• #526 - Megyn Kelly is All Out of Generosity
    Oct 2 2025

    It’s fine if you want to listen to this episode on Apple podcasts or Spotify or Substack. We get it! That’s the way you’ve always done it! But you do realize that after 525 episodes (not including the hundreds of subscriber-only episodes), we’ve finally launched the Fifth Column video podcast, right? And you know that you are required by federal law to subscribe to the new Fifth Column YouTube channel? Ok...thanks...and now...Megyn Kelly...

    * Botox and Scotch

    * When Megyn went “temporarily insane”

    * To be frivolous and Oprah-like

    * You’re my inspiration, Ben

    * From traffic cop to a truncheon-wielding cop

    * Escalation is bad. “Yes, but one must fight fire with fire.”

    * Principle vs. vengeance

    * Does Andy McCarthy have Trump Derangement Syndrome?

    * Megyn “speaks fluent MAGA”

    * More MAGA than libertarian or NRO…

    * We need to talk about Candace

    * “Tucker is in a different camp”

    * Wait, Moynihan has some opinions about the awfulness of Candace

    If you prefer to watch video over on YouTube, just click here.

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    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Members Only #278 -- Goliath’s Curse Author Luke Kemp on Why (and When) Empires Collapse
    Sep 29 2025
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

    Oh sure, everyone’s go-to for imperial collapse tends to be Rome, but what broad lessons are there to be gleaned from every single other civilizational implosion, from Mesopotamia to the Mayans to the forgotten pyramid builders along the Mississippi River? Such is the intriguing set-up for Goliaths Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, the…

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    16 mins
  • Members Only #277 - Andy Rooney Hangovers, Nazi Beekeepers, and Ex-Canadians
    Sep 27 2025
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

    * If you’re a Never Fly Coach subscriber, remember that you get to watch the video version of this episode!

    * The morning after pill and Roy Campanella’s glove

    * Why does Moynihan look like late-stage Nick Nolte?

    * Have a SoCal venue suggestion for a Fifth live show?

    * Comparatively, Alex Jones isn’t that bad (Ed. note: Spoke too soon! Immediately following this rec…

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    19 mins
  • #525 - John Spencer Views Explosion
    Sep 25 2025

    Matt and Michael are joined by John Spencer, Executive Director of the Urban Warfare Institute.

    •Gary Busey and the B-movie military raid on the Turkish Embassy

    •Bagging and tagging isn’t as bad as it sounds

    •20/20 De-Baathification

    •Post 9/11 Islamophilia

    •The hockey analogy for war with Hamas

    •Human shielding & bomb shelter inequities

    •Gaza vs Berlin 1945

    •Journalism in Gaza

    •The IDF’s absent PR operation

    •Starvation, genocide, and Wikipedia

    •Amalek

    •Trump’s 180 on Ukraine

    •Comedian Dave Smith on military aid

    •God bless Russian incompetence

    •Red Dawn had it all wrong

    •Cancel John’s tickets to Stalingrad

    •John Spencer, expert? The New York Times is on it.

    •NFC-level members get a video preview of this episode here!

    •Speaking of video, we’re launching on YouTube any day now… SUBSCRIBE!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • Members Only #276 - The Cancelling of an American Talkshow (w/ Greg Lukianoff)
    Sep 19 2025
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

    * Pretty sure FIRE president Greg Lukianoff is the perfect guest for this moment…

    * A requirement of Judaism

    * FIRE on fire these days

    * Come on man, it was the FCC!

    * My husband got Kimmel fired!

    * The latest campus free speech ranking

    * FYI, lots of dumb young people are cool with political violence

    * Is does the university have a psycho incubation problem?

    * So who should be

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    19 mins
  • #524 - BTW, Venezuela is a Dictatorial Commie Narcostate (w/ Thor Halvorssen)
    Sep 18 2025

    * See below for the video version of this episode!

    * On Candace and Megyn

    * That source, says Thor, the Venezuelan, is a big booster of the shittiest people on Earth

    * How they shot my mother (Hugo Chavez edition)

    * The failure of the Human Rights Industry™

    * How Venezuela collapsed

    * It’s not a country. It’s a drug cartel

    * The hierarchy of South American drug trafficking

    * The real reason the US struck those “drug boats”

    * So the 93% cannot defeat the 7%?

    * Was former congressman Aaron Shock corrupted by Venezuelan commies?

    * Crooked congressmen. Crooked Kennedys?

    * A crooked American oil magnate?

    * On dissident heroism—and American cynicism

    * The nobility of the human spirit

    * The useless UN

    * The million dollar roller bag

    * How the bad guy$ $pread their influence

    * And much, much more!

    As previously mentioned, Never Fly Coach-level subscribers have access to our early video efforts. Wonky angles, swiveling chairs, ugly timecodes, no title sequence…you get the idea. BUT…your feedback has been amazingly positive thus far. If you want to add your two cents (and see our ugly mugs), upgrade and get access to the ever-evolving pilot episodes!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • Members Only #275 - The Elasticity of Memory & the Weight of History (w/ Russ Roberts)
    Sep 13 2025
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com

    * See below for the video version of this episode!

    * Russ’s drinks by the pool with Hitchens

    * How potato chips are made. And what it tells us about economics

    * Backwards towards “artisanal”

    * How will a NatCon economy perform?

    * It ain’t all doom and gloom (surprisingly)

    * Do academic economists matter?

    * Russ talks to Milton Friedman

    * Do long-term economic trends tells us …

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    22 mins
  • #523 - On the Assassination of Charlie Kirk
    Sep 11 2025

    A very bad day for American politics, recorded within an hour of a young father’s death. Political violence, outgroup hatreds, and a side of media malpractice. With a sidebar conversation on 9/11, plus extended outro on the murder in Charlotte and subsequent discussion about race.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 40 mins