The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Latest Episodes:

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

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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Our Populist Hissy Fit Needs to Stop | Ruminant Oct 17, 2026

Show notes

Dear listener: There are few places Jonah Goldberg hates more than O’Hare International Airport. Yet, in a sad irony, he has spent a significant percentage of his life sitting in a Chicago terminal waiting on a plane. Though Jonah is not generally inclined to process his life through song, today’s Ruminant kicks off with a slow, mournful dirge memorializing his travel nightmares. But fret not; Jonah quickly recovers himself and holds forth admirably on all manner of subjects, including the Vladimir Putin diesel deal, Ukraine and the West, Cornell, Ilhan Omar, politicians and the media, silos, James Talarico, NatCons, J.D. Vance, Katie Zacharia, bad socialist policy, and governing like a grown-up.

Show Notes:

—Friday’s DisPod

—G-File: “High-Minded Words for a Low Form of Politics”

—Andy McCarthy in National Review: “What to Make of the Trump DOJ’s Investigation of Ilhan Omar”

—Wednesday’s G-File

—Jonah’s LA Times column

—Jesse Singal in The Dispatch: “Fractured Realities”

—Dissent Magazine: “Know Your Enemy: The Post-MAGA Midterms?”

—Last week’s Ruminant

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What’s Wrong With Kids These Days? | Interview: Daniel A. Cox Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

Old men griping about the new generation is an old, venerable tradition, and Jonah Goldberg can grouse with the best of them. Unlike the other old men, however, Jonah gets to talk to one of the few people who can actually answer the question, “What’s wrong with the kids these days?” and back it up with data. The American Enterprise Institute’s Daniel Cox joins The Remnant to take us on a whirlwind tour of the gender divide, cultural expectations, parenting, LinkedIn, generational change, attention infidelity, TV, dating, sexting, teenagehood, social media, surveillance culture, porn, OnlyFans, incels, the manosphere, social malaise, third places, chivalry, class, and preaching what you practice.

Show Notes:

—Generation Uncoupled: America's New Gender Divide and the Crisis of Human Connection

—GQ - “The Laptop Boyfriends Can’t Stop Watching YouTube in Bed”

—Rob Henderson Remnant

—Jonah’s G-File: “I Think We’re Turning Japanese … I Really Think So”

—Wired - “I Went Undercover as a Secret OnlyFans Chatter. It Wasn’t Pretty”

—Jonah’s most recent book, Suicide of the West

—Sarah Isgur’s dating Remnant

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The Tumultuous, Remarkable Middle East | Interview: Simon Sebag Montefiore Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

While The Remnant has played host to many remarkable historians over the years, few have taken us on a more incredible ride than Simon Sebag Montefiore. As such, we’re proud to bestow on Simon our newly formed, not-really-endowed chair of Middle Eastern history. Tune in to hear Simon and Jonah Goldberg rove across time and space, covering Iran, Saudi Arabia, the 1979 revolution, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Israel, antisemitism, moral hysteria, Western obsession with Jerusalem, colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity, modernization, Islam, historical perspective, and, most importantly of all, the proper pronunciation of Turkey.

Show Notes:

—Simon Sebag Montefiore - The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East

—Jerusalem: The Biography

—Jonah’s last book, Suicide of the West

—James Scott - Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

—Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: The Intelligent American’s Guide to Europe

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Modernity’s Big Bang | Ruminant Oct 10, 2026

Show notes

Happy Saddam Saturday! Just kidding, we don’t do that kinda thing around here. But you know who does? That’s right, Jack Posobiec and his fellow alt-right goons. And while today’s Ruminant features more than enough of such nonsense, Jonah Goldberg doesn’t leave the high-minded among you hanging. Tune in to hear about nationalism, the Middle East, the French Revolution, Yoram Hazony’s Israeli NatCon, socialism, J.D. Vance, Trump’s short hand, the death penalty, abortion, slavery, and Hegseth’s firing-squad spectacle.

Show Notes:

—Simon Sebag Montefiore - The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East

—Jonah’s America 250 essay for The Dispatch

—Jonah’s book, Liberal Fascism

—Jonah’s book, Suicide of the West

—John Podhoretz on Yoram Hazony’s scheme

—Jonah’s death-penalty column

—Hannah Arendt Remnant

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‘Friendship on the Knife’s Edge’ | Interview: Roger Berkowitz Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

Notorious misanthrope Jonah Goldberg is skeptical of the power of friendship in politics. Winning him over will be no easy task, but if anyone is up to the job, it’s friend of the Remnant and Hannah Arendt scholar Roger Berkowitz. Listen in as Roger and Jonah duke it out over friends, enemies, Zionism, the Nazis, fear of the people, facts, truth in politics, Alexis de Tocqueville, Madisonianism, local governance, the distribution of power, and much more.

Show Notes:

—A World We Share: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World

—Who was Hannah Arendt Remnant

—Jonah’s last book, Suicide of the West

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The Death of Homo Economicus | Interview: Nick Eberstadt Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

While AEI is filled with a lot of smart nerds, a select few have earned the Jonah Goldberg title of “great sage.” Nick Eberstadt is one of these sages, and he joins today for a banger of a Remnant on poverty, misery, social science, the economics of the family, Hungary’s pro-natal policy, the fertility crash, phones, generational stereotypes, technological adaptation, the entitlement problem, and North Korea. Put down the Tik Tok and listen up, kids.

Show Notes:

—Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution

—Men Without Work

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Nixon Was Wrong | Ruminant Oct 03, 2026

Show notes

On today’s Ruminant Jonah makes his old man proud by holding forth on the new right’s attempted rehabilitation of Richard Nixon. Along the way, he also hits on dog movies, the problems of polling, the midterms, the red undertow, the death penalty, Sen. Eric Schmitt, and the uncertain future of the GOP.

Show Notes:

—Heart of the Beast trailer

—Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog Trailer trailer

—Roger Berkowitz: A World We Share: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World

—Jonah’s Los Angeles Times column

—Jonah on Left, Right, and Center

—Kevin Williamson’s death penalty piece

—Friday’s DisPod

—Jonah’s Wednesday G-File

—Kendall: “The Two Majorities”

—Dan McLaughlin in National Review: “Nixon’s Not the One”

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The Scientific Republic | Interview: Tony Mills Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

Dear listeners: For years, you’ve been asking us to get Bill Nye the Science Guy on The Remnant, and we have heard you. Today, we are pleased to present … Wait, what? Oh, I see. Apologies, listeners, but we appear to have had a bit of a mix-up. I’m sorry to say that Bill Nye wasn’t available, and instead the booking agency has sent *checks notes* Tony Mills! While Tony is sadly unwilling to drop Mentos into a 2-liter bottle of soda and stand over it with his mouth open (yes, we did ask), he is absolutely willing to bring the heat on science, AI, and the doom of humanity. Listen in to hear Tony and Jonah Goldberg discuss science funding, the politicization of research, COVID-19, historical reactions to pandemics, germ theory, gatekeeping, algorithms, romanticism, and (P)doom.

Show Notes:

—Remnant wherein Jonah made erroneous comments about pandemics

—The American Enterprise Institute’s AI Ethics Council

—Jonah’s last book

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Inside Israel’s War Room | Interview: Elliot Kaufman and Yonah Jeremy Bob Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

This October will mark three years since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, igniting a complicated web of wars and regional conflicts across the Middle East. Jonah Goldberg is joined today by the authors of a new book that takes readers inside the minds of Israel’s decision-makers during these struggles, unveiling the complicated dynamics behind some of Israel’s biggest successes and failures. Join Jonah, Elliot Kaufman, and Yonah Jeremy Bob and they discuss Bibi Netanyahu, Iran, October 7, the beeper operation, the Biden White House, international opinion of Israel, Operation Midnight Hammer, Rafa, Hamas, Hezbollah, the 2015 nuclear deal, Students for Justice in Palestine, and why people get so deranged about Israel.

Show Notes:

—In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis

—School of War Podcast: “Why John Boyd Still Matters”

—Benjamin Netanyahu: Bibi: My Story

—Jonah’s LA Times column