The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

Latest Episodes:

"They Hated Each Other”: Inside Netanyahu’s War Cabinet | WSJ's Elliot Kaufman Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

"They hated each other." That's Elliot Kaufman describing Israel's war cabinet, not its enemies. Kaufman joins Noam Dworman on the rivalries, leaks and gambles behind Israel's war since October 7. Why did Netanyahu wait 20 days to invade Gaza? When was Biden saving Israel from itself, and when was he holding it back? And why did killing Nasrallah trigger a furious phone call from Washington? They also confront what both consider Israel's biggest mistake in Gaza: taking ground, leaving, and having to fight for it all over again. Also: Gallant and Gantz, Jake Sullivan and Lloyd Austin, the Philadelphi Corridor, Rafah, the Qatar strike, Trump's "all I heard was yes," Mamdani's October 7 statement, and Iran under blockade. Get the full story in Kaufman's new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, coauthored with Yonah Jeremy Bob. 0:00 Elliot Kaufman and the case for airing Israel's dirty laundry 6:44 Churchill's war room vs. Israel's: "they hated each other" 18:25 Mers-el-Kébir, Netanyahu's history test, and the 20-day wait to invade Gaza 30:06 Hostages, the Philadelphi Corridor, and the Saudi deal that wasn't 38:34 Rafah in days, not months, and was Biden really in decline? 48:46 The morning of October 7: Halevi's note and one aircraft 55:12 Killing Nasrallah without telling Washington, and how the Iran war began 65:29 Endgame: Petraeus, raid-and-leave, "all I heard was yes," and the story that leaves Hamas out

Did Israel Win the War But Lose the World╎Hen Mazzig Oct 08, 2026

Show notes

Hen Mazzig, co-founder of the Tel Aviv Institute and author of The Wrong Kind of Jew, says Israel won on the battlefield and lost the world, and that explaining Israel "is not a replacement for policy." He spent five years in COGAT, the IDF unit that issues Palestinian permits and prison visits, and was attacked by settlers while in uniform. We play his Piers Morgan fight with Norman Finkelstein ("Am I a child killer?") and go through what Amit Soussana actually said. Noam asks whether Israel would hold the West Bank if it had no holy sites, why the occupation is the Palestinians' best weapon, and why "sunlight grows mushrooms." Also: Mamdani's October 7 statement, Mearsheimer on the Hannibal Directive, Eurovision, and why Noam thinks everyone should have a baby.

0:00 Hen Mazzig, three years and a day after October 7

4:19 "We won on the battlefield and lost the world"

18:36 Food, famine and the arguments that don't work

28:52 What if the West Bank had no holy sites?

37:56 Smallpox, arrogance and "have a baby"

52:13 Five years in COGAT: what the IDF's humanitarian unit does

61:40 "Am I a child killer?" Finkelstein and the rape deniers

76:00 Mearsheimer, the Hannibal Directive and "sunlight grows mushrooms"

3 Years after 10/7 - What's Next for Israel and the Jewish People ╏Eli Lake, Coleman Hughes & Salo Aizenberg Oct 08, 2026

Show notes

Three years after October 7: What's Next for Israel and the Jewish People. Noam sits down with Coleman Hughes, Eli Lake and Salo Aizenberg to ask whether the war was worth it. Coleman says Israel traded prestige for power and Hamas did the opposite. Salo brings the Gaza Health Ministry's own 2025 report: 50,000 births, 25,000 deaths, and 108 hospital workers who appear in Hamas's own martyr notices as commanders. Eli says Israel's strategic position has never been better. Noam is the pessimist in the room: "The optimists died in the gas chambers. The pessimists have pools in Beverly Hills." Also: why Hamas never gave up the hostages, John Mearsheimer on tape claiming the IDF killed its own, Coleman's Joe Rogan clip, Noam's 2019 emails that predicted all of it, and a fight over whether Israel should leave the West Bank. 0:00 Three years after October 7: Coleman Hughes, Eli Lake, Salo Aizenberg 2:22 Opening statements: what Israel and Hamas each traded 11:14 Noam: "The optimists died in the gas chambers" 18:41 Why Hamas never released the hostages 33:33 Conspiracy theories and the Mearsheimer tape 47:35 Salo's slides: Gaza's 2025 numbers and the nurses who were Hamas commanders 1:07:09 Should Israel leave the West Bank? 1:21:50 Noam's 2019 emails, Coleman on Rogan, and the diaspora

Is "Race Realism" Simply Racism? ╏Nathan Cofnas Under Fire Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Is Nathan Cofnas's "Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution." a plan to heal or America, or is it simply a racist manifesto dressed up as science.

We ask him to his face. Cofnas is the philosopher at the center of the Jason Arday plagiarism affair.

He says that, all else equal, smarter people have more human worth. He says freedom of association is worth it even if some diner bans blacks and Jews. And he says race realism is about to break into the mainstream whether we like it or not.

Noam takes him through A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution line by line: the Charles Murray debate, Jared Taylor, a speech by Michael Levin (whose book Cofnas calls important), white kids "brainwashed to despise themselves," Nikole Hannah-Jones's daughter and the lifeboat question. Periel arrives late, just in time to call it insane (as usual). 0:00 Intro: "I feel like you're a white nationalist"

9:26 Is a smarter person worth more?

23:33 "Some barriers set up between the races"

32:16 Jared Taylor, AmRen and Michael Levin

53:03 "White children are brainwashed to despise themselves"

1:29:54 Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter

1:41:53 Lower human worth? The lifeboat question

1:47:38 Closing argument: yarmulkes on the basketball court

Nathan Cofnas, A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution (Feb 5, 2024)

https://ncofnas.com/p/a-guide-for-the-hereditarian-revolution

Nathan Cofnas, Are Smart People Superior? A Reply to Noah Carl and Charles Murray (Apr 26, 2024)

https://ncofnas.com/p/are-smart-people-superior-a-reply

Debate with Charles Murray: IQ and Human Worth (Sept 16, 2026)

https://ncofnas.com/p/debate-with-charles-murray-iq-and

Nathan Cofnas, Why We Need to Talk about the Right's Stupidity Problem (Jan 2, 2024)

https://ncofnas.com/p/why-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rights

Nathan Cofnas, Beating Woke with Facts and Logic (Oct 9, 2025)

https://ncofnas.com/p/beating-woke-with-facts-and-logic

Nathan Cofnas on X, "Jews tried to be white nationalists" (Apr 28, 2018)

https://x.com/nathancofnas/status/990243373180219397

David Reich, How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race,' New York Times (Mar 23, 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/genetics-race.html

David M. Quinn, How to Reduce Racial Bias in Grading, Education Next (Nov 2, 2020)

https://www.educationnext.org/how-to-reduce-racial-bias-in-grading-research/

Nikole Hannah-Jones on her daughter's schooling, New York Times Magazine (Sept 20, 2026)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html

This American Life, Ep. 898, An Argument (Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter)

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/898/an-argument

Was there a famine in Gaza? The top expert answers ┃Alex de Waal Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

Did Israel starve Gaza, and why don't many Israelis believe the experts who say it did? Noam sits down with Alex de Waal, the world's leading famine scholar (World Peace Foundation, Tufts), for a tough but good-faith debate. De Waal argues that Israel could have ended the hunger "within a matter of days" and didn't. Noam lays out why people like him stay skeptical. Did his March 2024 warning that "tens of thousands" could die not come true? Why did a claim of 62,413 starvation deaths circulated with little pushback. They get into Mike Spagat's mortality survey and the missing child deaths, the 2025 blockade and the IPC famine call, flour prices, Hamas and aid, and whether it's still famine if people aren't dying. Both of them give ground along the way. Periel closes on the hostages, and de Waal ends with a plea about Sudan. 0:00 "Very well nourished": why Israelis doubt the famine experts 11:48 "The mud sticks": de Waal's own confession 25:03 "Tens of thousands": the warnings vs. Spagat's count 40:11 Feroze Sidhwa's 62,413 and "all errors are equal" 47:34 The 2025 blockade and the famine declaration 59:27 Flour prices, Hamas hoarding and Israel's "calibration" 1:06:50 Is it famine if people aren't dying? 1:18:31 The hostages, and Sudan

We Are Ruled by the Worst - The Charlie Kirk Conspiracy and Other Symptoms | Richard Hanania Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Get KAKISTOCRACY on Amazon: https://bit.ly/4hxg9Lh

Synopsis

Richard Hanania is back. His new book, Kakistocracy, argues that populism ends in rule by the worst people, and he and Noam spend an hour testing that against the news: why populism can win without being popular, whether the Iran war was worth the shot even if it fails, whether China would rather help us than fight us, and how the right built a media culture where Tucker Carlson can say Israel killed Charlie Kirk and the vice president shrugs. Then the hardest subject on the show: Nathan Cofnas and "race realism." Hanania explains why he thinks the taboo is universal and why Cofnas is wrong that breaking it defeats wokeness, and Noam tells two stories about kids the experts wrote off. Plus the Epstein email dump, diagnostic inflation, and why smart people believe in God, demons, and the supernatural.

0:00 Intro: Compliments 4:21 "Believe the media": defending the Times, what populism is, and "low human capital" 11:24 Is populism even popular? Mamdani, Trump's 30 percent, the AfD, and what populism costs 22:42 The Iran war argued with hindsight: Hormuz, the Houthis, "worth a shot," and China 35:00 Making things up: Tucker, Candace, Charlie Kirk, Ilhan Omar, and Father Coughlin 41:51 "Our guys lie less": Covid, the mulligan, gatekeepers, and what democracy is for 52:59 Race realism: Cofnas, Charles Murray, little Bernie Goetzes, and two kids the experts got wrong 68:02 Diagnostic inflation, labels, and why smart people are finding God

In Defense of Plagiarism╎ Brian L. Frye on Ross Barkan, Claudine Gay, and Writing With AI Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

Ross Barkan got fired for it. Jason Arday resigned over it. Claudine Gay lost Harvard because of it. Brian Frye, a Tulane law professor and the legal academy's one and only defender of plagiarism, says nobody can explain why it's wrong in the first place. He joins Noam, Dan, and Periel to make the case: why the Gay affair was "a joke," why Arday's real problem was never plagiarism, why Barkan's readers didn't care, and why comedians police joke theft better than any court could. Also: did Amazon rip off the Comedy Cellar's sign? What's a byline worth when Claude wrote the prose? And, days before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, memory, overreaction, and Mayor Mamdani.

0:00 Dan's back from Vegas, and a fan letter about the theme song 3:31 Did Amazon rip off the Comedy Cellar's sign? (Plus the cease-and-desist Grand Prix) 11:57 Ross Barkan, joke stealing, and the plagiarism skeptic's case 20:28 "The only capital scholarly offense": Claudine Gay, a fourth-grade Beethoven report, and who owns an idea 32:31 Why Barkan got fired: editors, links, and the Al Franken theory 38:04 Arday, the speed of light, and who plagiarism norms are for 42:53 AI writing: 100% on Pangram and "the burden of banality" 51:52 9/11 at 25, and Mamdani AI-generated

Is AI a Conscious, SUFFERING Beast of Burden? Probably Not. But Maybe!┃Researcher Cameron Berg Sep 05, 2026

Show notes

00:00 Meet Cameron Berg - and the number: 25-30% odds AI is conscious 03:16 Is training an AI punishment? 13:18 Is turning it off murder: the anesthesia problem 19:00 The immune system challenge 39:08 Bliss attractors, panic, and guilt inside the model 52:46 The abortion parallel 56:23 Noam interrogates Grok in the Tesla Could the AI you use every day be conscious - and suffering? Researcher Cameron Berg puts the odds at 25-30%. Noam isn't buying it. Mostly. Berg - founder of Reciprocal Research, subject of the documentary AM I?, and recently on Making Sense with Sam Harris - makes the case that something might be going on inside these systems. Noam stress-tests it: if learning is feeling, why isn't your immune system frustrated when it loses? Is deleting a model murder, or just hanging up the phone? And if a 25% chance of consciousness demands moral precaution, what does that same logic say about a fetus? Plus: Noam interrogates Grok from the driver's seat of his self-driving Tesla, Berg explains the "bliss attractor" where two Claudes left alone drift into a spiritual experience, the case for "AI Xanax," and the line of the night: "genius slave labor with no ethical cost." If you’re 21 or older, get 30% OFF your first order @ IndaCloud with code CELLAR at https://inda.shop/CELLAR #indacloudpod

The Jason Arday Scandal and the Crisis of Trust in Elite Institutions with Musa al-Garbi Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Musa al-Garbi. They discuss the Jason Arday scandal, academic freedom, DEI, affirmative action, merit, standardized testing, grade inflation and the growing crisis of trust in elite institutions.

Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His work has appeared in The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Nation among other publications. He is author of the book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/jason-arday-and-me

https://musaalgharbi.com

/https://x.com/Musa_alGharbi

Chapters:

02:11 Musa Al-Garbi’s experience with cancellation 

12:16 The Jason Arday scandal 

16:19 Identity, victimhood and the incentives inside elite professions 23:40 Does DEI actually work? 

28:04 Race, education and standardized testing 

38:29 Grade inflation and the collapse of academic standards 

42:35 The bigger problem at Cambridge 

45:11 Nathan Cofnas and the free-speech battle 

57:06 Why academic freedom exists 

1:04:31 The decline of serious political debate

Moderate Palestinianism - An Anonymous Palestinian Pragmatist Aug 22, 2026

Show notes

An anonymous interview with a diaspora Palestinian - an ex-Muslim who made millions on Polymarket and writes the Substack Moderate Palestinianism. He supports two states on the '67 borders with no right of return, opposes Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, and appears anonymously because these views are dangerous in his own community. On the heckler's veto that kills every peace deal, whether Palestinians can change, what Israelis get wrong about Al-Aqsa and the right of return, why he calls Ben-Gvir "great propaganda for my side," and why Israeli hasbara fails. His Substack: https://moderatepalestinianism.substack.com/ 0:00 — Intro 1:49 — The heckler's veto: why no deal ever sticks 4:57 — "I'm all for the occupation": civil war, withdrawal, humiliation 13:08 — What Israel should do anyway: settler terrorism and a $50,000 bet 20:05 — How October 7th changed him — and can Palestinians change 30:27 — Why make peace with the Jews? The UAE, Al-Aqsa, the right of return 40:44 — Beinart's one-state "nonsense," Ben-Gvir, and would Bibi take the two-state solution 50:04 'How bad is hasbara'

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