Firehose #188: Just a New York Conversation Rattling in My Head

Also: “This will be the last episode of The Moynihan Report in this format...”

Have you noticed lately around these parts how, like, a whole third episode will just appear in a given week? A little Rahm Emanuel here, Chris Christie there, timely weekend One-Hitters starring various? Well, your eyes don’t deceive. This podcast, which will be celebrating its glorious goddamned Decennial this coming Wednesday via drunken YouTube livestream at 7 p.m. ET with beloved special guests, was, in its early days, described in the intro as “almost weekly.” With the advent of Patreon in November 2019, we started adding bonus Patreon episodes into our almost-weekly schedule; then, after taking our talents to Substack in May 2022 – thanks in huge part to you O.G. Patreon subscribers porting over – we settled on a consistent rhythm of about 90 group and 6 solo episodes per calendar year. Almost semiweekly, if you will.

But since our decisive Pivot to Video this past September, said output has been jacked – to an annualized average of 108 group episodes and 23 solo, or 2.5 drops per week. (Yes, I like counting the number of things in things.) Long story short, paying subscribers in particular are getting more value for their money, in large part because we are plowing our increased revenue streams (mostly paid subscriptions, but also merch, live shows, and ads) into making more and better product. This is the way.

* For you non-paying subscribers, here’s the Emanuel clip they’re talking about at Mediaite and Yahoo:

Is Rahm running? Sure acting like someone who is: penning big think-pieces on education policy, National Service (barf), modern parenting, and foreign policy; talking tough on immigration and social media. Another recent Fifth Column guest considering an ideologically unlikely presidential primary bid is Sen. Rand Paul (#509, Members Only #301), who’s telling CBS News “We’re thinking about it….I would say 50-50.”

Our compleat (I think?) list of episodes with then-running presidential candidates, in chronological order: Gary Johnson (#27), Andrew Yang (#134), Justin Amash (#184), and Vivek Ramaswamy (#411). You can be sure their ranks will grow over the coming year….

* One of the sub-themes of Episode #549 with Comedy Cellar impresario-slash-podcast/Twitter Gila monster Noam Dworman was how one approaches conversations with public figures who have taken certain neck-snapping turns in their commentary and journalistic comportment. Several Fifdom-overlapping interactions this past week tested out the various theories discussed. Beginning with Kmele’s appearance Monday with Megyn Kelly (#526), discussing the Iran War, CBS News, Jake Tapper, and Don Lemon. He’s on from around minute 51 to 1:53:

* On Tuesday, I did a Substack Live YouTube thingie with our friend Batya Ungar-Sargon (#451, #502), talking about the problem(s) with libertarians, matters related to Jooos, and … how one approaches conversations with public figures who have taken certain neck-snapping turns in their commentary and journalistic comportment:

* Then on Wednesday, Coleman Hughes (#121, #144, #181, #188, #201, #379, #412, #442) did one of his exhaustive two-hour debates on Israel, Iran, and free speech with Glenn Greenwald (#183, #197, #211):

The above exchange, perhaps inevitably, led to a bitchy, days-long Twitter spat over … travel choices made on the junket Coleman (and I, and Moynihan, and Noam Dworman, and Jesse Singal, and Nancy Rommelmann, and a half-dozen other podcasters) made to Israel in November 2022. I would link to the kerf(l)uffle, but it really is that pointless, and the precipitating bitch-tweet has since been deleted. We responded to related criticisms about that trip in M.O. #191.

* Speaking of Twitter beefs, some of our social media clips taken from this extended M.O. #310 exchange generated clapbacks from Greenwald and Hasan Piker:

* Which were then responded to by Herr Moynihan himself in what he described as “the last episode of The Moynihan Report in this format,” adding: “new exciting stuff is coming, I promise you that.” Those Moyni-curious are encouraged to subscribe (for free!) at themoynihan.report.

* Our pal and business partner Jonathan Farber (also known on various episodes as “Fucking Jonathan”) got behind the mic of the How the World Works podcast hosted by Kevin Williamson (#44, M.O. #294). Here the “investor with experience in both the oil business and venture capital,” talks about his “path into the energy world, how his work expanded from traditional oil markets into media and journalism, and what he has learned along the way.”

* It being the Holy Week of the start of baseball season, I was fortunate enough to mark Opening Day with our dear friend Kennedy (#37) on her hit Fox pod Kennedy Saves the World:

* It’s time for Producer Jason’s Video Vault!

After Rahm Emanuel’s unexpected reaction to seeing footage of himself from 1978 on M.O. #311, it’s only appropriate that this week’s Video Vault celebrates the film(s) we pulled it from, especially since our familiarity with it stems from my past life as a video store owner.

Back in the late ‘90s when I was running a cult video store in Chicago called Big Brother, we got in a VHS copy of Chicago Nazis. It was a collection of Tom Palazzo & Mark Rance’s short verité docs following around Frank Collin and his “National Socialist Party of America” (read: literal brown shirt & swastika-wearing Nazis) after their victory in the famous Skokie case got them what they really wanted all along: the right to hold a rally in Marquette Park. It’s a bizarre document of an ugly, intentionally forgotten moment in Chicago history. That two ballsy kids from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago managed to talk Collins and his goons into thinking it was a good idea is one of the most amazing aspects of the docs, and probably planted the seed for some of my own journalistic misadventures in later years. And speaking of journalists, is that Chicago Tribune reporter David Axelrod in the image above?

Watch for free on Mediaburn: Marquette Park I & Marquette Park II.

* Comment of the Week comes from Jonathan:

Putting on my Apple Vision Pro so I can watch this episode in the shower.

* Sendoff: The wonderfully named Dash Crofts, of Seals and Crofts fame, died Wednesday at age 87. The duo got their start from 1958-65 playing in the good-time instrumental rock group The Champs (of “Tequila” fame, though they joined just after), with Seals on sax, Crofts on drums. They moved to L.A., got a pad on Sunset Blvd., did the obligatory work with Glen Campbell, switched up main instruments (Seals on guitar, Crofts on mandolin), then got to soft-rockin’. You know the highlights: 1972’s Summer Breeze (album #7, indelible single #6), 1973’s Diamond Girl (album #4, single #6), with Crofts on those sweet high harmonies. But what’s less remembered after all that career momentum is what they did immediately after: a post-Roe v. Wade anti-abortion record and lead single called Unborn Child. The two had converted to the Baha’i faith in 1967, and took it seriously. This turned out to be … not so successful, peaking at #14 in the album charts, just #66 on a single that was banned by some radio stations, pilloried by rock critics, and awarded the National Organization for Women’s sardonic “Keep Her in Her Place” trophy. Did it sink their career? Nah, they still had three top-20 singles left in their productive 1970s, including the once-ubiquitous “Get Closer.” But yeah, they ended up more Ray Fosse than Carlton Fisk, though I do appreciate that they mostly peaced out after 1980, rather than drag their tired carcasses out for reunion tours. Anyway, here’s that pro-life soft-rock anthem you didn’t ask for!