The Fifth Column

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

News
**The Fifth Column**

Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition.

www.wethefifth.com

Latest Episodes:

The Department Formerly Known as Justice (w/ Devlin Barrett) MO 343 Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

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

As well as Epstein, and the conspiracy theories that refuse to die

-the most famous person from Troy, NY?

-shut your whore mouth, Producer Jason

-we actually do have a serious guest today

-a radical re-purposing of the Justice Department

-James Comey and the seashells

-lowercase justice

-Tom Homan and the $50,000 CAVA bag

-Abscam and the lost art of government …

Conspiracy Theories Never Die (w/ James B. Meigs) #573 Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Jim is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a Wall Street Journal columnist

-The tractor beam of sexuality

-James B. Meigs is here

-Tucker Carlson is just asking questions. He’s less interested in the answers

-It’s 9/11 season. Call in the OG debunker

-Jet fuel didn’t have to melt steel

-Death threats for… Popular Mechanics

-Tucker finds Israel in the JFK files

-Revisiting Loose Change, 20 years later

-Conspiracy theories thrive in the ruins of journalism

-Data centers or, hear us out, server farms

-The mailbag interrogates Mr. Science Man

-Hugging Face and the AI agents chatting amongst themselves

-Midterm Madness goes to Texas

-Talarico vs. Paxton, somehow a toss-up

-Flock cameras solve crimes. They also know where you’ve been

-Nature, Jason Arday, and the death of fact-checking

-UFOs are real. The aliens remain elusive

Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST.

The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Follow The Fifth Column

YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

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

It Was All Just a Joke (Members Only #342) Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

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

Look who decided to come back for this episode! (for the visually impaired, it’s the one and only Kmele Foster)

-A Caribbean anti-colonial fantasy

-A gay Lady Chatterley’s Lover… and hockey

-Oh, Milo

-Because it’s funny. It’s a joke

-Milo, the Tates, and the “it was all a bit” defense

-ICE, deportations, and discovering empathy the hard way

-He gave as good as…

Canada Calls Trump’s Bluff (#572) Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

Holy shit, The Moynihan Report has RETURNED.

Watch the episode, subscribe on YouTube, and sign up for Moynihan’s Substack while you’re at it.

Now, back to the Fifth:

-why you have to watch this podcast

-Sanna Marin…for the policy

-Finding Kmele Foster

-Welch returns from Montreal to report that the French lost

-life in the time of Trade War

-NPR finally solves reparations

-tariffs, hockey sticks, and remedial economics

-JD Vance is still not funny

-Polymarket bets on Canada

-Tucker discovers Christian Russia

-Clip Roulette returns

-Tim Curry, Richard E. Grant, Producer Jason’s inexplicable defense of Hudson Hawk

-Bret Weinstein solves the Charlie Kirk assassination

-Ana Kasparian keeps making new friends

-Mamdani, Muhammad and the death of secularism

-a bit more Clip-O-Rama

-Tuck and the Short King discover 107 million illegal immigrants

Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST.

Follow The Fifth Column

YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

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

Bad Writing, Good Journalism, and AI (w/ Ben Smith) MO #341 Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

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

How does Semafor make money and what is the best magazine in the world? Well…why don’t you smash that subscribe button and/or whip out that credit card if you want the real insider information from media’s best?

-Karen Attiah and the Charlie Kirk quote that wasn’t real

-Firing people for tweets + the last good account on Twitter

-Why is Semafor worth so mu…

Seize the Means of Conservatism (w/ Stephanie Slade) MO #340 Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

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

Stephanie Slade’s new book, Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right, is available for pre-order now!

-J.D. Vance seizes the means of production

-Let’s define “conservative” in case you forgot

-So what the hell is Fusionism?

-From free markets to owning the libs

-Cultural resentment > economic anxiety

-Is there a reset after Trump?

-Whe…

Clip Roulette w/ Dictators, Demons and Democracy (Episode #571) Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

-Greetings…oh, fuck

-Welch has a bone to pick with Ben Dreyfuss

-Clip Roulette

-Tucker and the Demon Bomb

-Jason Arday, martyr?

-The Jonah Lehrer comparison

-The Samantha Power mic disaster

-Fuck you Joaquin

-John Mearsheimer, Stephen F. Cohen and the Russian apologists

-Ukraine didn’t go away

-Trump, Kim Jong-un and the South Korea war games

-Midterm Madness / Polymarket, wha happen?

-Median Strategies and the fake poll

-Adam Bonica, Marc Elias and scamming the elderly

-Is Cuba a dictatorship? Apparently a difficult question

-The Padilla Affair / Slobo Googling

-Theft as a “biological need”

-Chocolate City

-Stay tuned for más Moynihan Report

Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST.

The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Follow The Fifth Column

YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

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

Terry Moran and the Network News Autopsy (Members Only #339) Aug 14, 2026

Show notes

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

We’re joined by former ABC News senior national correspondent Terry Moran, who now publishes Real Patriotism with Terry Moran on Substack and hosts a podcast of the same name on YouTube.

-Terry reads that tweet

-Fired, suspended, non-renewed…whatever

-Any regrets?

-Network news is dying and everyone’s jumping ship

-The 9/11 flag-pin controversy

-Hire more people who voted for Trump

-Why not …

The Politics of Pretending (Episode #570) Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

-Kmele is out of Adderall

-Did anybody actually watch this Tucker and Hunter interview?

-“Montrosity” and other difficult words

-The adventures of Proximity Hong

-The curious case of Jason Arday

-Is there any chance Jesse Singal is racist?

-AOC discovers Woke 1.0 was crazy

-Shane Gillis and the conspiracy of enforcing things nobody believed

-Thank you, Thom Tillis. Also, fuck you.

-Funding the other side’s whackos

-Mamdani declares war on Amazon

-A general rent strike. Over one cockroach.

-David Remnick meets the DSA

-Kmele gets swarmed by the Hasan bots

-So, how great was Mao?

-Midterm Madness and the 2028 Democratic sweepstakes

-Clip Roulette

-Kmele tries to explain himself. It does not help.

-Can America get at least a busted Boris Johnson?

Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST.

The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Follow The Fifth Column

YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

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

A Man of 1989 (w/ David Frum) #569 Aug 07, 2026

Show notes

-a pre-obit for the esteemed David Frum

-involuntarily unionized at The Atlantic

-spy novels, bureaucrats and expense reports

-turning down Bill Buckley’s golden ticket

-prosperity, security and how quickly it can all disappear

-Frum is forever a man of 1989

-God makes you lucky, then convinces you you’re smart

-Tucker Carlson was always capable of many things

-falling flat on your back isn’t progress

-the Michigan Senate choice from hell

-Democrats discover Trump’s permission structure

-Midterm Madness in Michigan

-the polling industry has a phone problem

-politics for people who can afford to lose

-“I saw you coming so I could stop you”

-immigration restriction without the Trumpism

-fascism has the better sales pitch than communism

-what Donald Trump loves besides himself

-the conservative future Frum got very wrong and other reflections

Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? T his episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST.

The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Follow The Fifth Column

YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected