
The Fifth Column
655 episodes — Page 4 of 14

#486 - A Deal with the Devil, MelaniaCoin, Danny has AIDS
* Melanie: the eternal First Lady* A bad deal but…the only deal* The same situation, over and over* Joey B’s final babble* Ike, Elon, and the unacceptable “oligarchy”* The Ralph Lifshitz Award for Cultural Betrayal* F**k You, Surgeon General, says Matt Welch* The shittiest NYT story in recent memory* A shitty celebration of murder on Jimmy Kimmel* Pete H on the Hill * Women in combat is not a weird debate * RIP David Lynch* RIP Bob Uecker This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #244 - Second Sunday Coming Down
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comA rebroadcast of our most recent “Second Sunday” episode, during which paying subscribers can hop on a Zoom call, ask us questions, berate us, tell meandering stories, and be generically clever/hilarious/insane. On this episode, we talk to a number of people in Los Angeles about the ongoing conflagrations and the city government’s predictably feckless r…

#485 - The Fire This Time
* Black Bill Kristol* Nobody beats the Rizz* Stealing Greenland* Yet another horrible big city mayor * When you love Castro, you are obviously an incompetent moron* Forget it, Matt. It's Chinatown* More on the 🔥* Is big city governance killing progressivism?* Your lying eyes* Elon’s Nazis* Mark Zuckerberg and “winning” on free speech* The end of corporate walkout culture* January 6 pardons and pizzagate crazy person gunned down * Hobo stabs thug This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #243 - Pox Blankets, Political Cartoons, Poor Parenting
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Lia the diva * The era of athlete actors * Moynihan correction: It was Bubba Smith in Police Academy. Dick Butkus was in Police *Story*.* I want to make fun of my boss* Awful political cartoons * More on progressive schools * Are you a hypocrite, MM?* Reflections on Jimmy Carter, DPRK fan * The neo-neocons?* The vibe shift and the sense of the heroic (says MAGA Matt)* Matt…

#484 - Pumps, Converts, Fatwas, and Ex-Presidents
* No more Bobby* No resolutions* Pump it up: The bionic podcast host* New Year’s terror in NOLA and Vegas* The military connection that doesn’t matter* The advent of “car ramming”* In celebration of Chaim Sapir* Forgotten terror* When Charlie destroyed our faith in the media class* Jimmy Carter’s awful op-ed* Erasing Islamism* Revisiting Rushdie* Getting scammed by the “truth” people* Broken kneecap policing This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #242 - The Emo Episode
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* An episode that takes a break from politics?* Stars, tardigrades, and microscopy * Race in space* Matt and Moyn watch “A Complete Unknown,” come to different conclusions* Phantom and 40mg* AI’s take on this section: “Listener emails prompt discussions on art, personal struggles, and growth during the holidays.”* Books for young men searching….* Can The Man Who Shot L…

#483 - The Christmas Cromnibus and a Slow Boat to Mauritius
* Pivot to Zoom * Rereading books* The ex-presidents * “It’s 1,547 pages of unreadable garbage. Every year, it’s like Christmas."* Chip the RHINOOOOOO* Elon’s Political Fantasy Camp!* Is Trump losing his power to threaten?* The end of AOC?* Before his own inevitable perp walk, Mayor Adams does a hot assassin perp walk* Insurance companies redux * Kmele is a bad drinker * Don Jr. trades up* Barron is everyone’s boyfriend This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #241 - Tinder Trotskyists, Siouxsie and the Nazis, When We Were Kings
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* If you think it’s expensive now, wait until it’s free* Unpersuasive persuasion * How race is like probiotic soda* Ends and means* "If one killing is justified, where do you draw the line—10,000? A million?"* Siouxsie and the Nazis / Bill Grundy* Tinder Trotskyists* More “memoirs about trauma and identity”* ‘Oh, they’re taxing us, let’s go murder people.’* 23andme and Zor…

#482 - Centrism Kills (w/ Josh Barro)
* The Daniel Penny verdict* REinstitutionalization* When should the state involuntarily commit?* Remember, she was a very bad candidate * The great exhale* Joe and the Squad* A fake Portuguese guest* Barro blowback?* On the Substack revolution * The repulsive Luigi Mangioni* The failed Kaczynski* And much more! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #240 - One Hitter: Taylor Supports the Death Penalty
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comOne topic in the news. One quick podcast on that single topic (rather than just texting each other about how certain media figures are vulgar, stupid, and morally depraved). Welcome to the Fifth Column One Hitter! In our inaugural episode, Matt and Moyn get pissed off about the hideous reaction from certain very online cretins to the awful murder of Uni…

#481 - From the Mexico of Heaven
* Little Moynihan’s pediatric cancer fundraiser can be found here! This might be the opposite of an incentive, but a random donor will be chosen for a personalized roast video from Moyn and his daughter…* The idiot winds (That “One More Cup of Coffee” live performance MM referenced) * Pete Hegseth replaced by Ronny D?* Ok, you asked for it…with new information, the lads return to the Hunter pardon* "Is he really doing something injurious?"* Preemptive pardons?* The uselessness of cable “news”* Addicted to privilege* Was Trump the great deregulator?* And whole lot more! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #239 - I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* The boys had just heard the Biden pardon news. So much they missed about the specifics…and this brilliant video had not yet been created. * Citizens of the Fifdom debate RFK* The professional Youtube debaters * Teens and true crime * JonBenet * How to interview your dad* A listener asks: Is Dan Crenshaw the worst?* Park Slope politics and the crotch Magen David * The M…

Members Only #238 - 🎁 UNLOCKED 🎁 - The RFK Problem (w/ Alan Levinovitz)
As a Thanksgiving treat, an unlocked Members Only episode featuring Moynihan in conversation with Dr. Alan Levinovitz, author of Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science and The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat, about RFK’s view of public health, why you are fat, the myth of “natural,” and why so many people have stopped trusting “the science.”We won’t be unlocking any subscriber-only episodes for awhile so…subscribe! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #237 - Roofies, Commies, and Sissies
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Pete’s past* Friends with a murderer* Roofie vending machines* The worst cabinet pick?* Trans snakes that play golf* Damn dirty commies * The three things reds do well* A store called Store * That truck is still with Kamala * Little Baron’s soooooooootcase* One black woman’s quest* Biased bookstores* Axios: Trump’s liberal cabinet * ChatGPT is wrong about everything* Back to Cormac

#480 - The Media Mess / Gaetz Pulls Out (w/ Ben Smith)
An hour with Semafor founder Ben Smith discussing the sorry state of the media, followed by a Smith-free hour with the lads discussing, among other things, two very different people who nevertheless shared a very deep love of young people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #236 - Here Comes the Nanny State!
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Kmele: Forever the HNIC* The Filet-O-Fish is Alaska pollock* A Swedish horror show* RFK at HHS* He forgot to mention this stuff…* Elon’s principles?* On Matt Gaetz and John Bolton* You know, we had a pretty good record on Covid…* Moulton v. a Salem Witch * A listener’s Irish-Catholic family is falling apart* That fake Netflix fight

Members Only #235 - To Overthrow the World: A Conversation on Communism with Sean McMeekin
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comMichael Moynihan sits down with Bard College professor Sean McMeekin to discuss his new book To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, a Fifth-approved history of the global communist movement, from the ur-commie instincts of Plato to the sinister stupidities of Plekhanov. They also contemplate why so many smart people fall for ba…

#479 - The Case Against Tariffs (w/ Scott Lincicome)
We’ve promised this one for a very long time. But now that Trump is returning to the White House—the mercantilist maniac who recently said “the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff’”—we finally followed through. By popular demand, we called upon Scott Lincicome, senior visiting lecturer at Duke University Law School and vice president of general economics and Cato's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, to answer all of your questions on protectionism, tariffs, and trade. Don’t care about such things!? Well, this episode is a double feature! After Scott’s masterclass on free trade, the lads stick around to discuss Trump’s appointments (ummm….this was a day before the Gaetz-Gabbard selections), “neocons,” and the WNBA. And for you subscribers: we will drop Moynihan’s conversation with Bard College historian Sean McMeekin in the next few days. For you non-subscribers…what are you waiting for?? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #234 - Come On and Zoom! (Wagnerian Opera Edition)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comOur first post-election Second Sunday Zoom call! If you missed it, shame on you for choosing to spend time with your family or choosing not to pony up. But it’s all here. All three hours of it. Yes, it’s the “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” of election analysis. But to be clear, we also discuss Emperor Hirohito, Kentucky politics, Australians, New York …

Members Only #233 - A Grave New World
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comWelch and Moynihan are back in the studio, three days after the end of democracy, counting the days before they get the midnight knock from Trump’s NKVD. So what does one do? Engage in some anticipatory obedience, obviously. But can anything save them? Subscribe to find out!Note: Matt came across this amazing video only after recording this episode. So …

#478 - The Dream of a Six-Foot-Four, Tobacco-Chewing White Savior
The Fifth did a bit of processing today with our Trump-supporting friend at her Connecticut studio. Hungover, exhausted, bedraggled, the lads then returned to the scene of last night’s Fifth-Free Press-Reason party and recorded this episode. They enjoyed it. And they suspect you will too.. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #232 - Last Episode Before the Camps :(
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Kmele on his appearance in Thomas Chatterton Williams new Atlantic piece* The end of America!* If you don’t vote like me, you should be ashamed of yourself!* We’re not “heterodox”* On never talking policy* Authoritarianism in America* Boyz in the Hood redux* A whole lot of final election thoughts* A listener from Utah teaches us about TBCK syndrome* Kemi Badenoch on uneq…

#477 - The Bubble. The Brother. The Boycott.
* A Thomas Jefferson freak off* The tree of liberty…* “Election integrity”* What’s happening with those Pennsylvania ballots?* Editorial page endorsements are worthless * Why won’t you resign, lady?* A slaughter at MSG * These people have lost their minds* And Bezos is correct: they don’t trust you* The end of the NYT sports page actually said something important…* The bubble* An absurd boycott* What would a Kamala victory mean for Israel?* Finally a good Downfall meme… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #231 - Eve of Destruction
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* To promote his Substack conversation with Moynihan (live today at 5pm ET only on the Substack app!), Josh Szeps calls in from the car and talks Aussie stuff for 20 minutes. * Banning that lady from your country (“Does anything ride on this?") * Baghdad Bob on Australia* The Times and the truth* People who disappear* They are making me talk about this fascism shit* …

#476 - "Tucker's a real douchebag" (w/ Rep. Dan Crenshaw)
* How to be a Navy Seal* Losing an eye in Afghanistan* Dan can’t find his glasses / “I can’t see shit”* Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan* A case study in intelligence failure and confirmation bias* On leaving the Taliban in power* Has Trump been good on foreign policy?* The Republican Party post-Trump* Tucker "is best friends with Hunter Biden!”* Why are you even in Congress?* On the mechanics of Congress* Maybe a hundred normal congressmen * What has Dan accomplished for Texas?* Is populism winning?* On banning TikTok This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #230 - Horseface Wham-O
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Dave in the Hall * Dead in the garden * All the dictators * His kampf* McDonalds troofer * Can Trump be funny?* People don’t care about what we care about* A friend attacks* BHO was a great candidate* Wham-O, Sandusky, and the kids Freak Off* On “Neighborhood Bully”* Never say “grande”* What plagiarism counts

#475 - How to Survive a Baier Attack
* Old wine, old bottles * Bret Baier v. Kamala * He finally asked Matt’s question. Or was it Kmele’s question?* On not answering questions* The wisdom of Bill Clinton* Back to the politics of the 90s * We always come back to it: late night is awful * Weed reparations * We always come back to it: fascism* Please come back, archive.org* Shutting down CBS?* Why the media being stupid is actually really important* Ted v Colin* Micklewaithe v. Trump This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #229 - Second Sunday Rebroadcast: Jewlumbus Edition
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comA rebroadcast* Military propaganda for the kidz!* Jewish Columbus* A new history of communism * The brainworm burrows in again* The Italian * Obama’s code switch * There are meaningful differences between *these men** Polling problems* The brothers Menendez* Sarah, live from Folsom* Chomsky’s Cuba book* Are there still meaningful policy differences between the two major partie…

#474 - Frankly, She Loves the American People
* Yes, Michael J. Fox actually actually has Parkinson’s * The MAGA hat incident* We got a journalist around here…he’s asking a lot of questions* Choppin’ it up with 60* Young morons embrace violence* German American Bund at MSG 2.0!* Bob “Silent Coup” Woodward * Look, he was actually unfairly treated* Schultz interviews Trump* It was Jeff Gerth, actually* A tale of two natural disasters* The natural disaster of a Kamala interview* Running out the clock: “Frankly, I love the American people”* Debate home run derby * Moynihan’s Utne Reader piece for 2008. Welch on Katrina* New media that we love. Or at least *like* This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #228 - Some Like It Hot
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* A very brief baseball convo. Relax.* Kid (and adult) anxiety* Don’t kill on snek* The science of Trump’s brain?* The worst of all the excuses* Oliver’s dad and the JJ Rule* The Big Dance on OpenLibrary, btw* Fatherhood songs* Phones, kids, rabbit holes* Pete Rose was the best…and the worst* On Kris Kristofferson* On Megyn and Moynihan

#473 - Something For Everyone to Hate
* The title is correct: everyone will hate something in this episode!* Moynihan is dying?* GPT as your GP* Choc and Chiclet * $$$ for TV* J.D. says Trump won in 2020* Jack Smith could have asked Moynihan * You hate him. But not enough.* A goomba union boss is going to choke America out* Rich and “working class”* Create jobs! End EZ-Pass!* Remembering the execrable Harry Bridges* Why is the government still mailing free Covid tests?* (MM fact-checks himself)* Lebanon and beyond This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #227 - Killing Nasrallah, Inshallah
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comKmele’s voice is craggy; Moynihan is on the precipice of illness; Hasan Nasrallah has been delivered to a fiery “paradise,” last seen with his hand up own skirt, desperate to locate 70-odd sexually inexperienced coreligionists. Also: * Pat’s “thugocracy” * Hockey fights. * Johnny Turkey* Your legacy is one bad Twitter prediction* Ranking the least badly governed…

#472 - The Ruhling Class and Palestine's Parachute Pundit
* The return of the Boss POC * The veep sits for an “interview”* That’s all she had to do…* Will Michael Cohen be assassinated?* Not if he escapes the country (and his family)!* The return of Tennessee* 10 days in an uncomplicated land* That conflict is just like all things I care about (except it’s nothing like the things I care about)* Disassociating yourself from the freaks and terror supporters* So we finally got to Diddy* Sure, he’s a monster! But the Mann Act?? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #226 - A Nest of Idiot Vipers
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* When you think you’re right about everything * Alternate episode title: Candace Owens Discovers a New Fact Every Day—This Time, She Didn’t Blame the Jews* “The incentive for her is to be more mentally ill, because she seems to be doing quite well by losing her mind in public”* It will be like leaving a 70’s cult * Nude Africa has gone offline :(* Nobel laureates …

#471 - Do You Know the Importance of a Skypager?
Yet again, AI has done a bang-up of summarizing a Fifth Column episode, which mostly covers the insane economic policies of both idiot candidates and why members of Hezbollah are having their balls blown off. But according to the half-sentient supercomputers, the lads discuss how “Melania Trump's new book is a focal point, with humorous commentary on its content and implications.” True enough. And also, there is apparently some conversation about how “evidence is often disregarded in political claims.” Well yes, that’s pretty much every segment on every episode. “The speakers critique the absurdity of political discourse and the influence of social media on public narratives.” Is it odd that the AI episode summary failed to note that Moynihan yet again makes fun of Sam Altman? Only as odd, we suspect, as Snowden not tweeting negative things about Putin… And remember, if you want an extra episode every week, want to interact with the boys on the members-only “Second Sunday” episodes, or just want them to answer your pressing (emailed) questions, be sure to subscribe today! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #225 - The Assassin's Creed
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comFirst: Our remote recording software uses AI to create text “soundbites” from every episode episode. They are best ignored. But this week, it came up with this: "Music is crazy.""This is about Indians.""I want to be black.""You must have a white wife."Yes, all of those important issues are discussed. But the conversation is mostly about the latest faile…

#470 - Good Wars, Bad Candidates, and the Department of Straws and Napkins
* This tattoo definitely wasn’t a horrible mistake * Matt has dementia* Pim Tool: tool of the FSB?* The $400,000 plagiarist* Brain “interference” vs. election “interference”* Did Trump acknowledge that he lost in 2020?* The childcare word salad* Plastic straw journalistic DISGRACE* Having principals versus having “a position”* Dumb neo-Nazi realizes he’s been cheated* More on the rise of junk history * An overlooked bit of Tucker’s controversial interview* Hitler was very, very, very evil. And the migration crisis came with many negative consequences for Europe. Both of the things can be true, you dopes! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #223 - Making Martyrs of Revisionist Rubes
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Illness fakers* Medium fakers* Ok, so let’s warm up with some music stuff * Does any band have a perfect four-album run?* “I’ve read a lot of books on WWII!!”* On the Martyr Made controversy* Baby Irvings* The bad guys are the good guys, and they have no agency* “The Holocaust was basically a housing issue…”* The Theresienstadt “documentary”* The “terror” bombings* Incidenta…

#469 - Kamala Speaks! Tim's Grammar! Bash Backlash!
* Kamala finally submits to an interview* A Cascade of Disappointment)* A softball interview* Flip, flop, flibbedy flop* Wasted questions * Just a question of grammar* Code switch that racist wall * Trump in the cemetery * Trump in the bible * Trump impressions * Noel, Liam, Kmele * Matt and Moynihan reveal a secret, racially segregated text thread This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

#468 - And now...the Coronation (w/ Alex Thompson)
It’s the final night of the convention and in the hours before everything kicks off, the lads convened at the Substack loft to chat with Axios’s Alex Thompson, our old pal and arguably the most plugged in political reporter in America. We could offer some conversation bullet points but…just trust us. This is a really good one. Alex dishes on his reporting about the campaign to dislodge Biden’s from ticket, the enormous and quiet political power of the Obamas, and the behind-the-scenes war between Michelle Obama and the Biden family. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

#467 - Fear & Loathing in Chi-town (w/ Mike Pesca)
Moynihan, Welch, and Kmele’s Chicago misadventures continue in this dispatch, recorded just before night three of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Joined by the incomparable Mike Pesca (host of The Gist), your favorite podcast triumvirate dissects the week’s events so far, their implications for the 2024 presidential race, and the future of the Democratic Party. Plus, a brief meditation on proper etiquette when dining at celebrity steakhouses—with a pair of reformed gangsters.Recorded: August 21st, 2024 (at the bustling Substack Loft)Published: August 22nd, 2024 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

#466 - The Return of the Sexiest Guest Alive (w/ Steve Kornacki)
Why waste time with discursive show notes when you can just say two very simple words? Steve Kornacki. One of People’s “Sexiest Men Alive” returns to the Fifth (for his fourth appearance??) to breakdown the latest polls, prognosticate on what happens to the Republican Party if Trump loses, and subtly reveal that he might be a degenerate blackjack player. Just listen. It’s a good one. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #220 - The Hottest Country Ever Invaded
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* An ethereum veep bet (Note: U.S. customers are banned, so no $1,000 on Shapiro bet was made) * Watching the Olympics* Supporting Ukrainian athletes for non-political reasons* Lil’ Moyn is still in it to win it* An old, prescient email…* “What did I do?” - Gerald Ford* The drug excuse is not that convincing, TBH * Dave, Buster, and Trump* Yeah, no, it’s not going to be…

#465 - The Tsarina Has Abdicated. The Audie Murphys of Journalism. The Veep Will Make Toasters
* Anything happen since we left?* La Bubblewrap * The media will do it for you* Everyone will forget about that NABJ appearance* Every journalist in that room is Audie Murphy* Who’s black?* Not in defense of Thomas Eagleton (soz) * The polls changed so let’s attack Nate Silver for noticing * Every one in politics is “weird”* The child will never fly coach again * The honorable resistors * JD Vance’s amazingly stupid economic ideas, which he cannot actually believe* The end of the Venezuelan dictatorship* Killing bad guys in Tehran and Beirut* Resistance vs. escalation This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Steve Albini on Music, Meaning, and the Cosmos (Special Dispatch)
In April 2023, while producing a documentary series for The John Templeton Foundation (JTF), I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing legendary punk/rock musician and producer audio engineer Steve Albini. Portions of that interview appear in the sixth installment of the doc series (which is phenomenal, and you should watch every episode immediately), but most of our conversation has remained unreleased—until now.On May 7th, 2024, Steve passed away at 61 after an illustrious and influential life and career. With special thanks to JTF (and in honor of Steve Albini Day), we’re pleased to publish the full audio of that interview here.Steve engineered audio for artists like Nirvana, Bush, and the Pixies, helping each bring some of their most authentic and celebrated works to grateful fans the world over. Steve’s dedication to capturing the natural essence of a band's performance without excessive studio manipulation has left a lasting legacy in the music industry.In this wide-ranging exchange, Albini shared insights into his philosophy on music production and anecdotes from his time working with some of the biggest names in rock. And given the uniquely ontological focus of our documentary, Steve also served up some fascinating meditations on:* communicating with aliens* being a ‘vector of history’* the modern music scene* and the mathematics of musicAlbini's approach to his work wasn’t just technical but deeply philosophical. He believed that the role of a producer was to serve the artist's vision rather than impose their own. That ethos resonated throughout our discussion, a testament to his principled commitment to artistic integrity. His passing is a significant loss, but his legacy will undoubtedly continue to inspire future musicians and producers.- KmeleNOTE: This release includes a brief cameo from my friend and sometimes collaborator Jason Mojica — the indispensable producer/director of Dispatches from The Well.Interview Recorded: April 28th, 2023Published: July 27th, 2024 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #219 - Pronunciation Racism and the Triumph of Mentally Ill
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* HOF weekend * The Talented Ms. Jewhater* Notes from the RNC* The black Republicans who don’t care about ideology * The 33 person BBQ in North Milwaukee * Losing their religion * The Great Resignation * “She’s not Joe Biden on foreign policy, buy who is…”* Why they hate us * There’s no Kamala bump * More Project 2025 nonsense * The rise of the mentally ill pundit * To win, Dems…

#464 - Alive from the RNC!
Moynihan calls in from GOP Ground Zero in Milwaukee. Kmele threatens to dish about Silicon Valley support for Donald Trump. Welch only slurs as much as Reince Preibus. Topics include J.D. Vance’s political philosophy, Joe Biden’s deteriorating public appearances, and—as ever—Kmele’s mangled naughty bits. Who the hell knows when the Adderall shortage will kick in, but we’re squeezing the last drops out of Moynihan’s productivity before the vape-seizures finally do him in. Let’s gooooo!!!! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #218 - Second Sunday Rebroadcast (Assassination Edition)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.comA rebroadcast of our increasingly popular Second Sunday edition, during which you, the listener, get to interact with the Fifth, berate them, flatter them, hit on them, and endlessly praise their wisdom and prescience. And thanks to all of you who showed up this week…so many, in fact, that we were forced to pay Zoom to increase the number of attendees. …

#463 - Forget It. Joe Biden Has Been Cured Of Being Super Old
The lads make it through Biden’s presser, watch a bit of state television after, listen to the Mike Tyson’s Punch Out soundtrack, and limbo below the lowest bar in the history of low bars. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Members Only #217 - ☑ The Flag of the Fifth ☑
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* Wizards of Transnistria * Checking the box* A festival of freedom?* More old stuff* France and the media * Brain dead v. Hitler * It didn’t end in 2008, but it proved a lot * What a dictator is… and isn’t* An accent free pass * The best video ever: Fuck you bloody