The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

What does it mean to be an American? What is government for? What reforms will fix our political system? Join Jonah Goldberg, Yuval Levin, and 100 little policy gnomes at the American Enterprise Institute to find out! Jonah and Yuval cover America at 250 and reflect on the Bicentennial. They also discuss Graham Platner versus Ken Paxton, what it means to hold office, America’s 50/50 problem, unitary executive theory, the administrative state, civic virtue, election reform, Nixonian propaganda, and taking people as they find them.

Show Notes:

—AEI’s America at 250 series

—Remnant on E. E. Schattschneider and primaries

—Yuval talks to Ezra Klein

—Lee Drutman on The Ezra Klein Show

The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠.

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Jonah Goldberg has been chewing over how to reduce the number of gray hairs in Congress for some time now. Unfortunately, the best that he and The Remnant team have come up with is shaving the heads of all the senior senators, which, seeming somewhat impractical, led Jonah to call in an expert. Science correspondent and longtime friend of the show Ronald Bailey joins the merry band today to set us all straight on RFK Jr., vaccines, MAHA, DOGE, libertarianism, bad analogies for government, transhumanism, gerontocracy, term limits, libertarian Shangri-La, Francis Fukuyama, institutions, economic growth, Thomas Jefferson, invention, and Benjamin Franklin.

Show Notes:

—Bailey’s book - The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century

—Bailey’s book - Liberation Biology: The Scientific And Moral Case For The Biotech Revolution

—Bailey in Reason - “Can America Get Out of the Gerontocracy Trap?”

—Jonah’s book - Suicide of the West

—Terrible Rest Is History podcast on Jefferson

—Michael Auslin Remnant

The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠.

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It’s summer, and in honor of the backyard cookouts and pool parties that make our country great, Jonah Goldberg and Dispatch multimedia producer Victoria Holmes have served up a smorgasbord of listener questions to help people get through the heat (and smog … thanks, Canada). Listen in to hear about how Jonah changed his mind about writing another book, the life of a pundit, reading habits, camper vans, jobs Jonah could’ve had, public speaking, Ares vs. Mars, what voting says about you, annexing Canada, Israel’s nukes, despair as a sin, writer’s block, and much, much more.

Show Notes:

—Proud to Be Right: Voices of the Next Conservative Generation

—What is Conservatism?: A New Edition of the Classic by 12 Leading Conservatives

—George Nash: The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

—Jonah’s book: Suicide of the West

—The Monthly Mailbag with Jonah Goldberg

The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Longtime listeners of The Remnant know well Jonah Goldberg’s hatred of the extremist, oligarchic, necromantic political conclaves holding our nation hostage, otherwise known as primaries. Nonetheless, listeners are left with many questions unanswered: How did populists seize the GOP in 2016? What should replace primaries for candidate selection? What will go down in 2028? Will Yuval Levin be on the ticket?

Here to put an end to all speculation is political scientist Seth Masket, who joins Jonah to talk about the Tea Party, Donald Trump’s charisma, Bill Clinton as a precursor to Trump, primaries, county-scale politics, party leadership, democratization, conventions, Trump’s influence over 2028, the next GOP presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment.

Show Notes:

—Masket: The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders

—Masket's Substack

—Masket: Learning from Loss: The Democrats, 2016–2020

—E. E. Schattschneider: Party Government: American Government in Action

—DisPod at the 92nd Street Y

—Remnant on Weberian charisma

The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠.
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We’ve decided to go on a bit of a foreign policy spree here at The Remnant. And why not? Everyone needs a hobby. Today Rebeccah Heinrichs joins Jonah Goldberg to go deep on Iran, NATO, allies, Operation Epic Fury, realism in Ukraine, MAGA, isolationist failure, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Israel, national conservatism, antisemitism, and America’s posture in the world.

Show Notes:

—Aaron MacLean Remnant

—Francis Dearnley Remnant

—Heinrichs in National Review: “Strengthen NATO, Don’t Wreck It”

—Brendan Simms: The Return of the Great Powers

—Iran: The Latest - Podcast

The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices