The Fifth Column

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Members Only #278 -- Goliath’s Curse Author Luke Kemp on Why (and When) Empires Collapse Sep 29, 2025

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

Oh sure, everyone’s go-to for imperial collapse tends to be Rome, but what broad lessons are there to be gleaned from every single other civilizational implosion, from Mesopotamia to the Mayans to the forgotten pyramid builders along the Mississippi River? Such is the intriguing set-up for Goliaths Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, the…

Members Only #277 - Andy Rooney Hangovers, Nazi Beekeepers, and Ex-Canadians Sep 27, 2025

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

* If you’re a Never Fly Coach subscriber, remember that you get to watch the video version of this episode!

* The morning after pill and Roy Campanella’s glove

* Why does Moynihan look like late-stage Nick Nolte?

* Have a SoCal venue suggestion for a Fifth live show?

* Comparatively, Alex Jones isn’t that bad (Ed. note: Spoke too soon! Immediately following this rec…

#525 - John Spencer Views Explosion Sep 25, 2025

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Matt and Michael are joined by John Spencer, Executive Director of the Urban Warfare Institute.

•Gary Busey and the B-movie military raid on the Turkish Embassy

•Bagging and tagging isn’t as bad as it sounds

•20/20 De-Baathification

•Post 9/11 Islamophilia

•The hockey analogy for war with Hamas

•Human shielding & bomb shelter inequities

•Gaza vs Berlin 1945

•Journalism in Gaza

•The IDF’s absent PR operation

•Starvation, genocide, and Wikipedia

•Amalek

•Trump’s 180 on Ukraine

•Comedian Dave Smith on military aid

•God bless Russian incompetence

•Red Dawn had it all wrong

•Cancel John’s tickets to Stalingrad

•John Spencer, expert? The New York Times is on it.

•NFC-level members get a video preview of this episode here!

•Speaking of video, we’re launching on YouTube any day now… 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 #276 - The Cancelling of an American Talkshow (w/ Greg Lukianoff) Sep 19, 2025

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

* Pretty sure FIRE president Greg Lukianoff is the perfect guest for this moment…

* A requirement of Judaism

* FIRE on fire these days

* Come on man, it was the FCC!

* My husband got Kimmel fired!

* The latest campus free speech ranking

* FYI, lots of dumb young people are cool with political violence

* Is does the university have a psycho incubation problem?

* So who should be …

#524 - BTW, Venezuela is a Dictatorial Commie Narcostate (w/ Thor Halvorssen) Sep 18, 2025

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* See below for the video version of this episode!

* On Candace and Megyn

* That source, says Thor, the Venezuelan, is a big booster of the shittiest people on Earth

* How they shot my mother (Hugo Chavez edition)

* The failure of the Human Rights Industry™

* How Venezuela collapsed

* It’s not a country. It’s a drug cartel

* The hierarchy of South American drug trafficking

* The real reason the US struck those “drug boats”

* So the 93% cannot defeat the 7%?

* Was former congressman Aaron Shock corrupted by Venezuelan commies?

* Crooked congressmen. Crooked Kennedys?

* A crooked American oil magnate?

* On dissident heroism—and American cynicism

* The nobility of the human spirit

* The useless UN

* The million dollar roller bag

* How the bad guy$ $pread their influence

* And much, much more!

As previously mentioned, Never Fly Coach-level subscribers have access to our early video efforts. Wonky angles, swiveling chairs, ugly timecodes, no title sequence…you get the idea. BUT…your feedback has been amazingly positive thus far. If you want to add your two cents (and see our ugly mugs), upgrade and get access to the ever-evolving pilot episodes!

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 #275 - The Elasticity of Memory & the Weight of History (w/ Russ Roberts) Sep 13, 2025

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

* See below for the video version of this episode!

* Russ’s drinks by the pool with Hitchens

* How potato chips are made. And what it tells us about economics

* Backwards towards “artisanal”

* How will a NatCon economy perform?

* It ain’t all doom and gloom (surprisingly)

* Do academic economists matter?

* Russ talks to Milton Friedman

* Do long-term economic trends tells us …

#523 - On the Assassination of Charlie Kirk Sep 11, 2025

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A very bad day for American politics, recorded within an hour of a young father’s death. Political violence, outgroup hatreds, and a side of media malpractice. With a sidebar conversation on 9/11, plus extended outro on the murder in Charlotte and subsequent discussion about race.

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 #274 - Jamaicanon and the Racist Storms Sep 06, 2025

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

* You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both…

* Waiting for Bill and Ted

* A catalogue of bad prophecies

* 7th Day Youtube

* Jamicanon

* Yakub and the Atlantians

* War with Venezuela?

* Was Katrina racist

* “Heritage Americans”

* A listener is mad about…one of our friends

* The Zionist silence

* I’ll always take your free trips

* We are the (piss) pigs

* Own your ethnic failures!

* G…

#522 - Video Killed the Podcast Star (ft. Mace, Epstein, Gladwell, Linehan) Sep 04, 2025

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* The video age is upon us

* Sweet Jane

* Crazy Nancy

* I’m a survivor, I'm not gon' give up

* You have a microphone. Just TELL US.

* Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, pedo hunter

* A revolt at HHS

* The conspiratorial mind

* Failing the logic test

* Malcolm Gladwell comes clean. Moynihan doesn’t forgive

* Taboo busting b/w forbidden topics

* A hunch that they were lying…

* Europe changed. Everyone pretended not to notice

* The UK’s decent into mindless illiberalism

* Graham Linehan demands something from the Fifth…we demurred

* Reanimating the dead, only to kill them again

* And so 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

#521 - MAGA Panthers and White FUBU Aug 28, 2025

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* A barrel of crackas

* We’re buying Hooters

* Glamorous hairstyling

* Look it up, people

* The caudillo and the talk show host

* Hega-stan

* MAGA Marx: Nationalize everything!

* The era of state capitalism is upon us

* Burn yer flags

* Right-wing ACLU

* One more time: the government is bad at things

* A history of privatization

* Lisa Cook and the Cult Jam

* The coming violence?

* MAGA Panthers

* And so 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

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