The Peacemaker of Utah | Interview: Spencer Cox

As faithful Remnant listeners know, we try to avoid having politicians on the show. It just gets kinda awkward when you have to publicly rake them over the coals for eating mac and cheese on camera. But being good Burkeans, we know that all rules have their exceptions. Gov. Spencer Cox is one of those exceptions. He joins Jonah Goldberg on the show to talk about his new book, Off Ramp. Along the way, they cover political division, technology, Mormonism, social media, local politics, the 10th Amendment, executive power, contempt, cancel culture, congressional reform, coalition building, governorships, and the greatness of Utah. 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. Music 0:00 [drumming] [screaming] [cymbals crashing] Music 0:14 Ladies and gentlemen. Music 0:16 Can I please have your attention? Can you dig it? [crowd cheering] Jonah Goldberg 0:27 Greetings, dear listeners. This is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant Podcast, brought to you by The Dispatch and Dispatch Media. As listeners know, we don't do a lot of sitting politicians or even a lot of former al- politicians on here, and I try very hard not to become friends or friendly with politicians because part of my job is to Jonah Goldberg 0:48 stick 'em with needles every now and then. And, uh, it's sort of like, uh, as I often say, if you're a research scientist, the last thing you wanna do is start naming all the test bunnies. It's much easier to put a needle in test subject 47B than Mr. Whiskers. Every now and then, someone makes it through my defenses and becomes someone I consider a friend, and today's guest is one of them. It's, it's Governor Spencer Cox. He's a sitting governor in Utah, which is very rare. I think first sitting governor on this podcast. He's been public service and, and, and public office for a very long time, held all sorts of commission-- uh, positions, city council member, mayor, county commissioner. He was lieutenant governor in Utah, and he's been governor since, what, 2021, something like that? Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like