Monkey Business | Interview: Jonathan Leaf

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

The Dispatch

News, Politics

4.7 • 6.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For years, Jonah Goldberg’s enemies, acquaintances, and wife have accused him of being little more than a slightly advanced proboscis monkey. Today’s guest, author Jonathan Leaf, is here to prove them definitively wrong. Jonah and Jonathan explore how similar humans and apes actually are, while also touching on warlike animals, humans and the herd, chimp violence, the Jets, polygamy, language, hardwiring, Jane Goodall, and preferential homosexuality along the way. Show Notes: —Jonathan Leaf - The Primate Myth: Why the Latest Science Leads Us to a New Theory of Human Nature —James C. Scott - Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States —Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined —Robert Wright: The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology —Atlantic piece - “The YOLO Presidency” —James Q. Wilson - The Moral Sense —City Journal review of The Primate Myth —L&L Review —Ed West’s Substack review —Washington Free Beacon review —Religion and Liberty Online review Buy your tickets ⁠here⁠ to see a live taping of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg and Sarah Isgur. How ⁠to access⁠ your members-only Remnant feed. The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—⁠click here⁠. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some follow the noise.
0:03.3	Bloomberg follows the money.
0:05.4	Because behind every headline is a bottom line.
0:09.3	Whether it's the funds-fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings,
0:13.8	there's a money-side to every story.
0:16.5	And when you see the money-side, you understand what others miss.
0:22.3	Get the money-side of the story., you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story.
0:25.3	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:30.8	Changes in sexual performance are more common than most people realize,
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0:46.1	with ongoing support whenever you need it.
0:47.6	You're not alone in this.
1:06.0	Visit Medexpress.co.c.uk slash podcast to learn more. Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention.
1:10.8	Can you digger? Yes. and gentlemen. Can I please have your attention?
1:12.6	Can you digger?
1:23.0	Beingsday listeners, this is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant podcast, brought to you by the Dispatch and Dispatch Media.
1:25.8	Well, we were recording this on Wednesday, May 13th,
1:29.8	and the president is, I believe, just touched down in China for a major summit.
1:37.2	The ceasefire in Iran seems to be coming apart,
	...

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