The Great Unlearning

Intra-conservative debates and populism.

Published May 17, 2023

Episode 642: The Great Unlearning

Last year, Remnant regular and AEI scholar Matt Continetti published The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, a tome so nerdy that he and Jonah needed two full podcast episodes just to discuss the first half of it. Today, Matt returns to the program to continue working through the history of the right from the ‘80s to the present. Or, at least, that was the plan. Instead, the conversation ends up focusing on the nature of the new right, how Pat Buchanan changed conservatism, and what Donald Trump’s devotees actually want. Plus, listeners of the Commentary podcast will be delighted to find that Matt is actually allowed to speak.

Show Notes:

– Matt’s page at AEI

– The Right, now available in paperback

– Part one of Matt’s previous Remnant nerdfest…

– …and part two

– The Commentary podcast

– Lionel Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination

– Julius Krein: “I Voted for Trump. And I Sorely Regret It.”

– Christopher Lasch’s The Revolt of the Elites

– Tom Wolfe: “The Great Relearning”
– Ezra Klein: “The Problem With Everything-Bagel Liberalism”

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Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things.

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