For your Saturday listening pleasure, Jonah Goldberg ruminates upon the latest Dispatch editorial, the sibylian nature of Suicide of the West, the problems with planned economies, and the back-of-house responsibilities of the federal government.

Plus: dunce caps for the “deep state” and the font choices of the first Alien movie.

Show Notes:

—The latest Dispatch editorial: “Slouching Towards Tyranny”

—Yuval Levin: The Great Debate

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Jonah Goldberg knows many a public intellectual, but linguist extraordinaire John McWhorter is one of his favorites. John returns to the show to discuss his new book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words. Topics include: grammars of the elite, the imposition of language rules, the they-shaped elephant in the room, and the mystery behind the disappearance of “thou.”

Show Notes:

—Order John’s book, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words, here

—The Finnish Path to Relaxation (Drinking at Home, Alone, in Your Underwear)

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute and a general tariff expert, took some time out of his very busy schedule to talk to Jonah Goldberg about Trump’s trade-deficit delusions,why reciprocal tariffs will harm the United States, and the likelihood of increased inflation as trade tensions rise.

Show Notes:

—Scott’s Capitolism newsletter for The Dispatch

—Scott’s column on trade deficits

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Siri misogyny meets trade policy, while Howard Lutnick’s idiocy fuels debates on markets and democracy. Jonah Goldberg clamors for liberal democratic capitalism supremacy and says a prayer for the global economy, as public-choice theory explains our collective hypocrisy.

Show Notes:

—Worship at the church of Scott Lincicome

—Dominic Pino for National Review: “The Heritage Foundation Was One of Free Trade’s Strongest Supporters”

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Frustrated with never-ending interstate repairs and constant airline delays, Jonah Goldberg looks to the sky and wonders; Why does nothing work? Marc J. Dunkelman, fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, has the answers. Marc and Jonah discuss the origins and transformation of American progressive policy, the spirit of the NIMBYs, and a bold proclamation that we need even more institutions to achieve good governance.

Show Notes:

—Order Marc’s book, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back here

 —Learn more about the Watson Institute

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. 

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Jonah Goldberg is joined by Luke Coffey, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and Ukraine expert extraordinaire, to discuss his recent visit to the region and the state of the Ukraine-Russia war. Luke and Jonah debate where Ukrainians stand after the infamous Oval Office debacle, the cracks in the Russian army, and the indispensable value of close European alliances—which seem to mean little to MAGA world.

Show Notes:

—Luke's scholar page at the Hudson Institute

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Having exhausted his Jeffrey/Jonah Goldberg jokes on The Dispatch Podcast, Jonah Goldberg launches into an epic rant on the tyranny of intellectual mobs, the flaws of morally blind due process, and the emerging artificial intelligence anime art movement. Plus: long-view Signal-gate revelations and the superficial logic of the Trump administration’s tariff strategy.

Show Notes:

—The Maoist anime AI drawing in question

—Yuval Levin’s latest Remnant appearance

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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It’s fan-favorite week at Casa de Remnant.Jonah Goldberg is joined by Thomas Chatterton Williams, staff writer at The Atlantic and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss illiberalism on the right, dole out some sympathy for the most ardent defenders of wokeness, and dig into Thomas’ upcoming book, Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse.

Show Notes:

—Thomas’ piece in The Atlantic: “How the Woke Right Replaced the Woke Left”

—Musa al-Gharbi on The Remnant

—Jonah’s “Critical Trump Theory”

—Woke chili

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Not since Thomas Jefferson podcasting alone has a guest been so wise as Yuval Levin, who joins Jonah Goldberg to discuss the recent trend of Lebowskian communication mishaps, the danger of obsessive abstraction in Trumpian times, and the promise of connecting with the median voter.

Show Notes:

—The Atlantic: "Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans"

—Yuval on "The Ezra Klein Show"

—Yoni Appelbaum on The Remnant

—National Review: "Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!"

—Yuval for The Free Press

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Join Jonah Goldberg on a journey up the Northeast Regional line as he ruminates upon the impeachment of federal judges, the enemy within, the world’s laziest Congress, and the chicken and the egg game for oligarchs and plutocrats. Plus: disturbing DOGE casualties and a greatest hits reel of Jonah’s analogies.

Show Notes:

—Jonah’s LA Times column from this week

—The New York Times: Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy Is Done. Powerful Conservatives Are Listening

—Alex Tabarrok on The Remnant

—Yoni Appelbaum on The Remnant

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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Yoni Appelbaum, deputy executive editor of The Atlantic, makes his Remnant debut to discuss his new book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. Jonah Goldberg and Yoni discuss America's unique social and geographic mobility, the tricky history of tenements, and the dirty laundry of zoning.

Show Notes:

—Order Yoni’s book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity

The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including Jonah’s G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here.

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