The Fifth Column
The Fifth Column

The Fifth Column

Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch

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Episodes

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Your weekly rhetorical assault on the on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally ourselves. Kmele Foster (Freethink), Michael Moynihan (Vice), and Matt Welch (Reason) talk and laugh and drink their way to at least quasi-sanity in a world gone mad, often with the aid of clean and articulate guests. Weekly Members Only subscription edition often comes with listener mail and professional-quality (if inappropriate) singing. Analysis. Commentary. Sedition.

www.wethefifth.com

Recent Episodes

Nobody Likes a Gossip Cop (w/ Dan Abrams) - #536
DEC 11, 2025
Nobody Likes a Gossip Cop (w/ Dan Abrams) - #536
<p>Dan Abrams is the CEO and Founder of Abrams Media Chief Legal Analyst for ABC News, host of <em>On Patrol: Live</em> on Reelz, host of SiriusXM radio’s “The Dan Abrams Show,” host and executive producer of “Court Cam” on A&E Network.</p><p>He is also the author of numerous New York Times bestselling books about forgotten trials in history and is also the founder of Mediaite.</p><p>* In defense of legacy media. Sort of.</p><p>* Hating journalists while feeding journalists</p><p>* From “terror TV” to ❤️Qatar❤️</p><p>* Just Jared</p><p>* The King of Korruption</p><p>* The legacy of lawfare</p><p>* Alvin Bragg: Trump’s best friend</p><p>* Prosecuting Hitler, Chavez, and Trump</p><p>* The Inspectors General Massacre</p><p>* Kash’s lady jacket</p><p>* Post-Kavanaugh radicalization</p><p>* Rogan optimism</p><p>* Did Dan help destroy American civility??</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307714/">Is Alan Keyes making sense?</a></p><p>* From gossip cops to actual cops...</p><p>* Does Dan produce “cop-aganda”??</p><p>* No, but Dan likes cops</p><p><strong>Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/F6d3dDPHLoU"><strong>premieres over on our YouTube channel</strong></a><strong> at 10am EST.</strong></p><p><p>The Fifth Column (A Podcast) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></p><p><strong>Follow The Fifth Column</strong></p><p>YouTube: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9e5f160b-065d-42ce-92a4-edf21df804ae?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Instagram: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/49442cc1-448b-481d-a04c-a58e62415aa9?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@we.the.fifth</a>X: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e5c13b74-b540-4b93-a1ed-2ba2670462c1?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>TikTok: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/971da500-8db0-4269-9aaf-7d7459adf93a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/09c07840-5930-4c66-aa76-064acebd229a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@thefifthcolumn</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.wethefifth.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.wethefifth.com/subscribe</a>
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98 MIN
UNLOCKED Members Only #290 - AI George Washington, LSD Margaritas, and Tara Reid
DEC 9, 2025
UNLOCKED Members Only #290 - AI George Washington, LSD Margaritas, and Tara Reid
<p>It’s been a bit since it was just Michael, Kmele, and Matt at the table so we’ve decided to unlock this Members Only episode and invite everyone in. For (literally) hundreds more Members Only episodes, become a paying subscriber.</p><p>•Heliocentric anime</p><p>•50 Cent, documentarian</p><p>•Boycott Black Murder</p><p>•Glenn Beck is doing it for the kids</p><p>•John Stossel walks into a bodega</p><p>•And now, a few words from the father of our country</p><p>•American Revolution hot takes</p><p>•<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/us/politics/biden-immigration-trump.html">That New York Times border crisis story</a></p><p>•Kamala Harris was not the border czar</p><p>•NIMBY</p><p>•When Kmele gets homeless</p><p>•Rosemont Illinois will not forget Tara Reid</p><p>•LSD margaritas</p><p>•The Pentagon press corps</p><p>•Exploding boats</p><p>•Geographically constrained neoconservatism</p><p>•Matthew Yglesias is right</p><p>•Previewing Moynihan’s 1-on-1 with Kevin O’Leary</p><p>•Holding out hope</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/TXeToJDPMuA"><strong>premieres over on our YouTube channel</strong></a><strong> at 10am EST.</strong></p><p><p>This episode is unlocked, but paying subscribers get them ALL.</p></p><p><strong>Follow The Fifth Column</strong></p><p>YouTube: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9e5f160b-065d-42ce-92a4-edf21df804ae?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Instagram: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/49442cc1-448b-481d-a04c-a58e62415aa9?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@we.the.fifth</a>X: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e5c13b74-b540-4b93-a1ed-2ba2670462c1?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>TikTok: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/971da500-8db0-4269-9aaf-7d7459adf93a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/09c07840-5930-4c66-aa76-064acebd229a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@thefifthcolumn</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.wethefifth.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.wethefifth.com/subscribe</a>
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78 MIN
#535 - America's Top Breshnevist (w Brace Belden)
DEC 4, 2025
#535 - America's Top Breshnevist (w Brace Belden)
<p><strong>We’re joined by Brace Belden, co-host of the </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://trueanon.com"><strong>TrueAnon</strong></a><strong> podcast.</strong> </p><p>•They don’t make heroin anymore</p><p>•The Taco Bell connection</p><p>•King of the libertarians</p><p>•Kmele almost dies</p><p>•You say Somali, I say Somalian, let’s call the whole thing off</p><p>•The people cut out of the Minnesota Somali fraud story</p><p>•Does Ben Shapiro think we’re white?</p><p>•A Maoist small businessman</p><p>•Certain liberties</p><p>•Curtis Yarvin discovers YouTube</p><p>•Yarvin = Slavoj Žižek of the right? </p><p>•Libertarian Escape (the Piña Colada Song)</p><p>•The cathedral</p><p>•Brace, Citarella, and the new intellectual left</p><p>•Mamdani “is fully a Democrat”</p><p>•Nationalize Mr. Fruit</p><p>•Body count</p><p>•War is a force that gives us meaning</p><p>•Call of Duty: Median Soldier</p><p>•Brace is on the DHS shit list</p><p>•Kmele spent more time at Occupy than Brace did</p><p>•In China, the trains run on time</p><p>•The DSA clappers</p><p>•Don’t let’s start on Venezuela</p><p>•Wistful for Colin Powell</p><p>•Where are the drugs!?</p><p>•The Grifters</p><p>•The neoneocons</p><p>•Thumbing the scale</p><p>•Jeffrey Epstein, quintessential striver</p><p>•The Chomsky connection</p><p><strong>Prefer to watch & chat live with other members of the Fifthdom? This episode </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcUyrl42t2k"><strong>premieres over on our YouTube channel</strong></a><strong> at 10am EST.</strong></p><p><p>Thanks for reading The Fifth Column (A Podcast)! This post is public so feel free to share it.</p></p><p><strong>Follow The Fifth Column</strong></p><p>YouTube: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9e5f160b-065d-42ce-92a4-edf21df804ae?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Instagram: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/49442cc1-448b-481d-a04c-a58e62415aa9?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@we.the.fifth</a>X: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e5c13b74-b540-4b93-a1ed-2ba2670462c1?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>TikTok: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/971da500-8db0-4269-9aaf-7d7459adf93a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/09c07840-5930-4c66-aa76-064acebd229a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@thefifthcolumn</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.wethefifth.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.wethefifth.com/subscribe</a>
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111 MIN
UNLOCKED: Atheist in a Foxhole, w/ the Great Sebastian Junger
DEC 3, 2025
UNLOCKED: Atheist in a Foxhole, w/ the Great Sebastian Junger
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/unlocked-russ-roberts-on-the-weight">Periodically</a> around these parts the audience demand for unpaywalling certain subscribers-only episodes becomes too clamorous to ignore. So it was with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian"><strong>Members Only #286</strong></a>, our gripping conversation with celebrated author <strong>Sebastian Junger</strong> about his harrowing new book, <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/88402/9781668050835"><em>In My Time of Dying</em></a>.</p><p>“Please consider making this a non-members only episode,” wrote beloved subscriber <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/178587922"><strong>James G</strong></a>. “Ditto,” seconded <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/178822785"><strong>Daniel Cavelli</strong></a>. “I wanna send this to many people.” Similar beseechings from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/178918617"><strong>random_academic</strong></a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/179783594"><strong>Jake O’Finkelstein</strong></a>, <strong>[Dr.]</strong> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/181017790"><strong>Jeff Singer</strong></a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/179085148"><strong>Lara Merkel Ross</strong></a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/179534302"><strong>Oren</strong></a>, who added: “I have a friend who barely survived a massive heart attack last month. And I can think of many others who will be inspired by this incredible conversation.”</p><p>To our longtime paying customers: We hear you! Please share the episode widely, either as a one-off or a come-on!</p><p>To our many brand new paying subscribers, brought here by a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/cyber-monday-25-off-annual-subs-to">generous gift</a>, welcome to this weird & wonderful community, and please enjoy full run of the Comments and <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/chat/815642">Chat</a>. And to those seeing/hearing us for the first time, or just flying in the very back of the plane, here is the type of content that can come with a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/subscribe">paid subscription</a>. As our dear old D.C. pal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wethefifth.com/p/atheist-in-a-foxhole-w-sebastian/comment/179218187"><strong>Maura Flynn</strong></a> put it, “You make my support increasingly worthwhile and I encourage everyone who can to contribute on the highest possible level. Great stuff, rock on!”</p><p><p>You know what to do.</p></p><p>•You can always start drinking again</p><p>•Enough to make ⅔ of these grown men cry</p><p>•Sebastian’s (most recent) near-death experience</p><p>•Danger in, insight out</p><p>•Momento Mori</p><p>•There’s nothing so dangerous as a wounded Apache</p><p>•Don’t have an aortic rupture in Truro in July</p><p>•ICU humor</p><p>•Hi dad</p><p>•An existential digression</p><p>•Better than the one with Will Farrel</p><p>•Ideological Duolingo</p><p>•Hot tip from an immigration officer</p><p>•Old-time antisemitism</p><p>•Bestselling author sleeps with chainsaw</p><p>•Sarajevo & the Spanish Civil War</p><p>•Men’s Journal and the good old days of war reporting</p><p>•The folly of Afghanistan and nation-building on the cheap</p><p>•Some things are sacred</p><p>•Investigating near death experiences</p><p>•Don’t test Santa Claus</p><p>•Etymology of a curse</p><p>•Atheists, physicists, and consciousness</p><p>•God of the gaps</p><p>•Yes, we are literally talking about quantum physics</p><p>•The science of myth</p><p>•The reason for the need the idea of heaven</p><p>•Restrepo</p><p>•Why we all need a <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/88402/9781455566389">tribe</a></p><p>•Things were better when they were bad</p><p>•If you’re not sufficiently terrified, you’re not getting it.</p><p>•A tribute to dangerous jobs</p><p>•Making meaning in a meaningless universe</p><p>•A Bostonian goodbye</p><p>YouTube link:</p><p><strong>Follow The Fifth Column</strong></p><p>YouTube: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9e5f160b-065d-42ce-92a4-edf21df804ae?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Instagram: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/49442cc1-448b-481d-a04c-a58e62415aa9?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@we.the.fifth</a>X: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e5c13b74-b540-4b93-a1ed-2ba2670462c1?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>TikTok: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/971da500-8db0-4269-9aaf-7d7459adf93a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@wethefifth</a>Facebook: <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/09c07840-5930-4c66-aa76-064acebd229a?j=eyJ1IjoiZTQzMWYifQ.dc-8vtNe6mnVPNyWzBj8PVjHOlHrTw5oo2hNegjrHnA">@thefifthcolumn</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.wethefifth.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.wethefifth.com/subscribe</a>
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113 MIN