

The Fifth Column (private feed for bitterone31droid@googlemail.com)
Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch
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
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 20, 2025 • 1h 8min
#533 - Moynihan vs. Moynihan (w/ Lydia Moynihan)
* The Doppelgänger* Where do these Moynihans come from?* The journalism disease* You do not want to get a call from the New York Post* From schadenfreude to envious cruelty* Covering the powerful* What is “social proof?”* The Epstein obsession* Incompetence defeats the deep state* Epstein and language inflation* Representing the Trump voter* MTG’s difficulty with economics* Everyone’s difficulty with economics* Let’s get a Juul and watch Beetlejuice* She’s young. He’s not. But they both hate the young.* Lydia loves deportations* Her billion dollar idea is…sausage?Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Nov 18, 2025 • 1h 53min
Members Only #286 - Atheist in a Foxhole (w/ Sebastian Junger)
We are joined by journalist, author, filmmaker, and chainsaw-wielder Sebastian Junger. His latest book In My Time of Dying is a touching reflection on death… and what might follow. Paid subscribers get access to this and hundreds of other Members Only episodes.•You can always start drinking again•Enough to make ⅔ of these grown men cry•Sebastian’s (most recent) near-de… Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Nov 13, 2025 • 1h 45min
#532 - Trinnies, Joy Bells, and Race Pride (w/ Abby Phillip)
* The dog hasn’t barked* He knew about the girls. But we *knew* that* So what, if anything, do these emails prove?* Conspiracies, anomalies, pornography* That’s a bad, no good, awful Times headline* Enter Abby Phillip* The battle of the Caribbean* We couldn’t afford to fail* A distinct lack of psychopaths and Holocaust deniers* I care too much….* Abby’s Jesse Jackson book* Abby: Sorry Kmele, racism is real and structural* TV, before the echo chamber?* When dehumanization turns into pride* A French, Swiss, Quebecois goodbyePrefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Nov 11, 2025 • 1h 47min
Members Only #285 - The Case For American Power (w/ Shadi Hamid)
It’s release day for Shadi Hamid’s new book, The Case For American Power, and we’re excited to have him back on The Fifth. Paying subscribers get access to the full interview in audio & video (plus literally hundreds more), and help us do what we do, so… In this episode: * Shadi makes the “case for American power”* A love letter to America, “despite all its faults”* Mor… Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Nov 6, 2025 • 1h 51min
#531 - Liberal of Fox News, Unite! (w/ Jessica Tarlov)
We’re joined by Jessica Tarlov, co-host of The Five on Fox News, and Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway. •Among the cons •What does it all mean? •Over performance. Under performance •AOC’s war •What if the people who you want to destroy are the same people who ensure your existence? •You can afford to live here. Just not *here* •How to moderate a trans debate •The USDA wants you to stop mutilating kids so America can sell soybeans •Oh SNAP and guess what I saw… •“Affordability” for Smith College grads •The health care costs are too damn high •Will populism, left and right, destroy us all? •So what’s the Tucker vibe within the Fox building? •Can the “Fox liberal” ignore the online hate? •Your viewers might have died, but new old ones took their place! Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Nov 4, 2025 • 1h 18min
Members Only #284 - Pod Save The Queen (The Fascist Regime) with Jon Lovett
• Don’t mess with the Zoran• The opacity of hope• Inspiration is overrated• Wait, what if none of these proposals actually work…• The return of identity politics?• Is offline politics “additive, human, humane, and empathetic?”• The Dem doom loop• The online left vs. Jon Lovett vs. reality• Purity tests, left and right• The one thing that didn’t shock Hillary Clinton• Harvey Milk died so you could be governor• The right denounces its loony fringe. Sort of.• Has the left done the same?• Has Jon’s baggage shifted to the right on anything? Well…• Can you be buddies with Barack?• Is it bad to have an enormous Nazi tattoo on your chest?Prefer to watch & chat together with other members of the Fifthdom? An UNLOCKED version of this episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST. Subscribe, why dontcha?Catch Jon Lovett in Washington DC on Nov 7 for Crooked Con – a chance to hear from smart people inside and outside the Crooked universe about how to galvanize a pro-democracy movement.Get tickets to see The Fifth Column live in Burbank, CA on Sunday, Nov 23rd at Flappers Comedy Club.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Oct 30, 2025 • 1h 48min
#530 - They Don't Care About Us
* We are now alone / He’s out of our life* The Republican rebels?* Announcing a Fifth Column live show in LA! Subscribers get first crack!* Prediction: a stadium full of lusty boos for Matt Welch* Cuomo’s nonexistent campaign* The Truth and Armpits Party* On Zohran’s vaunted “political instincts”* If the cops rough you up in Queens, it’s because the Jews told them to do it* A “brilliant” campaign of easy promises* The thrill of being in love with a politician again* In destroying both parties, they become one!* Karine Jean-Pierre is….not that bright* Oh great! More dumb race politics* You better you bet (on basketball)* A cap on intentional walks* Let’s blow up a certain cocaine smuggling group of “athletes”* That guy who slapped Andy K...Prefer to watch & chat together with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 10am EST.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Oct 28, 2025 • 57min
Members Only #283 - Putin on the Fritz (w/ Ambassador Michael McFaul)
Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, has a new book…- The disaster of Russia- Trump’s evolving views on Putin (and Nigel’s…and Georgia’s…)- When McFaul met Putin…in 1991- Was the Maidan uprising an American-sponsored coup?- It’s not about NATO- From boring technocrat to a nationalist, imperialist ideologue- What does Putin believe?- Vlad the flat taxer - He’s not a Bolshevik- A crook, sure. But an ideological crook- Does no one care about 200,000 dead Russians?- Liberation or surveillance - Elite fatigue in Putin’s Russia- The documentary Moynihan mentioned - Mike McFaul, Soviet bootlegger Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Oct 23, 2025 • 1h 21min
#529 - I Don’t Want You to Go to Jail for That, Jeffrey Toobin!
•Who subscribes to the New York Post?•One Battle After Another Redux•Myrna Opsahl and other deep cuts•F. Lee Bailey, legal consultant•Fawn Hall Gate•Double secret Nazis•Second Amendment People•The one on the right is on the left•Rehabilitation of the American radical•Omnibombers of the 1970s•I beg your pardon•An x-ray into Donald Trump’s soul•Hunter Biden & presidential power•From Whitewater to Russiagate•Jeffrey’s mea culpa•Trump’s Venezuelan boat strikes vs. Obama’s drone program•”I’m not black, I’m O.J.”Prefer to watch on YouTube? Click here. Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Oct 21, 2025 • 1h 25min
Members Only #282 – There Will Be Spoilers (One Battle After Another, Cartoon Politics, and Car Chases)
Rooting against the dancing Irish poorDoes One Battle After Another “whitewash left-wing violence?”LOTS OF SPOILERS, FYIIn praise of Bullitt-esque car chases…The Lockjaw cartoonThe genius of Jim DowneyMatt is hemophobicRight-wing SNLCould you reverse the politics of OBAA?Leo’s character is basically an old-school DSA guyCan there be a subtle conservative film?The best 9/11 film was a film about a French guy in a leotardThe post-9/11 liberal flirtation with neoconservatismJohn Malkovich v. Robert FiskThe lone pro-Vietnam War movieRemembering the conservative crackupThe ideological slingshotFollow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.


