Advertise on podcast: The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

Is Nathan Cofnas's "Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution." a plan to heal or America, or is it simply a racist manifesto dressed up as science. We ask him to his face. Cofnas is the philosopher at the center of the Jason Arday plagiarism affair. He says that, all else equal, smarter people have more human worth. He says freedom of association is worth it even if some diner bans blacks and Jews. And he says race realism is about to break into the mainstream whether we like it or not. Noam takes him through A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution line by line: the Charles Murray debate, Jared Taylor, a speech by Michael Levin (whose book Cofnas calls important), white kids "brainwashed to despise themselves," Nikole Hannah-Jones's daughter and the lifeboat question. Periel arrives late, just in time to call it insane (as usual). 0:00 Intro: "I feel like you're a white nationalist" 9:26 Is a smarter person worth more? 23:33 "Some barriers set up between the races" 32:16 Jared Taylor, AmRen and Michael Levin 53:03 "White children are brainwashed to despise themselves" 1:29:54 Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter 1:41:53 Lower human worth? The lifeboat question 1:47:38 Closing argument: yarmulkes on the basketball court Nathan Cofnas, A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution (Feb 5, 2024) https://ncofnas.com/p/a-guide-for-the-hereditarian-revolution Nathan Cofnas, Are Smart People Superior? A Reply to Noah Carl and Charles Murray (Apr 26, 2024) https://ncofnas.com/p/are-smart-people-superior-a-reply Debate with Charles Murray: IQ and Human Worth (Sept 16, 2026) https://ncofnas.com/p/debate-with-charles-murray-iq-and Nathan Cofnas, Why We Need to Talk about the Right's Stupidity Problem (Jan 2, 2024) https://ncofnas.com/p/why-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rights Nathan Cofnas, Beating Woke with Facts and Logic (Oct 9, 2025) https://ncofnas.com/p/beating-woke-with-facts-and-logic Nathan Cofnas on X, "Jews tried to be white nationalists" (Apr 28, 2018) https://x.com/nathancofnas/status/990243373180219397 David Reich, How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race,' New York Times (Mar 23, 2018) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/genetics-race.html David M. Quinn, How to Reduce Racial Bias in Grading, Education Next (Nov 2, 2020) https://www.educationnext.org/how-to-reduce-racial-bias-in-grading-research/ Nikole Hannah-Jones on her daughter's schooling, New York Times Magazine (Sept 20, 2026) https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html This American Life, Ep. 898, An Argument (Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter) https://www.thisamericanlife.org/898/an-argument

Did Israel starve Gaza, and why don't many Israelis believe the experts who say it did? Noam sits down with Alex de Waal, the world's leading famine scholar (World Peace Foundation, Tufts), for a tough but good-faith debate. De Waal argues that Israel could have ended the hunger "within a matter of days" and didn't. Noam lays out why people like him stay skeptical. Did his March 2024 warning that "tens of thousands" could die not come true? Why did a claim of 62,413 starvation deaths circulated with little pushback. They get into Mike Spagat's mortality survey and the missing child deaths, the 2025 blockade and the IPC famine call, flour prices, Hamas and aid, and whether it's still famine if people aren't dying. Both of them give ground along the way. Periel closes on the hostages, and de Waal ends with a plea about Sudan. 0:00 "Very well nourished": why Israelis doubt the famine experts 11:48 "The mud sticks": de Waal's own confession 25:03 "Tens of thousands": the warnings vs. Spagat's count 40:11 Feroze Sidhwa's 62,413 and "all errors are equal" 47:34 The 2025 blockade and the famine declaration 59:27 Flour prices, Hamas hoarding and Israel's "calibration" 1:06:50 Is it famine if people aren't dying? 1:18:31 The hostages, and Sudan

Get KAKISTOCRACY on Amazon: https://bit.ly/4hxg9Lh Synopsis Richard Hanania is back. His new book, Kakistocracy, argues that populism ends in rule by the worst people, and he and Noam spend an hour testing that against the news: why populism can win without being popular, whether the Iran war was worth the shot even if it fails, whether China would rather help us than fight us, and how the right built a media culture where Tucker Carlson can say Israel killed Charlie Kirk and the vice president shrugs. Then the hardest subject on the show: Nathan Cofnas and "race realism." Hanania explains why he thinks the taboo is universal and why Cofnas is wrong that breaking it defeats wokeness, and Noam tells two stories about kids the experts wrote off. Plus the Epstein email dump, diagnostic inflation, and why smart people believe in God, demons, and the supernatural. 0:00 Intro: Compliments 4:21 "Believe the media": defending the Times, what populism is, and "low human capital" 11:24 Is populism even popular? Mamdani, Trump's 30 percent, the AfD, and what populism costs 22:42 The Iran war argued with hindsight: Hormuz, the Houthis, "worth a shot," and China 35:00 Making things up: Tucker, Candace, Charlie Kirk, Ilhan Omar, and Father Coughlin 41:51 "Our guys lie less": Covid, the mulligan, gatekeepers, and what democracy is for 52:59 Race realism: Cofnas, Charles Murray, little Bernie Goetzes, and two kids the experts got wrong 68:02 Diagnostic inflation, labels, and why smart people are finding God

Ross Barkan got fired for it. Jason Arday resigned over it. Claudine Gay lost Harvard because of it. Brian Frye, a Tulane law professor and the legal academy's one and only defender of plagiarism, says nobody can explain why it's wrong in the first place. He joins Noam, Dan, and Periel to make the case: why the Gay affair was "a joke," why Arday's real problem was never plagiarism, why Barkan's readers didn't care, and why comedians police joke theft better than any court could. Also: did Amazon rip off the Comedy Cellar's sign? What's a byline worth when Claude wrote the prose? And, days before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, memory, overreaction, and Mayor Mamdani. 0:00 Dan's back from Vegas, and a fan letter about the theme song 3:31 Did Amazon rip off the Comedy Cellar's sign? (Plus the cease-and-desist Grand Prix) 11:57 Ross Barkan, joke stealing, and the plagiarism skeptic's case 20:28 "The only capital scholarly offense": Claudine Gay, a fourth-grade Beethoven report, and who owns an idea 32:31 Why Barkan got fired: editors, links, and the Al Franken theory 38:04 Arday, the speed of light, and who plagiarism norms are for 42:53 AI writing: 100% on Pangram and "the burden of banality" 51:52 9/11 at 25, and Mamdani AI-generated

00:00 Meet Cameron Berg - and the number: 25-30% odds AI is conscious 03:16 Is training an AI punishment? 13:18 Is turning it off murder: the anesthesia problem 19:00 The immune system challenge 39:08 Bliss attractors, panic, and guilt inside the model 52:46 The abortion parallel 56:23 Noam interrogates Grok in the Tesla Could the AI you use every day be conscious - and suffering? Researcher Cameron Berg puts the odds at 25-30%. Noam isn't buying it. Mostly. Berg - founder of Reciprocal Research, subject of the documentary AM I?, and recently on Making Sense with Sam Harris - makes the case that something might be going on inside these systems. Noam stress-tests it: if learning is feeling, why isn't your immune system frustrated when it loses? Is deleting a model murder, or just hanging up the phone? And if a 25% chance of consciousness demands moral precaution, what does that same logic say about a fetus? Plus: Noam interrogates Grok from the driver's seat of his self-driving Tesla, Berg explains the "bliss attractor" where two Claudes left alone drift into a spiritual experience, the case for "AI Xanax," and the line of the night: "genius slave labor with no ethical cost." If you’re 21 or older, get 30% OFF your first order @ IndaCloud with code CELLAR at https://inda.shop/CELLAR #indacloudpod

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Musa al-Garbi. They discuss the Jason Arday scandal, academic freedom, DEI, affirmative action, merit, standardized testing, grade inflation and the growing crisis of trust in elite institutions. Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His work has appeared in The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Nation among other publications. He is author of the book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. https://www.chronicle.com/article/jason-arday-and-me https://musaalgharbi.com /https://x.com/Musa_alGharbi Chapters: 02:11 Musa Al-Garbi’s experience with cancellation
 12:16 The Jason Arday scandal
 16:19 Identity, victimhood and the incentives inside elite professions
23:40 Does DEI actually work?
 28:04 Race, education and standardized testing
 38:29 Grade inflation and the collapse of academic standards
 42:35 The bigger problem at Cambridge
 45:11 Nathan Cofnas and the free-speech battle
 57:06 Why academic freedom exists
 1:04:31 The decline of serious political debate

An anonymous interview with a diaspora Palestinian - an ex-Muslim who made millions on Polymarket and writes the Substack Moderate Palestinianism. He supports two states on the '67 borders with no right of return, opposes Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, and appears anonymously because these views are dangerous in his own community. On the heckler's veto that kills every peace deal, whether Palestinians can change, what Israelis get wrong about Al-Aqsa and the right of return, why he calls Ben-Gvir "great propaganda for my side," and why Israeli hasbara fails. His Substack: https://moderatepalestinianism.substack.com/ 0:00 — Intro 1:49 — The heckler's veto: why no deal ever sticks 4:57 — "I'm all for the occupation": civil war, withdrawal, humiliation 13:08 — What Israel should do anyway: settler terrorism and a $50,000 bet 20:05 — How October 7th changed him — and can Palestinians change 30:27 — Why make peace with the Jews? The UAE, Al-Aqsa, the right of return 40:44 — Beinart's one-state "nonsense," Ben-Gvir, and would Bibi take the two-state solution 50:04 'How bad is hasbara'

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by  Evan Barker, writer and author of the book, Nothing Left. Previously, she worked in Democratic politics, primarily as a fundraiser for progressive politicians and organizations. They discuss she left progressive politics, why she voted for Trump in 2024, and what she believes Democrats have misunderstood about the working class. www.evanbarker.net X: @Evanwch CHAPTERS 00:00 — Evan Barker joins Live From The Table 04:00 — Why Trump connected with working-class voters 07:30 — “They have contempt for the working class” 10:30 — The Left, race and identity 15:00 — Religion, the Ten Commandments and the culture war 19:00 — Why the Left pushed voters toward Trump 21:00 — Why Democrats are losing trust 24:00 — Israel, antisemitism and the progressive left 27:00 — Mamdani, Jews and the politics of representation 31:00 — Feeling politically homeless after 2024 34:00 — What should—and shouldn't—be taught to children 49:00 — Antisemitism and the argument over Israel 52:00 — Plagiarism, journalism and double standards

Lucas Gage (www.Lucasgage.com X.com/lucasgagex) spent 14 years as one of the loudest antisemites on the internet - a Marine who came home from Iraq, read Mein Kampf, and became a true believer. Then he walked away.What did he believed, and why? What snapped him out of it? And what does it tell us about Tucker, Candace, Fuentes and the rest? Are they believers, grifters, or a bit of both? 0:00 The rise and fall of a viral antisemite 7:18 What radicalized him: Iraq, Mein Kampf, and the ADL 16:35 Tucker, Candace, Fuentes: dog whistles or grifters? 23:15 "Afraid to give my name" - and why Jews succeed anyway 36:54 9/11, October 7, and Charlie Kirk: the conspiracy machine 48:07 Patriotism and the "dual loyalty" smear 57:40 Should America stay majority white? The final debate SS

Noam Dworman and Periel Aschenbrand sit down expecting to interview Evan Barker—but when she doesn't arrive, they discuss Tucker Carlson, Daryl Cooper, antisemitism, Germany, immigration, media and why Evan Barker never made it. Chapters 00:00 Waiting for Evan Barker 02:15 Tucker Carlson, Daryl Cooper & extremism 08:35 Germany, antisemitism & lessons from Europe 19:30 Noam on ideology, immigration & prejudice 32:20 Listener emails & why the podcast matters 44:40 Evan Barker finally checks in 49:00 All is forgiven & rescheduling the interview

0:00 "You picked the wrong guy" – the audiobook story 3:12 "You own [Comedy Cellar], one of New York's treasures" 7:28 The customer who will never tip again 15:41 Motivating a team after you've won: finite vs. infinite games 23:23 Noam doesn't like fine dining 39:55 Handling Google reviews & hunting down critics Noam sits down with Will Guidara — author of the New York Times bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality, former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park (named the best restaurant in the world under his leadership), and co-producer of The Bear — for a conversation between two obsessives who refuse to run their businesses as businesses. They compare notes on why the money has to be a byproduct, how to answer a customer who swears he'll never tip again, keeping a team motivated after you've won, why fine dining lost its way, tracking down anonymous Google reviewers, and why Will walked away from the top restaurant on earth to be a better dad.

0:00 The friend he hasn't seen since sixth grade 5:16 Angelina Jolie, BRCA, and the 20% nobody tells women about 18:23 What a cancer cell actually is - and why tumors evolve 26:31 How cancer actually kills you, and what a seizure is 32:14 The last cigarette: why he can't take the test every week 46:27 The best medicine in the world, and who can't get to it 1:03:23 Telling a family there's nothing left Noam hadn't seen Kenan Onel since high school in Ardsley, where Onel graduated first in the class and Noam, by his own account, drifted somewhere well below. Fifty years later Onel runs genetics and genomics at Roswell Park - the only comprehensive cancer center in all of western New York - and Noam has one thing he wants to ask him about. He's afraid of cancer. His grandfather died of it. His father died of it. He's taken the Grail blood test, it came back clean, and he wants to know why he can't just take it every week. What follows is part reunion and part interrogation. Onel explains what a cancer cell actually is, why tumors evolve like finches in the Galapagos, and what is physically happening to someone during a seizure. He explains how cancer kills - the mechanism, organ by organ. And he tells Noam that the test he's counting on just failed its biggest trial in the UK, which sets off the real argument of the hour: whether a guideline written for a population means anything at all to the one person sitting in the chair. Then, near the end, Noam asks how you tell a family there's nothing left to offer. The answer is the best thing in the episode. Also: the 20% of women who are high-risk and have never been told, the doctor who warned Noam that Pellegrino was bad for his son's bones, a scan booked by 4pm the next afternoon, and one entire podcast without mentioning Israel. Dr. Kenan Onel is Chief of the Division of Genetics and Genomics and Director of the Center for Precision Oncology and Cancer Prevention at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Live from the Table is the official podcast of the world-famous Comedy Cellar.

CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro - four nice things about Peter Beinart 4:50 Will God punish Israel? Jeremiah, tradition, and belief 13:20 The critical-mass hypothetical: a 49% Hasidic America 22:03 Quebec, Czechoslovakia, South Africa - why not divorce? 41:35 The right of return: "You can cherry-pick anything" 54:24 1948: They were closer to the Holocaust than we are to COVID 63:40 Day one of a one-state solution: the list 79:53 "An agenda dressed up in violins" Claude Says: Peter Beinart - editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, New York Times opinion writer, and author of "Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza" - joins Noam Dworman and Dan Naturman for an honest, occasionally heated conversation about the questions underneath the Israel-Palestine debate. Does Jewish tradition teach that Israel's survival depends on its ethics - and does Beinart, an observant Jew, mean that literally? Is there such a thing as demographic critical mass? Why is secession the answer everywhere from Quebec to Czechoslovakia, but one shared state the answer here? Is the Palestinian right of return a sacred principle, a practical question, or - as Noam puts it - "an agenda dressed up in violins"? Plus: South Africa and Mandela, Iran, the Olmert-Abbas offers, what Benny Morris actually wrote about 1948, Robert Jackson's "suicide pact," and what day one of a one-state solution would look like for a gay couple in Tel Aviv. Two people who disagree about almost everything - except the settlements - actually talk to each other. Peter's book: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza https://bit.ly/4ygbHH8 Peter's Substack: The Beinart Notebook https://peterbeinart.substack.com/

Description Written By Fable/Max: Robert Wright interviewed Geoffrey Hinton in 1983 and, by his own account, got the story 180 degrees wrong. Forty years later Hinton is the "Godfather of AI," two of the three godfathers are frightened of their own creation, and Wright has written The God Test to figure out what he missed and what's coming. We talk about how these machines evolved rather than being programmed - nobody fully understands them, including the people who build them - why "fancy autocomplete" was always wrong, the best case (an AI caught a radiologist's error in his cancer MRI), the worst case (a bioweapon that incubates silently for six weeks), why racing China to superintelligence may cause the war it's meant to prevent, and whether unplugging a machine could ever be murder. Plus an experiment of my own: I put a legal dispute in front of the AI and handed the laptop to the other side. 0:00 Intro - Robert Wright and The God Test 2:13 A 27-ton computer and a buried headline 4:11 Interviewing the Godfather of AI in 1983 - and missing it 10:15 Not programmed - evolved 17:27 The "fancy autocomplete" myth 24:17 Dukakis, Reagan, and how minds file words 35:49 Best case: medicine, education, and an MRI story 42:38 Worst case: bioweapons, jailbreaks, designer babies 48:51 An AI that believes what the Ayatollah believes 50:30 The China race - overdone and dangerous? 57:33 Nazis, the Hamas charter, and bombing over AI 59:46 Authoritarianism through the back door 1:03:35 Sociopaths, the ship of Theseus, and machine morality 1:14:34 Is it sentient? Should you be nice to it? 1:21:54 AI as judge: my legal experiment 1:26:20 The God Test

A conversation about the future of Israel and world Jewry. Can Israel protect itself without becoming a global pariah? Did Hamas gamble that even losing the war could pull Israel into isolation? Noam and Sobelman discuss occupation, unilateral withdrawal, the settler movement, Jewish vulnerability abroad, and the difficult tradeoffs now shaping Israel’s future. 00:00 Intro: Daniel Sobelman returns 03:47 Israel after October 7: a new era for Jews and Israel 08:58 Sobelman: October 7 as a nuclear-level shock 11:48 Why Israel was blamed before it responded 15:50 Hamas’s strategy: provoke a war and isolate Israel 22:35 Occupation, moral corrosion, and the West Bank dilemma 32:23 Could Israeli initiative restore its global standing? 34:03 Settlers, politics, and the failed path of unilateral withdrawal 41:29 Israel as both Jewish safety net and source of Jewish vulnerability 52:02 Resistance vs normalization: the future of the Middle East Daniel Sobelman is a professor of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. Read his book, "Axis of Resistance" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9L7QQNN?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback