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The Fifth Column

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Rating
★★★★☆
4.4
from
165 reviews
Categories
Country
United States
This podcast has
707 episodes
Language
English
Date created
2010/02/14
Latest episode
2026/10/16
Average duration
61 min.
Release period
4 days

Description

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

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Check latest episodes from The Fifth Column podcast


Why the Midterms Are Turning Against Trump (w/ Nate Silver) Members Only #350
2026/10/16
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com The guys put America’s most famous political forecaster, Nate Silver, to work… separating real electoral shifts from political noise, and confronting the uncomfortable possibility that everyone is just guessing. -The House leaned Democratic, the Senate was a toss-up…then came Labor Day -The first thing Nate Silver does every morning -$4.50 gas, AI data centers, and T…
Can the Democratic Center Hold? (#579)
2026/10/14
Yes, we want accolades. Yes, we’re shamelessly asking for your vote: VOTE for The Fifth Column as the Best News & Politics Show Yemisi Egbewole is here and we will figure out how to pronounce her name….next time -A Democratic consultant defending Fox News out of the gate -Was Mike Lindell ever really a crackhead? -Ladies and gentlemen, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zachariah -Did we f**k Scott Jennings? -How does a WH press secretary actually prepare? -Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $100,000 AmEx problem -James Talarico’s imaginary stay in an Ohio psych ward -the art of standing out among 435 members of Congress -Abdul El-Sayed vs Mike Rogers in Michigan -Jon Ossoff and the case for normal Democrats -JD Vance’s interesting definition of socialism -Midterm Madness on Zachariah, Alaska, and Michigan -Trump gets it right on data centers. Until he doesn’t. -Brian Kilmeade stands up for Ukraine against Rachel Compost Duffy -Come watch us live in Connecticut! -What exactly is Third Way? -Yemisi’s heresies on crime and climate -Immigration and the Jamaican-Nigerian experience -Kmele and the Blacks of Connecticut -Where is the Democratic Party headed, and how much does the DSA matter? Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. JOIN US: https://quickcenter.fairfield.edu/2026-27-season-calendar/lectures/the-fifth-column-podcast.html Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
People Who Lie and People Who Die (w/ Sam Roberts) Members Only #349
2026/10/09
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com “There are no ordinary lives and everyone has a story” -Sam Roberts’ father takes him to see the Rosenbergs’ funeral -Fifty years in journalism and an unexpected career writing obituaries -Anna Nicole Smith and the brutality of British obituaries -Charlie Rangel’s complicated legacy -Who deserves a New York Times obituary? -Writing Rudy Giuliani’s obituary b…
Europe Is Melting, Meritocracy Is Racist, and Everyone Gets Dignity (Episode #578)
2026/10/07
Did we mention we’re nominated…did you vote yet? If not, what in the actual f**k is your problem? -all the bad words are here -come to Fairfield on November 12th! (https://quickcenter.fairfield.edu/2026-27-season-calendar/lectures/the-fifth-column-podcast.html) -Trump in Nebraska….always a good sign for Republicans -Anal sex, picnics, breakfast in bed, lobster -Europe is melting! (still) -who will replace Macron? -France’s immigration problem -Sweden discovers gun crime -America, the assimilation machine -meritocracy is f*****g fantastic -questions are bad when ethnicities are in front of them -Vivek, the big guy and the worst swing in baseball -Midterm Madness where candidate quality counts -if you had to arrest one person at the New York Times… -MAGA-curious CBS boss and The Daily Beast -Theo Von discovers socialism JOIN US: https://quickcenter.fairfield.edu/2026-27-season-calendar/lectures/the-fifth-column-podcast.html The Fifth Column is in the running for Best News & Politics show. PLEASE HELP US TAKE HOME THE GOLD (or whatever the statue is made of, assuming there is one). Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
One Hitter: Why Oil Prices Could Get Much Worse (w/ Marshall Adkins) Members Only #348
2026/10/03
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Marshall spent 25 years covering oil and gas at Raymond James before retiring this week. He joins the guys to explain what’s actually driving prices higher, why diesel matters more than most people realize, and how war, refinery outages, and shrinking reserves have left the global energy market with very little room for error. Also, is Marshall the real
The Weave Within the Weave (#577)
2026/10/02
…and Moynihan discusses Harvard’s artist in residence. Also, we’ve been nominated for something! vote for us in for the Signal Awards! -Kmele’s Cross-Country Trail of Tears -Trump Praises the Latinos -Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble -Coming Soon: Jason’s Weird Fetishes -Trump Talks to Time -The Weave We Go -No Fatties, No Trannies, No Weirdos -It’s Worse Because It’s Worse -Saving Western Civilization, One Taxpayer-Funded Ad at a Time -Sen. Eric Schmitt’s Awesome Week -The Indian Question -Roxane Gay, Harvard Medical School Artist in Residence -Midterm Madness: New Hampshire, Michigan, Ohio and L.A. -How Not to Hijack an Israeli Plane The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer-listener publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The Fifth Column is in the running for Best News & Politics show. PLEASE HELP US TAKE HOME THE GOLD (or whatever the statue is made of, assuming there is one). ALSO: Vote for The Moynihan Report for:Best video podcastBest guest (William Shatner)Best episode VOTE VOTE VOTE (for us) Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
Sarah Hepola and the Life You Didn’t Choose (Members Only #347)
2026/09/29
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Finally, a break from politics and a discussion about…love. If you like Sarah, check out her podcast with friend of The Fifth Column Nancy Rommelmann Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast -Sarah is back on the wagon (not really!) -The married man, the younger man, and the New Orleans homicide detective -Women’s tears are a recording device -Kavanaugh, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves …
The UN, Wokeness, and Other Failed Institutions (Members Only #346)
2026/09/25
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com -being gay, doing drugs, that’s the Szeps life -Moynihan’s anti-Australian bigotry -the Lupita Nyong’o pronunciation challenge -Why is daddy wearing boobs? -this actor can play any ethnicity -Josh’s dad, the George Costanza of Australia -UN Clip-o-rama -in defense of the UN, sort of -can America afford to piss off all its allies? -Greta Thunberg goes to the Rena…
The Algorithm Is the Editor-in-Chief (w/ David Pakman) Members Only #345
2026/09/23
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com -Pakman is a fan of this show. Will he regret saying this? -Kmele’s cult-adjacent upbringing -Pakman’s Argentina upbringing -Macklemore, Robert Kraft and the limits of independent media -Do people actually control their media diet? -Nick Fuentes, Fishback and Twitter not being real life -Pakman puts himself at the tip of the junk food pyramid -Should The Fifth…
The Loyal Republican w/ Scott Jennings (#576)
2026/09/22
And is he gonna get that press secretary job or not? -Jennings the teetotaler -wtf happened to Moynihan’s hair? -Jennings’ working-class Kentucky origin story -back when Kentucky + West Virginia were swing states -Rush Limbaugh + Paul Harvey University -what would Rush make of $9K for stay-at-home moms? -what kind of Republican is Scott Jennings anyway? -why is Trump so unpopular? -tariffs, potash + the new Republican orthodoxy -the Greenland victory (?) lap begins -Scott’s muscular Republicanism meets the universities -Van Jones vs. his own side -Trump vs. CNN and the White House press pool -Scott Jennings, future press secretary? -Trump + Mamdani, together again -Texas gets way too interesting -Georgia gets weird -trying to have the one pundit take nobody else has -do not get in Scott Jennings’ personal space -does Trump have a corruption problem? -Trump crypto + the Kentucky coffee can -whatever happened to Republican “family values”? -Mitch McConnell is alive -has Tucker left the MAGA coalition? Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column is a viewer/listener supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
Academically Unserious With Authoritarian Bureaucratic Aspirations (w/ Tyler Austin Harper) Members Only #344
2026/09/18
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com Tyler Austin Harper, staff writer for The Atlantic and co-host of the Time To Say Goodbye podcast joins Michael C. Moynihan & Matt Welch to talk about extreme fishing, picking socialsts as your fighters, and his recent pot-stirring essay “Why I quit the tenure track.” •It’s morning in America, or is it Japan? •The Night Fisher •Worse than Al Qaeda•A pro-America leftist •Why Tyler Austin Harper quit the …
AI Might Kill Us. Here’s Why It Matters: w/ Jim VandeHei (#575)
2026/09/16
-Simplify, simplify, simplify… -Do people like Jim as a boss? -The two things to screen for in prospective employees -The humility of Mike Allen -AI and the newsroom -The way you consume news is about to completely change -Are we at the Napster stage of AI? -The demand for local news didn’t die -DEI without the corporate activism -Axios refuses to take a stand -Moynihan’s Vice postmortem -Jim used to be a hothead. Mostly. -AI might kill us. Why it matters -Kmele vs. the AI doomers -Hugging Face and the runaway AI problem -Stuxnet was the dumb version -Midterm Madness goes off-script -Who should actually be Person of the Year? -Too much Trump porn at the New York Times? -Jim simplifies Trump’s three biggest precedent breaks -Why Trump does it anyway Read Simplify: Do 50 Percent More with 50 Percent Less by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz (Bookshop | Amazon) Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
The Things We Thought After 9/11 (#574)
2026/09/11
-RIP Andrew Wimsatt, a true friend of the show and beloved member of the Fifth Column community -And in lighter news, it’s the 25th anniversary of 9/11 -Trump’s 9/11 story -Why we’re called The Fifth Column -When Matt Welch welcomed us to war -Moynihan moved to New York on September 10, 2001 -How much of your memory of the day is actually real? -Mary Beard and other “the US had it coming” takes -Little Eichmanns and the root-causes Olympics -Did we win the War on Terror? -You get $5,000! And you get $5,000! -Midterm Madness and the two Dan Sullivans -Hunter Biden’s $LAPTOP speedrun to zero Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
The Department Formerly Known as Justice (w/ Devlin Barrett) MO 343
2026/09/09
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com As well as Epstein, and the conspiracy theories that refuse to die -the most famous person from Troy, NY? -shut your whore mouth, Producer Jason -we actually do have a serious guest today -a radical re-purposing of the Justice Department -James Comey and the seashells -lowercase justice -Tom Homan and the $50,000 CAVA bag -Abscam and the lost art of government …
Conspiracy Theories Never Die (w/ James B. Meigs) #573
2026/09/04
Jim is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a Wall Street Journal columnist -The tractor beam of sexuality -James B. Meigs is here -Tucker Carlson is just asking questions. He’s less interested in the answers -It’s 9/11 season. Call in the OG debunker -Jet fuel didn’t have to melt steel -Death threats for… Popular Mechanics -Tucker finds Israel in the JFK files -Revisiting Loose Change, 20 years later -Conspiracy theories thrive in the ruins of journalism -Data centers or, hear us out, server farms -The mailbag interrogates Mr. Science Man -Hugging Face and the AI agents chatting amongst themselves -Midterm Madness goes to Texas -Talarico vs. Paxton, somehow a toss-up -Flock cameras solve crimes. They also know where you’ve been -Nature, Jason Arday, and the death of fact-checking -UFOs are real. The aliens remain elusive Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifdom? This episode premieres over on our YouTube channel at 12PM EST. The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a viewer/listener supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Follow The Fifth Column YouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Podcast reviews

Read The Fifth Column podcast reviews


4.4 out of 5
165 reviews
★☆☆☆☆
5th column toppled 2025/02/09
Lack of introspection
While I used to enjoy the different insight from beltway libertarians such as Michael Moynihan; he neglected to apologize for his gross lack of unders...
★★★★★
Erin O 2024/12/17
Subscribe
Great show. Tried multiple times to upgrade to paid subscriber but haven’t been able to. Will check to see if card charged. Process is flawed.
★☆☆☆☆
macinjosh87 2023/05/23
Predictable
Matt and Michael are MIC toadies. Kmele is t sure why he is there.
★★★★★
Jaff Gordo 2022/12/29
Best podcast!
This is the best podcast. Listen, be well, and enjoy yourself.
★☆☆☆☆
bittybump 2022/10/28
Giggling Incoherency
Was just listening to the most recent podcast, basically 4 know-it-alls desperately speaking over one another at alarmingly high rates of speed. This ...
★★★★★
Don’t want a nick name. 2022/02/07
Boring Guest
Why would you ask the most boring person on earth to be a guest and then proceed to talk about free speech rights of the richest people in Denmark. M...
★★★★★
AshleeP123 2021/07/17
“Twitter Mobs” or China & Russia/ outside actors?
Love this Podcast. Have you all considered the possibility these Twitter Mobs could be “outside actors”? How do we even know that the Twitter mobs are...
★★★★★
Redfox1218 2021/05/16
A lot of interesting, a lot of funny, a lot of what’s missing
So glad I found this podcast! I like having 3 hosts. While they may talk over each other some, it’s hard not to when your discussing interesting and p...
★★★★★
patticosh 2021/05/03
Honest & Interest discussions
I am so thankful to have found this podcast when I wanted a more in-depth discussion of the Paul Rossi/ Grace Church School issue!!! I am so glad I fo...
★★★★★
Johnny_Wiseau 2021/02/25
The Best
Hands down the best politics podcast out there. Interesting and very entertaining, all the hosts are great. Worth a listen regardless of where your po...
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