Escaping household chaos, a car-bound Jonah talks prisons with Brown University’s David Skarbek. Bolivian jails and Soviet gulags are just two choices in this long game of Where’d-You-Rather: Incarceration Edition. Skarbek takes us through the highlights of his upcoming book and touches on the delicate subject of policing. Show Notes: -Skarbeck’s upcoming book: The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World -Skarbek on EconTalk -Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers: Lessons from Life Outside the Law, by Paul and Sarah Robinson -Chained Heat -Caged Heat (There’s more than one of these???) -Jonah on the CHAZ -Rule of clans  -German phrase for “Attaining freedom once you reach a city” -Alex Tabarrok on street safety policy  -1982 “Broken Windows” essay -Vin Cannato on The Remnant -Andersonville prisoner of war camp -Peter Leeson, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates -Emma Goldman, anarchist  -Elinor Ostrom, economist -Gabi.com/remnant -ExpressVPN.com/remnant for 3 months free with a year plan

What to make of the many news stories of the week - the resignation of James Bennet at The New York Times, the establishment of an autarkic city-state in Seattle, and more? On the Ruminant, Jonah sees some connecting threads between them all, such as the shrinking of large, trustworthy media institutions. Show Notes: -This Friday’s G-File -"Firing Line with William F. Buckley, Jr." collection, hosted for free by the Hoover Institution -Robin Williams caricatures Buckley twice in "Aladdin" -Jonah writing on the problem of liberal media bias and the “objectivity” issue -“SAY IT! SAY IT!” -Jonah’s column about Romney -Ross Douthat’s op-ed about the Tom Cotton piece -Monopsony -Jonah and Hugh Hewitt’s disagreement about the Alt-Right from back in 2016 -Jonah: How the nationalists blew their chance -The members-only Midweek G-File -Ed Koch: “Now they must be punished.” -The “stationary bandit” -"Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers: Lessons from Life Outside the Law" -The Hop Bird -TommyJohn.com/remnant

AEI scholar and China expert Oriana Skylar Mastro joins The Remnant to help us all understand the "Middle Kingdom" and its moves on the world stage. At a time like this, where the U.S. is retreating from its global responsibilities, how is China going to try to spin this into a positive outcome for themselves? Oriana has some ideas. Show Notes: -Oriana’s latest insights on China -Oriana’s book, on the problems with peace talks -Oriana's piece on Taiwan's future -The sheer amount of effort that goes into Chinese censorship -The controversial and confusing Russia/China joint air patrol -The current state of China’s Belt and Road Initiative -Weirdness on China’s border with India

Tim Carney joins The Remnant, where he talks about some of the great shoe-leather reporting he’s been doing on the protests in the D.C. area. How many of the protesters are seriously out to cause trouble, and how many are there for good reasons? Also, what can be made of the “defund the police” movement, and where have our “little platoons” gone during the pandemic? Show Notes: -Tim’s work at the Washington Examiner -Tim’s latest book, Alienated America -Subsidiarity -Tim’s Occupy reporting -Cyclist in Montgomery County gets falsely accused -The Treason of Epidemiologists -Justin Amash’s tweet about epidemiologists -DrinkHydrant.com promo code dingo for 25% off

Jonah returns for the weekend Ruminant to address the growing unease he gets from the national protest movements. What’s going to be more damaging: the protests, or the massive overcorrection from the critics of the protests? With a little bit of perspective, it should be easy to see that everyone is manipulating data for their own ends - the epidemiologists, the protesters, and, of course, the Executive (to put it politely). Show Notes: -This week's G-File -Wednesday's "news"letter -Epidemiologists shift from social distance to social justice -The Remnant Twitter AI asking for audience suggestions -Epidemiologists insisting that you can’t go to church -The heartening history of American racial attitudes over time -Part of Jonah's review of The Defining Moment -The St. John’s Church photo op - already adorned with a Wikipedia page

In this crazy time we’re living in, what’s the most accurate historical parallel? 1968? The 1420s? UMass Boston historian and all-around smart dude Vincent Cannato returns to the show for the second time to remind us of the scary-but-true reality: we are actually living in an unprecedented era. As the ancient faux-Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.” Show Notes: -Vin’s books -Just in case you’d like to get admitted to the Vatican archives -Blue check-mark Twitter in an uproar over a Tom Cotton op-ed -Jonah’s review of A Return to Modesty -The Power Broker by Robert Caro -The Confucius Institute, quite literally on the dole of their Chinese paymasters -If you have a subscription, read the wonderfully-named Francois Furstenburg in the Chronicle -Is Bill Barr right that history is written by the winners? -Ronald Radosh’s Prophets on the Right

How does liberty die? According to Padmé, with thunderous applause. According to The New York Times, with an ill-timed op-ed ghostwritten by Putin. And according to John Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna, maybe with Trump? John joins the show to play Remnant bingo, but also to make the case that Trump’s oft-praised abrasiveness isn’t actually very American — and that his behavior usually stifles liberty instead of promoting it. Show Notes: -Pitney’s book, Un-American: The Fake Patriotism of Donald J. Trump -Pitney's piece on Obama and Trump -Richard Weaver, Ideas have Consequences -The Federalist Papers, free and online -So this is how liberty dies -P.J. O’Rourke talks about Hillary -Trump wants to protect Article XII -Claremont’s 10 years in review -Pitney’s book After Reagan: Bush, Dukakis, and the 1988 Election -'We're dying at the box office,' Schwarzenegger tells GOP -East/West coast Straussians feuds -Pitney being interviewed about expanding the House -Elaine Kamarck talking about her role as a superdelegate -Vladimir Putin’s uh, op-ed in the Times? -Jonah’s appearance with Andrew Klavan -TommyJohn.com/remnant for 25% off site wide

Jonah ruminates on why we can't have nice things, darling. A journey that takes us from Julien Benda’s Treason of the Intellectuals to John Courtney Murray's The Return to Tribalism. From the cigar shop to the primitive Greek usage of the word "idiot." Show Notes: -Jonah's piece Cigars: A Love Story or Two -Jonah's piece Democracy in the Tobacconist’s -Sen. Ben Sasse's civics lesson -This week's G-File -Wednesday's "news"letter -How to educate an American webinar -John Courtney Murray's The Return to Tribalism

Has the 1 percent really rigged the economy? Why do Argentinians believe the Vatican is hiding aliens? And finally, what’s the deal with Bigfoot (and the associated erotica therein)? University of Miami political scientist and conspiracy theory expert Joseph Uscinski joins Jonah to answer these questions, explain who believes such things, and why. We suggest you listen to this truly bizarre episode before the Lizard People take it off the air. Show Notes: -FiveThirtyEight podcast with Joe -The 1 percent rigs the economy, according to Bernie -Princess Diana conspiracy theories -8 out of 10 French people believe a conspiracy theory -How not to write about the Koch brothers -Rothschilds (Rothschildren?) control everything -QAnon -Yuval’s book, A Time to Build -Secret oil billionaires are out to get Obama -Oliver Stone's JFK -SaneBox.com/dingo for a $25 credit on your subscription

Last time Matt Ridley was on, Jonah was left with so many questions that he knew he had to get him on again in short order. So he’s here again to answer more questions on the themes of his new book, How Innovation Works. Matt talks about how bureaucracy gets in the way of innovation, not by saying no to innovators, but “by saying yes too slowly,” and presents the one bit of scientific wisdom he would pass on to a future civilization. Come for the enlightenment, stay for the LED lightbulb. Show Notes: -Matt’s new book, How Innovation Works; tell us on social media if you buy it! -John Nestor’s wild ride -Matt Ridley: speed up bureaucratic decision making -Thomas Young, The Last Man Who Knew Everything -Britain’s proud history of… water abstraction reform? -Innocentive: an innovation crowdsourcing platform -Pill cameras -Anton Howes’ blog -Jonah’s piece on the RadioLab debacle -Lucretius: De Rerum Natura -Steven Pinker: what scientific concept ought to be more widely known? -Jevons Paradox -The 1890 Russian Flu pandemic

Everything has a price - except The Remnant, of course. That’s free. But regardless, Jonah flies solo once more and shares some advice he learned from his father about how to appraise the worth of any activity in life. On that theme, it turns out that he puts little worth in political eschatology, partisan psychological research, and the dichotomy implied by the terms ‘left-” and “right-wing.” Show Notes: -Pastor Douglas Wilson’s show, coming soon with a Jonah Goldberg episode -Marxist eschatology -David French’s recent Remnant appearance -This week’s G-File -The worst example of left-wing political-psychological drek -Conservatism as an Ideology

David French joins the Five-Timer’s Club on this edition of The Remnant. The conversation has just about the widest scope possible, including everything from end times prophecy, to Protestantism versus Restorationism, to methods for surviving the zombie apocalypse, to the blessed Snyder cut. Show Notes: -David’s newsletter, The French Press -David's podcast with Sarah Isgur -David, supposedly “breathing on the embers” of #BelieveAllWomen -The (very involved) eschatology of Assemblies of God -The Left Behind novel series -The Restoration Movement -The timelines of pre-and-post-millennialism -The Late, Great Planet Earth -Albrecht Durer’s fascinating series of Revelation woodcuts, Apocalypse -Best places to be in a zombie apocalypse -ExpressVPN.com/remnant for 3 extra months free

Amy Walter, national editor of The Cook Political Report, joins the show to talk about which polling numbers actually convey useful information during an election season. How can Trump’s job approval ratings remain relatively high, while lots of people still say they won’t vote for him? What do the parties actually need to do to keep their coalitions intact? And how strongly does Jonah feel about quality underwear? Tune in to find out. Show Notes: -Amy’s work at The Cook Political Report -Amy’s podcast -A more holistic approach to Trump’s numbers -Negative polarization -“Taking the parties out of politics” -TommyJohn.com get up to 30% off sitewide with code: remnant

Jonah’s back for another roundup of the week, where he takes on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R. R. Reno, Napoleon - that’s right, Napoleon - and many more. In addition to addressing current events, he also discusses the necessity of the right to police its own side, and how old-school leftists ruined the word “ideology” for the rest of us. Show Notes: -Jonah’s spat with AOC -Suicide of the West (now out in paperback!) -Jonathan V. Last, one of the early-on disparagers of R. R. Reno, on an old Remnant -A Man for All Seasons: “Would you give the devil the benefit of the law?” -The (underrated) Tyranny of Cliches -The edition of What is Conservatism? Foreword by Jonah -The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America -DrinkHydrant.com/dingo for 25% off your first order

Paul Matzko - a historian who has charted the legacy of talk radio and the conservative movement - joins The Remnant pantheon. While conservatives may be familiar with the lasting legacy of figures like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved, Paul shows that they follow a path established by religious conservatives stretching back to the 60s. Learn about the Kennedy administration’s checkered history with AM radio, and about the differing impacts of the radio populists versus the print-magazine intellectuals, such as Buckley at National Review. Show Notes: -Paul’s book, The Radio Right - out now via ebook, out in hardcover… whenever the pandemic stops -Paul’s futurism podcast, Building Tomorrow -Paul’s podcast with an old socialist friend, Impolitic -George Nash’s history of the conservative intellectual movement -Jonah’s longstanding beef with Father Coughlin -Victor Lasky’s book, It Didn’t Start with Watergate -Paul and John Samples’ research on ineffective social media regulation -The history of “Revolutionary Defeatism” -Paul on the Polish ham boycott -Pacifica Radio’s left-wing radicalism -Robert Darnton’s Censors at Work -DonorsTrust.org/dingo -ExpressVPN.com/remnant

Why do international institutions have scary-sounding names? Why do we fall for dolphin propaganda, every time? What form does the true Platonic Nacho take? Return guest Scott Lincicome joins The Remnant to answer these pressing questions. This episode explains more of this international man of mystery’s backstory, revealing not only what irks him about modern China-hawkishness, but also the cherished memory that reliably brings a tear to his eye. Show Notes: -Scott’s Twitter poll about animal PR -Evil dolphins -China hawkishness -American Mind wants to cancel Chinese debt -The Jones Act -How does a country become a WTO member? -Doordash.com, use promo code REMNANT at checkout for zero delivery fees for a month -ExpressVPN.com/REMNANT for an extra 3 months free

It’s that time again: on this weekend Ruminant, Jonah finds himself dealing with more 2016 déjà vu, as once again the public conversation turns towards the “binary choice” between two men who have been accused of sexual assault. How did we get to a point where our standards stooped so low? Jonah has a few ideas about that, and they have to do with the cop-outs of the intellectual class and the erosion of social capital. Show Notes: -Linda Hirshman’s NYT op-ed -Julien Benda’s The Treason of the Intellectuals -Background on the formerly pseudonymous author of “The Flight 93 Election”

Libertarian guru, wisdom-dispenser, and Jonah’s good friend Ron Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine, joins us on The Remnant. Ron guides us through the myriad reasons that the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t justify expanding the government and federal bureaucracies to unprecedented levels, before spending the second half of the podcast enticing Jonah to join him in the strange exotic land of the libertarians. If anyone can pull that off, it’s Ron. Show Notes: -Ron’s page at Reason -Ron’s book with Marian Tupy - preorder now -The CDC wasting time on COVID-19 tests -Morgue trucks in NYC -#PrivatizetheSeas2020 -Naomi Klein’s wacky This Changes Everything documentary -Murder Hornets: I’m sure it’s fine -ExpressVPN.com/REMNANT for 3 extra months free

Steve Kornacki, national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, joins Jonah to breakdown the state of the 2020 election, and take a trip through the history of political tribalism. It helps that Steve wrote a whole book, The Red and the Blue, on the subject. Come for Steve's keen knowledge of all things politics, stay for the discussion on weak parties. Show Notes: -Steve’s book, The Red and the Blue -Ross Perot’s unique populism -Tip O’Neill’s words getting taken down -Greenwich piece -Clinton’s Sister Souljah moment -The unpopularity of “Latinx” -WaPo’s Washington Redskins poll -ExpressVPN.com/Remnant for 3 extra months free

On this Ruminant, Jonah finds himself hearing the “binary choice” argument all over again, but this time about Trump vs. Biden. In his response, he also deals with the ways in which people are failing to take the Reade allegation seriously, how we have a political class of perpetual underdogs, and how dishonest arguments have snuck into our partisan debates.

Jonah and National Review’s Charles Cooke podcast with one another from the sunny paradise of Florida on this episode of The Remnant. Why is Florida so weird, really? What is to be made of GOP governors riding the Trump Train before promptly hopping back off? And what are people actually angry about regarding the Reade/Biden allegation? Tune in to witness a disagreement that sheds more light than heat. Show Notes: -Charlie’s author page at National Review -Take a wild guess: just how many alligators does Florida have? -What’s history’s biggest mistake? -Why did the FBI need to pin Capone on taxes? -Stealth-edits in NYT’s reporting on Tara Reade -ExpressVPN.com/remnant for an extra three months free

Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin makes a return appearance on this, the 200th episode of The Remnant. To celebrate, Jonah and Mike bring back the ever-popular theme of half-baked ideas, mixing many of their own ideas (that still need a bit more time in the oven) with some of our very own listener-submitted thoughts. They revisit their plan to (peacefully!) annex Greenland, Mike prolongs his beef with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, and our intrepid podcasters discover how to implement mortal combat into parliamentary procedure. Show Notes: -Mike at Heritage Hill Park, which closed shortly after -The highly influential Justinian Code -William Manchester’s bio of Douglas MacArthur -The Federal Thrift Savings Plan -Episode 151: Jawing with Crenshaw -Shameless plug (now out in paperback!) -Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh -“Annoying” woman denied Swiss citizenship -Taleb’s book, Antifragile -The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Jonah returns to ruminate on a smorgasbord of things this week: injecting bleach to cure COVID-19 (big if true!), an extended meditation on John Rawls’ "veil of ignorance," how the veil is nonsensical from the pro-life position, and the difference between “social justice” and a “just society.” Show Notes: -Ross’ book on social decadence -Suicide of the West (now out in paperback!) -The veil of ignorance -Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors -A shrubbery!

How does technological innovation actually happen? We were able to speak to Matt Ridley, who has literally written the (upcoming) book on this subject, How Innovation Works. Matt brings up fascinating points, such as whether or not innovation really relies on “great men” miraculously coming up with brilliant ideas, why we are often resistant to new technology, and how we can get out of our current innovation slump, a product of our cultural risk-aversion. And tune in to see where he places on the ranking of Most British People Ever (™). Show Notes: -GLoP Live 2: God save us all Members of The Dispatch are invited to join the GLoP live broadcast on Sunday, April 26th at 6PM ET/5PM CT/3PM PT -How Innovation Works - preorder now -I, Pencil, yet again -Kelly’s What Technology Wants -Harris’ novel, The Second Sleep -Matt’s bat facts -Remnant with Vin Cannato -ExpressVPN.com/REMNANT for 3 free months

This episode goes in The Remnant Hall of Fame for a few reasons: it’s both one of the longest episodes we’ve ever done, with one of the New Yorkiest guests we’ve ever had. Vincent Cannato, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, proves his New York credentials not just with stories of mayors from years past, but with the most authentic pronunciation of “Giuliani” you’ll ever hear. Stick around for Jonah and Vin reminiscing about AEI, Irving Kristol, and the least impressive Honda Civic in human history. Show Notes: -Live GLoP 2: Daydrinking Boogaloo - stay tuned for updates -Vin’s book on Mayor John Lindsay, The Ungovernable City -Lindsay’s, uh, “relations” with Florence Henderson -An archive of Lifebuoy Soap’s 1918 ads -Cuomo’s story about “wop” -Dunn and Shields’ book about conservative professors -More Kyle Harper on Gnosticism -Idea-laundering in academia -John Miller’s article on the slow death of military history -Ben Wattenberg’s book on who the average American really was in the 70s -SaneBox.com/DINGO for a $25 credit