Obey the Will of the People! | Ruminant

After spending four days deep in the Adirondacks, Jonah has emerged like Rousseau’s noble savage: reflective, in touch with nature, and ready to talk for two hours as a disembodied podcast voice. If that seems incongruous to you, don’t worry—you’re not alone. Listen in as disembodied Jonah pontificates on disowning the establishment, J.D. Vance’s prospects for president, the iron law of oligarchy, elites, Locke vs. Rousseau, the general will, Tucker Carlson, the DSA, the Michigan Senate race, the meaning of progressive, etymological conundrums, Wisconsin politics, Iran, the meaning of The Remnant, the superfluous men, and Albert Jay Nock. Show Notes: The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Speaker 0 0:00 [instrumental music] [groaning] Ladies and gentlemen, uh- Speaker 0 0:16 Can I please have your attention? Can you dig it? Speaker 0 0:23 [crowd cheering] Speaker 0 0:27 Greetings, dear listeners. This is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnick Podcast, brought to you by The Dispatch and Dispatch Media. People have often heard me say that I don't really believe in writer's block. I, I think fear of writer's block is writer's block. It doesn't really matter to me whether it makes sense to anybody else. It makes sense to me, which is a way to keep mythological writer's block at bay. It's sort of like that scene in Bull Durham where, what's his face, Meat, you know, the new kid, has convinced himself Speaker 0 0:55 that, uh, he has to abstain from Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like