The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

"To say that Boris Johnson went there and forced the Ukrainians to fight on - that is complete bullshit."

Why did Zelensky ignore six requests from Trump to stop hitting Russian refineries, and does the Russian diesel deal that followed make sense while the Iran war has fuel at crisis prices? What was Steve Witkoff doing calling Putin a "great humanitarian" this week?
Did NATO expansion provoke the invasion, or is Putin just a man who can't stand being slighted? Is Russia Hitler's Germany, or is Munich an overused analogy. Is Trump is saving Zelensky from himself?

Also: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, Steve Witkoff, Henry Kissinger, Boris Johnson, Victoria Nuland, Paul Krugman, Samuel Charap, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Dave Smith, Candace Owens, Theo Von, Iran war, Strait of Hormuz, diesel prices, Donbas, Crimea, NATO.

Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of "To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power." He is writing a history of the Russia-Ukraine war, to be published when the war ends. Follow him on X: @DrRadchenko.

0:00 Dan's still out; Noam's 2017 Crimea clips: "sanctions till the end of time"
13:40 Sergey Radchenko on Trump's Russian diesel deal and the six requests Zelensky ignored
28:46 Witkoff calls Putin a "great humanitarian": what's the strategy?
36:20 Will Russia roll over Europe? Munich, Kissinger's last word, NATO's empty promise
44:15 Should a victim compromise? Donbas, security guarantees, did the West provoke Crimea
57:40 Why Putin invaded: humiliation, hubris, Obama's Atlantic interview, Afghanistan
1:08:36 The Istanbul talks, the Boris Johnson myth, and the verdict on Trump
1:24:49 Post-game: Dave Smith, the Absolut Pussy ad, Candace Owens, Theo Von

"They hated each other." That's Elliot Kaufman describing Israel's war cabinet, not its enemies.

Kaufman joins Noam Dworman on the rivalries, leaks and gambles behind Israel's war since October 7. Why did Netanyahu wait 20 days to invade Gaza? When was Biden saving Israel from itself, and when was he holding it back? And why did killing Nasrallah trigger a furious phone call from Washington? They also confront what both consider Israel's biggest mistake in Gaza: taking ground, leaving, and having to fight for it all over again.

Also: Gallant and Gantz, Jake Sullivan and Lloyd Austin, the Philadelphi Corridor, Rafah, the Qatar strike, Trump's "all I heard was yes," Mamdani's October 7 statement, and Iran under blockade.

Get the full story in Kaufman's new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, coauthored with Yonah Jeremy Bob.

0:00 Elliot Kaufman and the case for airing Israel's dirty laundry
6:44 Churchill's war room vs. Israel's: "they hated each other"
18:25 Mers-el-Kébir, Netanyahu's history test, and the 20-day wait to invade Gaza
30:06 Hostages, the Philadelphi Corridor, and the Saudi deal that wasn't
38:34 Rafah in days, not months, and was Biden really in decline?
48:46 The morning of October 7: Halevi's note and one aircraft
55:12 Killing Nasrallah without telling Washington, and how the Iran war began
65:29 Endgame: Petraeus, raid-and-leave, "all I heard was yes," and the story that leaves Hamas out

Hen Mazzig, co-founder of the Tel Aviv Institute and author of The Wrong Kind of Jew, says Israel won on the battlefield and lost the world, and that explaining Israel "is not a replacement for policy." He spent five years in COGAT, the IDF unit that issues Palestinian permits and prison visits, and was attacked by settlers while in uniform. We play his Piers Morgan fight with Norman Finkelstein ("Am I a child killer?") and go through what Amit Soussana actually said. Noam asks whether Israel would hold the West Bank if it had no holy sites, why the occupation is the Palestinians' best weapon, and why "sunlight grows mushrooms." Also: Mamdani's October 7 statement, Mearsheimer on the Hannibal Directive, Eurovision, and why Noam thinks everyone should have a baby.

0:00 Hen Mazzig, three years and a day after October 7

4:19 "We won on the battlefield and lost the world"

18:36 Food, famine and the arguments that don't work

28:52 What if the West Bank had no holy sites?

37:56 Smallpox, arrogance and "have a baby"

52:13 Five years in COGAT: what the IDF's humanitarian unit does

61:40 "Am I a child killer?" Finkelstein and the rape deniers

76:00 Mearsheimer, the Hannibal Directive and "sunlight grows mushrooms"

Three years after October 7: What's Next for Israel and the Jewish People.

Noam sits down with Coleman Hughes, Eli Lake and Salo Aizenberg to ask whether the war was worth it. Coleman says Israel traded prestige for power and Hamas did the opposite. Salo brings the Gaza Health Ministry's own 2025 report: 50,000 births, 25,000 deaths, and 108 hospital workers who appear in Hamas's own martyr notices as commanders. Eli says Israel's strategic position has never been better. Noam is the pessimist in the room: "The optimists died in the gas chambers. The pessimists have pools in Beverly Hills." Also: why Hamas never gave up the hostages, John Mearsheimer on tape claiming the IDF killed its own, Coleman's Joe Rogan clip, Noam's 2019 emails that predicted all of it, and a fight over whether Israel should leave the West Bank.

0:00 Three years after October 7: Coleman Hughes, Eli Lake, Salo Aizenberg
2:22 Opening statements: what Israel and Hamas each traded
11:14 Noam: "The optimists died in the gas chambers"
18:41 Why Hamas never released the hostages
33:33 Conspiracy theories and the Mearsheimer tape
47:35 Salo's slides: Gaza's 2025 numbers and the nurses who were Hamas commanders
1:07:09 Should Israel leave the West Bank?
1:21:50 Noam's 2019 emails, Coleman on Rogan, and the diaspora

Is Nathan Cofnas's "Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution." a plan to heal or America, or is it simply a racist manifesto dressed up as science.

We ask him to his face. Cofnas is the philosopher at the center of the Jason Arday plagiarism affair.

He says that, all else equal, smarter people have more human worth. He says freedom of association is worth it even if some diner bans blacks and Jews. And he says race realism is about to break into the mainstream whether we like it or not.

Noam takes him through A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution line by line: the Charles Murray debate, Jared Taylor, a speech by Michael Levin (whose book Cofnas calls important), white kids "brainwashed to despise themselves," Nikole Hannah-Jones's daughter and the lifeboat question. Periel arrives late, just in time to call it insane (as usual).

0:00 Intro: "I feel like you're a white nationalist"

9:26 Is a smarter person worth more?

23:33 "Some barriers set up between the races"

32:16 Jared Taylor, AmRen and Michael Levin

53:03 "White children are brainwashed to despise themselves"

1:29:54 Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter

1:41:53 Lower human worth? The lifeboat question

1:47:38 Closing argument: yarmulkes on the basketball court

Nathan Cofnas, A Guide for the Hereditarian Revolution (Feb 5, 2024)

https://ncofnas.com/p/a-guide-for-the-hereditarian-revolution

Nathan Cofnas, Are Smart People Superior? A Reply to Noah Carl and Charles Murray (Apr 26, 2024)

https://ncofnas.com/p/are-smart-people-superior-a-reply

Debate with Charles Murray: IQ and Human Worth (Sept 16, 2026)

https://ncofnas.com/p/debate-with-charles-murray-iq-and

Nathan Cofnas, Why We Need to Talk about the Right's Stupidity Problem (Jan 2, 2024)

https://ncofnas.com/p/why-we-need-to-talk-about-the-rights

Nathan Cofnas, Beating Woke with Facts and Logic (Oct 9, 2025)

https://ncofnas.com/p/beating-woke-with-facts-and-logic

Nathan Cofnas on X, "Jews tried to be white nationalists" (Apr 28, 2018)

https://x.com/nathancofnas/status/990243373180219397

David Reich, How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race,' New York Times (Mar 23, 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/genetics-race.html

David M. Quinn, How to Reduce Racial Bias in Grading, Education Next (Nov 2, 2020)

https://www.educationnext.org/how-to-reduce-racial-bias-in-grading-research/

Nikole Hannah-Jones on her daughter's schooling, New York Times Magazine (Sept 20, 2026)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html

This American Life, Ep. 898, An Argument (Nikole Hannah-Jones and her daughter)

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/898/an-argument