MT: "Please, no. Randolph no here, but if you just leave a message"
MLK: "Tell him that I have been to the mountaintop... I've seen the Promised Land. Randolph might not be here to see it, but I want him to know that we, together, will go another day!"
MT: "Yes, yes... a mountaintop. Mmhmm. And what land again?"
MLK: "The Promised Land! Where one day, little black boys and black girls will....."
MT: "That's nice. What time are you meeting? I need a time and date to put in Mr. Carter's calendar."
MLK: "Woman....*breathes deeply* you should know that I have decided to stick with love for hate is too great a burden to bear, but good LORD you are trying my nerves."
Cross over event podcasts would be fun. For example, Moynihan goes on The Re-Education with Eli Lake to talk about the JFK assassination and then Eli Lake comes on TFC to do the same, but covers different ground on the topic or to continue the conversation.
I'd love crossovers where the lads get to explore their own interests. I'd love to hear Kmele chat with some tech / science person, Matt with Ethan Strauss or some other baseball nerd, and Moynihan with a classic car person or something.
More pushback on Megyn Kelly appearances. I say it as a fan of both podcasts. “Wrong again Matt Welsh!”
Seriously though just a quick note of gratitude… I had a budding music career which collapsed when I moved from Austin to LA, then started doing heroin and fentanyl during the pandemic. Became homeless but managed to get myself back home to Alabama and into rehab (Moynihan is right - kicking it is possible). But I’m still trapped here for the time being, without my community of fellow artists to keep me sane. Haven’t been able to play or listen to music since 2020 (it’s too depressing - along with the fact that the music industry has been in a nosedive since around the time LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver was released). So when I discovered this podcast thanks to Blocked and Reported, it was an actual blessing. Y’all sort of fill that friend-shaped hole. So thank you for doing what you do. Really.
Thank you for helping us retain some sanity during these insane times. I've both laughed and learned a lot. Here are two guest recommendations for the coming year: one old guy (who I know) and one young guy (who I don't know).
The first is Martin Lewis, a recently retired historical geographer from Stanford. At the turn of the century, he co-wrote with his wife a wonderful book on the history of geographical ideas called The Myth of Continents. Martin also has worked with Michael Shellenberger at the Breakthrough Institute in preparing their Ecomodernist's Manifesto. I TA'd for him back in the 1990s, when he was briefly at Madison--a super nice guy with a lot of interesting knowledge and ideas that span the globe. A geographer's geographer, and a Californian's Californian.
The second is someone I discovered just this morning. Benjamin Studebaker is a political theorist who earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge in 2020. I stumbled across a blog post of his from 2019 that is an excellent critique of the viral Equality-vs.-Equity, standing-on-crates baseball meme. And his first book has just been published, The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy. Based on his brief synopsis, it looks good.
If we got a full episode in which you interviewed Moynihan-as-Melania about her presidential campaign, I'd immediately become a never-coacher for life.
I know the fifth isn’t a “every week we interview an author on a press release for their forthcoming book” podcast and I appreciate that, but with y’all being such history nerds, I’d love the occasional discussion with a historian. Whatever subject strikes your fancy will do. Thanks.
Hi guys! Enthusiastic subscriber here! I would love the occasional deep-dive on a specific subject/topic - such as the exploding cost of housing. I appreciate your individual and group perspectives, usually centered on media criticism, and would love to hear more time dedicated to discussions and debates of some of the pressing challenges of our current moment. Obviously this already happens, but it’d be cool to have a deeper dive more frequently, such as with the recent episodes about inflation/interest and Buzzfeed/social media.
Dude the working for the weekend is one of the highlights of my week. There’s hundreds of old episodes that you can listen to if you haven’t already and just want that moyn asmr
Started listening after Kmele went on Bari Weiss about the Central Park Karen. Started paying soon after. I love the pod and think it’s the best of its kind on the Internet. I would love to hear more “ big time” guests along the lines of Douglas Murray. Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro, etc. Also more Ben Dreyfuss is always good. Let Matt talk all the baseball he wants, some of us are fans.
I can barely keep up with the frequency with which you guys release podcasts. I don't know how you do it considering you have kids and it isn't even your day job 😱 You're doing an amazing job. Many thanks and keep it up!
P.S. Someone mentioned in the comments that you guys aren't making use of affiliate links when you make recommendations. Do it! Easy money!
the only thing i want more of is book recommendations. & a list of books cited/recommended on the show..
someone had a google doc of books mentioned on the show. is that still around and alive?
i actually just listened to the audiobook of men without work today - i used one of the free credits i got for signing up to listen to the jon ronson podcast through audible. i'd have preferred reading it, but our library doesn't have a copy, harrumph.
i probably wasn't clear in my post, i realized - bad writing on my part. i wasn't asking for links to books. just looking for an ongoing list of books mentioned & recommended on the show.
"One great gross years ago our fathers fought alongside Bar Kochva to unshackle themselves from tyrannical Roman rule and engaged in a revolt dedicated to the proposition that Jerusalem is for the Jews."
And yes yes, we know you want merch & more live shows! Bring us *additional* ideas, por favor!
1. Moynihan Taught Me shirt
2. Diversity Partners International swag
3. Something that just says “This one time When I was living in Prague...”
4. BBCBS bracelets (Be Brave Call BullShit)
5. General Fifth Column logo swag (hats, mugs, tote bags?)
I’d also appreciate some sort of Melania related swag
Something with a pinup girl Melanie that says “Number 1 First Lady” in Slovenian?
You read my mind
WWKD swag. (What would Kmele do?)
Yes! I'm putting him on the DEI portion of my annual faculty activity report. I'd love some swag for that meeting :).
I'd also pay for a Moynihan personalized voicemail greeting that's a conversation between Melania and MLK Jr. explaining that I'm not available
MLK: "I have a message..."
MT: "No, no, I so sorry, he..."
MLK: "That one day.... Randolph will"
MT: "Please, no. Randolph no here, but if you just leave a message"
MLK: "Tell him that I have been to the mountaintop... I've seen the Promised Land. Randolph might not be here to see it, but I want him to know that we, together, will go another day!"
MT: "Yes, yes... a mountaintop. Mmhmm. And what land again?"
MLK: "The Promised Land! Where one day, little black boys and black girls will....."
MT: "That's nice. What time are you meeting? I need a time and date to put in Mr. Carter's calendar."
MLK: "Woman....*breathes deeply* you should know that I have decided to stick with love for hate is too great a burden to bear, but good LORD you are trying my nerves."
T-shirts with Kmele's face on it that say "This Guy Isn't Black" in big 70s bubble letters.
Koozies, hats, thongs, shirts, stickers, embossed glassware, magnets, butter knives, pens, journals, croakies.
Any particular kind of butter knives?
I’m kinda in *need* of you guys covering Peter Zeihan, since you asked.
You people promised a 420 episode, and that sounds like a terrible idea.
I suggest cocaine.
We know Groins knows a guy.
Be well, or don’t.
These things, but with a (short) timeline, please.
"Interviews with 2024 presidential candidates."
Great to get confirmation that Kmele is running!
Exactly what I thought!
We can’t have nice things.
Cross over event podcasts would be fun. For example, Moynihan goes on The Re-Education with Eli Lake to talk about the JFK assassination and then Eli Lake comes on TFC to do the same, but covers different ground on the topic or to continue the conversation.
I'd love crossovers where the lads get to explore their own interests. I'd love to hear Kmele chat with some tech / science person, Matt with Ethan Strauss or some other baseball nerd, and Moynihan with a classic car person or something.
I would love a pod where Welch, Moynihan and Nick Gillespie make obscure baseball, music and political jokes for an hour plus.
I love this idea.
More pushback on Megyn Kelly appearances. I say it as a fan of both podcasts. “Wrong again Matt Welsh!”
Seriously though just a quick note of gratitude… I had a budding music career which collapsed when I moved from Austin to LA, then started doing heroin and fentanyl during the pandemic. Became homeless but managed to get myself back home to Alabama and into rehab (Moynihan is right - kicking it is possible). But I’m still trapped here for the time being, without my community of fellow artists to keep me sane. Haven’t been able to play or listen to music since 2020 (it’s too depressing - along with the fact that the music industry has been in a nosedive since around the time LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver was released). So when I discovered this podcast thanks to Blocked and Reported, it was an actual blessing. Y’all sort of fill that friend-shaped hole. So thank you for doing what you do. Really.
Thank you for helping us retain some sanity during these insane times. I've both laughed and learned a lot. Here are two guest recommendations for the coming year: one old guy (who I know) and one young guy (who I don't know).
The first is Martin Lewis, a recently retired historical geographer from Stanford. At the turn of the century, he co-wrote with his wife a wonderful book on the history of geographical ideas called The Myth of Continents. Martin also has worked with Michael Shellenberger at the Breakthrough Institute in preparing their Ecomodernist's Manifesto. I TA'd for him back in the 1990s, when he was briefly at Madison--a super nice guy with a lot of interesting knowledge and ideas that span the globe. A geographer's geographer, and a Californian's Californian.
https://www.geocurrents.info/about/martin-lewis/
https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/issue-4/the-education-of-an-ecomodernist
The second is someone I discovered just this morning. Benjamin Studebaker is a political theorist who earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge in 2020. I stumbled across a blog post of his from 2019 that is an excellent critique of the viral Equality-vs.-Equity, standing-on-crates baseball meme. And his first book has just been published, The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy. Based on his brief synopsis, it looks good.
https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2019/10/20/im-a-political-theorist-and-i-hate-the-equality-equity-chart/
https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2023/05/04/my-first-book-is-out/
Keep up the excellent work, and happy Substack anniversary!
100% for non-crazy and/or non-Marxist geographers.
Love that Studebaker blog post.
If we got a full episode in which you interviewed Moynihan-as-Melania about her presidential campaign, I'd immediately become a never-coacher for life.
I want Michael and Kmele to be as active in the comments sections as Matt.
I know the fifth isn’t a “every week we interview an author on a press release for their forthcoming book” podcast and I appreciate that, but with y’all being such history nerds, I’d love the occasional discussion with a historian. Whatever subject strikes your fancy will do. Thanks.
Hi guys! Enthusiastic subscriber here! I would love the occasional deep-dive on a specific subject/topic - such as the exploding cost of housing. I appreciate your individual and group perspectives, usually centered on media criticism, and would love to hear more time dedicated to discussions and debates of some of the pressing challenges of our current moment. Obviously this already happens, but it’d be cool to have a deeper dive more frequently, such as with the recent episodes about inflation/interest and Buzzfeed/social media.
Cheers from Vermont!
I'm probably in the minority, but more video content, even low-rent, would be nice
Not just the quantity of podcasts but the quantity as well.
Fucking writers strike!
So strike them back, why is this hard
And here I thought you were just taking a dig at the unwashed. Por dios.
More actual podcasts, less newsletters & workin for the weekend compilation stuff that’s not really content. Other than that, 💪🤙👏.
I’m all for more pods but I just want to say I love the workin’ for the weekend recaps!
What a kiss ass lol
Agreed—I love the Workin for the Weekend roundups. Keep ‘em up!
Oh damn, you pile-drived Will, Working for the Weekends are his baby.
Also, they need to make more podcasts.
Dude the working for the weekend is one of the highlights of my week. There’s hundreds of old episodes that you can listen to if you haven’t already and just want that moyn asmr
Take it easy big fella. Don’t think it’s going anywhere, just expressing an opinion.
Started listening after Kmele went on Bari Weiss about the Central Park Karen. Started paying soon after. I love the pod and think it’s the best of its kind on the Internet. I would love to hear more “ big time” guests along the lines of Douglas Murray. Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro, etc. Also more Ben Dreyfuss is always good. Let Matt talk all the baseball he wants, some of us are fans.
I can barely keep up with the frequency with which you guys release podcasts. I don't know how you do it considering you have kids and it isn't even your day job 😱 You're doing an amazing job. Many thanks and keep it up!
P.S. Someone mentioned in the comments that you guys aren't making use of affiliate links when you make recommendations. Do it! Easy money!
the only thing i want more of is book recommendations. & a list of books cited/recommended on the show..
someone had a google doc of books mentioned on the show. is that still around and alive?
i actually just listened to the audiobook of men without work today - i used one of the free credits i got for signing up to listen to the jon ronson podcast through audible. i'd have preferred reading it, but our library doesn't have a copy, harrumph.
They are throwing money away not putting affiliate links in the description of every pod
i probably wasn't clear in my post, i realized - bad writing on my part. i wasn't asking for links to books. just looking for an ongoing list of books mentioned & recommended on the show.
Here you go!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LWM8QaciZwQNcGGMgD7n_Xk6MtfdfV4d3DFtvpH7DAk/edit#gid=1497222430
hey, thanks. it hasn't been updated in a good length of time, but it's still useful. i'll make a point of keeping it bookmarked this time.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ixS0zzpAIk5MWcVmbCxB9duwJ5-g5aWJUVKoFbsoJ4A/edit
There are two copies of the booklist that get shared a lot. This one is a copy of the most updated one.
even better - thanks!
"800 score of you"
Who are you, Abraham Lincoln? Please just write "one-hundred eleventy gross" like a normal person, or "9.3 great gross" if you must.
Alternate Gettysburg address opening:
"One great gross years ago our fathers fought alongside Bar Kochva to unshackle themselves from tyrannical Roman rule and engaged in a revolt dedicated to the proposition that Jerusalem is for the Jews."