The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Latest Episodes:

No, Not That Napoleon | Interview: Edward Shawcross Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Jonah Goldberg scratches an intellectual itch in this 90-minute interview with British historian Edward Shawcross to discuss the rise and fall of Napoleon III. Is this the start of modern politics? Can we compare Trump to this unlikely political victor? Are elites and foreign powers the favorite boogeymen of populists everywhere? Stay tuned for a brief history lesson and indulgent wonkery.

Show Notes:

—Edward Shawcross’s book: The People’s Emperor: The Unlikely Rise and Spectacular Fall of Napoleon III

—‘A dwarf atop a great wave’

—The Lost History of Liberalism

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A Man in Front of a Microphone Discusses Hubris | Ruminant Aug 08, 2026

Show notes

Jonah Goldberg records this week’s Ruminant days before his excursion to the woods (Bigfoot sighting anyone?), to discuss international law, hubris, whatever the mess is with the Iran war, and “common good” conservatism. And he answers questions from listeners.

Show Notes:

—How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran

—Aaron MacLean Remnant

—Aaron MacLean and Mark Montgomery on School of War

—The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought

—Yuval Levin Remnant

—The Neutrality Myth: Liberty, Order, and the Common Good

—Jonah’s X thread on the DSA

Send your questions to remnant@thedispatch.com.

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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USA! USA! | Interview: Brendan Simms Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

Bleary-eyed, scrambled, and in need of a second overpriced venti black coffee, Jonah Goldberg speaks with Brendan Simms, a Cambridge Don-guy who wears fancy belts, about his new book, Return of the Great Powers, which discusses how the Russia-Ukraine war sparked how the Russia-Ukraine War prompted the West to act, China’s potential defeat if Russia loses, Trump as a mob boss, and technology as a driver of cultural change.

Show Notes:

—Brendan Simms: Return of the Great Powers

—Brendan Simms: Donald Trump: The Making of a Worldview

—Francis Fukuyama: The End of History and the Last Man

—Simms’ About Page

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‘Long Liberalism’ | Interview: Jerusalem Demsas Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

Detractors frequently accuse Jonah Goldberg of being an irrelevant dinosaur. We at The Remnant are proud to say that only one of those accusations is correct. We are also proud to say that Jonah’s dinosaurness does not prevent him from conversing with young, hip, and cool members of today’s media landscape. “Prove it,” you say? Well, today we bring you a podcast with none other than Jerusalem Demsas, founder of The Argument and one of the coolest center-left pundits. Join Jonah and Jerusalem as they dive into positive and negative freedoms, the college landscape, the Democratic Socialists of America, Zohran Mamdani’s policies, the Democratic Party, housing, playing the long game, the battle of ideas, our broken epistemic environment, weak political parties, oligarchy, money in politics, groupthink, and technology.

Show Notes:

—The Argument

—“‘Feel’ as a Determinant of College Choice: Evidence from Campus Tour Weather”

—Demsas: “Does the oligarchy exist?”

—The Argument Podcast: What AOC and Bernie Sanders get wrong about the oligarchy

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The Common Good? | Ruminant Aug 01, 2026

Show notes

As DSA and postliberal pirates storm the decks of the HMS Remnant, Captain Jonah Goldberg would seem to be in dire straits. Nonetheless, Captain Jonah—with an eerie air of calm—draws his cutlass, sets down his cigar, and smiles. Prepare, gentle listener, for a bloodbath. Today Jonah deftly handles every controversy on the docket, including Hasan Piker, Ukraine as Israel, the Michigan Senate race, Anthony Fauci, Covid in retrospective, rap music, Napoleon III, J.D. Vance, the common good, subsidiarity, the Constitution, and Hamas.

Show Notes:

—Hasan Piker collar video

—Last week’s Ruminant

—Friday’s DisPod

—Rebecca Heinrichs Remnant

—Aaron MacLean Remnant

—Grayson Logue in The Dispatch - “Why We Can’t Move On From the Pandemic”

—Matt Ridley Remnant

—Matt Ridley’s book Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19

—John Barry - The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

—Jonah’s book Liberal Fascism

—The Argument

—NYT Heritage Foundation piece

—JD Vance’s book

—Justice Scalia’s Congressional testimony

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Coercion and Attrition | Interview: Ken Pollack Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Every once in a while, The Remnant staff need to remind Jonah Goldberg that we’re running a business here, and that he can’t just putz around with Pod, Chris, or Sarah on every episode. Sometimes, you need someone respectable; sometimes, you need an expert. Today’s guest—the expert to rule them all—is Ken Pollack, here to tell us all about the war in Iran. Join Jonah and Ken as they discuss pain thresholds, public opinion inside Iran, the fallout of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death, the ideology of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Persian nationalism, the original sins of the war, the politics behind the scenes, civil-war spillover, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, oil, exit strategies, and end games.

Show Notes:

—Pollack’s forthcoming book: The Iraq Wars

—Last Ken Pollack Remnant

—Aaron MacLean Remnant

—NYT: “Inside Israel’s Secret Operation to Cultivate Ahmadinejad”

—Pollack’s webinar: “US Policy After Iraq: Getting Lebanon’s Disarmament Right”

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Small Yet Beautiful in Communist China | Interview: Audrye Wong Jul 27, 2026

Show notes

Here at The Remnant, our hate list is rather long: Woodrow Wilson, electoral primaries, German romanticism … the list goes on and on. But if there’s one we hate that doesn’t get enough air time, it’s Chinese communism. We hate Chinese communism. That’s why we’ve recruited from the ranks of America’s foremost anti-CCP institution—that’s the American Enterprise Institute, for those of you who live under rocks—to bring you the latest on Chinese grand strategy. AEI’s Audrye Wong joins Jonah Goldberg to discuss Beijing’s international investment, Chinese diaspora, influence operations, Taiwan, bribery, Chinese culture, American investment in Asia, Orbán’s Hungary, Russia-China relations, democracy, Han supremacy, and how Americans should think about countering the threat across the Pacific.

Show Notes:

—Subversion and Seduction: China's Economic Statecraft

—Zach Cooper in Foreign Affairs: “Asia After America”

—Jonah’s last book

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Odysseus Returns | Ruminant Jul 25, 2026

Show notes

First mate Steve Hayes strides across the deck, grinning maniacally at the cowering crew. “Mine” he crows to himself. “Mine! The HMS Remnant is finally mine! Muahahaha!” The crew, downcast, is near despair. Then suddenly, all eyes turn to the gangplank. Haggard, sunburned, stricken, and emaciated, Jonah Goldberg stumbles onto the deck, takes Hayes by the collar, and gasps, “Sand. Nothing but sand.”

After recovering down below, Captain Goldberg is back at the helm and ready to dive into the Grand Canyon, advertising, Vegas, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, the Christianization thesis, black Helen, DSA, voter turnout, the stupidity of abolishing the Senate, “unfettered capitalism,” Hayek v. Friedman, conservative liberal or liberal conservative, Teddy Roosevelt, and postliberal collapse.

Show Notes:

—John Podhoretz on The Odessey

—Tom Holland on The Odyssey

—Matt Walsh tweet about The Odessey

—Charlie Cooke on abolishing the Senate

—Jonah in Commentary: “Socialism is so Hot Right Now”

—Newsweek: “We Are All Socialist Now”

—Escalon Insights poll on medicare for all

—Live Sarah Isgur Remnant

—Ron Bailey Remnant

—Ask Me Anything Remnant

—Jonah’s book Liberal Fascism

—Live Yuval Levin Remnant

—Irving Kristol: “The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution”

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Live From the American Enterprise Institute! | Interview: Yuval Levin Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

What does it mean to be an American? What is government for? What reforms will fix our political system? Join Jonah Goldberg, Yuval Levin, and 100 little policy gnomes at the American Enterprise Institute to find out! Jonah and Yuval cover America at 250 and reflect on the Bicentennial. They also discuss Graham Platner versus Ken Paxton, what it means to hold office, America’s 50/50 problem, unitary executive theory, the administrative state, civic virtue, election reform, Nixonian propaganda, and taking people as they find them.

Show Notes:

—AEI’s America at 250 series

—Remnant on E. E. Schattschneider and primaries

—Yuval talks to Ezra Klein

—Lee Drutman on The Ezra Klein Show

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The Development Paradox | Interview: Ronald Bailey Jul 20, 2026

Show notes

Jonah Goldberg has been chewing over how to reduce the number of gray hairs in Congress for some time now. Unfortunately, the best that he and The Remnant team have come up with is shaving the heads of all the senior senators, which, seeming somewhat impractical, led Jonah to call in an expert. Science correspondent and longtime friend of the show Ronald Bailey joins the merry band today to set us all straight on RFK Jr., vaccines, MAHA, DOGE, libertarianism, bad analogies for government, transhumanism, gerontocracy, term limits, libertarian Shangri-La, Francis Fukuyama, institutions, economic growth, Thomas Jefferson, invention, and Benjamin Franklin.

Show Notes:

—Bailey’s book - The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century

—Bailey’s book - Liberation Biology: The Scientific And Moral Case For The Biotech Revolution

—Bailey in Reason - “Can America Get Out of the Gerontocracy Trap?”

—Jonah’s book - Suicide of the West

—Terrible Rest Is History podcast on Jefferson

—Michael Auslin Remnant