The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

In the words of Gene Wilder, “There’s no earthly way of knowing … in which direction we are going.” That’s the mood on the latest Remnant, which sees Jonah flying solo in a second - and more streamlined - attempt at an audio G-File. Some of this is an expansion on the topics in this week's G-File, but most of it consists of unique, free-flowing observations from Jonah’s mind. Huzzah for keeping sanity during quarantine! Let us know what you think of this format on the @JonahRemnant Twitter, through Jonah at @JonahDispatch, or by email at theremnantpod@gmail.com - we want to know! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shoshana Weissmann is a Renaissance woman, and only at age 27: she’s the head of digital media at R Street Institute, a policy fellow specializing in occupational licensing, and an institution unto herself on social media. She brings a blessed breath of brevity to this episode of The Remnant, on which there is no coronavirus talk! She and Jonah touch on some hilarious job licensing restrictions (fortune tellers?), talk a little memes, a little charismatic megafauna, a little Judaism, and even a little online dating. It’s a reminder of how life was before “The Event,” so it’s really a can’t-miss.Show Notes:-Shoshana at R Street-Professor Randy Barnett, Shoshana’s inspiration-The wild world of florist licenses in Louisiana-George Will on Jacob Maged, the immigrant dry cleaner punished by the National Recovery Administration-The city of Annapolis’ occupational license for fortune-telling-Shoshana stans Arizona Governor Doug Ducey-Oklahoma’s trying to regulate your Qi-The legendary Snapchat hotdog-Giant prehistoric sloths-The uniquely interesting history of Ethiopian Jews-Date-onomics-Michael Novak: “A neoconservative is a progressive with three teenage children.”-Earnest.com/dingo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Williamson is a man of mystery: he’s an “Eisenhower libertarian,” he’s been accused of being a D.C. insider (he lives in Texas), and (most famously) he’s a former staff writer for The Atlantic even though they only gave him one byline before firing him. Life in Kevin’s Fortress of Solitude has stayed mostly the same - even in the midst of a pandemic. Lucky for us, that means he had time to talk to Jonah about his unique political perspective, the role of government in a crisis, and how his “libertoid” opinions help him solve those mysteries of his.Show Notes:-Kevin’s latest book, The Smallest Minority-Kevin’s upcoming essay collection, Big White Ghetto-The (massively underrated) Tyranny of Cliches-Suicide of the West (now out in paperback!)-Adhocracy, a favorite term of Jonah and Kevin’s-Kevin’s The End is Near-Kevin’s claim to being an “Eisenhower libertarian”-Douglass North’s impenetrably brilliant Violence and Social Orders-Obama’s second inaugural: “preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”-The unfortunately-named philosophical paradox, “Buridan’s Ass”-Cleta Mitchell, releasing works for consumption by the populist masses-Kevin’s The Case Against Trump-$25 credit from SaneBox Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In order to give you all a break from the talk about the end of the world, this episode has Jonah speaking with psychologist Dr. Michele Gelfand about one of his pet-obsessions: “tight” and “loose” theories of culture. Why do places like Japan and Singapore seem to be in lockstep while the U.S. is so freewheeling? How should we tighten up, culturally, as a response to COVID? And why are Mexican teachers unions so weird? We ask the hard questions here on The Remnant, so don’t miss it.Show Notes:-Michele’s book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers-The complexity of fractals, for those who actually understand math-Michele’s Tight-Loose Quiz-Mexican teaching jobs are given to… teachers’ kids?-The gum-free land of Singapore-D.E. Brown’s list of universal traits across all human cultures-Jonathan Haidt’s article, which then spawned a book, which then spawned a Remnant episode-Robert Wright, The Moral Animal-John Tooby’s “coalition instinct”-Jonah’s Wednesday “news”letter-Michele’s piece on COVID in the Boston Globe-Michele’s “Honor Dictionary”-The fascinating concept of “pluralistic ignorance”-GetBlueVine.com/dingo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt joins The Remnant to discuss coronavirus and its impact on the 2020 election. Where does Bernie Sanders go from here? Should Joe Biden run a front porch campaign? How do Obama/Trump voters vote this time?Show Notes:-Chris Stirewalt-Stirewalt's politics newsletter-Stirewalt and Dana Perino's podcast-The Morning Dispatch-The Dispatch-UnTuckIt.com code DINGO-DonorsTrust.com/dingo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times columnist and resident French expert Ross Douthat returns once more to talk about his new book, The Decadent Society. He makes the case that decadence is more than just high-calorie desserts and rich Corinthian leather; the phenomenon is more about the space race, the birth dearth, our dumb Hollywood blockbusters, and our painful politics. Oh, and the coronavirus has turned him into a doomsday prepper. But Ross is a Bonhomme if you will, so we’re betting he survives his book tour unscathed.Show Notes:-Ross’ book, The Decadent Society-Daniel Kahneman on thinking fast and slow-The evils of the coronavirus distributors in public bathrooms-The process of recording an audiobook-Peter Thiel and his “almost lifelike” enunciation-Jacques Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence-Suicide of the West, now out in paperback!-F.J. Turner’s Frontier thesis-Where UN peacekeepers have succeeded, and where they’ve failed-Robert Nisbet’s recounting of the WWI horse problem-Tina Fey on Conan O’Brien’s podcast-Ross’ NYT podcast-DoorDash, promo code REMNANT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Warren might be out of the running for the Democratic nomination, but that doesn’t mean that the most harmful parts of her agenda haven’t been assimilated into other Democrats’ platforms. David Bahnsen literally wrote the book on that bad agenda and asserts that the worst parts of it (i.e. an outright unconstitutional wealth tax) might still be coming down through a different nominee. David and Jonah also engage in some rank punditry, and they even ask the question that all the cool kids are asking: what’s the deal with Postmillennial Protestant eschatology?Show Notes:-David’s (somewhat ill-timed) book-John Podhoretz’s (equally ill-timed) book-Monday’s 2,000-point Dow drop-Saudi Arabia and Russia’s oil price shenanigans-Mohammed bin Salman behaving completely normally, for sure-The role of smoking in COVID-19 vulnerability-Charles Cooke’s great take on MSNBC’s math-“Did we lose a war?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does our culture need to become more nationalistic? What about reorienting our society towards “the highest Good,” as defined by your religion of choice? Stephanie Slade, managing editor at Reason, doesn’t think so, but she brings a unique perspective that many other libertarians don’t: she’s also a practicing Catholic. In this episode, Stephanie explains how she balances these two commitments that, on the surface, seem at odds with one another. Jonah also picks a fight with her about drug ads on primetime television.Show Notes:-Stephanie’s piece for Reason on nationalism-Stephanie’s piece on balancing her Catholicism and libertarianism-Stephanie on the Roman Circus podcast-The peak of the French-Ahmari Wars-The Free State Project-Free will in the Catechism-Randolph Bourne on the “Health of the State”-Jonah on Nick Gillespie’s Reason Interview-Bellamy’s Children-Daniel Burns on liberal practice versus liberal theory-Yoram Hazony’s beef with classical liberalism-Trump calling himself a nationalist-Beer: just as important as the Epic of Gilgamesh-Earnest.com/dingo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the American Dream dead? How are most Americans actually doing? Will the coronavirus kill us all? And most importantly, is Star Trek: Picard actually good? Repeat guest Michael Strain, author of The American Dream Is Not Dead, has all of these answers and more.Show Notes:-Michael’s book, The American Dream Is Not Dead-Gunga Galunga-Marco Rubio’s father as an American success story-Ezekiel 25:17-Irving Kristol on the power of ideas-The New York Times on the power of lawns-Josh Hawley at King’s College-Brink Lindsey on U.S. culture after the 50s-The Success Sequence-G7 Coronavirus statement-Oren Cass’ Cost-of-Thriving Index-Gordon Gekko’s brick phone-“Billionaires”-Elaine on stuffed crust pizza-Jeri Ryan is why we live in this timeline-DonorsTrust.org/dingo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Princeton Professor Keith Whittington is so sharp that he gives you paper cuts when you shake his hand. That’s why we had him on - to walk all of us mere mortals through the complex history of judicial review as outlined in his book, Repugnant Laws. Keith brought a mix of history, current events, rank punditry and more to this podcast!Show Notes:-Keith’s book, Repugnant Laws-The history of the “8 glasses of water a day” myth-Keith’s last book, Speak Freely-Oliver Wendell Holmes’ opinion for Buck V. Bell-The scary reality of self-censorship at universities-Temperance-era protests at Berkeley over family serving beer to firefighters, God forbid-Remnant 146 with Adam White-Keith’s WaPo piece on Dershowitz’s impeachment argument-Remnant 174 with Josh Kraushaar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices