The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Latest Episodes:

How to Teach the Kids Division of Labor | Interview: Jeanna Smialek Nov 09, 2026

Show notes

With Jonah Goldberg sleeping off his election-night hangover, Dispatch in-house grumbler Kevin Williamson takes the helm for today’s conversation with author Jeanna Smialek. The pair discuss Jeanna’s new book about the novelist and cover economist Maria Edgeworth, digging into political economy, Adam Smith, moral novels, women’s education, Harriet Martineau, early feminism, utilitarianism, value theory, Ireland, Little House on the Prairie, and the Great Potato Famine.

Show Notes:

—Jeanna Smialek - The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics

The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠.

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Survey the Wreckage | Ruminant Nov 07, 2026

Show notes

After a couple minor appearances on CNN and about 1,823 tweets, Jonah Goldberg has returned from his Lone Star sojourn ready to ruminate on the week’s GOP bloodbath. Tune in for an absolute stemwinder on the youth vote, TPUSA, Texas, Kansas, the fallacy of red and blue America, potential Democratic overreach, Steven Miller, the DSA, class rhetoric, J.D. Vance, opinions of the median voter, explanations vs. excuses, and a vindication 11 years in the making.

Show Notes:

—Friday’s DisPod

—Conventional wisdom G-File

—The blue tsunami Editor’s Podcast

—Nick Catoggio’s Boiling Frogs on Vance

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You Are Insufficiently Grateful for Modernity | Interview: Chelsea Follett Nov 04, 2026

Show notes

No one ever accused Jonah Goldberg of nostalgic longing for the Middle Ages. Accordingly, he’s grown tired of the tradbros and hippies who claim that the premodern world was just better. In that vein, he welcomes the Cato Institute’s Chelsea Follett, author of The Grim Old Days. Listen in as Chelsea and Jonah discuss the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution, life expectancy, working hours, grandparents, sanitation, animal welfare, health and wellness, childhood, environmentalism, smartphones, Rousseau’s “noble savage,” witches, and romanticization of the past.

Show Notes:

—Chelsea Follett - The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past

—Corey Robin - The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump

—Juliet B. Schor - The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline Of Leisure

—Jonah’s book: Suicide of the West

—Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

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Build More Houses, Have More Kids | Interview: Tim Carney Nov 02, 2026

Show notes

Friend-of-The Remnant and notorious papist Tim Carney joins Jonah Goldberg to pontificate about midterm projections, party-affiliation soul searching, flipping the Senate, the moral majority, the law as an educator, having kids, housing availability, universal daycare, socialism, and the Cheesecake Factory.

Show Notes:

—Dispatch Student Sponsorship

—Tim Carney: Family Unfriendly

—Carney: Alienated America

—Carney: The Big Ripoff

—Napoleon III Remnant

—Nick Eberstadt on The Remnant

—Roger Berkowitz on The Remnant

—Thomas Chatterton Williams on The Remnant

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Of Friends and Enemies | Ruminant Oct 31, 2026

Show notes

Just days away from election week (or, as Jonah Goldberg likes to call it, “Hell”), we at The Remnant thought it wise to explore some more eggheady topics. Tune in to hear Jonah ruminate on the Israeli elections, Carl Schmitt, friendship in politics, good and bad metaphors, comedy, Rationalia, charisma, J.D. Vance, and what Republicans have coming.

Show Notes:

—Dispatch Student Sponsorship

—Friday’s DisPod

—Jonah on Left, Right & Center

—Jonah on Today, Explained

—John Puri in National Review: “A List of Things Democrats Might Do If They Retake Power”

—Roger Berkowitz’s last appearance on The Remnant

—Talking Hannah Arendt on The Remnant

—Jonah’s underrated second book

—William James: “Proposing the Moral Equivalent of War”

—Wednesday’s G-File

—Ruminating on Richard Nixon

—G-File on Nixon

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What’s Wrong with France? | Interview: Thomas Chatterton Williams Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

Jonah Goldberg convenes with Thomas Chatterton Williams to dissect and diagnose the problems plaguing America’s oldest ally, France. Tune in as Thomas and Jonah discuss French discontent, Emmanuel Macron, capitalism, state spending, Palestine, rioting, the protests of ‘68, organized envy, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, mass deportation, radical Islam, the Red-Green alliance, and the end of the Fifth Republic.

Show Notes:

—Thomas Chatterton Williams’ last Remnant appearance

—Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse

—Tyler Austin Harper Remnant

—Lola-Fleur Whittaker video

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A Leader Doth Not a Statesman Make | Interview: Steven B. Smith Oct 26, 2026

Show notes

We here at The Remnant tend to evaluate statesmen according to the Lincoln-Wilson spectrum: The good ones are more like Abraham Lincoln, and the bad ones are more like Woodrow Wilson. But because Jonah Goldberg loves a good argument, we’ve invited friend-of-the-show Professor Steven Smith of Yale University to throw a few wrenches in our statesmanship formula. Listen in as Steven and Jonah discuss the difference between statesmanship and leadership, national education, stateless statesmen, crisis, noble ambition, Charles de Gaulle, Claremonsters, illiberalism, the boringness of leftist ideology, and demagoguery.

Show Notes:

—Steven Smith: On Statesmanship

—Previous Smith Remnant

—Laura Field: Furious Minds

—Laura Field Remnant

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Innuendoctober | Ruminant Oct 24, 2026

Show notes

Let’s be honest: If you’re not getting canceled every couple of days, are you even living? We don’t think so. We’re T minus 10 days until the midterms, and Jonah Goldberg is raring to kick grass and take names on some of the discourse’s most cantankerous issues. Listen in as he tackles the podcastsphere, his preferred midterm losers, Abdul El-Sayed and Islamophobia, Vivek Ramaswamy and the Amy Acton ad, Trump’s egoism, The Social Reckoning, Trump’s fruity comments, the Christian right, gay MAGA, and religious hypocrisy.

Show Notes:

—EconTalk Podcast

—Napoleon III Remnant

—Friday’s DisPod

—Jonathan Martin in Politico: “Vivek Ramaswamy’s Trump Act Could Be His Undoing”

—Vanity Fair: “The Art of the Deal: Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations—Including More Than $700 Million in Transfers”

—Wednesday G-File

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Economics 101, Live From Tulsa! | Interview: Douglas Holtz-Eakin Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

It may disappoint frequent Remnant listeners to learn that most episodes are not recorded in a speakeasy. In fact, recording a Remnant is one of the few occasions that can draw Jonah Goldberg away from such establishments. Nonetheless, listeners will be pleased that on this occasion Jonah is joined in a speakeasy by none other than economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin. They talk about GDP, inflation, federal stakes in private companies, Friedrich Hayek, the knowledge problem, Social Security, the federal budget, K-12 education, one-party governance, political transparency, business leadership, The Wealth of Nations, and the microcosm/macrocosm distinction.

Show Notes:

—Marco Rubio in the Washington Post: “Why I believe in industrial policy — done right”

—Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s homepage

—The Argument

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A Modest Defense of Lulu Lenin | Interview: Tyler Austin Harper Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

Conventional wisdom will tell you to be well rested and sober before an interview to ensure peak performance. Jonah Goldberg, however, discovered long ago that he’s at his best on three minutes of sleep, a couple shots of Fireball, and a fistful of Alka-Seltzer tablets. Today, Jonah has prepared himself accordingly because he wants to be in shipshape for The Remnant’s favorite soft Marxist, Tyler Austin Harper. Join Jonah and Tyler as they dive deep into unfettered capitalism, underwater basket weaving, spoiled DSA kids, socialism, New Deal liberalism, the working class, Democratic Party capture, new ideas, civil society, hobby inflation, administrative bloat, and the technocratization of the humanities.

Show Notes:

—Austin Harper in The Atlantic - “Why Do Rich Kids Love Socialism?”

—Jonah’s response G-File

—Daniel Bell - The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

—Tyler Austin Harper’s April Remnant appearance

—Bhaskar Sunkara, Ben Burgis, and Mike Beggs - The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World

—Joseph A. Schumpeter - Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy