The Fifth Column

Latest Episodes:

On "The Summer of Our Discontent" w/ Thomas Chatterton Williams Aug 26, 2025

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

Kmele connects with Thomas Chatterton Williams to discuss his latest book, “The Summer of Our Discontent”. It’s a wide-ranging conversation that revisits the (or at least Thomas’) optimistic feelings toward the Obama moment in american politics, the backlash of the Trump years, and the ideological hangover of 2020’s “racial reckoning.” They wrestle with…

#520 - Wear a Tie, Kids Won't Die / White Hippies / Ancient Chinese Custom, Huh? Aug 21, 2025

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* Tahoe plague

* The Swiss lobby

* Hate your kids

* They seem like nice kids

* If you only wore a tie, kids wouldn’t die

* Have some dignity, says the most undignified human alive

* The root of “root causes”

* Free the guilty

* White Hippies

* Right-wing cancel culture

* Chicago needs this more than DC ]

* We kind of disagree about the Smithsonian

* This is absurd

* Ancient Chinese custom, eh?

* It was AI, Matt. She’s still hot.

* I love you, Sanna

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Members Only #272 - Bosom Buddies, Nazi Historians, Late Capitalists Aug 19, 2025

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* A Spanish Harlem incident

* The selective regret of Hank Azaria

* Kmele watches Eddington

* Ozzy confesses

* Bonding with your kids over music

* Back to Billy

* The genius of Rick

* Kmele reveals his race

* Is Moynihan the Jerry Springer of TFC?

* Spectacle vs. interview

* Is Martyr Made a baddie?

* Endless late capitalism

#519 - Creed, Crimea, Crime...and a City of Baby Newts Aug 14, 2025

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* Below the Mendoza Line

* Tommy the HIV+ Rocky boxer

* Stallone’s Bergman period

* Does Tom Friedman still have a job? And if so, why?

* The hundreds of forgotten anti-Bush books

* An especially bad Munich analogy

* NATO, NATO, NATO

* Purely defensive? Well…

* Perhaps it made sense at the time…

* The Olympic graveyard

* A test for the post-war European left

* Won’t somebody just *do something*

* In praise of Florent Ahmed Groberg

* The politics of DC crime

* A city of Haley Barbours

* Writing shirtlessly: A fantastically awful AP article on DC

* Some notes on Ken Burns

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 #271 - America the Antidote (Second Sunday Rebroadcast!) Aug 13, 2025

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A rebroadcast of our latest Second Sunday episode during which the lads discuss Killer Mike, World War III, fascism, Billy Joel, Brits, Americans, the Swiss, stupid people, smart people, and white people. And a bunch of other stuff…

#518 - Angry Indians, the Socialist Right, TikTok's Propaganda War Aug 08, 2025

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* A $750 late fee

* Crazy train

* Tariffapalooza 7.0

* Making Modi mad

* Economic nationalism vs. market capitalism

* The Soviet Senator

* A pen and phone guy

* Should DC be taken over by the feds? Or just left alone to be awful?

* Israel and the TikTok war

* Tell me how this ends

* And about a million other things…

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 #270 - Norwegian Pizzas, Italian Meterologists, Fake Dissidents Aug 07, 2025

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* Just let them waffle on for a few minutes before the good stuff…

* Poor Europe

* The $50 Norwegian pizza?

* Functional Denmark, deranged Danish

* Moz and the monolingual

* The brilliant Child

* Moynihan vs. his daughter on Billy Joel

* “Forbidden topics are true” isn’t true

* How to talk in Eurocode

* Bumper sticker TV (and an ode to Chris Elliot)

* The greatest meteorologist of al…

#517 - "Pimp-o-nomics: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Male Gaze" w/ Robbie Soave Aug 02, 2025

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Moynihan joins from Europe. Robbie Soave (Reason, Rising, Sheetz & Giggles) guests — bravely joining the fellas after stopping by the local precinct so he could report his scooter stolen. Plus; Epstein conspiracies, whether Sydney Sweeney’s jeans are saving America, and debate the merits of dating an AI girlfriend.

* Pimponomics

* Victimized

* Scooter Evangelism

* Robbie is a nerd

* European Hobos to Hotness Index (HHX)

* Epstein: Still Boring, Still Dead

* Robbie really is a nerd

* Trafficking Stats and the Seagull Defense

* Campus Crackdown Expands

* Trump, Tariffs, and Inventory Economics

* Sydney’s Sweeney Jeans (and Whiteness of the Whale)

* Robby Comes Out, Kmele Has Notes

Recorded: 8.1.2025

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

#516 - "Treasons, Tiny Packages, and the End of Late Night" w/ Eli Lake Jul 25, 2025

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Moynihan is somewhere in Europe. Eli Lake (The Free Press, Breaking History) fills in. And Kmele sustained a harrowing podcast-related injury that postponed a recording (and nearly cost him a finger).

* Meat & Memory

* Colbert Gets the Axe

* Small Packages

* A Yearslong Coup?

* Russiagate Replay

* Accountability and Missed Opportunities

* The Never-Ending Epstein Drama

* An (Inevitably) Dysfunctional Government (if you can keep it)

Recorded: 7.24.2025

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 #268 - Every Pump is Patriotic Jul 21, 2025

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