Commentary Magazine Podcast

With the news that Donald Trump is allowing the transition to begin, the post-election madness has pretty much come to an end. What will its long-term consequences be, if any? Give a listen.

Our podcast crew wonders at the disintegration of the Trump case and the dissolution of the Trump legal team and asks whether it is comic or tragic and what the fallout will be. And then we take up the incoming Biden foreign policy team and how woke or not-so-woke it will be. Give a listen.

What, our podcast asks, does it mean when the best thing you can say about the Trump fraud allegations are that the president is crazy and not that he's up to something politically? And what are the consequences going to be for teachers' unions as they attempt to prevent schoolchildren from, you know, learning? Give a listen.

Today's podcast features some out-and-out ranting against the egregious behavior of New York's Andrew Cuomo before we go on to rant about the egregious headline writing in the New York Times and the egregious ideas of some Democratic officials regarding Israel and the Palestinians. Give a listen.

Today's podcast takes up a promising proposal for a home "contagiousness" test that everyone can take, as described by Harvard's Michael Mina in this article in Time. Will empowering the American people in this way work? We disagree on that. And we disagree on the consequences of the continuing dispute about the election results. Give a listen.

Recent revelations involving Iran’s nuclear program will leave Joe Biden with some hard choices to make about America’s foreign policy toward the region. But Biden will face resistance from his party’s left flank if he is to embrace and navigate the new geopolitical reality in the Middle East. Also, the podcast hosts discuss their articles in the forthcoming post-election issue of COMMENTARY.

2020 Election Superstar Steve Kornacki joins our podcast today to discuss the fascinating and unprecedented political situation now facing Joe Biden—with what is likely to be a Republican Senate and a teeny-tiny Democratic majority in the House. How can he govern? Also, I complain about Nate Silver. Give a listen.

What is driving the political world’s fixation with the president even as he has largely ceded the spotlight to his rival? Is it Trump’s still menacing but largely banal self-affirmations on Twitter, or is Joe Biden just such an unenthusiastic prospect for the left that they are milking the final weeks of the Trump era for all they are worth?

So the COVID surge has Andrew Cuomo banning in-home gatherings of groups larger than 10. Can he do this? Can the surge cause new lockdowns that people will follow? And what will the economic consequences be? Give a listen.

The podcast today examines how Joe Biden came out and calmly said he'd be president soon and didn't much care what Donald Trump was doing—and three seconds later the political world had a collective nervous breakdown over a weird series of firings and new installations at the Department of Defense. Biden wants to cool things down, but he seems to be the only one. What's going on here? Give a listen.

Today's podcast dives deep into the hypocrisy of those who are decrying the Trump effort to claim voter fraud when they spent four years saying Russians stuffed our ballot boxes and Stacey Abrams won Georgia in 2018 when she lost by 60,000 votes. More hypocrisies abound. We go through them and get pretty riled up. Give a listen.

The podcast considers how we can turn the page on the Trump presidency now that Biden is president-elect—and how conservative ideas of manliness should both govern the president's behavior going forward and what his most loyal supporters should actually expect of him. Rest assured we do not let Joe Biden off the hook—despite moderate talk during his acceptance speech, he's already kowtowing to his party's left, and we show how. Give a listen.

The podcast crew talks about how things will function in a brave new world in which Joe Biden will be president—while at the same time the Republican Party lives to fight another day with an unexpected surge below the presidential level. Give a listen.

The podcast today examines the polling results that show net gains for the GOP in the House and surprising holds in Senate races suggesting the Republicans will maintain their majority next term. At the same time, Donald Trump seems to have lost at least three, and maybe as many as five, of the states he won last time—while issue-less Joe Biden won more votes than anyone ever by a large margin. We unpack the meaning of all this. Give a listen.

Yes, we Commentary podcasters were up all night, like you, and so we spend some time trying to speak coherently about what happened, what is happening, and why pollsters should be put in a rocketship and fired directly at the sun. Give a listen.