

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

Sep 25, 2025 • 1h 36min
#525 - John Spencer Views Explosion
Matt and Michael are joined by John Spencer, Executive Director of the Urban Warfare Institute.•Gary Busey and the B-movie military raid on the Turkish Embassy•Bagging and tagging isn’t as bad as it sounds•20/20 De-Baathification•Post 9/11 Islamophilia•The hockey analogy for war with Hamas•Human shielding & bomb shelter inequities•Gaza vs Berlin 1945•Journalism in Gaza•The IDF’s absent PR operation•Starvation, genocide, and Wikipedia•Amalek•Trump’s 180 on Ukraine•Comedian Dave Smith on military aid•God bless Russian incompetence•Red Dawn had it all wrong•Cancel John’s tickets to Stalingrad•John Spencer, expert? The New York Times is on it.•NFC-level members get a video preview of this episode here!•Speaking of video, we’re launching on YouTube any day now… SUBSCRIBE! Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Sep 19, 2025 • 1h 30min
Members Only #276 - The Cancelling of an American Talkshow (w/ Greg Lukianoff)
* Pretty sure FIRE president Greg Lukianoff is the perfect guest for this moment…* A requirement of Judaism* FIRE on fire these days* Come on man, it was the FCC!* My husband got Kimmel fired!* The latest campus free speech ranking* FYI, lots of dumb young people are cool with political violence* Is does the university have a psycho incubation problem?* So who should be … Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Sep 18, 2025 • 1h 28min
#524 - BTW, Venezuela is a Dictatorial Commie Narcostate (w/ Thor Halvorssen)
* See below for the video version of this episode!* On Candace and Megyn* That source, says Thor, the Venezuelan, is a big booster of the shittiest people on Earth* How they shot my mother (Hugo Chavez edition)* The failure of the Human Rights Industry™* How Venezuela collapsed* It’s not a country. It’s a drug cartel* The hierarchy of South American drug trafficking* The real reason the US struck those “drug boats”* So the 93% cannot defeat the 7%?* Was former congressman Aaron Shock corrupted by Venezuelan commies?* Crooked congressmen. Crooked Kennedys?* A crooked American oil magnate?* On dissident heroism—and American cynicism* The nobility of the human spirit* The useless UN* The million dollar roller bag* How the bad guy$ $pread their influence* And much, much more!As previously mentioned, Never Fly Coach-level subscribers have access to our early video efforts. Wonky angles, swiveling chairs, ugly timecodes, no title sequence…you get the idea. BUT…your feedback has been amazingly positive thus far. If you want to add your two cents (and see our ugly mugs), upgrade and get access to the ever-evolving pilot episodes! Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Sep 13, 2025 • 1h 40min
Members Only #275 - The Elasticity of Memory & the Weight of History (w/ Russ Roberts)
* See below for the video version of this episode!* Russ’s drinks by the pool with Hitchens * How potato chips are made. And what it tells us about economics* Backwards towards “artisanal” * How will a NatCon economy perform?* It ain’t all doom and gloom (surprisingly) * Do academic economists matter?* Russ talks to Milton Friedman* Do long-term economic trends tells us … Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Sep 11, 2025 • 1h 40min
#523 - On the Assassination of Charlie Kirk
A very bad day for American politics, recorded within an hour of a young father’s death. Political violence, outgroup hatreds, and a side of media malpractice. With a sidebar conversation on 9/11, plus extended outro on the murder in Charlotte and subsequent discussion about race. Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Sep 6, 2025 • 1h 30min
Members Only #274 - Jamaicanon and the Racist Storms
* You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both…* Waiting for Bill and Ted* A catalogue of bad prophecies* 7th Day Youtube* Jamicanon* Yakub and the Atlantians* War with Venezuela?* Was Katrina racist* “Heritage Americans”* A listener is mad about…one of our friends* The Zionist silence* I’ll always take your free trips* We are the (piss) pigs* Own your ethnic failures!* G… Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Sep 4, 2025 • 1h 16min
#522 - Video Killed the Podcast Star (ft. Mace, Epstein, Gladwell, Linehan)
* The video age is upon us * Sweet Jane* Crazy Nancy* I’m a survivor, I'm not gon' give up* You have a microphone. Just TELL US.* Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, pedo hunter* A revolt at HHS* The conspiratorial mind* Failing the logic test* Malcolm Gladwell comes clean. Moynihan doesn’t forgive* Taboo busting b/w forbidden topics* A hunch that they were lying…* Europe changed. Everyone pretended not to notice* The UK’s decent into mindless illiberalism * Graham Linehan demands something from the Fifth…we demurred* Reanimating the dead, only to kill them again* And so much more! Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Aug 28, 2025 • 1h 36min
#521 - MAGA Panthers and White FUBU
* A barrel of crackas* We’re buying Hooters* Glamorous hairstyling* Look it up, people * The caudillo and the talk show host* Hega-stan* MAGA Marx: Nationalize everything!* The era of state capitalism is upon us* Burn yer flags * Right-wing ACLU * One more time: the government is bad at things * A history of privatization * Lisa Cook and the Cult Jam * The coming violence?* MAGA Panthers * And so much more… Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Aug 26, 2025 • 1h 34min
On "The Summer of Our Discontent" w/ Thomas Chatterton Williams
Kmele connects with Thomas Chatterton Williams to discuss his latest book, “The Summer of Our Discontent”. It’s a wide-ranging conversation that revisits the (or at least Thomas’) optimistic feelings toward the Obama moment in american politics, the backlash of the Trump years, and the ideological hangover of 2020’s “racial reckoning.” They wrestle with… Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Aug 21, 2025 • 1h 40min
#520 - Wear a Tie, Kids Won't Die / White Hippies / Ancient Chinese Custom, Huh?
* Tahoe plague* The Swiss lobby * Hate your kids* They seem like nice kids * If you only wore a tie, kids wouldn’t die* Have some dignity, says the most undignified human alive* The root of “root causes”* Free the guilty* White Hippies* Right-wing cancel culture* Chicago needs this more than DC ]* We kind of disagree about the Smithsonian* This is absurd* Ancient Chinese custom, eh?* It was AI, Matt. She’s still hot. * I love you, Sanna Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.


