Rec Room #2: The Amazing Google Doc(s) of Book References

Plus other insane non-sanctioned content brought to you by Planet #Fifdom!

The Fifth Column community, or #Fifdom for short, is—as beloved listener and suspected Romania Ileana Almog is always just a bit too eager to point out—#NotACult. Like many catchphrases indigenous to the community, I don’t fully understand, nor am I meant to.

For those of you new here, and/or on the freebie subscription plan, consider this post a gateway drug, a cautionary tale, a cracking open of Pandora’s Box, as we take a necessarily incomplete tour of the awesome creativity, human industry, and creepy connectivity that has been organically generated in completely unsanctioned form these past six years by all your fellow ears-havers.

Oh, there have been #Fifdom wedding engagements, regular Shabbat dinners (in my native LBC!), and spinoff podcasts galore. But most of all, spectacularly, in ways I’m not sure anyone can fathom, there has been….

The Mother of All Book-Reference Lists.

Unless this one’s The Mother of All Book-Reference Lists.

One was reportedly launched by a Fifth Column sub-Reddit user named Trey, the other is maintained by our Substack subscriber Coner. (UPDATE from Bill at @TheKnightLife12: “I launched but Trey maintained, thanks Trey whoever you are.") Regardless of provenance and who holds which keys, both Google docs are staggering works of painstaking genius, with most episodes dated and linked and combed for every single got-damn book we (most often Moynihan) mention, plus links galore. Believe me, I’ve seen the floor-to-ceiling shelves out there in East Egg, but a library big enough to accommodate all these would require a new wing or three.

If/when the two Google docs merge, or anchor some kind of Fifipedia page (just spitballing here!), I will create a standing link somewhere around these parts. (We’re still just getting started; expect some renovations soon.) Certainly, nothing’s preventing anyone from pasting the relevant information into, I dunno, THE COMMENTS SECTION OF ALL THE EPISODES. 

The Google Doc, singular or plural, just scratches the surface of #Fifdom-generated content. A sampling of the other highlights, with the insistent caveat that we are NOT responsible for any questionable editorial choices, meatspace mishaps, nor multi-level marketing schemes:

* #jamsthefifth—the Fifth Column Substack outro music. Maintained by beloved listener (and musician) Jaye, this is a Spotify playlist of all the outro music inserted (almost always by Moynihan) at the end of each Members Only podcast. Appropriate for Ringo-Seals of all ages!

* The aforementioned Fifth Column sub-Reddit.

* The un-aforementioned Fifth Column Discord channel. I’m still holding out for a Fifth Column Dischord channel, but this will do in the meantime.

* The Fifth Column Facebook page.

* The Fifth Column Community Show. In which Fifdom stalwarts including Brad Knollenberg, Alma Cook, Ben Price, Chayleah Sufrin, Garrett Sasse, and the aforementioned Ileana Almog & Jaye, gather in various combinations to talk about whatever’s on their minds. Sometimes they rope in former Fifth-guest faves, such as Ben Dreyfuss and Nancy Rommelmann, sometimes they get dead serious about Ukraine or abortion. And at the beginning of April they had yours truly on to talk about our impending pivot to Substack!  

* Speaking of Chayaleah, she and fellow Fifdom vet Yael Bar tur hatched a podcast a half-year ago called Ask a Jew, which quickly became the breakout star over at the Rommelmann/Welch/Scott Ross joint Paloma Media. Ask was named by the Jewish Journal’s Tabby Refael as her “Favorite Jewish Podcast of 2022.” So big have their britches become that they, too, have pivoted to Substack.

Is there other content associated with the Vast Fifdom Conspiracy out there? Oh heavens yes. Which you will now find out much more about in the comments! For all the newbies out there, welcome to #NotACult, and we can’t wait to see what new horrors you all will produce!