I’m not sure which but for a very long time this podcast has been such a voice of reason; a place where events and ideas are discussed and debated in good faith, representing each side fairly, and with an appropriate amount of levity to keep things interesting. I could listen to you guys present and debate challenging topics and learn while I clarified where I land, laughing all the way. It was so refreshing. But lately it’s become more snark than informative or enlightening discussion. I’m not saying you need to be the end all/be all for your audience but something seems to be missing. The takes seem to be more and more just judging from a distance and making fun of certain people/perspectives rather than engaging with the meat of the opposing arguments so the audience can learn what you know as journalists. The Russia/Ukraine war is a good example of this. Perhaps I missed an episode where you hashed this out but from the beginning it’s been a very overt “obviously Russia is in the wrong and Ukraine is in the right” type certainty without explaining why the dissenting views and all the various historical evidence supporting said views should be dismissed. It’s been many months since I’ve been able to get through a whole episode without turning it off bc it’s not really helping me understand the local and global landscape the way it used to.

I've been a Never Fly Coach subscriber since they started their Substack (and for a bit before that on Patreon), but I won't be renewing my subscription this May unless they drastically improve. I don't necessarily need them to change their positions, I just want them to stop mischaracterizing the positions of those they disagree with and actually engage with them instead. It started with the Russia/Ukraine war, where they mischaracterized anti-war people as being pro-Russian. Then with the Israel/Palestine conflict, where they mischaracterized people being critical of the actions of Israel's government as being antisemitic and/or pro-Hamas (yes, there are idiots on the left who are pro-Hamas, but there are also plenty of people who condemn Hamas while also being critical of Israel). Despite being a mostly libertarian podcast, they seem more willing to speak with liberals and conservatives than with libertarians who are more radical than them. The fact that they're more interested in talking with Ben Shapiro (who they've said they'd like to have on the podcast) than with someone like Scott Horton says a lot. On cultural issues and criticizing the media, they're great. On foreign policy, they've become awful, and foreign policy is too important for me to overlook what they've been saying on the topic. Again, I don't need them to change their positions, I just want them to actually engage with people they disagree with. They do that on other topics, so they should do it for foreign policy as well.

First discovered these guys on YouTube Megyn Kelly Show. Always entertaining!

I got into this show recently because it’s a relatively intelligent discussion about current events but they really need an editor. The most recent episode had a guest who immediately complained about needing to eat before answering any questions and then once that was accomplished, proceeded to complain about irrelevant trivialities for five minutes while the hosts laughed awkwardly. You’re supposed to cut all that garbage out of the show guys. Well, I’m out. Plenty of fish in the sea and not enough time to waste listening to a hangry adult complain about their free pizza.

If you don’t like Moynihan, you have my sympathy for your intellectual impairment. In all honesty, you can’t get a better mix of current events, informed takes, humor, and historical awareness, in a very digestible form.

I found you guys through MK’s podcast and now I listen to you too. You guys have so much fun and I love the endless heckling and general merriment. Thank you for getting me to smile when I feel like rarely smile anymore.

My only complaint is that I still have no idea what Freethink is.

You are extremely harsh and biased. Listen carefully to yourself, look inside your soul and determine if you really want to be so unreasonable and hateful. Candace Owens is not any worse than Ben Shapiro. Candace Owen’s is much better than rabbi schmuley. She is not anti semetic as people claim. She has her flaws, but so do they. Candace Owens has her opinions and so do they. The Daily Wire claims to be against wokeness and for free speech, but they really don’t.

I would love to hear more from Foster and Welch, but no chance as long as Moynihan is in the room.

Fantastic podcast despite how much a 1 star review throws them off.

Now that the hyperbole is over for real this is my favorite podcast. The only Substack I would subscribe to Well, Blocked and Reported, America This Week, and dish cast or ride up there with The Fifth Column. Well informed opinions, Matt Welch is amazing Michael Moynihan always makes me laugh, and I find myself constantly amused that the of one Mr. Camille Foster been listening to about show 110 I will keep listening keep subscribing help these guys stare float these three men are the last true journalist we have

Robin Williams, Fiddy Cent, and the president of your local chess club combine to bring toyful analysis of backward pawns that have infiltrated the club of modern journalism. I’m hooked.

No matter what you’re listening to, this is better. Michael is irreverent and always willing to admit when he’s wrong. Matt is smart and the glue that makes the podcast work. Kmele (if he shows up) is just the man. Left, center, right, whatever your bias, this podcast is always a good time.

If the world was on fire, these guys would argue there’s nothing to see here

There’s collateral damage, which is always a tragedy. Then there’s dehumanization and slaughter. I’m against it, no matter who does it. Moynihan laughs and roots for it. Disgusting.

Complete waste of time listening to this drivel. The mental gymnastics you have to endure to make sense of the aggrieved mediocre male’s incessant made up complaints is astounding

Need I say more

Way too much Moynihan and not nearly enough Foster & Welch. Smart conversation.

..who I used to like but now disgusts me with his absolutely putrid, ignorant, boot licking, apologia of Israel’s war of extermination against the Palestinians. I had considered becoming a paid subscriber, but no more. You can beg and browbeat you’re fans all you want since you lost your day job at vice (pathetic btw), You ain’t EVER getting a penny from me son. Blocked and Reported is a much funnier podcast anyway which I’ve been a happily paid subscriber of for more than 3 years now. Funnier and much less genocidal. Sounds like a winning combo and a better use of my time and money

Great conversations

Michael Moynihans voice sounds like some dude trying explain Fugazi to me

…you said “conclusion”.

I guarantee these guys would sue if what they dosas done to them. The point they are trying to make isn’t always without validity. But that doesn’t seem to be the point. The point is to find a way to attack whatever someone has done or said. The attack should be as cruel and hurtful as possible because that’s really funny.

All of what happened ahead of dying in custody matters, but the death was directly triggered by the unnecessary and aggressive restraint of a prone, handcuffed person.

Great show. The hosts are intelligent and have a great sense of humor. There isn’t any strong political bias which is refreshing. Their chemistry is entertaining

Seriously, Matt needs to bow out of the podcasting world. Smart guy, good writer, but a terrible speaker. Makes this and Reason Roundtable tough to listen to.

TFC is fun, engaging and i learn something every show. When guys are volleying its at is best. But…MM needs to make some space. I do not know if this is by design a Moynihan led thing. In any case, balance it out boys and keep it cookin

It’s the same talking point, over and over and over and over again. I mostly agree with them about that issue, but hearing about it for 90 minutes is a bit too depressing to be entertaining. The shows where they read all the creepy messages that their fans email them are pretty funny though.

The President and JPierre were quoting the FBI Re the danger of white supremacist violence in US. You know that. Your constant self congratulatory belligerence & arrogance along with ur regurgitated half truths simply disqualify your blathering assertions & do the very thing that you decry on the left ~it would all just be boring but in these dangerous days it is incredibly irresponsible

Not very anti-war for a predominantly libertarian podcast. Moynihan is clearly a neocon wannabe and just incredibly arrogant. Just accuses people he disagrees with as idiots. Israel-Palestine and Ukraine takes are absolutely horrendous. I feel like this is a dumb person’s smart people podcast. They say things that sound smart, but at the core are intellectually bereft. Most of the hosts are also too drunk most of the time making it almost unlistenable.

If MM would swallow half as many words as he swallows burps( and this is true) as he would say. Then this would be a much better podcast.

Moynihan is shocked that people in the west seem to be more critical of Israel than Hamas. If we can agree that Hamas is a terrorist org to whom we don’t supply $40b/yr, we’re allowed to be critical of deaths caused by our tax payer supported war.

Michael: this is your brain on Cold War era American propaganda. Scrambled eggs with ketchup. Pretty good at accents. Kmele: I have good ideas about race so people think I have other good ideas too. I don’t and love billionaire money. Matt: Dad

The best podcast out there, hands down.

The Fifth Column has pretty similar commentary and ethos as South Park. They don't pander to tribal culture wars but instead illustrate how the bickering sides are more alike than they'd care to admit. But don't expect a lot of finger wagging - they'll just (half-drunkenly) laugh at the insanity. Yet through all the booze and I-hope-no-one-heard-me-laugh-at-that-jokes, they are all very well informed and have some pretty profound insights (sometimes).

I never miss an episode. Each one is a jem.

Posturing, unserious, juvenile narcissists in love with displaying their cleverness in public. Often amusing, occasionally informative, but rarely substantive or principled. These people think that they are brave and virtuous mavericks, skewering the orthodoxy with their incisive wit and superior social network of heterodox heroes. This is delusion. They do make valid points eloquently, and this is a genuine value. But it all adds up to little more than the usual libertarian farrago of intellectually muddled, unsystematic heuristics, policy positions, attitudes, and unreflected bromides. This is why they cannot detect the fact that many of their friends and guests are simply moronic moral reprobates, even though the hosts are often vastly superior thinkers. They lack the intellectual substance or moral confidence to consistently defend the rational, because they are little more than verbally adept dilettantes. Historical trivia and pop culture references sufficiently sustain a long-form format, but we never arrive at the point.

These guys are smart, informed, and entertaining, but most of what they do, in my opinion, is passionately recite the same extremely obvious points as if they are profound.For example: there are double standards and hypocrisy in the media where liberals act in bad faith. Yes, we get it—We don’t need another example. More deep analysis and history, please. That’s where I think these guys are at their best.

Matt Welch was disappointing on Emily Oster and Covid. She was NOT good regarding Covid. And if Matt considers her to be mostly on “his side” regarding what to think about it, it’s clear that he too wasn’t very good on it. Yes, she was okay on kids and school closings, but she still held to the masking kids in schools, which was an absurd idea. And she backed vaccine mandates. There was enough data about Covid and the state’s mitigation efforts by late April 2020 to prove that those mitigation efforts and the inevitable results were and would be nothing short of calamitous. The Fifth Column contributors are very fair-minded, but they are also sometimes too gracious (e.g., appreciating Oster’s “Covid amnesty”) and occasionally really stupid.

Moynihan is my fav part of this show by far, which is a STRONG statement because I LOVE the others very much. Wonderful clever man. Bizarre reading the other opinions in the reviews

I see other reviews agree that Moynihan is becoming insufferable. The guys opinion is always right. His view can never be challenged. Not surprising he can’t hold a real media job.

To save you time I’ve summarized this podcast: Oswald acted alone, everything pharma does is altruistic and 100% safe and the mainstream media version is the truth, always. Oh, and anyone who questions official versions is crazy, dangerous and probably a criminal.

Used to be a fan. It’s been getting gradually worse. To the point where they’re now shilling for Haley. What?

Milquetoast, arrogant, alcoholic lolberts with nothing interesting to say. No strong stands taken. They love the establishment attention.

The only downside of listening to TFC is doing so during a workout, hearing the clink of glasses, and wanting to immediately stop and have a drink.

If you were referred to this show it was done ironically and speaks volumes to your acquaintances opinion of you.

I enjoy you podcast but what the heck michael interrupted Coleman over and over in the podcast. You talked more than your guest. I appreciate differing opinions and a calm interchange for people to share their opinions. If you had wanted to refute Robert Kennedy's stance on issues you should've had him on instead you used Coleman Hughes to represent Robert Kennedy's opinions and you talked over Coleman and interrupted him. Just not a good interview. You guys are better than this. Thanks Joyce

Generally speaking, I love this podcast. That said I was extremely put off by the smug and sanctimonious manner in which Moynihan and Kamele dealt with Coleman recently. On the other hand I became an even bigger fan of Coleman than I was before. For the foreseeable future, given a limited amount of free time in which to listen to podcasts, Conversations with Coleman will be my first choice.

Always enjoyed y’all on Megyn Kelly, but I’m fairly appalled now that I’ve listened here. The drag queens mocking Catholics by simulating sex acts while dressed as nuns and priests are horrifying. If it were a group doing the same with the Muslim faith, everyone would be apoplectic. Either know more, or maybe skip making fun of the rest of us who are undone by such filth. Not opposed to a drag show, but not up for denigrating nuns.

These guys are good. Their topics and takes are interesting and worth hearing. However, listening is unbearable at times because there is way too much laughing and chuckling at their own dumb jokes, or chuckling at nothing. It detracts.