed to feel sorry for Hamas murderers trapped in their own tunnels? Seriously? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The government shutdown appears to be reaching its end, and that's because eight non-Democratic senators have effectively agreed to the deal that Republicans put on the table before the shutdown began. What went on here? And why is Trump now offering 2 grand to taxpayers as a "tariff bonus"? And, most deliciously, we explore the collapse of the BBC senior leadership after an internal expose of their crimes against Trump, trans ideology, and Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices