The Fifth Column

Latest Episodes:

Members Only #258 - We Don't Talk About Fight Club (Mostly) May 01, 2025

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

Moynihan couldn’t make it (we don’t know where he is, but if you see a shirtless man yelling at a parking meter in lower Manhattan, please let us know). In his absence, Kmele and Welch cover a wide swath: alien oceans and scientific hype cycles, the collapse of local journalism, the rise of YouTube basketball nerds, and why Luka Dončić is the people’s MVP. They also wade into darker waters—federal crackdowns on campus speech, student visa censorship, and the increasingly authoritarian posture of Trump 2.0.

Plus: reader mail, a reluctant defense of David Hogg, a rant about scams and AI voice fraud, and a minor audio glitch that might actually be evidence of extraterrestrial life.

#502 - The Second Battle of Batya (w/ Batya Ungar-Sargon) Apr 24, 2025

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Errr….This one gets pretty heated. But we’re all still friends! We think. And Moynihan is now sober and his blood sugar is back to normal, so there’s that too. Either way, hats off to Batya for braving another episode with three people who disagree with her on pretty much everything. We talk Tariffs, Trump, lawfare, Ukraine, and everything in between.

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 #257 - I'll Ruin Everything You Are Apr 23, 2025

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

* The Hungarian dentist and the prostitute theory

* Your TV wife sees Hitler all the time, no?

* Facilitate…

* Dinners with politicians

* A digression on Big Star (FYI: "Holocaust”)

* Elder scams

* Apple Watches and proof of life

* Back to Rogan and Murray

* A trip to Libya for a copy of the Green Book

* #9 Fifth Dream

* Doing an impression of a smart person / Paul believes

* A theory …

Members Only #256 -- How Media and Public Health Failed Our Kids (w/ David Zweig) Apr 21, 2025

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

On May 11, 2020, as I was navigating personal collapse (“it’s been a really shitty two months,” I said on an interesting-to-listen-to-now Special Dispatch #20), my two daughters were wrestling unhappily with Zoom school, and all three of us lads were in the process of buying Covid cars, I came across a Wired article that landed like a Cher-style open-ha…

#501 - Due Process in Scare Quotes (w/ Jesse Singal) Apr 18, 2025

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Moynihan is out with a “tooth thing” (which sounds lame, but is allegedly a “painful,” “very serious” dental emergency that definitely doesn't involve a tall, attractive blonde woman). Fortunately, our pal Jesse Singal (Blocked and Reported, Singal-Minded) is along for the ride, and outlines the plans for his heroic crusade to save THE REPUBLIC by beefing with JD Vance on X. We dive into Trump 2.0’s extra-constitutional improvisations, fail to steer clear of trade policy, and search desperately for a silver lining in our late-capitalist, national-populist, increasingly surrealist Idiocracy. Also in the mix: a little Elon drama, libertarian coping strategies, various flavors of executive branch lawlessness, and a surprising outbreak of informed optimism about the future.

* Tooth decay, high-end prostitutes, and podcast logistics

* Jesse Singal enters the chat (possibly still mid–Twitter beef)

* Deportation by executive vibe

* Due process is for losers

* When JD Met Jesse: A Very Sexy Love Story (by Selena Montgomery)

* The most important internet slap-fight in American history

* Hotel El Salvador: now accepting unwanted Americans

* Bannon’s “flood the zone” plan meets sheer incompetence

* Shouting at Bill Hemmer

* Campus protests, free speech, and DHS interns with tasers

* Jesse accidentally agrees with libertarians?

* And can Jesse say one nice thing about JD Vance? (And, “Thank you”!?)

* To the Moon, and Mars, and WHERE ELSE BEYOND

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

#500 - The Triumph of the Idiots Apr 10, 2025

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Is this episode 500?? Well, not really. Likely a bit higher. There have been some numbering convention mixups over the years and we’ve also recorded almost 300 paywalled episodes (yes, you should subscribe now, ya skinflints). But let’s just pretend it’s 500 and say…happy 500th episode, Fifth Column!

* Waymo through skid row

* The dumb right

* Dead cats bounce

* They took brown doublewides from us

* Nixon, but in the open

* Where are the Dems?

* Besides magic

* The DEI trade off?

* The sweet meteor of death episode

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 #255 - Val Kilmer Didn't Die for This Apr 07, 2025

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

* Val, Tombstone, Top Secret

* Top Gun takes it to 11

* One the best Hollywood memoirs

* RIP Capucine

* African-American Monday

* Johnny Depp, musician

* OK TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE COLLAPSING ECONOMY

* Spartacus moment? Once they start flipping…

* “They couldn’t believe it. Ben Shapiro, of all people…”

* A Norwegian. A Dane…and a guy who *isn’t Finnish, Matt*

* On the best fight of …

#499 - One of the Dumbest Decisions in American Political History? (w/ Scott Lincicome) Apr 04, 2025

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* We bring back the great economist Scott Lincicome to separate MAGA myths from inconvenient facts on trade, trade imbalances, ChatGPT math, and getting “ripped off” by our (former?) allies.

* Note: watch Kmele and Moynihan (and Gerald Posner) on the latest episode of the Moynihan Report

* Eli’s new Liberation Day jam

* These tariffs are dumb

* Really, really dumb

* Ruinously dumb

* Laura Loomer is dumb

* Tom Sowell isn’t dumb

* MAGA’s Iraq

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 #254 - These Days of the Condor Apr 01, 2025

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

* Tomorrow on The Moynihan Report: Actor and former fat guy Ethan Suplee (American History X, Wolf of Wall Street, Mall Rats, Remember the Titans). You can watch live at 4pm ET here. Archived there too!

* Muslims and parking

* No turkeys in NYC

* Matt to the mothership

* Austin Fifdom

* Kmele and a Complete Unknown

* Our paranoid times

* No MAGA, no paranoia?

* When you’ve lo…

#498 - The Signal and the Boys Mar 27, 2025

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* FYI: If you want to join the Zoom for March 27 episode of The Moynihan Report at 4pm ET, use this link

* The Legend of Gavin and Charlie