Commentary Magazine Podcast

The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro joins the podcast today to talk about lockdown from the perspective of the West Coast. With his hometown of Los Angeles now planning to extend shelter-at-home guidelines well into the summer and early fall, what are the prospects that the public will abide by those recommendations? And what are the chances that those who do will preserve their sanity?

With economic activity likely in the doldrums for some time and the state wielding virtually unprecedented power to suppress individual liberty, some advocates of a nationalist “common good” philosophy are chafing. But we have to ask: Isn’t this what promoting “the common good” looks like?

Will Donald Trump debate Joe Biden? Or is it to his benefit to deprive the Democratic nominee of oxygen? Also, what will be the fate of the movie-going experience? Has the pandemic dealt the movie theater a fatal blow?

Reflecting on the unmasking scandal and the railroading of Michael Flynn by the Justice Department, the COMMENTARY podcast wonders what Barack Obama could have been thinking at the time? Were the last administration’s concerns noble, or at least understandable, but their execution terribly negligent? Or was there something more nefarious at work? Also, we respond to listener emails.

Joe Biden’s running mate will have to meet many criteria: Young enough, experienced enough, and possess the right mix of demographic traits. Or not. The COMMENTARY Podcast welcomes Matthew Continetti back on the show to discuss Biden’s dilemma.

Has the state of lockdown become a strategy for coping with the pandemic in the absence of any real substantive guidance from public officials? The COMMENTARY podcast discusses the backlash against those who question lockdown orthodoxy and asks if those voices have a compelling and rational point? Also, a bit of background on Noah Rothman.

President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with ABC News host David Muir and, depending on what you think of him, he either did reasonably well or poorly. But what is the president to say at a moment when, whatever the question, there are truly no good answers? Also, an exploration of the life and times of COMMENTARY podcast co-host Christine Rosen.

The COMMENTARY podcast gets its morose on with a review of the increasing stress on the nation’s critical supply chain. With shortages persisting and the threat to the food supply becoming urgent, an honest conversation about the trade-offs associated with the lockdown is coming, whether we like it or not. That, and some background on the podcast's man of mystery, Abe Greenwald.

The COMMENTARY podcast examines all the contradictory notions we’re being asked to overlook. How do you reduce the overall COVID-19 caseload and, also, gradually reopen society? How will reopening local businesses lead to a spike in infections if most people are still too scared to patronize them? How can Democrats rally around Joe Biden and, also, profess their belief that women who claim to be victims of sexual assault deserve society’s deference? The conundrums abound.

Joe Biden is finally made to account for his side of the story today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” What kind of impact will the controversy involving allegations of sexual assault involving a Senate staffer have on the media landscape, to say nothing of the 2020 race?

Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon, joins the COMMENTARY podcast talks about the story that gripped American media—the allegation that an Arizona couple had poisoned themselves with fish tank cleaner in observance of President Trump’s advice. The real story is, we have learned, much more sordid. Also, can American politicians be trusted to competently balance the needs of a functional society amid this pandemic?

Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake joins the hosts of the COMMENTARY podcast to give New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio a thorough reaming over his decision to threaten and single out the city’s Jewish community. That, and the exculpation of Trump’s former NSA Michael Flynn, on an exciting new episode.

In New York City, the nation’s premiere Coronavirus hotspot, there is a visible light at the end of the tunnel. When does the national debate turn away from onerous lockdowns and toward individual case-based mitigation? Also, Joe Biden's problems mount as assault allegations against him gain credence.

Author and columnist Andrew Ferguson is back to talk about America in isolation. The cracks in the nation’s resolve to remain locked down in perpetuity are beginning to show, leading to blowback from the busiest of the nation’s busybodies. Do the politicians who resorted to extreme measures to prevent an outbreak follow the logic of “flatten the curve” and ease restrictions despite a prolonged plateau of COVID-19 cases in American hospitals?

Author, editor, and scholar Yuval Levin is back on the COMMENTARY podcast to talk about the many difficult choices facing Americans in the next few weeks. With no good options before them in the near-term, will the country find a balance between lasting economic despair and death on a terrible scale? It sounds bleak, and it is, but the jaunty Levin navigates the issue as reassuringly as anyone could.