Know Your Enemy
166 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsA leftist's guide to the conservative movement, one podcast episode at a time, with co-hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell.
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Episodes
TEASER: The Texas Bounty Hunter Bill (w/ 5-4's Rhiannon)
September 30, 2021 15:06 - 1 minute - 1.61 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy
TEASER: Coup, Covid, Congress
September 25, 2021 19:38 - 2 minutes - 2.14 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy
Twenty Years of Terror (w/ Spencer Ackerman)
September 15, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 90.5 MBIt's impossible to comprehend the state of conservative politics — or American politics in general — without looking closely at the wars we've been waging for the past two decades. The story we've been telling about American conservatism has been incomplete without a deep-dive on the so-called Global War on Terror. Luckily, Spencer Ackerman has written the perfect book to occasion such a dialogue. In Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, Ackerman provides...
Living at the End of Our World (w/ Daniel Sherrell & Dorothy Fortenberry)
September 02, 2021 21:43 - 1 hour - 83.1 MBThis is a slightly different kind of Know Your Enemy episode—a conversation about hope and despair as the effects of climate change bear down upon us. At the center of that conversation is a brilliant new book, Daniel Sherrell's Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of the World, that focuses not on the facts of climate change or how to stop it, but what it feels like to imagine and live into the future in the knowledge of its existence. Matt and Sam are joined by Sherrell and Dorothy Fortenberry...
TEASER: Where's the Rest of Him?
August 30, 2021 21:52 - 1 minute - 1.69 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy
Buckley for Mayor (w/ Sam Tanenhaus)
August 23, 2021 18:02 - 1 hour - 80.4 MBFinally, a deep-dive on William F. Buckley, Jr.! Matt and Sam are joined by Buckley's biographer, Sam Tanenhaus, to talk about WFB's 1965 campaign for mayor of New York City. Topics include: how Buckley's campaign made him the most famous conservative in America; the importance of his candidacy to the conservative movement's rise; the hardline positions he took on policing and his inflammatory views on race; and more. Along the way, Tanenhaus offers countless details that only Buckley's biog...
KYE Presents: 5-4 on Connick v. Thompson
August 07, 2021 23:22 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBFor those who want to learn more about the 5-4 podcast, you can visit their website here!
TEASER: Woke Capital
July 31, 2021 17:42 - 4 minutes - 3.3 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy
After Nationalism (w/ Samuel Goldman)
July 28, 2021 20:59 - 1 hour - 73.1 MBIn this episode, Matt and Sam are joined by political theorist and conservative intellectual Samuel Goldman—a very sensible and polite "enemy"—to discuss his brilliant new book, After Nationalism. Topics include: Goldman's punk-rocker past; the influence of Leo Strauss on his thinking; historical attempts to provide Americans with a coherent, enduring symbol of national identity; why these symbols have failed; what all this means for debates about teaching U.S. history; and what alternatives...
The Afterlife of January 6th
July 19, 2021 19:49 - 1 hour - 87.9 MBIt's been over seven months since pro-Trump protestors breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The meaning of the event remains contested. Was it a genuine coup attempt by an extra-parliamentary faction of the Trump movement? Or was it a disorganized and pathetic act of desperation by Fox News-poisoned rubes? Were the protestors inside the Capitol more like tourists or like terrorists? Was the siege an expression of dangerous anti-democratic forces? Or should we be more worried about the ...
UNLOCKED: Why the New Deal Matters (w/ Eric Rauchway)
July 04, 2021 22:48 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBIn this unlocked bonus episode, Matt is joined by historian Eric Rauchway for a deep-dive into his new book, Why the New Deal Matters. It's Rauchway's latest effort to recover Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an anti-fascist political leader who sought to expand the meaning and practice of American democracy—that in a robust democracy, people don't just need enough to live on, but something to live for. Topics include: Herbert Hoover's and FDR's different responses to the Bonus Army's march on W...
TEASER: How (Not) to Talk About Racism
June 30, 2021 17:23 - 3 minutes - 3.11 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Matt and Sam are back in the same room — Matt's study — enjoying brown liquor, each other's company, and a surprisingly coherent discussion of the right's latest fixations: our "rainbow regime" and "critical race theory." Listen to find out how Matt's mother feels about his porn-stache, if Sam feels bad about boosting the career of Robin DiAngelo, w...
Unraveling Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow
June 21, 2021 13:30 - 1 hour - 86.8 MBIn this episode Matt and Sam discuss Ravelstein, Saul Bellow's roman à clef about the Straussian political philosopher Allan Bloom, who achieved late-in-life wealth and fame after publishing his controversial bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind. Along the way they consider the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, eros and the intellectual life, love and friendship, Bellow and Bloom's shared Jewishness, and much, much more. Sources and Further Reading: Saul Bellow, ...
TEASER: Hot and Bothered
June 14, 2021 19:14 - 3 minutes - 3.45 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Every June it happens: conservatives get all hot and bothered by Pride celebrations, and this year has been no different. Why do banal corporate expressions of support for LGBTQ+ rights drive them so mad? How does religion factor into their opposition to basic protections for LGBTQ+ people? What part do these culture war flareups play in their broader ...
TEASER: Jaffa vs. Kendall
May 29, 2021 23:17 - 2 minutes - 2.47 MBSubscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy What is the status of "equality" in the American political tradition? What place does it have in the inheritance that conservatives are trying to preserve? Matt and Sam pick up where they left off in their recent conversation with historian Joshua Tait, this time focusing on Harry Jaffa's devastating review of Willmoore Kendall and George Carey's The...
The Enemy Within (w/ Brandy Jensen)
May 24, 2021 20:33 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBFor a slight change of pace, we invited our dear friend Brandy Jensen—author of the world's best advice column, Jezebel's Ask a Fuck-Up, and features editor at the new Gawker.com—to answer listener questions about reentering the world post-vaccine, dating, conservative relatives, whether the "Trad Caths" are right, and mourning the lives we did not live. As you'll see, we ended up addressing many classic Know Your Enemy themes—mercy, redemption, humility, etc.—and we had a great time doin...
The Long Farewell to Majority Rule? (w/ Joshua Tait)
May 18, 2021 01:46 - 1 hour - 78.8 MBIn this follow-up episode to "Democracy and Its Discontents" (listen here), historian Joshua Tait joins Matt and Sam for a conversation about the intellectual origins of the American Right's hostility to democracy—from John C. Calhoun's invention of the filibuster in the nineteenth century to the writings of conservatives like Russell Kirk, James Burnham, Willmoore Kendall, and others, in the 1950s and '60s. Sources and Further Reading: Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern ...
UNLOCKED: Democracy and Its Discontents
May 05, 2021 01:42 - 1 hour - 63.2 MBNote: This bonus episode was first published on April 13. We're unlocking it now because we're working on a companion episode that explores in greater detail the intellectual origins of, and justifications for, hostility toward democracy among the founders of the modern American conservative movement. *** In state legislatures across the country, Republicans are unleashing a fierce assault on voting rights. Hundreds of proposals aimed at restricting ballot access are being considered, a...
TEASER: Why the New Deal Matters (w/ Eric Rauchway)
April 30, 2021 14:10 - 2 minutes - 2.68 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. In this episode, Matt is joined by historian Eric Rauchway for a deep-dive into his new book, Why the New Deal Matters. It's Rauchway's latest effort to recover Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an anti-fascist political leader who sought to expand the meaning and practice of American democracy—that in a robust democracy, people don't just need enough to live on, but something to live for. Topics include: ...
Overheated (w/ Kate Aronoff)
April 23, 2021 23:43 - 1 hour - 50.8 MBAt last, Know Your Enemy takes on climate change! Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic and Dissent editorial board member, joins Matt and Sam to discuss her new book, Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet—And How We Fight Back. The conversations traces the history of collaboration between fossil fuel executives and conservative think tanks; then we discuss what comes after climate denial and try our best to imagine a post-carbon world. What will it take to avoid a future of...
TEASER: Democracy and Its Discontents
April 14, 2021 00:43 - 2 minutes - 2.21 MBTo listen to this episode, and all of our bonus content, subscribe here: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy In state legislatures across the country, Republicans are unleashing a fierce assault on voting rights. Hundreds of proposals aimed at restricting ballot access are being considered, and in a few states—most notably Georgia—have already become law. These obvious efforts at suppressing turnout have been justified by the deranged lie that Donald Trump had a landslide victory stole fr...
KYE Film Club: A Lost Cause (w/ Jesse Brenneman)
March 30, 2021 02:35 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBThis episode is something different: the latest installment of the KYE Film Club, an ongoing series in which Matt and Sam's great friend (and the podcast's producer) Jesse Brenneman guides them through the strange world of terrible conservative movies. The selection this time was "Christmas Cars," a confusing attempt at Confederate nostalgia written and directed by former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider. Watch: Christmas Cars on Vimeo Peruse: John Schneider Studios ...and don't forge...
TEASER: A Royal Mess
March 21, 2021 20:51 - 3 minutes - 3 MBTo listen to this episode, and all of our bonus content, subscribe here: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy At last, Matt and Sam take on the British royal family. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's recent interview with Oprah set off a firestorm of commentary—not least from aggrieved conservatives who were outraged at the young couple's criticisms of the monarchy. Why was the Right so upset by the interview? Why did the defenders of the American Revolution find themselves siding with our...
TEASER: France's War on Terror (w/ Cole Stangler)
March 14, 2021 01:04 - 2 minutes - 1.92 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. In recent months, French president Emmanuel Macron, once hailed as the savior of mainstream liberalism, has responded to a series of Islamist terror attacks with a sharp right turn—one he hopes will serve him well in a possible run-off election against the nativist/populist Marine Le Pen. KYE Paris correspondent Cole Stangler joins Matt and Sam to explain Macron's increasingly Islamophobic, authoritar...
The Rush Limbaugh Show (w/ Nicole Hemmer)
March 09, 2021 19:43 - 1 hour - 76.6 MBNo media figure has had a more profound impact on the shape of contemporary conservative politics than Rush Limbaugh. For three hours a day, every weekday since 1988, Rush delighted and ignited his radio audience with a high-octane diatribe against liberal degeneracy — an often comic, always cruel, and never apologetic expression of the white male id. When he died on February 17, 2021, Rush left behind an American media landscape — and a Republican Party — reshaped in his image: a ruinous ma...
TEASER: Keeping up with the Bozells
February 27, 2021 01:55 - 1 minute - 1.48 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content! From the union-busting, ad-man scion (Brent Sr.), to the fiercely brilliant and troubled National Review editor-turned-Catholic zealot (Brent Jr.), to the insipid media watchdog and Trump apologist (Brent III), and finally, to the ball-cap-wearing January 6 capitol siege participant (Brent IV, aka "Zeeker") — the Bozell epic has all the elements of a great family saga: pathos, intrigue, tragedy, farce...
How to Survive a Pandemic (w/ Peter Staley)
February 22, 2021 02:29 - 1 hour - 69.4 MBMatt and Sam have an in-depth conversation with HIV/AIDs activist Peter Staley to get his perspective on Dr. Anthony Fauci's role in America's response to two of the most devastating public-health emergencies of recent decades: the AIDS crisis and the pandemic that began nearly one year ago. They discuss how Peter got his start in ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in New York City in the 1980s, what the group was fighting for, his run-ins with Pat Buchanan, Jesse Helms, and other rig...
UNLOCKED: Midnight in the Garden of American Heroes
February 11, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 67.2 MBMatt and Sam explain West Coast Straussianism, the school of thought behind one of the last acts of the Trump administration: its publication of the "1776 Report," the Right's shabby response to the 1619 Project and blueprint for how the American Founding should be understood and taught. What are the origins of this school of conservative thought? Why are its adherents so enthusiastic about Trump? How do they understand the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and U.S. history? And...
TEASER: L'Affaire (w/ John Ganz)
February 06, 2021 00:17 - 3 minutes - 2.93 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. Beloved KYE guest John Ganz (Ep. 15: The Year the Clock Broke) returns to explain how the Dreyfus Affair (and the French Third Republic) help us understand the Trumpian right, fascism, and the left's response to both.
Panic! In America (w/ the You're Wrong About podcast)
February 01, 2021 19:10 - 1 hour - 87.5 MBMatt and Sam are joined by special guests Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes of the You're Wrong About podcast to discuss moral panics—from tales of rampant Satanism in the late 1970s to the Stranger Danger wave in the 1980s and beyond—and their role in the rise of rightwing politics in America. What do such "Save the Children" stories tell us about the way the conservative mind conceives of morality and power? What do they tell us about American culture and politics? It all builds to a discu...
TEASER: West Coast Straussians and the "1776 Report"
January 23, 2021 22:32 - 3 minutes - 3.17 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. Your hosts explain West Coast Straussianism, the school of conservative thought undergirding the "1776 Report" — the Right's shabby response to the 1619 Project and a blueprint for how the American Founding should be understood and taught.
Did It Happen Here?
January 17, 2021 19:50 - 1 hour - 95.6 MBMatt and Sam take up the question that's dominating The Discourse: Is Donald Trump—and the movement he leads—fascist? To provide an answer, they turn to the rich historiography of fascism and some key essays on the subject published since Trump's election. Along the way, they break down different approaches and sets of criteria for evaluating fascism, consider the similarities—and differences—between the 1920s and '30s and today, and ponder whether or not the "fascist question" is the right ...
TEASER: Storming the Capitol
January 07, 2021 05:43 - 5 minutes - 4.37 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. Matt and Sam analyze the Trumpist "siege" on the Capitol on our latest bonus episode.
Masks Off: The Right in 2020
January 04, 2021 19:47 - 1 hour - 67.5 MBMatt and Sam—in a rare, just-the-two-of-them episode—look back at what a bad year revealed about a number of bad people, especially the coterie of rightwing intellectuals and politicians who have downplayed the pandemic, exacerbated anxieties about the uprising against police violence, and played along with Donald Trump's conspiracy-fueled attempts to steal the presidential election. What holds these efforts together, and what do they say about the state of conservatism? It turns out that 20...
TEASER: Trump the Dove? (w/ Stephen Wertheim)
December 26, 2020 17:15 - 2 minutes - 2.24 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. An excerpt from our latest bonus episode on Trump's 'non-interventionist militarism' and the future of American foreign policy — with Stephen Wertheim of the Quincy Institute.
Why the Supreme Court Sucks (w/ the 5-4 podcast)
December 21, 2020 02:17 - 1 hour - 69.1 MBIn this much anticipated crossover event, Matt and Sam take aim at the conservative legal movement with Rhiannon, Michael, and Peter—the brilliant and funny team behind the 5-4 podcast, a Know Your Enemy favorite. For those who are not yet fans of the show, it's "a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks" that offers "a progressive and occasionally profane take on the ideological battles at the heart of the Court’s most important landmark cases, and an irreverent tour of all the ways ...
TEASER: A Working Class GOP? (w/ Aaron Sibarium)
December 06, 2020 03:57 - 4 minutes - 3.66 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content. An excerpt from our latest bonus episode on "the limits of realignment" with Aaron Sibarium of The Washington Free Beacon.
Talking Trump (w/ David Roth)
November 28, 2020 22:13 - 1 hour - 67.4 MBWho is Donald Trump? The great David Roth, co-owner of Defector Media and a columnist at the New Republic, joins Matt and Sam to answer that harrowing question. From Trump's odd lies about his baseball talents to creepy White House Christmas decorations, this conversation was the perfect opportunity to unpack the neuroses, self-protective measures, cruelty, humor, and sheer weirdness of a terrible president on his way out of office. Also: Sam finally gets to do his Melania "impression"! Sou...
TEASER - What Happened? (w/ Eric Levitz and Dan Sherrell)
November 14, 2020 22:30 - 1 minute - 1.49 MBSubscribe at https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy to hear this and all our bonus content! An excerpt from our election recap bonus episode with New York magazine's Eric Levitz and Daniel Sherrell, director of the the #VoteTrumpOut campaign.
Suburban Woman (w/ Dorothy Fortenberry)
October 29, 2020 22:37 - 1 hour - 69.5 MBMatt and Sam are joined by Dorothy Fortenberry for a wide-ranging conversation about women and politics. Topics include growing up in Washington, D.C; her experiences writing women characters in Hollywood; why the left should take over existing institutions; the complicated Catholic motherhood of Amy Coney Barrett; and much, much more. For those not familiar with her work, Fortenberry is a writer and producer on Hulu’s award-winning adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, and her plays include S...
On the Road to Reaganland (w/ Rick Perlstein and Leon Neyfakh)
October 21, 2020 22:47 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBMatt and Sam talk to two esteemed guests, Rick Perlstein and Leon Neyfakh, about why U.S. politics took a right turn in the 1970s. “We organize discontent,” as one New Right activist put it—and they did. Fierce battles over desegregation, gay rights, abortion, and the meaning of America itself all paved the way for Ronald Reagan's smashing victory in 1980. Over four books and two decades, historian Rick Perlstein has chronicled the rise of movement conservatism in America, starting with its...
How to Be Depressed
October 12, 2020 19:46 - 1 hour - 53.8 MBWe released this bonus episode on depression and politics in July, and it quickly became a favorite of our Patreon subscribers. A number of them asked us to make it available in front of the paywall so they could share it with friends and family who have experienced depression and other mental-health issues—so that's what we decided to do. Topics discussed include: Matt's review of George Scialabba's memoir about depression; how left and right understand moral desert; and the struggle to bui...
Not Even Past (w/ Jamelle Bouie)
September 14, 2020 22:56 - 1 hour - 52.9 MBFrom the never-ending culture war over the New York Times's 1619 Project to arguments about the Black Lives Matter protests to President Trump's promise to Make American Great Again, today's political conflicts reflect, to an extraordinary degree, disagreements over the meaning of American history. Jamelle Bouie's New York Times column is one of the places where these lively debates are most effectively narrated and clarified. Bouie joins Matt and Sam to help make sense of how history, his...
Know Your Frenemies (w/ Samuel Moyn)
August 09, 2020 20:45 - 1 hour - 69.3 MBMatt and Sam welcome Yale historian Samuel Moyn to the show for a deep-dive into the Never Trump movement. Who are the Never Trumpers? How seriously should we take the heroic story they tell about themselves? Did they sink Bernie's campaign for the Democratic nomination? Have they reckoned with their role in paving the way for Trump? In trying to answer these questions the conversation moves from the baleful influence of Never Trumpers to a discussion of historical debates about over the r...
Pandemic Politics (w/ Marshall Steinbaum & Sarah Jones)
July 08, 2020 16:35 - 1 hour - 73 MBMatt and Sam are joined by two special guests, Sarah Jones and Marshall Steinbaum, who return to the show to take stock of where we're at: our failed response to the pandemic, the connections between the pandemic and the protests, and how all this might play out in November. The four of us range widely—but be warned, this is not the most inspiring conversation. Are there any reasons to be hopeful? Listen and find out. Sources Cited and Further Reading: Eric Levitz, "Coronavirus is Killing...
Strange Gods and Strong Gods (w/ Tara Isabella Burton)
June 08, 2020 16:46 - 1 hour - 74.8 MBThere's been no shortage of commentary on the rise of the "nones," those Americans who claim no religious affiliation, a trend especially notable among younger people. But that doesn't mean we live in a secular age. Matt and Sam talk to Tara Isabella Burton about her new book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, and the way our search for meaning and the need for ritual has met our neoliberal economic order. What does this spiritual churn mean for our politics? Why do reaction...
KYE Extra: The Sad Truth (w/ Shuja Haider)
May 14, 2020 17:35 - 1 hour - 73.6 MBMatt and Sam are joined by writer and editor Shuja Haider to discuss a topic near and dear to all of our hearts: country music. We talk about country's conservative reputation, the problems with (and virtues of) Ken Burns's recent documentary about country music, and the humane politics that arise from acknowledging—as the best country songs do—our collective frailty. Plus, a bunch of great music recommendations for your quarantine listening. A playlist featuring every song we mention in th...
Longtime Listener, First Time Caller (the Mailbag Episode)
May 04, 2020 17:17 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBHere it is—the mailbag episode. Recorded on 4/20 and celebrating a full year of Know Your Enemy, Matt and Sam answer listener questions about: conservatives hiding in plain sight, our favorite conservative novelists, a George W. Bush counterfactual, the right’s response to COVID-19, and—against our better judgment—some Bernie Sanders campaign postmortem. We received so many amazing questions for this and recorded tons of material. So much, in fact, that we decided to release another 25 minu...
The Windbag City (w/ Marshall Steinbaum)
April 18, 2020 17:09 - 1 hour - 87.6 MBMatt and Sam are finally joined by the show's longtime bête noire, Marshall Steinbaum, for a deep dive into the Chicago school of economics and the wreckage it's supported—from welcoming the birth defects caused by deregulating the pharmaceutical industry to justifying massive resistance to desegregation to being put in the service of Coronavirus truther-ism. Where did this iteration of libertarianism come from, intellectually and institutionally? Who are the key figures in the Chicago schoo...
KYE Extra: "Last Ounce of Courage"
April 05, 2020 21:22 - 1 hour - 75.6 MBOur rollicking conversation with Know Your Enemy Film Correspondent Jesse Brenneman is now out from behind the paywall! Be prepared: we dive into Darrel Campbell's 2012 war-on-Christmas fever dream Last Ounce of Courage, a deranged film that nevertheless offers real insight into the conservative mind. (If you really love freedom, you can watch the film here, before you listen. But it is not at all necessary.) Jesse is a seasoned radio producer and dear friend—and funny. He has his own new ...