Podcasts

No True Conviction on Abortion

Sarah, Steve, and Jonah react to Donald Trump’s milquetoast yet controversial statement on abortion and how it’s confusing Republican abortion policy at large.

The Agenda:
—What do people really think about abortion?
—Conviction vs. convenience on the abortion issue
—Israel’s pullout from southern Gaza
Is Israel making the same mistakes as America?
Craziness on college campuses
Trump’s “Sister Souljah” moment
Does Hamas have “enough” living hostages?
How NPR lost America’s trust
—What have we gotten wrong?

Show Notes:
Trump’s “rogue cops” comment
2022 midterm exit polls
David French’s writing on a “pro-life culture”
The Dispatch editorial on the lesser of two evils
Trump: “Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
The Dispatch Podcast with Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns

Real Originalism Has Never Been Tried

Sarah and David explain the jury questionnaire in Alvin Bragg’s case against Donald Trump before getting into the weeds of the origins of originalism.

The Agenda:
How to select a jury for Trump
—Celebrity trial jury instructions
Biden swings again at student loan forgiveness
—Did the Warren court birth originalism?
—Originalism vs. platonic idealism
—More questions from a high schooler
—How do judicial ethics actually work?
—The myth of the 6-3 court
—The most important SCOTUS decisions

Bad Leaders, Wrong Turns

Jonah is joined by Dr. Einat Wilf—a former member of Israel’s Labor Party and author of The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace. They discuss  Israel’s failure to reckon with antisemitism in the pro-Palestinian movement, how the two-state solutions got derailed, and what bad leadership means for the future of the conflict.

Show Notes:
Dr. Wilf’s website

Dr. Wilf on the history of Zionism and UNRWA
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

Hillbillies in the Mist

Was it your racism or economic despair that made you vote for Donald Trump? That’s the question media outlets are asking white people in the Rust Belt and Appalachia, much to the dismay of guest-host Chris Stirewalt.

In today’s episode of The Remnant, Chris is joined by Tyler Austin Harper—a professor at Bates College—to discuss his piece for The Atlantic critiquing White Rural Rage: The Threat to American DemocracyJoin the two as they break down coastal journalists’ mischaracterizations of rural America, the disdain for these Americans, and why it’s good to interact with people culturally different than yourself.

Show Notes:
Harper for The Atlantic: Polyamory, the Ruling Class’s Latest Fad
A new AP-NORC poll shows Americans still agree on most core American values
Tim Carney’s book, Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be

Jack Smith Scolds Judge

Things get heated in Trump’s classified documents case.
In a court filing this week in Donald Trump’s classified documents case, special counsel Jack Smith challenged Judge Aileen Cannon by vowing to appeal any decision that included the Presidential Record Act in jury instructions. David and Sarah discuss Smith’s public move and what it means for the case.
The Agenda:
—Sarah’s recaps her defamation law musical experience
Justice Sotomayor’s age raises questions about the right time for Justices to retire
—Is Trump’s defense counsel actually good?
—Jack Smith’s frustration with Judge Aileen Cannon
—Answering questions from high school students
—Yes, we’re still discussing work-life balance
Show Notes:
Presidential Records Act
New York Times Company v. Sullivan

Debating the Israel-Hamas War

Mehdi Hasan, former MSNBC host and co-founder of the media outlet Zeteo, joins Jamie for a heated debate about Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attack and the accusations that the IDF is committing war crimes.

The Agenda:
—Laying out the current situation in Gaza
The issue of proportionality in the use of force
—Debating casualty numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry
—The feasibility of a two-state solution
The question of war crimes
The United States’ role in the conflict

Show Notes:

—WSJ: “Mansour Abbas Is an Arab and a Proud Israeli”

Goldfish Memories

Biden’s Losing the Vibe War

Jonah the usurper invites Kevin, Mike, and Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle on today’s episode of The Dispatch Podcast for some unfettered, wide-ranging punditry stretching from Biden’s wobbling support of Israel to the political implications of Florida’s abortion law.

The Agenda:
World Central Kitchen deaths in Gaza
—Biden’s balancing act between addressing concerns from the pro-Palestinian crowd and supporting Israel
—The Florida Supreme Court upholds the state’s six-week abortion ban, but the pro-life victory could be short-lived
California’s housing crisis and the state’s regulatory barriers

The Federalist Society in Peril

What’s Russia Planning

On today’s episode of The Remnant, Jonah attempts to live out his closeted dream of becoming an American spy by diving into a report titled “The Kremlin’s Occupation Playbook: Coerced Russification and Ethnic Cleansing in Occupied Ukraine.” He is joined by Karolina Hird, author of the report, to discuss the Kremlin’s heartbreaking tactic of deporting and forcibly adopting Ukrainian children, a ploy designed to alter the demographic fabric of the occupied territories. Hear about the critical issue of delayed aid to Ukraine, Russia’s strategic use of timing on the battlefield, and the strictly censored Russian media landscape that stifles authentic discourse on the conflict.

Show Notes:
Karolina Hird’s profile at the Institute for the Study of War
Interactive Map: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
ISW’s Ukraine Conflict Updates page

How Is India Doing?

In a refreshing break from rank punditry, Jonah is joined by Sadanand Dhume—a Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in South Asian political economy—to answer the question: How is India doing? Dhume also gives a lesson on the religious demographics in India and how the caste system actually works.

Show Notes:
Dhume at the Wall Street Journal
Dhume’s book, My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist
Dhume: Indian Muslims Flunk the Israel Test

Federal Judges Examine the Israel-Hamas War

Federal Judges Roy Altman, Lee Rudofsky, and Amul Thapar join Sarah and David to discuss their recent trip to Israel along with 11 other federal judges that focused on the question of the day: Is Israel complying with international law as it pursues its war against Hamas in Gaza?

The Agenda:
—The purpose of the judges’ trip
—Walking through the locations of the October 7 attack
Gruesome tactics by Hamas
Military authority in Israel
—Israel’s legitimacy as a nation-state
—David’s JAG experience
—Double standards and antisemitism
The Jewish idea of gratitude

This conversation includes discussion of graphic content related to the October 7 attacks in Israel. Listener discretion is advised.

Gaza Changed Urban Warfare

Jamie is joined by John Spencer, an author, former colonel in the California State Guard, and urban warfare expert with 25 years of experience in the Army, to examine Israel’s tactics in Gaza and weigh in on allegations the IDF is committing genocide and/or war crimes.

The Agenda:
Joe Rogan accuses Israel of genocide
—John’s experience in Gaza
—War is not quantitative
—How to determine proportionality
“High threshold of civilian death”
—We are at war with ignorance
H.R. McMaster’s “zero-dark-thirty fallacy”
—Reception of his expertise in Ukraine vs. Gaza

Show Notes:
John: Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It?

The Mediocre Idiots of Monocausality

Jonah ruminates on the UN Special Rapporteur’s report alleging genocide in Gaza and the minimization of sexual violence on October 7. And if you weren’t day-drinking yet, he then kvetches about lousy concepts of social justice, the Ronna McDaniel-NBC News controversy, and the growing urge to oversimplify complex topics with monocausal explanations.

Show Notes:
UN Special Rapporteur’s report
ABC News report on random punching incident
Protests at Vanderbilt
Jonah’s LA Times article on October 9
John Spencer
The Remnant with Jonathan Haidt

About That NBC News Drama …

The hiring and firing of Ronna McDaniel at NBC News brought up mixed feelings for the staffers at The Dispatch. Sarah, Jonah, Steve, and David (French!) open up about their own complicated relationships with mainstream media, the problems with hiring partisans into newsrooms, and whether McDaniel is a good avatar for any of these questions.

The Agenda:
—Roles of ideological purity in media
—The crew’s experiences at their respective news outlets
Steve’s behind-the-scenes insight into McDaniel’s Meet the Press interview
—The changing definition of RINO
—The lack of truthfulness in news outlets
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot-access dilemma

Show Notes:
Meidas Touch article on Ronna McDaniel hiring
Vox hit piece on Sarah Isgur following CNN exit

What the Abortion Pill Case Is Really About