Firehose #114: Amoral Clarity

Also: Second Sunday morning coming down early!

We might not sell nearly as much merch as we ought, but we *do* feature as a paid premium for Never Fly Coach subscribers access to a Zoom call/episode the second Sunday of every month (give or take certain holidays). Most times, though less often lately, we open the call to all paying customers. This Sunday, Oct. 13, is one such time. Not only will middle-of-the-planers get to come heckle, but you Euro-pals and Mideasterners can more easily join as well, since it’s going to be at the ungodly, pre-NFL hour of 11 am ET. Stay tuned for details.

* On Tuesday, Moynihan did the Free Press Live thing with padrino Bari Weiss (veteran of Fifth Column Episodes #89, #115, #159, #180 & #187), plus working class hero Batya Ungar-Sargon (#451), Times of Israel correspondent Haviv Rettig Gur and others to talk about the anniversary of Oct. 7, Kamala Harris’s media tour (discussed here on #474), and the media kerfluffle that finally displaced Nuzzi/Lizza/RFK from the top slot of the media-gossip charts—the CBS News freakout over Tony Dokoupil’s questioning of junketeering Israel critic Ta-Nehisi Coates:

* Since then we’ve seen TNC’s greatest hits on The Ezra Klein Show and Trevor Noah’s podcast (the latter including a muse on whether he would have been strong enough as a Gaza native to not have participated in the Oct. 7 massacre), and of course plenty of reaction to Coates’s re-entry into the political/intellectual discourse, which we initially discussed on #472. Jesse Singal (#111 & #171), with trademark headline-writing flair, wrote a piece called “Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Sentence Downplaying The Importance Of Complexity Proves How Important Complexity Is.” Robby Soave (#332) weighed in with “CBS Needs a Safe Space for Tony Dokoupil's Critics,” and Glenn Loury (#121, #188, #366) cogitated further on his own “’perplexing’” reaction to The Message, telling perplexee John McWhorter (#84, #121, #188 & #366) that “I think the book is brilliant”:

* Taking a different tack on Dan Senor’s Call Me Back podcast was the great Israeli-Canadian journalist Matti Friedman:

* Also touching on the controversy, but more importantly digging into Melania Trump’s new memoir (discussed here on #471), were our gals Sarah Hepola (#354) and Nancy Rommelmann (#79, Special Dispatch #27, S.D. #30, #198, #203, S.D. #34, S.D. #50, S.D. #64, S.D. #111), in their latest Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em. Nancy also hung out with some pro-Hamaz/Hezbollah protesters on Oct. 7, and has thots:

* Speaking of protesters, Andy Mills (#457) had on Reflector a conversation with Eman Abdelhadi, “an American academic, activist, and organizer in the Free Palestine movement.” Previews Andy: “If you align with the Free Palestine movement, Eman’s story may resonate deeply. If you support Israel, it may be challenging and even frustrating to hear. But regardless of where you stand, I believe there is value in listening to a view that is shaping more and more of the American discourse on this issue.”

* You know how Andrew Schulz just did a sit-down interview w/ a cat named Donald Trump? What if I told you that before he became an arena comedian, Schulzie sat down w/ The Fifth Column in Episodes #30 & #32, the latter of which was our first one … after the election of Donald Trump! Also, here’s that Schulz Saves America Netflix special that I allegedly helped out on, though who honestly can remember what happened in the year 2020. Here’s Hezi & crew w/ The Donald:

* Speaking of comedians, Fifdom fave Ryan Long, frequent partner of Danny Polishchuk (Members Only #187), has a whole-ass new special out this week:

* While it is my heartfelt desire to never hear the name Candace Owens uttered again on this podcast (she has come up on #98, #144, #223, #447, M.O. #226, at the least), I would be remiss in my video-embedding duties to not include a conversation she had recently with our Aussie pal Josh Szeps (#25, #80, #103, #117, #196, #328, #423, #445):

* Events: There’s a SoHo Forum debate Oct. 21 in NYC between David Leonhardt and John Early on whether “The stagnation of living standards, and soaring economic inequality, have become the defining economic trends of American life.” On Oct. 24, Nick Gillespie (S.D. #72 & #379) will conduct a Reason Speakeasy interview in NYC with Musa al-Gharbi about his new book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. The Nov. 4 election-eve live taping of The Reason Roundtable in NYC is now being waitlisted. I’m sure there’s other stuff I’m forgetting.

* Comment of the Week comes from Sionann Monroe:

When baseball rookies were poor, Fosse and Larry Burchart (relief pitcher and my mom’s boyfriend 😂) used to hang at my grandma’s and she’d cook for them constantly. Ray was a super nice guy.

Outro, presented with creative film editing, is an all-timer, from a catalogue I highly recommend dipping into: