Know Your Enemy28 Tammi 2025

How Republics End (w/ Mike Duncan) [TEASER]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy

A stock rhetorical trope on the right is to invoke ancient Rome when talking about American decline—often making direct comparisons between the Goth invaders and contemporary immigrants, obsessing over homosexuality and Rome's fall, and more. If their understanding of history isn't very serious, what should we make of these appeals? And are there any "lessons" we should learn from Roman history?

There's no better time to take up such matters than while Matt is in Rome, and there was no one better for him to talk with about them than Mike Duncan, the prolific and brilliant history podcaster; he currently hosts the Revolutions podcast and, especially relevant for the purposes of this conversation, hosted the History of Rome podcast from 2007-2012, a project that led him to write The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic (2017). Matt and Mike discuss the use and abuse of history, how "norms" do and do not matter, the relationship between imperialist foreign policy and domestic politics, the perils of vast income inequality, then and now, and more.

Sources:

For quotes from conservatives about Roman decline: Reagan, Nixon, Buchanan, Vance (and Pete Navarro & Michael Anton)

Mike Duncan, The Storm Before the Storm(2017)

— Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution (2021)

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(266)

Becoming Elon Musk, Part One

If there's ever been a Know Your Enemy subject worthy of two episodes, it is Elon Musk—currently the world's richest man, CEO and leader of several pathbreaking companies, ringleader of the Department...

17 Maalis 20251h 22min

"Exit From Within" (August 2022)

Here's something a little creepy. In a bonus episode from August 2022, Matt and Sam were discussing Sam's profile of Arizona Senate hopeful and Peter Thiel-protégé Blake Masters when we found ourselve...

5 Maalis 202520min

How Bad Is It? [TEASER]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemyJust over a month into Trump's second term, Matt and Sam offer their thoughts on where we're at—and, to be blunt, ...

24 Helmi 20254min

Pay Attention! (w/ Chris Hayes)

We're all anxious, and none of us can pay attention. We don't read long books anymore; our kids don't read at all. When we watch TV, we scroll at the same time. And we absolutely cannot be alone with ...

18 Helmi 20251h 1min

MAGA x DOGE, So Far (w/ John Ganz) [TEASER]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemyThe first three weeks of Donald Trump's second administration have seen a flurry of vicious executive orders aimed...

8 Helmi 20252min

Ayn Rand Against the World (w/ Jennifer Burns)

An atheist, a radical for capitalism, a caricature of a greedy libertarian, a best-selling novelist, a difficult partner and passionate lover, and the self-proclaimed greatest philosopher since Aristo...

3 Helmi 20252h

The Entrepreneurial Ethic & How We Work Today (w/ Erik Baker)

This is a fascinating episode that takes up thinkers that the podcast has covered before—the Koch brothers, Austrian economists like Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, and others—but from a differe...

21 Tammi 20251h 36min