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The Fifth Column

The Fifth Column

Analysis, Commentary, Sedition. @wethefifth

Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch

704 episodesENExplicit

Show overview

The Fifth Column has been publishing since 2016, and across the 10 years since has built a catalogue of 704 episodes. That works out to roughly 930 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.

Episodes typically run over ninety minutes — most land between 34 min and 1h 48m — with run-times ranging widely across the catalogue. Roughly 20% of episodes carry an explicit flag from the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language News & Politics show.

The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed yesterday, with 101 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2025, with 103 episodes published. Published by Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch.

Episodes
704
Running
2016–2026 · 10y
Median length
1h 31m
Cadence
Weekly

From the publisher

Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition. www.wethefifth.com

Latest Episodes

View all 704 episodes

Europe Is Melting, Meritocracy Is Racist, and Everyone Gets Dignity

Oct 7, 20261h 35m

One Hitter: Why Oil Prices Could Get Much Worse (w/ Marshall Adkins) Members Only #348

Oct 3, 202644 min

The Weave Within the Weave

Oct 2, 20261h 30m

Sarah Hepola and the Life You Didn’t Choose (Members Only #347)

Sep 29, 202614 min

The UN, Wokeness, and Other Failed Institutions (Members Only #346)

Sep 25, 202613 min

The Algorithm Is the Editor-in-Chief (w/ David Pakman) Members Only #345

Sep 23, 202615 min

The Loyal Republican w/ Scott Jennings (#576)

Sep 22, 20261h 40m

Academically Unserious With Authoritarian Bureaucratic Aspirations (w/ Tyler Austin Harper) Members Only #344

Sep 18, 202617 min

AI Might Kill Us. Here’s Why It Matters: w/ Jim VandeHei (#575)

Sep 16, 20261h 48m

The Things We Thought After 9/11 (#574)

Sep 11, 20261h 30m

The Department Formerly Known as Justice (w/ Devlin Barrett) MO 343

Sep 9, 202616 min

Conspiracy Theories Never Die (w/ James B. Meigs) #573

Sep 4, 20261h 38m

It Was All Just a Joke (Members Only #342)

Sep 2, 202615 min

Canada Calls Trump’s Bluff (#572)

Aug 28, 20261h 34m

Bad Writing, Good Journalism, and AI (w/ Ben Smith) MO #341

Aug 26, 202614 min

Seize the Means of Conservatism (w/ Stephanie Slade) MO #340

Aug 21, 202613 min

Clip Roulette w/ Dictators, Demons and Democracy (Episode #571)

Aug 19, 20261h 46m

Terry Moran and the Network News Autopsy (Members Only #339)

Aug 14, 202614 min

The Politics of Pretending (Episode #570)

Aug 12, 20261h 41m

A Man of 1989 (w/ David Frum) #569

Aug 7, 20261h 43m
The Fifth Column