Workin’ for the Weekend #68: Give the Gift of a Fifth Column Subscription to Your Friends and Enemies!
Also: Kmele flirts with Bourbon aficionado Jane Goodall
Happy post-Thanksgiving, everyone! Or at least, it woulda been, if it hadn’t been for those confounded kids blocking my return drive home over the Manhattan Bridge Sunday afternoon and snarling all traffic in and out of Gotham on the busiest travel day of the year. (Rest assured that a local throughput-appreciator gave them a piece of her mind.)
At any rate, as the photo above (of a 1946-48 DeSoto sedan at the Pine Plains Christmas parade), we are now at the holiday-season stage when we give not just our thanks but our attention-spans, as we frantically search for the appropriate Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza gifts. So here is your annual reminder: Nothing quite says I love/hate you like a gift to your very favorite podcast, The Fifth Column. We have heard many delightful stories over the years of gift subs that have worked out (and a few that have not, but were at least hilarious). At worst, it’s a win-lose-win. Let Moynihan stuff your stocking!
And now for the week that was….
* Episode #4 of Dispatches from The Well is out, and (per the chatter on Episode #432) it’s Kmele’s fave so far. In “Stories: How humanity makes its meaning,” our hero….
unravels the significance of storytelling in the human experience. From the profound words of psychologist Dan McAdams to the life stories shared by renowned conservationist Jane Goodall and actor Terry Crews, we delve deep into the art of narrative creation.
We set out to explore how we craft narratives to make sense of our past, present, and future, forging our identities and purpose along the way. Join us as we contemplate the timeless question: Are we the stories we tell?
This episode invites you to ponder the intricate tapestry of existence, where storytelling serves as the compass guiding our journey through the enigmatic cosmos.
* Speaking of Kmele’s journeys, the star of his Episode #3, David Krakauer of the Santa Fe Institute, was given the interview treatment on Art Keller’s Technoskeptic podcast. Sez Art in the Chat: “Think of it as informal bonus material…. We discuss whether technology is makin’ us all a bit dumber and less likely to discover important new advances. There is minimal overlap between what Kmele discussed with Krakauer and what The Technoskeptic covered, so its genuine value added.”
* Our friends at the new Substack pub Civil posted a second half of their conversation with me (first half found here), with the winning headline of “Matt Welch on What Makes His Podcast Successful.” Amirite? Amirong? Who knows!
* My colleague and co-author on The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarianism Can Fix What’s Wrong with America, Nick Gillespie (Special Dispatch #72, #379), appeared yesterday on Conversations with Coleman, the podcast of our pal Coleman Hughes (#121, #144, #181, #188, #201, #379, #412). “[W]e discuss Nick's experience getting engaged at the recent Burning Man,” Coleman notes. “We talk about psychedelic drugs, the promise they hold, as well as the dangers they contain. We talk about the evolution of the libertarian movement in America. We talk about how we should message about drugs to kids. We talk about the differences between MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD. We talk about why trust in government has declined, and much more.”
* Josh Szeps (#25, #80, #103, #117, #196, #328, #423) may be sexy and newly underemployed, but he’s not dumb (at least not for an Australian): His first post-resignation Uncomfortable Conversation was with none other than the poster gal for I-quit-and-then-built-a-SWEET-media-business, Bari Weiss (#89, #115, #159, #180, #187).
* Fifdom fave Senate candidate Peter Meijer (S.D. #51, #307, #339, #367, #424, M.O. #184) continues to get some not-great press. Sample headlines: “Peter Meijer Stood Up to Trump, Now He’s Selling Out to Him” (Daily Beast), “We Asked a Pro-Impeachment Republican Why He’d Back Trump” (Politico), “Peter Meijer, Once a Huge Critic of Donald Trump, Now Not So Sure” (Huffpost).
* Events are a bit squirrelly to talk about since SO MANY of them are facially private podcast/Substack December parties in NYC being held people EVERYBODY HERE KNOWS…. I will probably go to one or two of them, though just looking at the holiday drinkfest calendar has me thinking of a padded cell. There is at least one NYC Fifiverse meetup being brewed for Dec. 1…. Public-facing events include a Nov. 27 NYC screening of the 30-minute Reason documentary Bitcoin, Bathhouses, and the Future of Energy, at which Nick Gillespie will interview Zach Weissmueller, Alex Gladstein, and Jason Goodman, and a Dec. 12 Reason Speakeasy where Dr. Gillespie interrogates Jennifer Burns, author of Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.
* Comment of the Week goes to DangerouslyUnstable:
Since it seems like this story won't get read on the air at this point, I'll share it here:
In light of the recent praise for Jane Goodall, I would like to share a story that, in my mind, makes her even greater.
My wife has a PhD in animal behavior that she got studying chimpanzees. Part of her field work was done in one of the Jane Goodall sanctuaries in the Congo (the safer one, not the "Democratic" one). While she was there, Dr. Goodall came for a week to check in on the sanctuary. This was about a decade ago, so she was about 80 at the time.
Well, it turns out that Dr. Goodall is a Scotch drinker, specifically: Johnnie Walker Red, and she never travels without a bottle with her. So the first evening, she walks into the lounge area where my wife and the other researchers are hanging out and asks "Who will have a whiskey with me?"
Well of the 4 people in the room, one was a recovering alcoholic and one was an underage undergrad who couldn't recognize the appropriate time to break rules and I can't remember why the 3rd turned it down, so Dr Goodall turns to my wife and, no longer asking, says that she will have a drink with Jane. My wife, not being a dummy, of course agrees (again: not that she had much choice), and she then proceeded to share an evening Scotch with Jane every night that week.
My wife is a whiskey drinker to this day (although she eventually settled mostly on bourbon), and it's all thanks to Dr. Jane Goodall.
And pursuant to the #190 discussion about Crispin Glover, here is your walkoff music:
I recently went through the comment section on The Free Press, which I love. I did not love the comment section. People were slugging it out in ugly fashion. In contrast I think that The Fifth Column and its comment section are both great. There is a sense of humor here and some (small measure of) self awareness. For example, if someone roasts me for this comment and thinks I'm a moron for writing it, I expect that it will be done without tacking on, "and you are a fucking awful person," at the end.
Just got home from the drive back down from SF (and literally FIVE viewings of people walking out of stores with bags of shit). Un-motherfucking-real.
Anyway, before I kick back and listen to Welch talk about what makes his podcast successful, I think I can sum it up in one word (at least for me): ENGAGEMENT. You specifically, Matt, engage with all of us, whether by likes, responses, pod comments about posters and emails, or all of it. That right there is what does it for me.
Now, about this NYC Fif' meetup...when are we doing one of these in The Goddamned LA area? Seriously, team, it's already a pain in the ass to live down here. I really think we need this. **Unless of course there is one already and I'm woefully out of the loop. Wouldn't be the first time.**