Today, John returns to discuss the life of his father, Norman Podhoretz. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we discuss the life, work, and ideas of longtime COMMENTARY editor and intellectual giant Norman Podhoretz, who died yesterday at age 95. From there, we move on to the strange developments in the Brown University shooting investigation, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles's unusual interview with Vanity Fair, and the Trump administration generally. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss  "The Palestine Firsters," his lead article in the January issue of COMMENTARY. Why do Ben Rhodes and a cast of others on the left and right want America to work against its core interests by breaking the U.S.-Israel alliance? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The attack on Bondi Beach is not an isolated incident; it's the export of the Islamist war against the Jews to areas far from Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Trump losing the thread as we head into 2026? And what's this—secular saint Oliver Sacks, the man who brought empathy to discussions of human weakness, made a lot of stuff up? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the boarding and seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker, the United States's confrontation with Venezuela ascends to a higher level. What's going on? And why are Democrats making crazy commercials and going with crazy candidates for 2026? And why am I recommending a movie from 1946–It's a Wonderful Life—that everyone has already seen? Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us for a conversation that begins with Christmas music and ends with man's search for meaning. Today's COMMENTARY RECOMMENDS: The Bible. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast tries to make sense out of the incoherent Trump administration posture toward China, AI chips, tariffs, farmers, and the economy. Also, Christine Rosen recommends Chip War by Chris Miller and Philip A. Wallach's Why Congress? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A full house today takes up Pete Hegseth's speech on American defense and the national security strategy document released by the administration—Good? Bad? Ugly? And how about that New York Times story revealing the way the Biden administration self-destructed on immigration? Plus, I recommend (with the provisos that it's very very very long and very very very violent) Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair—a merger of his two Kill Bill films from 20 years ago. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Enough with the pomposity about gerrymandering—each party does it and the other one has a cow and then they switch positions and do it all over again. Latest example: Texas. Also, Tom Cotton defends the boat strike, JD Vance puts a "Golden Noel" label on an event celebrating a Jewish holiday, and we answer listener mail. Plus I recommend the hilarious performances of Walter Matthau in The Sunshine Boys and Edith Evans in The Importance of Being Earnest. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Pete Hegseth really in more trouble than he was last week? You'd think that from the network news, but it's probably wrong. Is anyone even watching network news? How about cable news? Or is everybody just listening to podcasts? We discuss these matters, and Trump's pardons, today, and Christine Rosen recommends a work of Japanese crime fiction called Out. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesse Arm of the Manhattan Institute joins us as we examine the results of the special election in Tennessee that had a Republican candidate winning with a greatly reduced margin from Trump's showing in the district in 2024. Arm then shares with us some pathbreaking research into attitudes and ideas inside the Trump electoral coalition. And Abe Greenwald recommends a new HBOMax documentary called Paul Anka: His Way. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the New York Times and its implicit takedown of the Washington Post story claiming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike in an attack on a drug-smuggling boat in September. Then we wonder what possible incentive the U.S. can offer Russia to take its "peace deal." And for today's COMMENTARY RECOMMENDS, I choose the actor Tim Blake Nelson's novel Superhero. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did the U.S. military commit a war crime with a strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, or is the story made up? What exactly is President Trump up to regarding Venezuela? How do we fix immigration and asylum policy so that Muslim immigrants are better assimilated? And what's the mood in Israel regarding Netanyahu's pardon request? We raise these and other issues on today's podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special post-Thanksgiving episode, I ask COMMENTARY's editor about everything from endless ideological fights to Israel's supposed information-war failure to his favorite TV show. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we try to parse the game behind Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff coaching his Russian counterpart on how to win Trump's favor before moving on to Zohran Mamdani's repulsive transition team. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam White joins the podcast today to discuss the latest developments in the legal controversies surrounding Donald Trump and his administration, from the Comey case to the tariffs at the Supreme Court. Also: Why is JD Vance complaining about the "Beltway GOP" when he is the crown prince of the Beltway GOP? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins today to discuss the torrent of developments from Gaza to Ukraine, from Trump-Mamdani to Rubio vs. his former Senate colleagues, from Twitterbot foreign agents to Muslim Brotherhood terrorist designations. Wow! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up Zohran Mamdani's spokesman's appalling declaration that a meeting inside a synagogue about how to move to Israel was a violation of international law—in effect justifying an anti-Semitic demonstration outside it. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a genocidal protest breaks out in front of an Orthodox synagogue in New York City, elsewhere in the cultural capital, a books-awards group hands out garlands to explicitly anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic work. This continues a trend that is alienating readers and movie audiences and others—the wild politicization of forms of education and entertainment. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk about the remarkable new relationship developing between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the remarkable developing hostility between the U.S. and Venezuela, and the remarkable breakup journalism of Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins us to talk about how scared, or not, we should be by AI. Also: What gives with NASA? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Kirchick joins the podcast to discuss his new COMMENTARY article, "Neither American nor Conservative," about the isolationists of the American Conservative throwing a tantrum over Donald Trump's muscular support for Israel. And what does it mean that the Heritage Foundation board member Robert P. George just resigned? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes eerily similar stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post on Trump's supposed troubles with MAGA—leading us to ask, is there such a thing as MAGA without Trump or independent from Trump? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the shutdown over, it's time to ask the question: What do Democrats actually want? We can't quite figure it out but we try. Also, Epstein. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late-breaking news of communications relating to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump provide us with a chance to talk about conspiracy theories and how Trump's deployment of them is biting him now with the continued questions relating to the now-dead half-billionaire sex criminal. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with continuing fallout from the end of the shutdown before moving on to worrying signs that President Trump doesn't understand how he sounds when he talks about the economy—and what he could do to sound better. Also, we're supposed to feel sorry for Hamas murderers trapped in their own tunnels? Seriously? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The government shutdown appears to be reaching its end, and that's because eight non-Democratic senators have effectively agreed to the deal that Republicans put on the table before the shutdown began. What went on here? And why is Trump now offering 2 grand to taxpayers as a "tariff bonus"? And, most deliciously, we explore the collapse of the BBC senior leadership after an internal expose of their crimes against Trump, trans ideology, and Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The freakout online at the suggestion that maybe Gentiles working at the Heritage Foundation might want to eat a Shabbat dinner at the home of a Jewish person really gave the game away this week–and not in a good way. Is this a game that Jews should even attempt to play? And is there really any way for conservatives to "educate" or "coopt" those who have such hostility toward the Jewish people? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christine Rosen, Eli Lake, and I talk about the drama of yesterday's Heritage Foundation meeting, during which Kevin Roberts took another shot at apologizing and staffers in turn aired their outrage, support, and anti-Israel animus. And Christine and Eli make a bunch of Gen-X cultural references that I should get but don't. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In yesterday's elections, the Republicans took what John calls both a thumping and a shellacking. Donald Trump wasn't on the ballot, but he was on voters' minds. What are the Republicans to do? And what does the election of Zohran Mamdani herald for the country? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City all have potentially game-changing elections today and we break them down rather than having a breakdown, which will probably come tomorrow, once the results are in. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We welcome Eliana Johnson to the podcast as our new daily colleague following the departure of Matthew Continetti as we discuss the crisis at the Heritage Foundation and the behavior of its chief executive in defending Tucker Carlson after he literally turned his airwaves over to a modern-day Nazi. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A farewell tribute to COMMENTARY podcast stalwart Matthew Continetti as he moves on to the Wall Street Journal to ply his wares. We reminisce, we say what we think we did right, and what we did wrong, and then Matt makes not one, not two, but three recommendations! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump and Chinese premier Xi decided to back off their big fight and make concessions to each other for a year rather than end up in a full-scale trade war. The question: Did this aggressive move by Trump serve any real purpose? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up a story you may not yet know about because the media aren't reporting on it: A blockbuster report from the House detailing the ways in which Joe Biden in 2024 and 2025 was not actually performing his presidential duties and his aides were. Also: since when is Hamas breaking a ceasefire supposed to be reported out as Israel breaking a ceasefire? Since now. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we look at Donald Trump's trip to Asia and how he might approach Xi Jinping on trade. We also consider the public's perception of what tariffs are doing to prices and why Trump always needs to have a shadow hanging over his accomplishments. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast asks what Democrats might take away from next Tuesday's elections in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City—and how the political dilemmas they face are affecting the government shutdown. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation about how Donald Trump controls all news in this country morphs unexpectedly into a deep dive into large language models, uncanny valleys, AI, driverless cars, and everything scary about everything. Give a listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the agonizing over the White House ballroom continues, we continue to analyze it. And what's up with Donald Trump's interest in Argentine beef?  Finally, we get to the NYC mayoral race and how Zohran Mamdani, if elected, might respond to his base. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The liberal meltdown over the creation of a ballroom at the White House is another example of how liberals and the left keep stepping on their own substantive disagreements with Donald Trump because they get distracted by...stupid things. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the Trump administration's success in the Middle East going to have an effect on the way the more extreme elements of the right talk about Israel and Jews more broadly? And if podcasters continue to trash-talk Trump on this and other matters, will Trump take it lying down—or will he insist on a loyalty test for them too? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A huge show of anti-Trump force this weekend raises the question—to what end and for what purpose? And was Israel's decision to hit back hard at Hamas for violating the Trump deal really a sign of a division between the administration and the Israeli government or more of a tactical pause to see how Hamas reacts? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss last night's NYC mayoral debate, in which Zohran Mamdani was bad, Andrew Cuomo was worse, and Curtis Sliwa was Curtis Sliwa. And we talk about the terrorist-run city of Birmingham, UK. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump is telling Hamas to fulfill its end of the deal or he will tell Israel to go back in and go get the bodies of the hostages Hamas is still holding. He's continuing to use the threats of force to change the realities on the ground in ways that remain fresh and new. Meanwhile, American politicians are behaving badly on both sides of the aisle. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins the podcast to discuss Donald Trump's telling Hamas to disarm or be disarmed. We also talk about the Democrats' fanciful claim that Trump got the cease-fire and got the hostages back by following the Biden administration's plans. And we get into the New York Times' worshipful profile of Zohran Mamdani. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Settle in; This is a long one. We discuss the release of the hostages, Donald Trump's extraordinary speech to the Knesset, the meaning of deterrence, the changing atmosphere in the Middle East, and the question of...providence. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The end of the war in Gaza follows the unprecedented two-year psychological war against Zionism, supporters of Israel, and the very idea that Jews need and deserve to defend themselves. This has been an open question for us since 1948, when even Hannah Arendt opposed the creation of a Jewish state in the pages of COMMENTARY. We explain why she was wrong then, is wrong now, and why Israel's survival is important even for turncoat Jews who attack it. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We must not hope for the best while expecting the worst today; today is a day to celebrate while cautiously looking forward. Jonathan Schanzer joins us to talk about the terms of the deal that will bring the Israeli hostages home while ensuring Israel retains military options and territory in Gaza—a better deal for Israel than most of us ever expected would be the final case. How did it happen? What happens next? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins the podcast today to talk about the unprecedented attack-dog performance on Tuesday in a Senate hearing by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who decided to treat her oversight committee as though they were enemies whom she had every right to attack in personal terms. Is this a new model going forward? And what's this with the idea that a Harvard professor shooting a gun near a synagogue was just hunting rats? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to discuss the ways in which the maligned Israeli approach to the war in Gaza may have, in fact, made its victory this week possible—and if there is no end at hand, establishes its grim but necessary path forward. Programming note: No podcast on Tuesday, October 7, in observance of Sukkot. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We return to daily podcasting in the wake of a horrible car-ramming-stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester, followed by a massive pro-terrorism demonstration right outside 10 Downing Street. The bloodlust for Jewish lives and security has only grown in the two years since October 7. Why? And how can it be stopped? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So the federal government has "shut down," which it really hasn't, actually, and here we go again. Or will this really be a huge showdown, given that three Democrats have already voted against it and show they don't want to play this game (another six and the shutdown ends). Also: what is this ludicrous "scoop" from human dreidel Barak Ravid about how Trump had to yell at Netanyahu to get Bibi to agree to a deal that gives Bibi everything he wants? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is much to discuss about Donald Trump's historic proposal for ending the war in Gaza: how the media has reacted, what it says about the Trump administration's support for Israel, and how each of us think Hamas will respond. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does Donald Trump help or hurt himself by using the weapons of the presidency as personal tools for revenge? This is apart from the question of whether his doing so is simply turnabout-as-fair-play or simply an outrageous misuse of his power. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The indictment of James Comey causes us to go down memory lane remembering how destructive Comey was of the good working order of law and politics in matters involving both parties. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back from Rosh Hashanah to sing the glories of Donald Trump's controversial United Nations speech, which is only controversial because he isn't saying what the elites want him to say. And we try to make sense out of what seems like a huge shift on Trump's part in the direction of supporting Ukraine. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The massive memorial for Charlie Kirk in Arizona was more of a Christian revivalist meeting than the funeral of a political figure. What does it herald for the United States? And why does the "recognition" of a non-existent Palestinian state not worry us as much as you might expect? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fallout from the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel continues, with the revelation that, basically, no one watches his show—so why should Disney and ABC keep it on the air if he's more trouble than he's worth? That goes to the question of what to do when a heavy-handed government starts interfering in private business and going after someone who was exercising his free speech. The issue is more complicated than both left and right are willing to acknowledge. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins today's the podcast to talk about the reasons behind Jimmy Kimmel's suspension and the role of government in it before we move on to the frightening and open advocacy of anti-Semitic opinions by the woke right in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew C. McCarthy joins us to discuss the developments in the Charlie Kirk assassination case and the murder of health-care executive Brian Thompson, both of which took major steps forward yesterday in surprising and chilling ways. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israel has gone all in to finish the war Hamas started on October 7. Batten down the hatches and watch for the anti-Semitic content. Speaking of which, watch as the anti-Semites try to claim Charlie Kirk, a prominent Christian Zionist, as one of their own. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The gyrations of people who do not want to deal with the political and ideological implications of the Charlie Kirk assassination are the chief focus of today's podcast. We also take up the question of why, if America is so "mad" at Israel for the Qatar strike, our secretary of state is in Israel praying at the Western Wall. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The changes in American society that will result from the assassination of Charlie Kirk have already been experienced by America's Jews and the ways we've had to change our lives in the wake of the explosion of anti-Semitic violence over the past decade. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman joins us to talk about political violence and the cultural atmosphere that helped lead to the assassination of a 31 year-old man in the open air of a Utah college campus. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another remarkable historical turn as Israel makes it clear to Hamas leaders outside Gaza that they are not safe from the war they decided to wage against the Jewish state—an example of how Israel is changing the rules of the game in the Middle East and, as Abe says, is "redrawing the map." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So now conspiracy thinking is OK, so long as it involves Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein—that seems to be the mainstream media takeaway from the continuing focus on this admittedly compelling and disgusting story. Trump is a conspiracist, and he's made it to the top—so does that make conspiracies true? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The horrifying murder of a young woman on the light rail in Charlotte has cast a new light on the cultural and political divide relating to crime. And Russia may finally have pushed Trump to the limit. Or has it? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss the confrontation between RFK Jr. and senators who tried to call him out on his behavior and views before wondering at the idea of changing the Department of Defense into the Department of War—and what's going on with the real war in Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We celebrate a triumph for COMMENTARY and for today's guest Naomi Schaefer Riley, whose article "College Board Games" exposed and brought down a program that could have continued to sneak racial preference into college admissions. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More and more, progressives are not only wishing their enemies dead, but making movies lionizing those who commit violence against authority figures and spreading stories about the virtues of assassination. What is this demonic impulse? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that an appeals court has ruled against most of Trump's emergency tariffs, we may get some sense of how the economic future is going to be managed—once the Supreme Court weighs in. But even so, the administration's hunger to take stock positions in U.S. companies poses a different kind of threat. We talk about this and about what's about to happen in Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both the American right and the American left are addicted to the idea that we are living in a perpetual series of emergencies that require extraordinary rather than ordinary measures to combat. This is not healthy. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the second time in two years, a trans person has committed a mass shooting at a Christian school he or she attended. The mainstream media and liberal politicians seem obsessed with protecting the "trans" part of the story, but the trans part of the story may be the whole story. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there a larger cultural meaning to the engagement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? Does it connect somehow to Cracker Barrel ditching its redesign? And what does it all say about American happiness and connection? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We can't overlook the wild swings at American norms being taken by the Trump administration over the past week, from firing someone the president cannot fire at the Federal Reserve Board to sending FBI agents to the home and office of a critic to announcing a new kind of federal police force. So we don't overlook them! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We dive right into the Cracker Barrel rebranding kerfuffle. Is the new logo woke or just pointless? And what's really at stake? And is the FBI's raid of John Bolton's home legitimate or just a taste of Trumpian revenge? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In one of our chill summer episodes, the COMMENTARY crew offers individual recommendations for the best single book your inbound college freshman should read, and we make our picks of the best board games (and games). Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On another special summer podcast, the crew delves into great works of art that leave us cold or angry or depressed or that we just don't enjoy. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a special news-less show, the COMMENTARY crew shares with you some of our favorite and surprising historical sites around the world. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special Summer Recommendations podcast, the crew suggests places to go in America you might not have thought of or even heard of, including a road, a beach, a park, a museum...and some websites. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a special news-free podcast, we offer you our list of our favorite Broadway musicals—not necessarily the best, but our faves. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The DC crime crackdown is driving Trump critics into fits of insanity and weird criminality; why can't they find a way to oppose and confront him soberly? That's the question for today. And the podcast concludes with a disastrous song performance by yours truly. Stay for the horror. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do the Kennedy Center Honors and the Smithsonian Institution have in common? They are both expressions of the surprising determination of the Trump administration to challenge liberal orthodoxy on the arts and on the question of American history and who gets to tell the tale. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to make sense of the goings-on in Anchorage on Friday between the president and Vladimir Putin? We try. Who knows if we succeed. One thing that does seem to be succeeding is the way Trump is dominating the national conversation with his move to take over public safety in the District of Columbia, and how it connects to general feelings about crime and security among citizens nationwide. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New evidence that New York City's Jews are refusing to conform with liberal propaganda and still disfavor Zohran Mamdani's candidacy by a margin of 4-1 is discussed before we get to the president's decision to use a 1974 law to take over the administration of criminal justice in the District of Columbia—and what the freakout about it says. Also: Should you be allowed to see a movie made by Roman Polanski? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's mailbag episode, we discuss whether the word "Zionism" should still be in use, what books are good primers for conservatism, and what we think explains the reasons you are a podcast follower. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israel's decision to adopt a new strategy to win the war in Gaza is wildly controversial—but maybe not as controversial as the people who oppose it (as they oppose all of Benjamin Netanyahu's moves) seem to think. The Israeli public is divided, and world opinion matters less than Trump opinion. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The semi-announcement of a Trump-Putin meeting coming as the deadline for punishing sanctions against Russia approaches raises the question of whether the president will go through with those sanctions or delay them. And the tariffs begin, with unknown consequences—but then, the consequences have thus far been surprising. And are we understanding the Democratic bad poll numbers right? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

News of the possible retirement/firing of Howard Stern, the most important voice in radio of the past 50 years and one of the most transformative figures in American culture (and the culture of business), has us reflecting on his impact and how he laid the groundwork for Donald Trump. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the radicalism of Zohran Mamdani, his standing among New York Jews in a new poll, and how it is that bad ideas and failed concepts keep coming back. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes the deep problems with Donald Trump firing the head of the agency that issues the jobs report every month while also noting that these job numbers reports are horrible and no one is trying to fix them. And we note our deep sadness and anger at those who are conveniently shifting their views on Israel to conform with the liberal blob. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast, we discuss letters from listeners about Central America and Communism, just and unjust wars, and how Neville Chamberlain was a very complicated figure indeed. Give a listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Twenty-seven Democratic senators voted against aid to Israel on Wednesday, a mark of the Jewish state's abandonment by one of the two major parties in America. But wait! What's this? Polling in 1982 that almost perfectly matches the polling today on support for Israel? Maybe be of better cheer if you are an advocate for the Jewish state, or nah? And...the amazing Sydney Sweeney jeans ad and what it says about America. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Bahnsen joins us today to talk about the new GDP numbers, the tariff deals, and the Trump growth agenda—are they balancing out, canceling each other out, or at war with each other, and will we know what to make of them before next year? And the continuing disgrace of the New York Times and its coverage of Gaza, with a second fraudulent photo "proving" starvation in two months. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COMMENTARY contributing editor Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to discuss his innovative plan for Israel to stop playing Hamas's game and bring the war in Gaza to a victorious end. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have to restrain our rage on today's podcast at the now-blanket assertions of a blood libel against Israel—that it is deliberately causing death by hunger in Gaza, conveniently everywhere simultaneous to Hamas tanking a cease-fire negotiation with Israel. The attacks on Israel's immorality are themselves the true immorality. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are the COMMENTARY podcasters afraid of me? Did Henry II eat a turkey leg? Why won't Trump solve the entitlement crisis? Why don't liberals love America for what it is? We take up these and other questions in a special letters-to-the-podcast episode. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Trump administration presses a case against the Obamans for pursuing Trump maliciously in 2016 and 2017, liberals and populists are pressing for more and more information on the confusing matter of Jeffrey Epstein. Is there an "omniconspiracy" of the American elites? And we take a look at the remarkable deal struck between the administration and Columbia University. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bounce from saying goodbye to Ozzy Osbourne to celebrating Billy Joel to talking about Columbia suspending students to the shameful public display of Mahmoud Khalil to Trump's calling Obama a traitor. It's a wild ride. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Protesters are walking around New York City chanting, "Colbert stays! Trump must go!" How did we get here? What in the world happened to comedy? And speaking of comedy, we discuss Hunter Biden's recent interview. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More false stories about how Israel is killing the very Gazans it's trying to feed are suggestive of a new turn in the information war on the Jewish state—and how the fact that Israel is not finishing up its task in Gaza is having deleterious consequences. Also, a tribute to a great and modest figure who revolutionized the right in the United States. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are we to make of a supposed 2003 birthday greeting/drawing for Jeffrey Epstein by Donald Trump? And how many different ways can we luxuriate in the decision to put an end to Stephen Colbert's late-night show? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ah, what a grab-bag episode, with one throughline: When Republicans stop paying any heed to the Washington consensus, they can really get things done. And the miracle of Jaws, now 50 years old. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The continuing focus on the "Epstein files" that don't exist is the first bump in the road for Donald Trump with his base. His declaration that people who focus on it are "very bad" demonstrates his frustration with the distraction from his accomplishments—which are revealed in part by the violence with which liberals and leftists are now discussing his victories at the Supreme Court. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about Donald Trump essentially admitting his mistake with Vladimir Putin and deciding to arm Ukraine through NATO. We also get into the Supreme Court allowing Trump to make cuts to the Department of Education and the state of play in Israel over a new proposed draft law. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We begin today's podcast talking about the failure of the latest Gaza cease-fire proposal, move on to the crisis inside MAGA over Jeffrey Epstein, and then get to the heart of the matter: The astonishing New York Times story released Sunday night in which we learn that the Biden administration used the autopen to execute pardons and commutations and clemencies—in clear violation of centuries of common law regarding the use of the pardon power. This is a big deal. We explain why. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes on the huge and outrageous New York Times piece about how Prime Minister Netanyahu has allowed the Gaza war to go on too long to help himself domestically. And we do a deep dive into the Democratic Party's troubles as it struggles with its own innate pessimism and the hunger for literal blood among the party's radical base. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins us today to discuss Bibi's week in Washington, the prospects for region-wide change in the Middle East, and the painful choices facing Israel as it decides how to conclude the war in Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an unusually late-night dorm-room like podcast, we begin by describing our general good moods before plunging into despair about the threat of AI as represented by Elon Musk's Grok and the anti-Semitic spree it went on yesterday. What's happening here? Is there something metaphysical going on? Can AI be consciously evil? In theory, no. But what if theory doesn't help here? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss the president's dinner with Bibi Netanyahu and the clear bond between the two—and Trump's consistent support for Israel over his two terms. And we relate it to the surprising turn on Ukraine, with Trump now saying he will send weapons there and disavowing his own administration's withholding of arms. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back after a patriotic Fourth of July to talk about the anti-patriotic Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City and whether there are ways in which he can be made to lose the November election. Is the best way the one least talked about? We also discuss the horrible Texas disaster, the One Big Beautiful Bill, Elon Musk's new party, and the Bibi visit. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill and the ways in which it does and doesn't advance the interests of conservatism before we discuss July 4 and the massive political and ideological opportunity for the American right in the celebration of the coming 250th birthday of the Founding of the United States. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam White joins us today to talk about the blockbuster cases that concluded this year's Supreme Court decision season. But before that, we discuss the proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and the shocking new evidence of how deep anti-Semitism continues to sink into the American school system, both for little kids and for post-doctoral students. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gallup reports that just 36 percent of self-described Democrats say they are proud to be American, as opposed to 92 percent of Republicans. The Republican number has been consistent for two decades; the Democratic number fluctuates according to who is in power. What does this mean? We speculate. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bret Stephens joins us to discuss the vote on the Big Beautiful Bill, whether Zohran Mamdani will serve as a model for Democrats nationally, and how Israel might potentially finish the war in Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we start out discussing Zohran Mamdani's post-nomination commitment to anti-capitalism, racialism, and anti-Zionism. Then we ask why studies show that liberals are more miserable than conservatives. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins us today as we take apart the ridiculous stories pooh-poohing the success of the raid on Iran's nuclear sites and explain how, any way you look at it, it's a world-changing event for the better. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins us to discuss Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary. How did an intifada-supporting socialist win? What does it say about New York, the Democratic Party, and the future of Jewish life in America? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast today to consider the president's reaction to Iran's violation of the ceasefire he had announced only hours earlier and why he leaned on Israel to respond very lightly. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast explores the strange disappointment of so-called "arms control" experts at the effort to eliminate Iran's nuclear program—which they seem to oppose on the grounds that it threatens efforts on paper to control nuclear proliferation. Also, Trump as a gift to the Jewish people and the dangers of tomorrow's NYC mayoral primary. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emergency Podcast taped Sunday morning on the Trump raid on the Iranian nuclear sites and what it means for the Republican Party, the MAGA coalition, the Middle East, and the world. Joining us: Jonathan Schanzer. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Ondrasik, the superstar pop-rock singer of "Superman" and "100 Years," joins the podcast today to discuss the latest with Iran, his own journey into pro-Israel activism, and the moral framework of American foreign policy and our armed forces. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump says he doesn't start wars; he ends them. That may be the promise made to him by the Israelis in the Iran matter—that an American strike against the Fordow nuclear site will be the ultimate act of peacemaking. And will be a great blow to the noisy but apparently ineffectual anti-war crowd on the right. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The war on Iran seems to be reaching a climactic moment, and the question is what is best for America and for Israel in finishing the task. Also, why are Democrats so hungry to get arrested and to side with people who are openly flouting the law? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We get metaphysical and spiritual on today's podcast as I ask whether we can see the hand of providence at work in the mission against Iran and the increasingly tough tone and line taken by Donald Trump as the hours pass. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israel's astounding success in the first days of the war with Iran, notwithstanding the blows it has taken from Iranian missiles, raises the question of whether the United States has an interest in helping bring the entire fight to an end by using its bunker-buster bombs to finish off Iran's nuclear sites. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israel hits Iran. That's it. That's the podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the complicated issues raised by illegal immigration to broad-scale policies that distort the American economy, things are in need of repair and reform—and the problem is nobody really wants to repair or reform them. But we have to. How can we? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The LA situation continues to dominate, as California Gov. Newsom takes to the airwaves to say that fascism has arrived in America and he's just the guy to stop it. Meanwhile, Los Angeles was put under a curfew because the lawlessness in the streets has overwhelmed the cops there. And the left is gathering force for an anti-Trump demonstration this weekend as Trump prepares to oversee a military parade. Who's going to look better after Sunday? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman joins the podcast as we examine the ongoing street violence and theater in Los Angeles and the fact that the Democratic Party has now committed itself, it seems, to a posture in which they are supporting lawlessness and handing Donald Trump everything he would want in terms of the arguments he is making about their irresponsibility and lack of patriotism. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As "protestors" set cars on fire, shut down highways, vandalize buildings, and attack law enforcement in California, Democratic politicians want you to believe all of this is the fault of Donald Trump for...enforcing federal immigration law? The question of whether this is a strategy, or a reason to bring out the straitjackets for an entire political party, is the subject of today's podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elon Musk's anti-Trump meltdown yesterday is revelatory for a number of reasons: the inevitable clash of two Alphas; the tech-bro's arrogance about government meeting the hard reality of bare-knuckle politics; the problem of having an outlet for impulsive expressions of rage that may take a lifetime to overcome; and more. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we examine Donald Trump's busy Wednesday—a new immigration ban from countries hostile to the United States, announcing an investigation into Biden's infirmities, denying student visas to Harvard, seeking to remove the accreditation of Columbia University, and more. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The aftermath of the firebombings of Boulder Jews is a moment at which we can see, in stark relief, how the issues that have motivated the left over the past 20 years are not only threatening our social fabric but also at the core of the political changes in the United States, particularly as relates to men and the Democratic party. Give a listen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The firebombing of Jews in Colorado, following the firebombing of the governor's mansion in Pennsylvania and the murder of two Israeli embassy officials in DC, makes it unambiguously clear that the new motive force on the radical left and among radical Islamists is direct violent attack against Jews. What are we going to do about it? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We close out the week on Donald Trump's pardons, picks, and tantrums and RFK Jr.'s AI-based report. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Robert Pondiscio joins the podcast to discuss the progressive sabotage of K-12 schooling and talk about his article in the June issue of COMMENTARY, "How Wokeness Destroyed an Education Miracle." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The media efforts to make Americans oppose Trump's anti-illegal efforts are running straight into the buzzsaw of common sense. So too with efforts to portray the distribution of food aid in Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, it took him long enough, but Donald Trump has now decided Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace. Who knew? Um...a lot of people? Plus, what's this about how Israel needs to wrap it up already? Give a listen. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast anywhere you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special holiday episode, Matt Continetti and I sing the praises of the brilliant Disney Plus series Andor and explain how it remains compelling even when it plays around with political themes that might be offensive to some of us. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to talk about efforts to combat the possible wave of anti-Jewish violence in America that might be triggered by the murders at the Capital Jewish Museum and whether the Trump administration's bludgeoning of Harvard is a wise strategy. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman joins the podcast this morning to talk about the horrors in DC last night and how they connect to the increasing embrace of violence on the left after 2015—which accelerated after the George Floyd killing and is now manifesting itself not only in the assassination of a health-care executive by new radical folk hero Luigi Mangione but now in the deliberate targeting of a Jewish event at a Jewish site by a berserk far leftist. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin joins the podcast today to talk about the continuing fallout from the Biden revelations, whether the "big beautiful bill" will pass, and whether Donald Trump's announcement of a new missile-defense system passes the smell test. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Eliana Johnson joins us as we try to figure out what the real story is behind Joe Biden's tragic cancer diagnosis. And we discuss the media's group effort to look away, yet again. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The horrible news about Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis—coming as it did amid the release of a new book about his infirmity as president—raises even more questions about who knew what and when. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats complain about oligarchs but are the party of the rich. Democrats talk about Trump as a pathological liar but are exposed having lied about Biden's infirmities. How are they going to compete with the energy of the GOP when they seem not to understand themselves? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the podcast to discuss his remarkable June COMMENTARY cover story, "The Future of American Jewry After October 7." But first we talk about Trump's Middle East trip, Iran, Israel, and other stuff. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The president gave a major speech in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that had uncomfortable echoes of Barack Obama's "apology" address in 2009—and with the same target: The idea that America should represent Western civilization and fight for it in the world. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tevi Troy joins us today to talk about his article, "In Praise of Big Pharma," but first we talk about Trump's trip to the Middle East and whether Israel will ever make its final push into Gaza. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the U.S.-China tariff rollback, Trump's plan to reduce drug prices, the ongoing negotiations with Russia, Iran, and Hamas, and the appearance of daylight between the U.S. and Israel. And finally we get into Trump's desire for a Qatari  airplane and the multiple emoluments-related disasters that may lie ahead for the administration. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast welcomes the American pope, questions the value of deep-dish pizza, reminisces about old baseball days, and then gets serious about campus misbehavior. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins us to talk about the Houthis, Israel, Iran, Qatar, dangerous negotiations, the universities, and side business deals. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you had a war between India and Pakistan on your 2025 bingo card, congratulations—because nobody else did, including the Trump administration. What are the possible consequences, and how will they interfere with Trump's trip to the Middle East in the coming days? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is the president talking about putting tariffs on foreign films instead of attacking California's liberals and the way their management of the state is destroying the entertainment industry there? We talk about this and about just how crazy the month of May is going to be in the Middle East. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John is out for the day, but the rest of us take up Donald Trump's wide-ranging appearance on Meet the Press, New York's hit piece on John Fetterman, and what to do about the undeterred Houthis. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We promised and we delivered: Your questions, answered! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The signing of a mineral deal with Ukraine represents a new turn in the Trump administration's handling of the war there and Russia's recalcitrance—is it a good turn or a bad turn? And we examine the media misreporting of the circumstances around the attempted deportation of an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic green-card holder. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How are we to evaluate Trump's first 100 days—border, foreign policy, war on liberalism, etc? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congratulations to Donald Trump on the results in Canada, which seem to have turned entirely on him and turned against him at the same time. He says he runs the world, and sometimes when you do, you run aground. Thus begins our conversation on his first hundred days. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fights that have erupted during the first hundred days of the Trump administration have not only set the agenda for the White House going forward. They will literally be the fights Trump will be fighting until his tenure is over, as every action is met with a response in court. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COMMENTARY's tech columnist, James B. Meigs, joins the podcast today to talk about the important lawsuit lost by  Greenpeace and what it means for leftist activism going forward, and about new developments and needed developments when it comes to the exploration of space. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COMMENTARY contributing editor Bret Stephens joins us to discuss his New York Times column, "The Face-Plant President," as we consider Donald Trump's decline in the polls and the significant fact that it all seems to come from his own actions on matters no one seemed to have been looking for—like the tariffs. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Jonathan Foreman joins the podcast today for a deep look at his seminal May 2025 COMMENTARY lead article, "The Untold Story of How Israel Failed on October 7." We also begin by discussing the belly-up nature of the Trump "I'll end the Russia-Ukraine war in a day" fantasy. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The larger goals of the Trump administration are threatened by incompetent execution. The problem is that for many, making policy stick isn't as important as making a stink. What to do? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Messes at the Pentagon, at the State Department, at Treasury, at the Department of Justice, and with tariff policy—can this administration survive itself, let alone survive the liberal media and the counterstrikes against Trump? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins today's podcast as we discuss two major articles in the May issue of COMMENTARY: Christine Rosen on "consumer eugenics" and Seth Mandel on the anti-Semites in the conservative podcasting world. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A two-hander today as Abe Greenwald and I delve Talmudically into the New York Times story on how Donald Trump decided not to participate in an Israeli strike on Iran and why. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins us today from the Washington Free Beacon to discuss the Trump-Harvard fight, Steve Witkoff's walk-back on Iran, and the firebombing of Gov. Josh Shapiro's house on the first night of Passover. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On several fronts—the tariffs, Ukraine, and Iran in particular—we strain to see the supposed negotiating genius of Donald Trump and his team. And what of the legal messes all over the place? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Trump administration isn't doing unpopular things, it's doing popular things the wrong way. From bad actors abroad to the courts, we discuss the challenges the president is facing and the position he's put himself in. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump backs down on the tariffs and according to his fan base, this is a mark of his Machiavellian genius. This would seem to have something in common not with Machiavelli but with Larry Tate, the completely transactional boss on the sitcom "Bewitched." How? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 104 percent tariff on China is kicking off a very risky conflict with the People's Republic with potential geopolitical and military ramifications. Is it possible that, without even entirely understanding it, Donald Trump is sticking it to the Chinese over Covid? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Constitutional scholar Adam White joins us to talk about the surprisingly complex Supreme Court edit on the plane deportations to El Salvador and what it portends for the fights on legal matters to come. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fallout from Trump's colossal trade-tariff moves has only just begun. What are the effects on the GOP? On the possibility of the Democrats finding their sea legs with a non-elite economic argument? On the world and our alliances? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did the successive national shocks of the past half-century lead to the shock of "Liberation Day"? That was the focus of my COMMENTARY daily newsletter from yesterday, and today we use that newsletter as a launching point to discuss Trump's tariffs, the public's reaction, and if we ever lived in "normal" times. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Bahnsen joins us today to discuss the Trump tariff earthquake and whether it's here to stay, will somehow be walked back, and whether any good can come from it. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special elections last night offered a mixed picture of the political mood in the country, even as Democrats seem to be seizing on the idea that their path to victory is to focus on Elon Musk. Did Trump do America and Elise Stefanik herself a favor by making her stay in the House to continue fighting the culture war against the universities? And what exactly are tariffs liberating us from? Plus, Val Kilmer, RIP. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did it happen that Kamala Harris ever rose to the summit? What forces led her there, and what does it mean that she was stopped and that Trump won over her and is doing what he's doing now? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

his weekend we saw Bad Trump—the one saying he could serve a third term because of, you know, reasons—and Good Trump—the one saying Putin and Iran are angering him and that he's not going to stand for much more of their shenanigans. Now come the tariffs. Are they the work of Good Trump or Bad Trump? And here's an idea: Barack Obama for president of Columbia! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss the defense proffered by Elon Musk and his Doge team in a fascinating interview last night on Bret Baier's Fox show for their actions and why, while laudable, their efforts to apply "business" practices to government have been tried before and usually backfire. And why you shouldn't take the media assaults on Trump's deportations at face value. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No, we're not Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers; we're the COMMENTARY podcast and we're here to discuss automobile tariffs and the dangers thereto. Not to mention: Othello! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us today to discuss the continuing fallout from the inadvertent addition of a journalist to a discussion at the highest levels of America's military operation against the Houthis in Yemen. If the president doesn't care, will anyone else? And why are Tuckeristas trying to turn this into a holy war against those who want to use American power to open the world's shipping lanes? Also, what about these demonstrations in Gaza? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk today about the three elements of the story about a journalist finding himself on the text chain revealing the deepest secret of the Trump administration thus far and what it says about the behavior and policies of the White House, and then dive deep into the extraordinary story of the Minnesota non-profit that stole $250 million in COVID relief money and gave it to staffers in the form of wedding gold. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Data from Democrats themselves indicate the party's fortunes are historically poor, and we spend the podcast discussing how they got themselves into this hole and how difficult it is for them to climb out of it. Also: Trump manhandles Columbia University and a big law firm. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins today's podcast to discuss the return from space of the astronauts stranded for nine months after the failure of their Boeing craft and what all that says about business, high tech, and the capitalist future. And we dive deep into a landmark lawsuit against Greenpeace. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Bahnsen and Tevi Troy join us today to talk about the Fed and its talk of inflation and uncertainty, and Tevi's lead article in the April issue of COMMENTARY, "In Praise of Big Pharma." Plus, new merch! Very exciting! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Trump and Putin negotiating with each other in an attempt to force a resolution onto Ukraine, the question arises: How do former American agreements bind (or not bind) Trump or any new president? And what can be said of the traditions of American politics Trump seeks to up-end or destroy? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to discuss Israel's aggressive moves against Hamas in Gaza as the "cease-fire" that ended 18 days ago really came to an actual end with the Jewish state showing its determination to bring this war to its purposeful conclusion—the destruction of Hamas—in concert with the Trump administration taking on the Houthis in Yemen. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to keep up with the news? You can't. There's too much of it. Even over a weekend. We try to catch up. Wow. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Founding father Noah Rothman joins us today to discuss the day's news before we offer a brief history of the birth, evolution, and growth of the COMMENTARY podcast as we note our tenth anniversary (and fifth anniversary of going daily). Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Liel Leibovitz joins us today to discuss the ongoing controversy over the immigration and speech status of Columbia extremist Mahmoud Khalil and how he, as someone who has been through the immigration process, views these incendiary matters. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast is an effort to help me find my bearings in a world in which Ukraine agrees to a cease-fire, RFK Jr. is doing an ad for Steak'n'Shake, Donald Trump is selling Teslas on the White House lawn, and Democrats are siding with a terror-supporting activist. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The question we ask on today's podcast about the Trump administration is simple: "Can't anybody here play this game?" What game? We explain and you should give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tough times at Columbia University as hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money are revoked and a leader of the pro-Hamas protests is taken into custody by ICE. It's a huge development. Not so good: The antics of "hostage negotiator" Adam Boehler. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We take an offbeat tack today, jumping off from a landmark achievement in the world of AI to ask just how close we are to the "singularity," and what that means for the future of humanity. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does Donald Trump's new threat against Hamas mean for the next phase of the hostage deal? And what options does the administration have for cracking down on campus anti-Semitism? Also, where do things stand between Trump and Zelenskyy at the moment? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The not-really-a-State-of-the-Union on Tuesday night was notable more for the self-destructive shenanigans of the Democrats in the Capitol than it was for the rhetoric of Donald Trump. We break it all down. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The tariffs now imposed on Mexico, Canada, and China threaten to hit Americans in the pocketbook, and given the results of the last election, we discuss why the president would be pursuing this policy when he should be doing what he can to lower prices. And where should "honor" enter into it when talking about American commitments and American alliances? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's with all the "sex worker" talk at the Oscars? Why couldn't Adrien Brody just condemn anti-Semitism in his acceptance speech for a role in which he plays a Holocaust survivor? Who was to blame for the fight in the Oval Office? And what is the "Witkoff framework"? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The jaw-dropping Oval Office set-to between Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy is the subject of this emergency podcast. A grave moment for the United States. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Long joins us today to discuss Trump's gaslighting on Ukraine, the fight over the Jeffrey Epstein documents, and whether the Oscars might go Hamas. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A media-centric show today, as we examine Jeff Bezos's announcement of changes to the opinion policies of the Washington Post, the complaints of the White House press corps about access to the president, and whether the new book on covering up for Biden's infirmities will cover up the press's complicity. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republicans get done what they needed to get done in the House of Representatives. And in Israel, hostages are buried and painful eulogies delivered, which we read in full. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The courts are balking, Macron is correcting, the vote on Ukraine was shameful, and appointing a podcaster to be #2 at the FBI is dumb. It's 35 days in; maybe the president needs to start focusing on doing things well? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast asks: Are Trump officials finding it necessary to echo the boss's "Ukraine started the war" in the same way Trump officials in the first month of the first administration were forced to say his inaugural crowd size was the biggest in history? And is Elon Musk off the chain? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins us after the monstrous day in which Gazans danced around the coffins of a baby and a toddler who, we learned, had both been shot in the head more than a year ago—and around the coffin in which, as it turned out, their mother's body had not been placed. What will the rage and horror inside Israel mean for the continuation of war-fighting in Gaza—and should Israel look beyond Hamas to deliver a deadly blow to Iran instead? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss Hamas's killing of the Bibas children and the choices facing Israel as the next phase of the hostage/cease-fire deal approaches. We then move on to Donald Trump's allergy to allies and his view of global security. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast analyzes Donald Trump and Elon Musk's joint interview with Sean Hannity before trying to figure out what's going on with Trump accusing Ukraine of starting the war. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you want to move fast and break things, the problem is that you may break things you want—and you'll look sloppy, careless, and incompetent in the process. Is that what's happening with DOGE and Elon Musk? And what on earth is New York state Kathy Hochul doing with this idea she should "remove" the duly elected mayor of New York City? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the podcast today to discuss his remarkable conversation with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on his Call Me Back podcast and its eye-opening detail about the war that erupted on October 7, 2023. Then we talk about the Justice Department, the "constitutional crisis" that isn't, and the controversy in Europe that is. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss the resignation of the interim U.S. attorney in New York and her argument that she could not in good conscience carry out the order to ask a court to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump's moves to end the war between Russia and Ukraine suggests he is pursuing a kind of foreign policy we haven't seen in the United States since the 1920s and 1930s. What are the consequences of that? And what of Hamas announcing it will free three hostages this weekend after "suspending" the release earlier this week? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As liberals continue to criticize and make fun of Donald Trump's Gaza clearance plan, it still stands as the only proposal on the table—so it's more likely to constitute a roadmap for the future than anything else is right now. The inability of Trump's enemies even to answer his ideas is the overarching theme of today's podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Ruthie Blum joins the podcast to discuss Donald Trump's demand for Hamas to release all hostages by Saturday at noon. What happens next and what choices does Benjamin Netanyahu face? Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does the president's appearance at the Super Bowl connect to his aggressive moves against the federal government's overspending? It does in ways you wouldn't expect, and we try to explain. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin joins the podcast today to provide an overview on what he believes is an unprecedented and overwhelming beginning to Trump 2—and why Trump's opposition continually misunderstands his appeal and his own political savvy. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happened to the liberal ideal of speaking for and about common sense? How did America's liberals become advocates for wildly radical ideas? Is there a path back to sanity for them? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump says America will take "an ownership position" in a Gaza that is emptied, cleared, and rebuilt. This epochal proposal, with no precedent and no antecedent, makes this a new Day One in the Middle East. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the morning, a tariff war; in the evening, a declaration of a truce in the tariff war. If there's no tariff war, was there ever going to be a tariff war? Were we silly for taking it seriously? And what does this portend for the talks with Israel on its war with Hamas, now currently quiescent? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Donald Trump attempts to impose a foreign and economic policy regime that has been in the doghouse for eight decades now, he is staking his presidency on ideas that seem to have been discredited by history and elementary logic. But who knows? Maybe he'll succeed. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins the podcast to talk about the DC plane-helicopter collision and what it tells us about disasters, after which we examine the RFK-Gabbard-Patel confirmation hearings and what they tell us about the state of conspiracy theorizing in the United States. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will RFK Jr. make it through after his contentious confirmation hearing? How will Tulsi Gabbard fare, and what is behind the MAGA intellectual passion for her nomination. Could it be hatred of...us? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The executive orders and proposals over the past couple of days on buying out federal workers, transsexual surgery, and anti-Semitism are stunning alterations in the course of recent American history. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins us today to discuss the president's firings of Justice Department prosecutors who worked on his case during the Biden years and the dismissal of inspectors general throughout the federal government. And what's this about the guy playing Captain America saying that Captain America doesn't represent America? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump dispatched a challenge from Colombia in record time this weekend on his immigration policies, just after successful visits to North Carolina and Los Angeles to survey disaster damage. What does all this portend for his presidency? We break it down. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins the podcast today to discuss Donald Trump's efforts to dominate the news and whether they are simply his way or a canny strategy to advance his interests. And we talk about the revelatory conversation between two reporters about how Politico killed stories that might have been injurious to Joe Biden's chances in 2020. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The shocked impotence with which liberals and Democrats have greeted the aggressive Trump moves on immigration is the key subject of today's discussion, along with efforts in the Senate to delay, pointlessly, Trump's cabinet nominees. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Day Three is the same as Days 1 and 2—actions that are revolutionary in a good way and actions that are disturbing or actively bad. Which ones? Why? We break it down. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast today to talk about the flurry of Trump activity on Day 1 of his administration and the two disgraceful sets of pardons, Trump's and Biden's. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We lied! We said there would be no podcast today but we just couldn't stay away. Too much news. The inaugural, the pardons, and the hostage deal. So give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The deal having been struck, the hostage question now goes to which hostages emerge first and in what condition and what this will do to the Israeli people. As Trump prepares for his second inaugural, what is his moral framework going to be, if there will be any? And what is this nonsense Chuck Schumer is telling the New York Times about how brave he was to tell Joe Biden not to run? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins us today as we review the Biden farewell address and try to make sense out of the ceasefire-hostage deal. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman joins us today to discuss his landmark piece in the February issue of COMMENTARY, "A Clockwork Blue." But first we talk about the hostage deal and the Democratic failure to "get" Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The details of the ceasefire/hostage negotiations in Doha between Israel and Hamas are not viewed favorably on today's podcast, to put it mildly, and suggest there may be danger ahead when it comes to the Trump administration and what it's willing to do to claim successes. And we also view unfavorably Jack Smith's report on how, yeah, he woulda gotten Trump convicted if it weren't for you meddling voters! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ongoing disaster in California has exposed the failures of the dominant ideology of the American left just as the moment that its transmission vector, the mainstream media, is going the way of the dodo. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the connection between the policy failures in California, the fires that continue to rage, and progressive ideology dating back a century? We break it down. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Los Angeles fires might prove a hinge moment in 21st century political history depending on how California's progressive leaders respond to the calamity and how to rebuild after the crisis is over. We discuss this and Trump's response. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The incoming president gave a press conference yesterday, and what a press conference it was, from Greenland to Panama to Canada to NATO to Ukraine, and the threat of unleashed hell in the Middle East should the hostages remain in Hamas captivity upon his inauguration. We break it down. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did Justin Trudeau step down? Why is Facebook giving up on "content moderation"? Why do people no longer trust "experts" who may not really be experts? Why did Biden give a Medal of Freedom to George Soros...and George Romney? Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republicans are staying united as Donald Trump nears his swearing-in—with the shadow of Judge Merchan's determination to sentence him as a felon later this week. Meanwhile, the Biden foreign-policy team makes its case for its success as we try not to laugh. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The only way to combat the kind of Islamist mass murder that took place in New Orleans this week is to...combat Islamism, both abroad and at home. We talk about how before we talk about Republicans in the House and last-minute Biden moves to control and contain the new administration. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first podcast of 2025 reckons with the horror in New Orleans and the attempted horror in Las Vegas before discussing the damage done to the Democratic Party by its own ideological blinders and its decision to gaslight America about the president's condition and his family's financial shenanigans. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this holiday podcast, we offer cheer and warning in equal measure and then talk about...sitcoms and Christmas movies! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's holiday podcast questions concern how we Commentaryites define ourselves in terms of the generations we come from, and what indelible encounters we've had in our lives with meaningful people. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's special podcast offers a glimpse into how we prepare for each morning's conversation, and we offer some vacation spot tips as well. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's holiday podcast, we answer a viewer's question about when and how we all met, and what is going on behind us (if you watch us on YouTube). Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's special holiday podcast, John talks with COMMENTARY contributor Rick Marin about his article "The Anti-Woke King of Hollywood" and what's in Taylor Sheridan's special sauce. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's special holiday podcast provides you with our list of the shows we liked the best on streaming and broadcast in 2024. Give a listen!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On our last news podcast of the year, we take up the Wall Street Journal story delineating the facts of the Biden cognitive cover-up, which now, it appears, dates back as far as 2020. Aside from the governing crisis the refusal of his cabinet and vice president created by failing to intervene as the Constitution requires, the Biden story also highlights the collapse of liberals and liberal institutions and the loss of legitimacy their behavior over the past four years has engendered. How? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast explores the existential pit in which House speaker Mike Johnson finds himself and whether there's any way out. Also, Israel continues to fight the fight for Western civilization while others scoff and belittle. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should Donald Trump be paying as much attention to dealing with the problems he actually resolved by winning the election, like his beef with Liz Cheney and the Des Moines Register poll? On the other hand, what if one of the witnesses who testified before the January 6 committee was encouraged to change a story she had already told under oath? Also, how on earth does Mike Johnson get out of his "we gotta pay for the government somehow" pickle? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes the extraordinarily different tone and approach taken by Donald Trump in his first press conference as president-elect and what it might tell us about the kind of presidency we might be seeing. And what on earth was going on at the White House Hanukkah party? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast examines the ramifications and emanations and penumbra arising from ABC's stunning decision to settle with Donald Trump after George Stephanopoulos wrongly said he had been found guilty of rape. What does this say about the mainstream media, and how does it connect to the drone story? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What on earth is going on in the skies over New Jersey and why is it so hard to trust the authorities when they tell us there's nothing to worry about? And what on earth is happening with the pardons and clemencies now numbering well over 1,000 from the exiting Biden administration? Give a listen. Also, if you have questions you want us to answer on an upcoming podcast, email us at podcast@commentary.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss Christopher Wray's announcement that he will step down as FBI director and what it means for Trump. How has Pete Hegseth managed to keep his rocky nomination on track (and how much help did he get from his critics in the press)? Also, the hostage deal currently in the works seems to refute the entire Biden approach to Israel's war with Hamas. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast examines the case of Luigi Mangione, the alleged shooter of the health-care executive, and the reasons why some people seem determined to lionize him and take on his cause—one of the most potentially dangerous moments in recent history. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to talk about the fall of the Assad regime and why it's not purely good news. What happens next? Is Iran done? And, if it is, does Israel (and maybe even the U.S.) finish off the regime? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with the shocking moment yesterday when Joe Biden spoke of the American hostage in Syria, Austin Tice, and then, 30 seconds later, entirely forgot who Austin Tice was. There are 42 days until the election; isn't there a single responsible person in the Cabinet of the United States willing to organize a 25th Amendment letter temporarily removing him from the chain of command at this epochal moment in world affairs, with Syria having fallen? And a surprising Trump interview. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we marvel at the liberal habit of protecting democracy with...banana republicanism. Fearing Donald Trump's revenge, the Biden administration is mulling preemptive pardons, and legacy media is normalizing the idea. Plus, we get into the blurring of mainstream and alternative media and why the left can never have a Joe Rogan. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss the astonishing oral arguments yesterday in the Supreme Court about trans medicine and laws to restrict it before turning to the equally astonishing Biden-should-preemptively-pardon-everybody argument that's racing around Washington like the bubonic plague. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we examine the failed attempt to impose martial law in South Korea and the coming collapse of the French government and ask why it is so many American intellectuals continue to claim we are living through a constitutional crisis when...we're really, really not. Also: trans surgeries before the Supreme Court, and the Defense Secretary kerfuffle continues. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not going well for Joe Biden in the wake of the sweeping pardon he granted his son. Democrats are discomfited, Karine Jean-Pierre is at a loss, and mainstream media is despondent. Donald Trump, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying a honeymoon. We contrast his bold statement demanding the release of Hamas's hostages with the Biden approach. And we also delve a bit into what's happening in Ukraine. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today John is under the weather, so the rest of us take on Joe Biden's broad pardon of his son Hunter, what it says about the Biden presidency, and how it complements Donald Trump's pick of Kash Patel for director of the FBI. What do we think of Patel? What do we think of Trump's picking his daughter's father-in-law to be a senior adviser on the Middle East? And, finally, how's the Hezbollah ceasefire holding up and what can we learn from the reignited civil war in Syria? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We try to make sense out of Israel's participation in the ceasefire that began today—and which Hezbollah may already have violated. Did Israel actually want this because it needed time to recover its strength? Or did it have to agree because it needed weapons from the United States that were being withheld? Oh, and what on earth was with that weird Kamala Harris video in which she appeared to be, shall we say, not entirely sober? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to Israel, it is agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in large measure to stave off an American assault in the UN on Israel's efforts in Lebanon. We discuss what this reminds us of, why it's outrageous if indeed this is the case, and whether Israel can find a way to benefit from the pause. Also, hijinks with tariffs and fights on the patio at Mar-A-Lago! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with the horrible murder of a Hasidic emissary in the UAE and the growing institutional anti-Semitism in Canada before moving on to the very interesting political dynamic emerging from the Trump picks for Cabinet and other jobs—a post-conservative-movement ideological and policy free-for-all whose winners and losers will help define the Republican Party for the rest of the century. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about AG pick Pam Bondi and why we should take the Trump transition seriously. Then we look back on the Kamala Harris campaign and wonder, What the heck was that? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The news that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant came the same day that 19 Democrats voted to embargo "offensive weaponry" to Israel—and a former Israeli cabinet minister was denied entry to a conference in Australia because her very presence might be "disruptive." The war against Jews is relentless and ever-morphing, and there is going to be pushback. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up Donald Trump's newest picks, Linda McMahon for education secretary and Dr. Oz to oversee Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and we talk about the potential for outsiders to shake up dysfunctional institutions. We also get into where the Democrats go next on social issues and how Republicans can best counter trans extremism. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast delves into a New York Times story suggesting Donald Trump thinks Matt Gaetz will not be confirmable, or confirmed, by the Senate. What's going on here? What will Gaetz do? And what does this mean for the other nominees? Also, the effort of leading Israelis to blame Benjamin Netanyahu for the continuing hostage crisis takes an especially ugly turn. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman joins us today to talk about presidential appointments and how to stay calm and rational as Donald Trump continues to make news at the same dizzying clip he did during his presidency. Oh, and why it's comical that liberals are now claiming they don't have a social-media platform they can dominate. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How the RFK pick is both conventional (Trump rewarding an important endorser) and the result of radical changes in the way Americans view trusted institutions (they don't trust those institutions). But is RFK a change agent or merely an opportunistic ambulance-chaser who is taking advantage of their distrust? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The appointments of Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard to major jobs in the administration has set Washington's (and our) heads on fire. And with Robert Kennedy Jr. soon to follow, what shape is the nascent White House taking, and what will the Republican Senate do with its advise-and-consent powers? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast talks about the root causes of the Amsterdam pogrom in Europe and the root causes of the surge in random anti-Semitic attacks in America at the same time. Then we look at the fascinating choice by Donald Trump of Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon and what Hegseth says about saving the military in his work. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The selections of Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, and Elise Stefanik to senior foreign-policy posts in the incoming administration offer significant signals that Trump 2 is not going to follow the neo-isolationist hopes and dreams of the Tucker Carlson crowd. What will this mean for Ukraine, and what does it say about the Jewish vote? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first appointments of the Trump administration came over the weekend, even as the incoming president was signaling his determination not to bring back two of his first-term hawks, Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo. How are they? What's going on in the Senate? And what about that FEMA story? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon joins the podcast as we address the horrifying news out of Amsterdam—a present-day pogrom that is taking place while anti-Semitic acts are happening across America during the same week and Israel continues to be threatened by Hezbollah and the Houthis. What connects this to the continuing fallout from the election? Immigration. And the question of who's going to be tough on Iran. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Kamala Harris's concession speech, the recriminations are beginning inside the Democratic Party—and oh, are we here for it. Are they going to diagnose what went wrong honestly, or are they going to retreat to their zone of ideological comfort? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, you know what we're talking about today. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's here, and Oprah and Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are all saying it'll be the last time we ever get to vote. While some of us might feel, after the past two years, like that would be a deliverance of a sort, it's the kind of rhetoric and thinking that have gotten us into this cultural and political mess. We discuss that, and all kinds of other stuff, as we wait...and wait...and wait... Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a day to go, we discuss whether the vibes lean toward Harris or Trump, where the polls are leaning (if at all), and whom we think is going to win. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another nail in the coffin of Sen. Chuck Schumer's reputation for being a voice for the Jewish community was hammered yesterday by the Free Beacon with an earthquake of a story in which he seeks to bury evidence of anti-Semitism on the Columbia University campus. This leads us into a discussion of, what else, the election. Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt, whose The Hill Sunday show on NewsNation is a must-watch, joins us to discuss how polls work at this late date and whether they do, what poll herding is, and whether we can trust the data we're seeing. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're joined today by the analyst who made the video screen and the white button down shirt into election-night legends, Steve Kornacki of NBC. Where will he be looking first next Tuesday for evidence of how the night is going to go? How many undecided voters are left? And what about "partisan gravity"? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A synagogue-goer is shot in Chicago over the weekend and the cops—and the media—seem unable to discern the motive of a gunman who shouted "Allahu Akbar." Why would this be the case? And why is the New York Times trying to talk people into feeling hopeful about Kamala Harris's chances with an article that offers no evidence they should have such hope? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins us to discuss Israel's strike on Iran this weekend. We also talk about the media meltdown over endorsements, Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, and why Michelle Obama thinks attacking men for being full of rage is a winning political strategy. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are tied in the final national New York Times poll, which the Times itself says is not good news for Harris. What explains it? How about the possibility that men may have had enough of decades of being belittled by the dominant culture? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The vice president spent 90 minutes with CNN last night at a town hall just as polling information was suggesting she is on a downward slope. We evaluate her performance and try to explain why the "Trump as fascist" line of attack doesn't seem to have the oomph the Harris campaign wants. And why the Biden administration is now acting in ways that seem to portend a Russian victory in Ukraine. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kamala Harris seems to have stalled out on her way to Election Day, while Trump is inching upward. The kinds of things she might be hoping will help her—like the manufactured October Surprises from the New York Times and the Atlantic again highlighting bad Trump quotes and supposedly bad Trump behavior—likely won't. So how can she win unless she figures out a way to...win? Plus, a Commentary Podcast Drinking Game! Give a listen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A truly dystopian Commentary podcast envisions two paths—one where Trump wins and one where Harris wins. Both paths may lead to unprecedented political and social disorder. How? Where? Why? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's never been a race this close, according to the polling, and the question is why. The answers we offer have to do with which candidate is bringing the "joy" (it ain't Harris) and which candidate is throwing around 14 different messages hoping enough will stick with enough swing voters to drag the ticket across the finish line (it ain't Trump). Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast as we debate just how meaningful the killing of Yahya Sinwar by IDF troops is—is it a major turning point, a climactic event, one of the most important days of the 21st century, or something else? And what about the Biden administration's response to it? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did Kamala Harris agree to a 26 minute interview with Fox's Bret Baier, and what do we make of what she said and how she did? And we discuss breaking news out of Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What on earth is with this out-of-nowhere letter from the secretary of state and the secretary of defense threatening the flow of U.S. military aid to Israel in 30 days' time unless Israel loosens its restrictions on aid going to Gaza—most if not all of which is going to keep the dying Hamas alive? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does the "Trump is crazy" attack still work? Why is the Harris campaign panicking over the black vote? What does the Kamala plagiarism story tell us? And what do most Americans consider a threat to their freedom? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the way the Harris campaign seems to have stalled and the fact that, of the two competitors, it is Trump who talks issues and Harris who...doesn't talk much at all. And when will Israel strike at Iran—or will it? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this, the last podcast of the week, we ask: What's going on between the president and the vice president? Is he targeting her? Is he trying to upstage her? Is he trying to humiliate her? Or does he even know what he's doing? And what exactly is she doing? Is she really as bad at this candidate stuff as she appears? And what's happening at CBS? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins us to discuss hurricane politics—how they work, who gets blamed, why the media do what they do, and what the dangers are for the two presidential candidacies. Also: How did Kamala's big press day go? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The disgusting displays of pro-terror masked goons marauding through New York City's streets brings to mind the question of who exactly is going to stand up to these monsters—and praises those who do. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris goes on 60 Minutes and helps explain why she's not running away with this race, while JD Vance comes up with a brilliant formulation. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ruthie Blum joins the podcast today to discuss the lessons of October 7—about Israel, about American Jewry, about anti-Semitism, about the Biden administration, about the hunger to blame Jews for their own misfortunes, about the hunger to blame Benjamin Netanyahu for the war, and about what the future of an America uncomfortable with military victory might hold. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Vance-Walz showdown was civil, friendly, and a complete slaughter. Who slaughtered whom? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is the administration remaining churlish and full of ceasefire talk relating to Israel and Hezbollah and Hamas? Why are there no papers on the Resolute desk? Why is Kamala Harris visiting a Washington office rather than a flood site? Why should Jimmy Carter be celebrated for being 100 when his record as president was terrible and his behavior toward Israel appalling? Why isn't Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins today's podcast to discuss Israel's series of staggering military and intelligence triumphs over evil this weekend and their long-term ramifications. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean that hundreds took over the streets around Grand Central Terminal celebrating Hamas and Hezbollah before others went up Park Avenue to the hotel where Benjamin Netanyahu is staying and started chanting, "We're going to get you"? What does it mean that Kamala Harris is going to the border? What does it mean that Eric Adams wanted airline upgrades so much he might have sold himself to the government of Turkey? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast examines Kamala Harris's day talking about the economy, first in a speech and then in an MSNBC interview, and comes away...unimpressed. But it wasn't the greatest day for Donald Trump either. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins us today to evaluate the fast-evolving conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and what Israel's aims and goals are. Also, why can't the Biden-Harris administration support its ally's efforts to end terrorist attacks against it from the north? Too hard? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's something happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear. Six weeks until the election and Kamala Harris remains the least-known and least-substantive presidential candidate in American history. Can it remain that way? Can she glide to November? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast does not look favorably on chin-scratching arguments about how the beeper and walkie-talkie attacks against Hezbollah somehow violate the "laws of war." Also, what's with attacking pollsters for reporting poll results you don't like? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aside from Oprah having a Kamala lovefest, the political story of the day involves attacks on Donald Trump's words about American Jews. These attacks seem peculiarly related to polling showing the Republican candidate making startling inroads into the Jewish vote, which could have a significant impact in the key state of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, actual anti-Semitic garbage from the Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina may imperil Trump's presidential bid even more. What's going on? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today a full house discusses how Israel might be preparing for a war in its north, whether we've mistakenly bought into recent polling about Kamala Harris's progress, the potential political effect of the Fed rate cut, and more. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonah Goldberg joins the podcast to discuss the amazing Israeli attack on Hezbollah operatives yesterday before going into rank punditry about the relative standings of Harris and Trump. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the disgraceful media effort to equalize the Ohio migrant story with the Trump assassination story and what it says about the media and about us. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second Trump assassination attempt conjures up memories of the period in 1975 when Gerald Ford was targeted twice in 18 days. Are we entering a period of domestic political violence similar to the one during which Ford was nearly killed? Or is 2024 different? And what will the Jewish community do to protect its own with violent assaults now happening daily? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast features Eli Lake discussing with our crew the question of why America seems determined to prevent our allies in Ukraine and Israel from actually winning the wars we are actually supporting, preferring stalemate and ceasefire to victorious conclusion. Why? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Rothman makes another surprise guest appearance on the podcast he founded back in 2015! It's Day Two of a conversation about the fallout from the presidential debate, which garnered a colossal audience and therefore demands a discussion about whether Donald Trump can afford not to debate a second or even third time after his loss on Tuesday. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bad moderators. Bad candidates. Who won on points. Who won overall. Why will it matter. Will it matter? Will there be more? All questions we attempt to answer in one admittedly wild, lunatic podcast. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's going to happen tonight, and how is it like Battlestar Galactica? The answer may surprise you! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The political world was strangely rocked by a New York Times/Siena poll showing Trump with a one-point national lead, 48-47—leading Democrats and the media to worry openly that her momentum is gone. We explain why that might be the case, with a stop in Pittsburgh at the most politically divisive spice store in America as the dubious location for Harris making a plea to end our polarization. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump talks about the economy while Tim Walz says pro-Hamas protestors are right to protest and Israel is defending itself in the wrong way even though it supposedly has the right to defend itself. And we conclude our week-long discussion of our own Christine Rosen's very important new book, The Extinction of Experience. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're joined by former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman to discuss his plan for Israel's future as articulated in in his new book One Jewish State. Then we get into the state of the race: Trump sounds pretty good, Kamala's policies sound incoherent, and both Walz and Vance are just plain bad. Give a listen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tucker Carlson and a guest of his blame Winston Churchill for World War II. Thomas Friedman blames Bibi Netanyahu for the murder of the hostages. These are just some of the outrages we discuss on today's podcast, along with a conversation around our own Christine Rosen's new book, The Extinction of Experience. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What exactly is it the protestors in Israel and the media in the United States and Joe Biden actually want out of Israel? It appears they want the country to give up the strategic high ground it holds near Gaza in pursuit of a "deal" no one really believes can be struck. We talk about that, and we talk also about our own Christine Rosen's new book, The Extinction of Experience. Pre-order it on Amazon, and give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins us to take the temperature of the Israeli body politic in the wake of the heartbreaking and disgusting news involving the slaughter of six hostages in Rafah, including the American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. What will Israelis demand of their government? What can Israel do? And will the compliant media allow Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to skate lightly over this nightmare while Donald Trump seeks to fan the flames? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The interview, everybody! It was 27 whole minutes of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz! Was it joyous? Did she become president by acclamation? We gathered in its immediate wake to provide our perspective, our grades, our sense of the vibes, and the general question of whether this was the first or the last interview she will ever sit for. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National polling shows Kamala Harris in the lead but battleground-state polling shows pretty much a tie between her and Donald Trump in the places that will decide the election. How to explain this, and how to explain the controversy over Trump laying a wreath at Arlington Cemetery? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam White joins us today to talk about the re-indictment of Donald Trump relating to January 6 and whether the new effort by the special prosecutor answers the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this summer. But first: She's being interviewed! But not alone! Why not alone? And what will interviewer Dana Bash do? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A full house on today's podcast shows how the press is attempting to cover for Kamala Harris's silence on issues through hilariously banal teen-fan-magazine coverage, and whether Donald Trump is now moving to take advantage of that silence. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins us today to talk about Israel's action to prevent a massive barrage of Hezbollah missiles raining down on the Jewish state and the bizarre fact that so many are acting as though it has "escalated" a conflict that Hezbollah has been waging against Israel unilaterally since October 8—rather than staging an action that stopped or delayed a wider conflagration. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Democrats had themselves a convention, they're really happy, Kamala Harris spoke for a while and did fine, the media have gone absolutely bonkers for her entirely—shall we say—conventional speech, and can she keep up being this much of a cipher until Election Day? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin joins us to discuss Tim Walz's speech, Bill Clinton's rasp, Oprah Winfrey as childless cat lady, and whether the vibes are just getting too vibey. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We dive deep into the visuals, music, and pageantry of the second day of the Democratic National Convention. Killer speeches by Doug Emhoff and Michelle Obama! Barack, condescending to Joe Biden and pretty much everybody else in America! And the best roll call of the states ever! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was yelling, chanting, attacking, and speechifying. It was the first night of the Democratic National Convention. How do we think it went for Kamala Harris? And what do we make of Joe Biden's late-night farewell? We agree a little, disagree a little—and, yes, we complain. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast previews the Democratic convention, with a focus on media slavishness, whether the Democrats are now high on their own supply, and why history suggests they should not be so confident that Kamala Harris will hit it out of the park when she speaks on Thursday. Also: Some questions we'd like to see answered. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back with a normal podcast in which we discuss Donald Trump's "press conference," Kamala Harris's "economic proposals," and the negotiations over a "hostage deal," and Minouche Shafik's "resignation." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John and Abe talk about what goes into putting together an issue of COMMENTARY, using the July/August issue as an example. From the commissioning of articles to the editorial and production stages to the practical constraints of print and the kind of decisions that shape each issue—it's all covered. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast, we talk about works of science fiction that have meant a lot to us, whether short stories or novels. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about our favorite memoirs and the effect they've had on us. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss speeches—historical, modern, American, or otherwise—that have had particular significance for each of us. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast evaluates the Trump press conference yesterday and whether he met the moment, and considers whether things have taken a potentially startling turn in the Middle East. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us to take the temperature of the Tim Walz Era—are the stories about his service dangerous for him or dangerous for Republicans who want to use them? And what about Kamala Harris's engagement at a rally with pro-Hamas protestors—did that go well for her or does it suggest trouble ahead? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin joins us today to evaluate the introduction of Veep candidate Tim Walz and the question of the role of Jewishness or his lack thereof in his selection. And what is Donald Trump doing, exactly? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins us to discuss the Democratic VP pick and what it says about the party and its vanguard and what it means to be a Jewish Democrat in 2024. Also, is there a reason to think the impending Iranian response to Israel won't be as horrifying as many fear? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two guests today, for the first time on the COMMENTARY podcast! Jonathan Schanzer joins to talk about the Middle East and David Bahnsen joins to talk about the bad day in the market and what it portends. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our old pal Noah Rothman comes back on the podcast today to discuss whether and how to celebrate the release of American prisoners from Russian jails and how this might tie in to the question of Israel's handling of its own prisoner swaps—one of which led directly to October 7. And a fearless prediction is made about the Republican ticket. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his appearance before a group of black journalists, Donald Trump gave massive offense on the matter of Kamala Harris's racial and ethnic origins. Was this a fatal error—or was he trying to surface a conversation about the elite's use of identity politics that will help his campaign and hurt Harris? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we dive into Israel's same-day operations to take out Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. What will Kamala Harris say about the killing of two terrorists enemies of Israel and the U.S.?  Oh, and there's the Trump campaign's operation that killed Project 2025! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast focuses on Joe Biden's shocking proposals for remaking the Supreme Court, why they're so awful, and what they suggest about whom the American people should hold accountable for the delegitimization of our institutions. Also, which party is the weird party, really? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the podcast to reckon with the horrible attack on the Druze town in the Golan Heights and what it means for Israel and the region—and, more specifically, what Kamala Harris's silence on the matter in the first 36 hours after it happened portends for her campaign. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her first major statement as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris announced she would not "be silent" about supposed Israeli depredations in Gaza. Didn't take long! Also didn't take the media long to begin creating a castle in the air for their new queen to live in, and to dig a grave for the Republican vice presidential nominee. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five minutes after Joe Biden finished speaking we began speaking together about his speech and how...not really good it was and why it wasn't. And then...how good Bibi Netanyahu's speech was and why it was. Donald Trump today said he was going to stop being nice. We're not nice on this podcast, I have to say. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rhapsodic responses from Democrats, liberals, and the media to the first days of the Harris campaign—what do they mean? Are we on the verge of a new political era or is this just the result of the relief being experienced by people terrified of a Biden run in the fall? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The idea that Joe Biden is secretly dead seems to have taken hold among people on the Right, which doesn't make a lot of sense except when you consider just how conspiratorially Democrats have been behaving over the past couple of weeks—and how their behavior is stimulating conspiracy theories all over the place. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In what is our longest podcast ever, we discuss: How sick is Joe Biden and will the potential cover-up of his condition become an issue for his apparent successor, Kamala Harris; how can Democrats complain about the threat to our democracy when they just engineered an outcome voted on by 17 million people in primaries; will Kamala Harris answer questions about policy or will she hide; and how will Donald Trump handle his new rival? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We try to break down the Trump speech as we groggily convene to discuss the Endless Night that concluded the convention—with side exchanges very much like Trump's on Hulk Hogan, and Israel, and Hamas, and Ukraine, and the Houthis, and the Secret Service, and the Democratic coup against Biden....Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Biden announced that he has Covid. And there's talk he's more receptive to ending his reelection bid. Is this finally happening? Is Kamala Harris his obvious replacement? And who does she pick for VP? Meanwhile, the third day of the RNC featured the powerful appearance of Gold Star families, rousing cheers for Israel, and the unconventional convention debut of J.D. Vance? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's this? Happy, cheerful, confident Republicans? That's what was on display last night at the convention, an evening that highlighted what might be called the GOP's "diversity." We also recommend, as a reminder of politics past, Andrew Ferguson's 2010 COMMENTARY piece, "Pundit: Declined." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before delving into events in Milwaukee, we discuss the dismissal of the Donald Trump documents case, Joe Biden's disturbing interview with Lester Holt, and the status of the investigation into Trump's would-be assassin. And then we get into the significance of VP pick J.D. Vance, the Teamsters, and a Republican National Convention like no other. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Donald Trump readies himself for the Republican National Convention, Joe Biden has spoken three times to the American people since the assassination attempt. To what end? What's his point? What's his purpose? And what's all this talk about unity—is unity what we need? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is what happened to Donald Trump last night in Pennsylvania the beginning of a new period of American instability of the sort that gripped the country and the world in the wake of the JFK assassination—or is it the culmination of two decades of wildly irresponsible rhetoric? Or is it both? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tevi Troy joins us to discuss the Biden press conference, which revealed his determination to stay in the race and what that might mean for suffering Democrats and liberals (more suffering). Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast welcomes back Steve Kornacki, political correspondent for NBC News and all-around wise man, for his take on the latest Biden polling, the question of a "Trump ceiling," the Northeast's voting dynamic, and what an "open convention" might look like. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Nancy Pelosi hints at the need for Joe Biden to hang it up, the polling and news stories are just all good for Donald Trump, and his relaxed performance at a rally in Florida suggests he is in a different, weirdly positive place as he heads to the Republican convention. Whom will he pick as Veep? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Parkinson's doctor visiting the White House multiple times and no explanation for it? A letter from Biden's White House doctor that's basically gobbledygook? Um...not good, Bob. Also not good, but politically very interesting: The Republican Party platform for 2024. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back from break to discuss one of the craziest weeks ever in American politics as we try to restrain ourselves from expressing the glee of watching the Bidenites and their camp followers—and sudden enemies—figure their way out of this nightmare they've entered into since the debate. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arthur Herman joins John and Abe to discuss his article "China and Artificial Intelligence: The Cold War We're Not Fighting," from the July/August issue of COMMENTARY. It's time to stop worrying about the technology itself and start preparing to counter the threat it poses in the hands of our authoritarian adversaries. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss our favorite biographies or at least those that have meant a lot to us. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is about the debate. And what happened. And you know what happened. But we tell you what we think happened. And what may happen next. Bottom line. Here's the deal. Biden. Not good. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Debates do move polls. But what effect does a presidential debate actually have on the final result in November? We discuss this in what will blessedly be our final discussion of the state of play before the debate! Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should the remarkable loss of Squad member and anti-Semite Jamaal Bowman in a Democratic primary be treated as a restoration of sanity—or a guide to American Jews on how to use their power to defeat their enemies? Or both? Or neither? And...here comes the debate! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clear acts of violence were on display in Los Angeles on Sunday and yet we see no action by the city, the state, or the federal government to hold the violent responsible for their actions—and federal law could not be clearer on this matter. What's going on here? And why, on the cusp of his primary battle, did Rep. Jamaal Bowman effectively threaten to unleash the "South Bronx" when his district doesn't include the South Bronx? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A violent confrontation in West L.A. between Jews attempting to attend an event at a synagogue and Hamas supporters seemingly under the protection of the LAPD comes two days after a Jewish family is beset and beat up during a lower-school end-of-year celebration by another family shouting "Free Palestine"—and a day after Rep. Jamaal Bowman screams "you're gonna know who the F we are"  at the likelihood of his primary defeat on Tuesday. The threats aren't just threats any longer, and American Jews are going to have to step up. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Senators Cotton and Risch going aggressively at the Biden administration for seeming to slow down the delivery of American weaponry to Israel—all part of the aid package they supported and President Biden signed into law—we try to figure out what the strategy is here on both sides. And we apply the back hand to the "both-sidesism" of investigations into anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Fox poll and other bits of data may suggest that Joe Biden's strategy of leaning hard on the "Trump is a convicted felon" message is having some effect. No wonder, then, that liberals are so unnerved by the Supreme Court's literal deliberation in deciding whether the case against Trump for January 6 can proceed. And who will win the "worst ceasefire proposal" award? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People who do not want Donald Trump to win the November election seem convinced he is going to do their work for him and get himself defeated, but that is not what his behavior—not to mention theirs—actually seems to suggest will happen. And what's all this nonsense about "cheapfakes"? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danielle Pletka joins us today to discuss her landmark article, "The Anti-Semitism Money and Power Network—and How to Smash It," from the July-August issue of COMMENTARY. But before we do, we discuss the politically confusing decision by Joe Biden to grant amnesty to 1 million illegals a week after he tried to look like Mr. Tough Guy on the border. What on earth? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israelis are getting killed in greater numbers as the Rafah mission continues, while Netanyahu ends the war cabinet and another Biden envoy travels to the region to "do something" about missiles striking Israel from Lebanon. Good luck. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has to be guided off stage by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pops up at the Tonys to remind people that the kind of people who like her also like the Tonys. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's post-Jewish-holiday podcasts takes up many topics we missed—Hunter Biden's conviction, Joe Biden's wandering off during a ceremony with the Italian prime minister, the upcoming debate, Gaza, Antony Blinken, Glenn Youngkin....it's a cornucopia! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins us to talk about Anthony Fauci's shockingly disingenuous, and possibly perjurious, testimony before the House on the origins of COVID—as we recall and recollect the series of disastrous policies he and others enacted without consequence to themselves. And here today, from New York to D.C. to Los Angeles, it's Charlottesville 2017 every day, and the Biden people are fiddling while anti-Semitism catches fire. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The contrast could not have been starker: Israel rescues hostages while demonstrators defile the park across from the White House and chant "death to America"—in Washington, D.C. Hello, Joe Robinette McFly? Anybody home? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Washington Post's new publisher tells the staff the truth—they stink, the product stinks, it's lost half its audience and $77 million in the past year, and there will be massive change. A watershed moment moment 40 years in the making? Eli Lake joins us to discuss, and we play his weekly AI song to boot. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The polling is coming in and...sorry, but the Trump verdict isn't changing anything, it appears. Nonetheless, liberal journalists and politicians keep believing their take that "the rule of law is on the ballot" applies to the aftermath of a Trump victory rather than describing what's happening right now in the wake of the New York case. Also: Veepstakes! Veepstakes! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss both the remarkably confusing interview Joe Biden gave to Time and the Wall Street Journal's not-so-deep dive into the state of the president's cognitive abilities. Just how bad is it? And is the administration's disordered policy simply a result of Biden's disordered thinking? Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins us today to consider whether Benjamin Netanyahu has lost his capacity to affect events in the way he wants to, how the Biden administration's policies are getting Israeli soldiers killed, and why America seems allergic to military victory. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What the heck happened on Friday with Joe Biden's speech apparently saying Israel had agreed to some plan to end the war in Gaza with Hamas still in power—or maybe not still in power—or maybe kind of still in power? What did Israel do to give Biden the opening to move the goalpoasts in this way? And what will the Hunter Biden trial mean for the president? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Settle in for a rollercoaster ride as the entire COMMENTARY crew considers the legal questions of the Trump verdict, its political implications for 2024, and the question of how America will view this matter in the context of (yes, we mean it) the legitimacy of the United States and its institutions. Plus, an Eli Lake song! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Josh Kraushaar joins the podcast to discuss how Donald Trump is now gaining on or leading Joe Biden in states that Biden won in 2020. And what do Democrats misunderstand about minority voters? Also, what's the state of the Jewish vote now? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why on earth would the Biden campaign haul out 80 year-old Robert De Niro to tussle with protesters outside the New York courthouse? Could it be that, for Biden, De Niro is a strapping young fellow with the vim and vigor to speak to today's youth? More seriously, Jonathan Schanzer joins us with some actual good news coming out of the Israeli effort in Rafah. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss the massive Democratic meltdown over Joe Biden's reelection chances, the left's bottomless desire for salacious but politically useless stories about Donald Trump, Rashida Tlaib's cheerleading for a terrorist organization, and Israel's campaign in Rafah. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The House grilled a new round of university presidents who seemed to have benefited from a kind of human machine learning. They avoided some previous mistakes but continued to bring shame on their institutions all the same. And Donald Trump was up to something very interesting in the Bronx. Plus a new AI song from Eli Lake. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the text of Psalm 94, which is a stunning evocation of the moment facing Israel right now and the threat to its enemies—not from Israel itself but from the God of Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Has Donald Trump's hush-money trial hurt him yet? While in court, he expanded his lead across the electoral map. But why aren't Trump's imitators enjoying the same good fortune? Meanwhile, the Biden bloopers pile up daily. And why hasn't any aid dropped at the American-built pier reached Gazans? Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did American institutions express sorrow at the passing of Iran's monstrous president? Why does anyone pay attention to the International Criminal Court? Why is an awful academic named Dov Waxman running a Jewish studies program at UCLA? Why did Biden say he was vice president during COVID? Why did the judge in the Trump case get all hysterical about a case of "side eye"? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Has history been altered by the helicopter crash that has apparently killed the president and foreign minister of Iran? Will Israel be blamed? Did Israel do it? Won't Israel be blamed even if it didn't do it? And what blame attaches to American policy for Israel's increasingly parlous political and military confusion? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss Michael Cohen's terrible day in court and the liberal panic over the direction of Donald Trump's criminal trial. And how much power, if any, do school administrators have to meet the demands of pro-Hamas protesters. Plus the debut of a weekly musical feature! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We split on who has the upper hand in the coming debates, but all agree there are risks and rewards and that the race could use a little shaking up. Less shook up, it appears, is American public opinion when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, which remains firmly in the latter's camp. And the COVID reckoning is speeding up. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The offer this morning from Joe Biden to debate Donald Trump twice, in June and September, was semi-accepted by Trump a few minutes after it was proposed, so the game might be afoot. Why does Biden want this? What could it mean? And what do the very interesting primary results last night suggest about the state of the Republican party in particular? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the Trump trial about crimes he supposedly committed or just simply a litany of ways in which the former and maybe future president just seems to be a rotten guy? And what are we to make of the new connections between American wokesters and actual Middle East jihadists who want the mass murder of the Jews? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new New York Times poll not only has terrible news for Joe Biden, it reveals how wrong-headed his electoral concerns are when it comes to Israel and Palestine. Also, we end the show with an AI-generated song about COMMENTARY from our own Eli Lake. Give a listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We begin with a clip of an interview with Joe Biden in 2019 saying the idea of withholding military aid from Israel would be unthinkable to him. And we're off and running with the question of just how damaging and destructive his moves this past week have been. Plus: can you "slut-shame" a porn star? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taking the measure of Biden's decision to impose a kind of arms embargo on Israel when he sought the arms in the first place is our task today. Our answers are not complimentary. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The news that the Biden administration has deliberately chosen to withhold certain armaments from Israel despite the passage of the aid bill last month is a landmark moment not only in the peculiar behavior of the White House toward the Jewish state since October 7 but also in the annals of American warfare. We don't try to win wars any longer; are we now committed to ensuring that other nations can't win wars either? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we sort through conflicting accounts of the Hamas ceasefire agreement that wasn't and discuss the leverage that Israel will now gain by going into Rafah. We also reflect on the straightforward anti-American fury of pro-Hamas protests and the Kristi Noem trainwreck. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A landmark podcast episode in which we all take turns claiming the situation between America and Israel and between college campuses and the rest of the country is worse. Who's right? What is worse? And what's the TV show you should watch but shouldn't Google anything about if you want to enjoy it? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was Joe Biden's at-long-last three minute statement about the unrest on college campuses sufficient for the moment, or the least he could do, or not even the least he could do? We discuss this and the fact that the protestors are asking for sexual aids and pass-fail grades, and whatever happened to elementary shame. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump is solidifying his case against Joe Biden, and it's eerily similar to Joe Biden's case against Donald Trump in 2020—there's chaos everywhere and the president is responsible. Polling suggests Trump has the better of the argument, especially since Democrats are split even on as basic an issue as opposing anti-Semitism. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Columbia encampment is shut down and the students who occupied a campus building are charged with burglary. A mile north of Columbia, cops are attacked by protestors, who are promptly zip-tied and thrown into an NYPD bus. Order is being restored, but for how long? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor, co-author of The Genius of Israel, reports on his recent trip there and how torn the Israeli people are between the fate of the hostages and the country's final push against Hamas in Rafah. And how the protests in the United States are only emboldening Hamas. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Adam J. White joins the podcast, and first we discuss whether the pro-Hamas cry-bullies will have the ability to function in life beyond the campus. Then we take up the Supreme Court's response to arguments over Donald Trump's immunity and presidential immunity in general. The justices seem warmer to immunity than the liberal commentariat would like. And after the Court rules, how will the lower courts respond? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Blum joins the podcast today to discuss the strategy Hamas is pursuing to stave off the Israeli action in Rafah—the use of a hostage video to freeze Israeli society in place and turn the conversation away from victory and toward rescue. What are the consequences? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss the state of play between universities and the pro-Hamas encampment movement, and we consider Mike Johnson's seeming declaration of a counter movement. Speaking of encampments, why are tents proliferating in urban areas and what does it say about society? We also talk about the terrible new GDP numbers, why no one took a victory lap after Joe Biden signed the foreign aid bill, and much more. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The refusal both of Columbia University officials and New York City's mayor to confront and end the siege of the school's campus and the open threats to Jews is the culmination of 40 years of academic rot, and we describe why. Also: The House passes aid to Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and moves to end Chinese Communist control of TikTok. Is this a new path forward or a one-off success for House Speaker Johnson? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast for an immediate after-action report on the details of the Israeli strike on Iran, whether deterrence has been reestablished, and how last night might represent the most significant game-changing moment in recent Middle Eastern history. And what's this? Columbia University throws the book at the Hamas-supporting tent city on its campus and has the NYPD arrest more than 100 people? Is this a game-changer too? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's the advice of podcast guest Liel Leibovitz, zooming in from Tel Aviv to discuss the Columbia hearings before the House yesterday and how the anti-Semitism revealed there has unmistakable echoes of past horrors—and threatens future horrors. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Biden is having a good month at the polls, but Donald Trump is finding new and inventive ways to campaign for president despite his humiliating courtroom experience—will it help? And do Israelis want a strong strike against Iran or not? And what is Mike Johnson doing? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yesterday's protests in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle suggest again that the pro-Hamas Left is moving into a new and more dangerous phase, one in which they are openly chanting "Death to America" and may be readying violent acts of "resistance." The parallels to the 1960s are unmistakable. And things are only going to get more heated as Israel does what it has to in Rafah and against Iran. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A full house of COMMENTARY podcasters today as we try to reckon with the many possibilities relating to Iran's repelled attack on Israel—and the fact that America now seems fixated yet again on holding Israel back rather than making Iran pay for its aggression. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The death of OJ Simpson this week prompts us to discuss everything that changed in the wake of the murders he committed, the escape he bungled, and the trial at which he was acquitted. Also, what are we to make of the chatter about Iran striking Israel imminently? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iran is said to be preparing or on the verge of a direct strike on Israel, and it's not clear Americans know about it. They will when it happens, and we discuss why they'd do it and what Joe Biden has done to suggest to them it might be worth the cost. Republicans in the House continue to display paralysis. Sonia Sotomayor continues to serve on the Supreme Court despite liberal efforts to get her to quit. And the Japanese prime minister is here! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Biden tells an interviewer Israel should do a unilateral ceasefire for six to eight weeks. Tom Friedman of the New York Times explains there's a 5 percent chance for a Palestinian state and that we should focus on that 5 percent. People are yelling "Death to America" inside America and the president says nothing. What on earth is going on here? We try to explain. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did Donald Trump help or hurt his chances in November with his statement yesterday that he did not want federal action on abortion? Did Joe Biden help or hurt his chances in November by announcing a new effort to pay off student-loan debt? Did Wolodymyr Zelensky help or hurt his nation's future by saying Ukraine would lose the war if the American aid package stalled in the House didn't pass? Did Bibi Netanyahu help or hurt his nation by acceding to Joe Biden's demands over the weekend and then declaring there is a date certain for the invasion of Rafah? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast tries to make sense out of the Biden administration's now-undeniable harsh turn against Israel and the incomprehensible behavior of the Israeli government over the last 48 hours in relation to the war in Gaza, the negotiations over the hostages, and the threat from Hezbollah. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast reels in horror from the administration response to the tragic errors that led to the Israeli attack on a food convoy and how it represents what may be the final turn of the Bidenites against the war effort to extirpate Hamas. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the increasing failure of Joe Biden's contradictory position on Israel. He's now all but accused Israel of a war crime but will continue to supply it with weapons of war. Israel's supporters are fed up with his rhetoric and Israel-haters are fed up with his policy. Moreover, his incoherence is inviting Iranian aggression. We also discuss the unique success of NATO as it turns 75 and what Mike Johnson may or not do to push Ukraine aid. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the question of the Biden administration's problematic response to the tragic strike on a food aid convoy in Gaza—something for which Israel took immediate responsibility and for which it apologized wholeheartedly at the highest levels with little effect on the condemnations that continue to pour on its head. Meanwhile, Biden's polling continues to suggest a loss in November with no changes in strategy from Biden or his people. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss unforgivable acts of Jew-hatred—including a riot outside a synagogue where money was being raised to help a Jewish burial society—and forgivable tragic events that occur during war. There is a difference. A big difference. Also, a beautiful statement by a grieving Israeli father and Donald Trump's very good day in and out of court. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to talk about what's been going on in public and behind the scenes between American and Israeli officials regarding a ground operation in Rafah. How much longer can Israel afford to wait? And what can we learn from the drone attack on an Israeli naval base over the weekend? But first we discuss the White House's declaring Easter Sunday Transgender Day of Visibility. Give a listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the 25 year sentence for the $8 billion fraud committed by "effective altruist" Sam Bankman-Fried, and what his law-professor mother's effort to excuse away his criminal conduct tells us about the mindset of the leftist elite. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast pays tribute to the life, times, and political wisdom of Joe Lieberman, who died yesterday at the age of 82. What was so special about him and why are we unlikely to see his style of politics and political interaction at work in American public life any time soon? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast talks about how the bridge collapse in Maryland may accelerate the trust crisis in the country, already accelerating because nobody really knows or understands the condition and strength of the president of the United States. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins the podcast to discuss the American abstention from yesterday's UN Security Council ceasefire resolution. Why is the Biden administration saying the policy hasn't changed when the policy has changed? Who exactly is being gaslit and how does this make an Israeli operation in Rafah any less likely? We also talk about the rise in violent crime and how it relates to the larger sense of unraveling. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast considers the terrorist attack in Russia and what it means for the war in Ukraine—and what the chaos in Congress means for the war in Ukraine as well. Also, lesson #257 in what happens if you try to get a job in mainstream media when you're on the right, and what the new Netflix show Three-Body Problem might tell us about our coming debt cliff. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we start out discussing a new Pew poll that shows, contra Chuck Schumer and others, American Jews overwhelmingly approve of Israel and its efforts to defeat Hamas since Oct. 7. We then get into the latest World Happiness Report, which finds the U.S. ranking below the 20 most happy countries for the first time in the report's history. What's behind our recent unhappiness and why are Americans under 30 most unhappy of all? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up a conversation between Israeli official Ron Dermer and our friend Dan Senor in which Dermer says a failure to secure victory in Gaza means Israel "has no future." Might this be true also of Jewry itself—especially due to the Jews who are now blaming Israel for their feeling of a lack of safety in the West? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we note that it was just about four years ago that this podcast went daily, and we consider the lasting impact of the pandemic and the prospects of a political reckoning. But before that, we get into the significance of Bernie Moreno's primary win in Ohio and Donald Trump's inability to make bond. We close on a discussion of Joe Biden's Israel policy and the forgotten goal of war: victory. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with the Biden administration's increasing schizophrenia on the Gaza war and then proceeds to a powerful discussion of the elite war on the American middle class, based on our own Christine Rosen's landmark article in the current edition of COMMENTARY. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the weekend kerfuffle over Donald Trump's use of the word "bloodbath" and how quickly his opponents in the media and elsewhere rose in horror at a word they themselves used just a week ago to describe the firing of staffers at the Republican National Committee, for example. What's going on here? And what about the continued fallout from Chuck Schumer's strange speech last week calling for Israel to depose Bibi Netanyahu? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the podcast to discuss the politics behind Chuck Schumer's dumbfounding speech calling for the deposition of Benjamin Netanyahu. What does it tell us about Democratic party politics and Israel's standing with the party Jews have historically supported by huge margins? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs, our tech columnist, comes on to discuss the amazing rapidity with which a bipartisan coalition formed around the idea of forcing the Chinese-Communist company Bytedance to divest itself of TikTok. Who says the parties can't work together? But why did they manage to work together so easily this time? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Schanzer joins the podcast to note how, just in the last week, things have been heating up between Israel and Hezbollah on the northern border of the Jewish state. We also discuss the peculiarities of the Biden administration's approach to Israel finishing the job in Gaza—and whether there might be a weird Egyptian component at work. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew C. McCarthy joins the podcast today to talk about how the prosecutions of Donald Trump may be violating critical Constitutional and procedural protections for defendants who stand accused of crimes before the bar—and why that matters. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins today's podcast to discuss the world's now-most-prominent "AsAJew," the writer-director Jonathan Glazer, who "refuted" his "Jewishness" on the Oscar podcast on Sunday night. What did he mean? And what does what he said reveal about the nature of progressive Jewry and the fact they elevate their own self-infatuated politics over the safety and history of the Jewish people? Then we turn to the continuing mystery of Joe Biden clearly wanting to separate himself from Israel but then contradicting and undermining his own efforts at distance in a manner that reminds us of the Biblical character Balaam. How? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins us for our State of the Union recap, including the "how do you build a pier and a road without having someone on the other side to sink in the pylons" and other thrilling topics raised by a substantively wretched but performatively successful presidential address. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ruthie Blum joins the podcast from Israel to discuss the Biden administration's rough treatment of Benny Gantz, ceasefire negotiations, Bibi's political future, Israeli public opinion, and what's holding up the Rafah offensive. Also, what is Joe Biden going to say about Israel in tonight's State of the Union address? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast takes up the Super Tuesday results—the beginning of the Palmer era in American Samoa! No, seriously, the national race begins today and Biden is behind and, we speculate, maybe he ought to toughen up his stance on Israel and Gaza. No, not by turning on Israel, but by championing Israel and letting it win. Also, the GOP veepstakes! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam White joins us to discuss the Supreme Court's seemingly authoritative (9-0!) and confusing (5-4) ruling that willl prevent any efforts to keep Donald Trump off the ballot this year. What's with the confusion? And we delineate the 20 year campus war on Jews and how the chickens are now coming home to roost as these college administrators face the wrath of the victims. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the very confusing statement by Kamala Harris yesterday that the media are treating as a change in administration policy with its seeming call for an immediate ceasefire. The problem is that while Harris surely wanted the headlines she's getting, the policy itself was not changed by her words at all. Then again, who can tell what is going on in an administration whose head is now viewed by a significant majority of the American people as incapable of actually being president? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today David Bahnsen joins the podcast and we talk about the aid-convoy stampede in Gaza, the career of Mitch McConnell, and finally David's new book, Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life. How have we come to such a poor understanding of the meaning of work? And what are the sources and consequences of today's anti-work movement? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Kornacki joins the podcast to explain how we might be reading too much into Nikki Haley's support in Republican primaries, and he breaks down the difference between voters in the those primaries and Republican voters generally. We also get into Republican gains among Hispanics, the continued partisan sorting of Americans, the fluidity of political coalitions, and more. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the puny results of Michigan's "Uncommitted" campaign against Joe Biden and his handling of the war in Gaza. Is a 13 percent protest vote what had the Biden camp so rattled? Maybe it's time the administration peeks outside the bubble and takes a look at American popular opinion on Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yuval Levin joins us to talk about how, on Friday, a quarter of the government is going to shut down and a week from Friday, the rest of it will—barring a deal between Congress and the president no one seems to be negotiating. As Joe Biden wants to run against a do-nothing Congress, is this a gift to him? And why are people celebrating suicide on social media? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Henry Olsen, election-watcher extraordinaire, joins us today to analyze the results of the interesting South Carolina primary and the fact that across three Republican primary contests, Donald Trump is winning decisively, even overwhelmingly—but with around 40 percent of the primary electorate choosing someone else (mostly Nikki Haley). What does this portend for November? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast points out that, as we move into the third year of Russia's effort to swallow up Ukraine whole, the great dysfunction seems not to be taking place in Ukraine, or Russia, or on the battlefield, but inside the American political process—with majorities supporting aid to Ukraine but the House unwilling to allow a vote. Can this stand? What is going on? And what is going on with AI? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli Lake joins us today to discuss the bomb dropped in the middle of the Joe/Hunter/Jim Biden investigation with the indictment and arrest of a confidential source who alleged direct payments to the Bidens around $10 million. Does this kill the case? And what about the Squad's electoral hopes in the wake of October 7? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast today takes note of Nikki Haley's interesting announcement that she will be staying in the GOP race until she is mathematically eliminated. What's the purpose of such a move and what does it reveal about the relative strength and power of Donald Trump in the race? Is she exposing an underbelly just at the moment when Trump is liable for $87,500 a day in fine money he has to pay? And what about this poll showing Trump winning with Jews in New York? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast asks what the practical effect of the murder of Alexei Navalny might have on the general debate over how to handle Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. Then we go into the judgment against Donald Trump in a New York courtroom and whether Joe Biden is turning on Israel at the UN. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An essay in New York Magazine that tells the story of a 40something writer and the mental breakdown that leads her to want to divorce her husband tells the entire story of 21st century elite and pop culture singlehandedly. It's called "The Lure of Divorce," and we devote most of the podcast today to explaining its inadvertent importance as a cultural document that defines our time. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam White joins today to discuss his article "The Power Broke Her," about the powerful Washington bureaucrat Lina Khan and her agenda. We begin, though, with the alarming word of an undefined national security threat and the fact that conventional opinion now seems obsessed with denying Israel a victory in its war on Hamas. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The special election in New York not only went to Democrat Tom Suozzi—he also won by eight points. We debate whether this means Republican hopes for immigration as a killer issue for them might be problematic, and whether the behavior of the Republican House these past two weeks is giving Democrats a serious chance of putting meat on the bones of running against the "do-nothing GOP." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tucker Carlson went to a conference in a Mideast oil city and announced that America was the dad of the world and was perpetuating evil the way a dad would if he took sides in a fight between his children. We ask some questions about this bizarre notion of proper parenting before raising more questions about what it says in relation to the rising New Right and its attitudes about this country. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was the RFK Jr. Super Bowl ad good or bad? Was the game good or bad? Was Biden's effort to get himself into the news on Super Bowl Sunday without being interviewed good or bad? Is the polling for the Squad good or bad? Was what Trump said about NATO and Nikki Haley's husband good or bad? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast examines the consuming disaster that was Biden's day yesterday and what on earth will happen going forward. Can he stay on the ticket? Will someone in his ambit bring up the 25th amendment? Will Democratic enthusiasm begin to resemble a flatline? And why did he throw Israel under the bus? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins the podcast today to discuss new revelations about the possible cover-up of the origins of COVID and the role of leading figures in politics and science who participated in it. And we lament the Secretary of State's words in Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, that was quite a day for House Republicans, losing two votes in 15 minutes the chamber's leaders didn't seem to know they were going to lose. What does this portend? Will this help Biden—or will the image of a dysfunctional Washington help Trump? And how about that trip to the Middle East with Secretary of State Blinken getting his hat handed to him by Saudi Arabia? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The collapse of the border deal that Republicans negotiated and then killed themselves; the trouble now with aid to Ukraine and Israel; and a general sense that things simply don't work in American politics any longer—these are what we discuss today. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the NBC News poll that shows Biden not only losing to Trump, but with only 23 percent of Americans saying he has the mental and/or physical stamina to be president. Yikes. How will this affect the discussions over the Senate's version of a new bill dealing with the border crisis? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at some very good economic statistics on job and wage growth and wonders whether fortune is favoring the president and his chances in November. Then again, what about the fact he said he was going to strike in response to the deaths of Americans in Jordan and hasn't done so? Also, the Commentary Podcast Mailbag! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the relationship between superstars Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and expresses both annoyance at their omnipresence and disgust at the effort by MAGA to turn their relationship into something pernicious and evil. And speaking of pernicious, what about the latest American "peace plan" as laid out by Thomas "I Talked to a Cab Driver" Friedman? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast discusses the beating of a Chabad rabbi by a ride-share driver in DC and what it suggests about the spate of violent acts against Jews after 10/7, how this might tie into the border issue, and Congressional races in which this kind of thing will play a role. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we get into the growing UNRWA scandal and how it exposes the deep, structural absurdities of the agency's very existence. We also talk about the American elite's twisted view of U.S.-Israeli relations and whether Joe Biden should pay attention to younger Americans who oppose his support for Israel. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast worries over Joe Biden's next steps relating to Iran and its proxies attacking Americans in the Middle East and the temptation to do just a little bit and not a lot to respond, which will only make things worse. It's even more puzzling given how vulnerable Biden is in an election year against Donald Trump on this issue because Trump can favorably contrast his record on Iran with Biden's in a way Biden will be hard-pressed to counter. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast discusses all the efforts to end things in DC—negotiations over border legislation, the Nikki Haley campaign, the process by which the Republican Party functions—and why everybody who's working to stop things might be acting in a short-sighted and self-destructive manner. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the peril to Ukraine and Israel aid now that the Republicans in the Senate are turning away from any kind of deal with Joe Biden on the border. Does this give Biden a talking point on the border against Trump? And where exactly is there an argument against Ukraine aid that isn't disingenuous? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins the podcast to discuss the strange triumphalism of Nikki Haley's loser speech last night in New Hampshire and the strange negativity of Donald Trump's winner speech a few hours later. Does this portend a season in which Haley exposes Trump's flaws as she continues her run? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Republican contest all but over and almost ten months to go to the election, there are so many variable possibilities for 2024 it's impossible to game them out. Could this be the most interesting year ever? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stirewalt joins the podcast to talk about the DeSantis departure from the race, whether Ron is angling for veep, and the composition of the two parties over the past 20 years. Also, Harvard goes pernicious yet again. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at a stunning new poll of the attitudes of Americans who earn more than $150,000 a year, have a graduate degree, and live in in densely populated areas. Those attitudes are so profoundly in opposition to those of Americans who make less and have less education that they explain a great deal about the continuing strength of Donald Trump. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the news that Nikki Haley's most prominent endorser has announced that he expects her to come in second in New Hampshire. Is it over? It kinda feels like it. But this opens up a slim path for Ron DeSantis. We also discuss the Biden administration's wrongheaded foreign policy and wonder whether Joe Biden and Antony Blinken even mean what they say about a Palestinian state. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Political savant nonpareil Steve Kornacki joins the podcast today to break down the Iowa results, look ahead to New Hampshire, and make recommendations about what to look for on Tuesday if you want to get a real sense of where this race (if it is a race) might be going. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast wrestles with questions relating to Donald Trump's smashing victory in Iowa last night. Does the tiny number of caucusgoers represent anything? Does anyone have a path besides Trump now? Where do Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, and the obscure movie Clockwise come in to the discussion? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up a jaw-dropping New York Times article that asks how important, really, is Israel to the religion of Judaism. Yes, you read that right. Also, the Iowa caucuses are upon us, and it looks like the Republican coronation might be commencing. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss the American strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Was it enough to deter terrorism in the Red Sea? What does it accomplish so long as the Biden administration continues to ignore the Iranian threat? We also take up the matter of American apologists for terrorism and propose a Biden-Trump debate. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast asks why Chris Christie ran in the first place, and come to think of it, why did DeSantis run when he clearly had people telling him he couldn't actually beat Trump by, you know, arguing he should be president and not Trump? And should Nikki Haley take up a second career as a tobacco auctioneer? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast goes through some of Trump's legal shenanigans—and the apparent shenanigans of his Atlanta prosecutor, Fani Willis—and offers a new interpretation of his life and history. Clue: It's like Damn Yankees. Also, the first Commentary DisRecommends! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast finds a connection between the pro-Palestinian protests closing bridges and tunnels and inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people and the kinds of petty shoplifting that make going to stores in urban centers more and more hellish. What's the connection? And why should kids take the SAT? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast points out the wet, limp noodle that was Joe Biden's supposedly "fiery" speech about democracy at Valley Forge before joining the world in wonder at the disappearance into a hospital by the Defense Secretary with the world on fire. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the current state of the race on the day Joe Biden will deliver a speech on Donald Trump's threat to democracy, and we ask: Is Biden doing this to make sure Trump keeps talking about the supposedly stolen election, which is the subject Biden believes can propel him to a second term? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the appalling self-defense of the ousted Harvard president Claudine Gay in the New York Times before a discussion of the 2024 matchup and whether Al Gore should have run in 2004 the way Donald Trump is re-running in 2024. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins today's podcast to talk about the major developments in Israel over the past few weeks—the assassination of a top Hamas terrorist in Lebanon and the Supreme Court's overturning of judicial reform there. Then we get to the larger meaning of Claudine Gay's resignation from Harvard. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the first podcast of 2024, we discuss what is already the dumbest opinion piece of the year. And we catch up on the presidential race. How damaging was Nikki Haley's answer about the Civil War? How bad was Joe Biden's New Year's Eve appearance? How much did Maine's secretary of state help Donald Trump? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On our final holiday week podcast, we choose the people we think represented 2023, in good ways and in very bad ways as well. From a heroic fighting man to a monstrous and foolish military leader, and others in between. Give a listen as you have a Happy New Year! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's holiday week podcast offers our picks for the most interesting television offerings of the year, which include vampires, cannibals, pizza, comedians, zombies, and space explorers. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's holiday-week short podcast we offer you our selection for the best or most meaningful books we've read in 2023, from a 1978 discourse on lying to an Israeli novel about American anti-Semitism to a book about American breakdown to the best play of the century—and a comedian's memoir. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first in a series of special shows this holiday week features the movies we thought the most about in 2023, some from 2023, some from earlier, and one from 2024! How does that work? Well, you gotta give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss how the Washington Post, New York Times, and other outlets are revising their coverage of established facts from the war in Gaza to be even more credulous toward Hamas than they've already been. And what do we make of Trump's Michigan phone call and Nikki Haley's rising poll numbers in New Hampshire? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the meaning of Harvard's president being a plagiarist and nonetheless holding on to her job—what does this mean, what are the ramifications, and how deeply does it seem to represent a rot that goes down to the root of America's foremost private institution? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the headshaking decision of the Colorado Supreme Court to try and keep Donald Trump off the presidential ballot, basically asking the deep and profound question: What the hell???? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast examines polling on Joe Biden, polling on American youth and Gaza, polling on Nikki Haley, polling on Donald Trump, polling on abortion, and reckons that everything is very, very confusing. We try to clear up that confusion. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about a new poll that found a majority of Americans under 25 view Israel as an oppressor and believe that the October 7 massacre could be justified. We get into the history of these poisonous ideas, their rise in American universities and American culture, and what needs to be done about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the twists and turns at the Biden White House as it articulates its position on Israel. What does it mean that Israel has until the end of the year to get more precise with its targeting? And what is Kamala Harris up to in pushing for more vocal consideration of the Palestinians? Finally, we take up James Bennet's massive new essay on the New York Times' turn toward illiberalism. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast asks whether Joe Biden has turned on Benjamin Netanyahu and what role Bibi's own electoral hopes and fears are playing in this seeming new confrontation. And: Will there be a big border/Ukraine/Israel funding deal, given that it's in everybody's interest to get the deal? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about House Republican plans to hold a vote on the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. How does the latest impeachment saga stack-up against the impeachments of Donald Trump? Will it hurt Biden or embarrass the Republicans? And what does it—along with Trump's ongoing legal woes—say about Americans' faith in the system? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast goes into detail about an inadvertently hilarious tweet from the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and what it reveals about him, Jewish people like him, and the problem Kamala Harris poses for Joe Biden. And, again, why are Trumpy politicians going all in on opposing Ukraine aid—and why is Biden not acceding to stricter border control ideas in exchange for that aid? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eliana Johnson joins the podcast today to discuss the startling NBC News poll of Iowa that finds Trump with an absolute majority of Republican voters and Ron DeSantis going exactly nowhere fast. Why did DeSantis run if he was never going to challenge Trump in the first place? What about the poll numbers from CNN today that show Trump beating Biden by ten points in Michigan? And maybe the college presidents said what they said at the hearing last week because they believe it. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss the indictment of Hunter Biden. Does this, along with the inquiry into Joe Biden's connections to Hunter's business, effectively neutralize the president's chief argument against Donald Trump? What will Joe Biden do now? What's in the best interest of the country? Also—mailbag! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast, I am filled with nihilistic despair about the state of the Republican race after last night's probably final presidential primary debate, while Matt Continetti and Seth Mandel try to convince me not to curl up in a ball. Plus: College presidents and their hostage videos! Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take up the prevarication and plain dishonesty of university presidents during the House committee hearing on campus anti-Semitism. One claims not to know about foreign funding and another doesn't think incitement to anti-Semitic violence is a conduct violation. For Harvard, UPenn, MIT, and others, this was a watershed moment. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why can't Joe Biden face down the protestors on his left? Why is he hedging in his support of Israel? Why hasn't he responded to Iranian attacks on the U.S.? Why doesn't he give Ukraine what it needs to win? And why is he losing to Donald Trump? He's afraid. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes that the end of the fighting "pause" in Israel almost denotes the end of the idea of "ceasefire." And now the disingenuous efforts to oppose Israel's self-defense are going by the wayside. This is now leading to outright calls for "intifada" here in the United States—which is the term used over the past 35 years to describe Palestinian efforts to attack Jews for being Jews with any means at hand. And the attacks on American Jews and Jewish public life are only accelerating. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast is a hybrid. The first part, about the appalling rhetoric used by Antony Blinken about Israel and its conduct of the war that has now restarted, was recorded Friday morning, December 1. The second half, about the passing of Henry Kissinger and my trip to the massacre site in Israel, was recorded Thursday afternoon, November 30. Please be understanding as you give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about Chuck Schumer's bold Senate-floor speech warning about anti-Semitism from the left. He said the right words at the right time, but how will it impact the calls from his own party to condition aid to Israel? And what's up with Joe Biden's tweet seeming to nod toward the ceasefire crowd? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we dig into the stories about U.S. hopes for a grand deal leading to a ceasefire. What are negotiators up to? Does Biden think this is going to help him politically? And we talk about the disconnect between Israeli security imperatives and American war weariness. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast, I provide the first of my impressions on a weeklong trip to Israel and what it feels like to be in a country at war—even during this strange period when the rocket fire has stopped and the hostages are being dribbled out by Hamas. The podcast crew joins me in wondering how stiff the spines of Joe Biden and the Israelis can and will remain as Hamas continues to play the hostage card. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we ask whether the daily release of Israeli hostages threatens to obscure the main point: Israel must defeat Hamas. And with fighting paused, how much pressure will the world put on Israel to abandon this aim? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins the pre-Thanksgiving podcast to discuss the contours of the deal to release hostages from Gaza, along with some of the horrifying details of how the soldiers in Israel who will take custody of the children are being instructed to deal with them and the questions they ask, like "Where are Mommy and Daddy?" Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up the purported deal to free hostages from Gaza—why it's happening, what has impelled a deal that doesn't look rational on paper, and what might come of it. Also, why did the White House release a birthday-cake picture with Joe Biden in it that looked like the White House was going to be set on fire? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we get into new polling that shows Joe Biden losing to Donald Trump in about 50 different ways. What are Democrats to make of this? Is it too late? The poll also reveals broad American support for Israel and Ukraine. And what's up with talk of a hostage deal with Hamas? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The full podcast crew is back today to discuss the weird moment when people started to crow about how the Israelis weren't finding the Hamas tunnels at the hospital—only to fall silent when they were found. And the anti-Semitism explosion just gets worse, with Elon Musk, Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, and Tucker Carlson playing along. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Halperin joins the podcast today to examine polling data both national and state-level and concludes that Trump is winning the race against Joe Biden and Democrats are kidding themselves if they believe otherwise. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caution: Today's podcast has a lot of cursing on it—cursing about the shockingly bad coverage of the extraordinary March for Israel yesterday and the effort by the mainstream media to bury it in an avalanche of "but really policymakers are concerned" coverage that is, frankly, bull---. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, joins the podcast to give us genuinely helpful advice about how to get around Washington today as so many of us will be traveling to be at the March for Israel on the Mall—where not to park, what Metro stop to use, where to get in, and generally how to have the best time at the most important event for American Jewry since the days of the Soviet Jewry protests. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James B. Meigs joins today's podcast as we ask what the fallout from Tim Scott's decision to depart the Republican race for president will mean and sketch out a long-shot scenario that would give Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley a real chance to challenge Donald Trump. Then we discuss Meigs's extraordinary article, "They Forgot to Be Afraid," about the systemic failure of Israeli deterrence at the Gaza border and how it parallels so many other disasters. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Senor joins today's podcast to discuss the various scenarios in which Nikki Haley really does have a shot at taking the Republican nomination from Donald Trump. We even do a lightning round on whether her successful debate appearances mean her chances are real or illusory. And what does the Israeli agreement to a four-hour "humanitarian pause" mean? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with a discussion of the Republican debate before we turn to the astonishing revelations that trusted stringers for a series of Western news organizations, among them the AP, Reuters, and CNN, were actually with the Hamas monsters who slaughtered and wounded 5,000 Israelis on October 7—and were, at least until last night, still collecting checks from these organizations. How could this happen? The answer: Decades of reliance on local "stringers" who are actually operatives for the bad guys. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices