The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

As DSA and postliberal pirates storm the decks of the HMS Remnant, Captain Jonah Goldberg would seem to be in dire straits. Nonetheless, Captain Jonah—with an eerie air of calm—draws his cutlass, sets down his cigar, and smiles. Prepare, gentle listener, for a bloodbath. Today Jonah deftly handles every controversy on the docket, including Hasan Piker, Ukraine as Israel, the Michigan Senate race, Anthony Fauci, Covid in retrospective, rap music, Napoleon III, J.D. Vance, the common good, subsidiarity, the Constitution, and Hamas.

Show Notes:

—Hasan Piker collar video

—Last week’s Ruminant

—Friday’s DisPod

—Rebecca Heinrichs Remnant

—Aaron MacLean Remnant

—Grayson Logue in The Dispatch - “Why We Can’t Move On From the Pandemic”

—Matt Ridley Remnant

—Matt Ridley’s book Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19

—John Barry - The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

—Jonah’s book Liberal Fascism

—The Argument

—NYT Heritage Foundation piece

—JD Vance’s book

—Justice Scalia’s Congressional testimony

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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Every once in a while, The Remnant staff need to remind Jonah Goldberg that we’re running a business here, and that he can’t just putz around with Pod, Chris, or Sarah on every episode. Sometimes, you need someone respectable; sometimes, you need an expert. Today’s guest—the expert to rule them all—is Ken Pollack, here to tell us all about the war in Iran. Join Jonah and Ken as they discuss pain thresholds, public opinion inside Iran, the fallout of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death, the ideology of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Persian nationalism, the original sins of the war, the politics behind the scenes, civil-war spillover, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, oil, exit strategies, and end games.

Show Notes:

—Pollack’s forthcoming book: The Iraq Wars

—Last Ken Pollack Remnant

—Aaron MacLean Remnant

—NYT: “Inside Israel’s Secret Operation to Cultivate Ahmadinejad”

—Pollack’s webinar: “US Policy After Iraq: Getting Lebanon’s Disarmament Right”

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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Here at The Remnant, our hate list is rather long: Woodrow Wilson, electoral primaries, German romanticism … the list goes on and on. But if there’s one we hate that doesn’t get enough air time, it’s Chinese communism. We hate Chinese communism. That’s why we’ve recruited from the ranks of America’s foremost anti-CCP institution—that’s the American Enterprise Institute, for those of you who live under rocks—to bring you the latest on Chinese grand strategy. AEI’s Audrye Wong joins Jonah Goldberg to discuss Beijing’s international investment, Chinese diaspora, influence operations, Taiwan, bribery, Chinese culture, American investment in Asia, Orbán’s Hungary, Russia-China relations, democracy, Han supremacy, and how Americans should think about countering the threat across the Pacific.

Show Notes:

—Subversion and Seduction: China's Economic Statecraft

—Zach Cooper in Foreign Affairs: “Asia After America”

—Jonah’s last book

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

First mate Steve Hayes strides across the deck, grinning maniacally at the cowering crew. “Mine” he crows to himself. “Mine! The HMS Remnant is finally mine! Muahahaha!” The crew, downcast, is near despair. Then suddenly, all eyes turn to the gangplank. Haggard, sunburned, stricken, and emaciated, Jonah Goldberg stumbles onto the deck, takes Hayes by the collar, and gasps, “Sand. Nothing but sand.”

After recovering down below, Captain Goldberg is back at the helm and ready to dive into the Grand Canyon, advertising, Vegas, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, the Christianization thesis, black Helen, DSA, voter turnout, the stupidity of abolishing the Senate, “unfettered capitalism,” Hayek v. Friedman, conservative liberal or liberal conservative, Teddy Roosevelt, and postliberal collapse.

Show Notes:

—John Podhoretz on The Odessey

—Tom Holland on The Odyssey

—Matt Walsh tweet about The Odessey

—Charlie Cooke on abolishing the Senate

—Jonah in Commentary: “Socialism is so Hot Right Now”

—Newsweek: “We Are All Socialist Now”

—Escalon Insights poll on medicare for all

—Live Sarah Isgur Remnant

—Ron Bailey Remnant

—Ask Me Anything Remnant

—Jonah’s book Liberal Fascism

—Live Yuval Levin Remnant

—Irving Kristol: “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution”

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

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.

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