Command + F + Hitler [Teaser]

This is a different kind of episode than is typical; there's no book, no central text, not even a single, central event that guides the conversation. Instead, we begin with a few recent news items—speculation about Trump 2028, Speaker Mike Johnson's refusal to swear in a Democratic congresswoman, the stunning abdication of Congress as the shutdown continues, and, incredibly, a secretive billionaire and Mellon heir donates over a hundred million dollars to pay the military, among others—and then lay out our profound worries about Trump ruling by decree, and the coming of MAGA-style Caeserism. How and when might that occur? We discuss troubling signals the Trump administration is sending about upcoming elections, and especially the 2026 midterms; the ticking time bomb that is the Insurrection Act; how the right thinks about executive power (then and now), and more.Sources:Peter Rothpletz, "Trump's Third Term?" Zeteo/First Draft, Oct 24, 2025Dana Milbank, "How Reactionary is MAGA? Try the First Century B.C.," Washington Post, Sept 7, 2022Steve Bannon interview with The Economist, Oct 23, 2025 (YouTube)Shawn Hubler & Laurel Rosenhall, "Justice Department Will Monitor Elections in California and New Jersey," New York Times, Oct 24, 2025Steve Contorno & Ashley Killough, "Frustrated Arizonans Have Waited More Than a Month for Their New Congresswoman to be Seated," CNN, Oct 25, 2025Yoni Applebaum, "America's Fragile Constitution," The Atlantic, Oct 2015Abraham Lincoln, "Speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield," Jan 27, 1838Bob Bauer & Jack Goldsmith, "Here’s What Trump Could Unleash by Invoking the Insurrection Act," New York Times, Oct 18, 2025Damon Linker, "The Surest Path to Dictatorship: A Quick Plug for a Short Primer about the Insurrection Act," Notes from the Middleground, Oct 18, 2025"Discussing Caesarism," New Founding Podcast, Oct 21, 2022. Harvey Mansfield, Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power (1989)James Burnham, Congress and the American Tradition (1959)Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State (2010)...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

3 Marras 1h 31min

This episode is the second in our occasional series on important, controversial, or unusually relevant conservative texts from the recent past. Here we take up Charles Murray's 2012 book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. With its focus on the ascendence of a new "cognitive elite," cultural divides, and the pathologies afflicting working and lower class whites, the book might seem prophetic of the Age of Trump — but the reality is more complicated. Murray's oversights, it turns out, are as interesting as his insights. We walk listeners through Murray's account of how America "came apart," take the test he provides to see how thick our class/cultural bubbles are, then rip into the moralizing prescriptions with which he concludes the book. Along the way we discuss Murray as an emblematic success story of the right-wing welfare state and intellectual pipeline, revisit his obsession with race and IQ, and more!Sources:Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 (2012)— Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (2003)— Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (1984)Jason DeParle, "Daring Research or 'Social Science Pornography'? Charles Murray," New York Times, Oct 9, 1994Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (2016)Pew Research Center, "Religious Landscape Study," Feb 26, 2025Quinn Slobodian & Stuart Schrader, "The White Man, Unburdened," The Baffler, July 2018"Do you live in a bubble? A quiz." PBS Newshour, Mar 24, 2016. ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

15 Loka 1h 32min

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Before embarking on a spirited bout of rank punditry, we take a step back and talk about the Staple Singers, Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism, Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Zohran, and giving a damn about both your "fellow man" and democracy. Then, we walk you through the latest catalogue of horrors: Hegseth's lame TED talk in front of the generals, the menacing yet comically inept dimestore Gestapo that is ICE, the shutdown, and more!Sources:Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835, 1840)Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)Jasper Craven, "Battle of the Sexes," The Baffler, Sept 2025"Deafies for Zohran" (YouTube)"Things Can Change" (X)

6 Loka 3min

To try to understand both the power and strangeness of the Charlie Kirk memorial—one part evangelical worship service, one part MAGA rally—we turned, of course, to our friend Pat Blanchfield. All three of us stewed in the event's footage, which runs to over four and a half hours, then convened to discuss it. After laying out for listeners what happened at State Farm Stadium in Arizona just over a week ago, replete with clips, we tried to understand how the event aimed to turn death and grief into power by unpacking its imagery, symbols, references, and, of course, how it might play "out there" among Americans not already plugged into the menagerie of seen subcultures on stage. Sources:Charlie Kirk Memorial at State Farm Stadium, Sept 21, 2025 (Fox News on YouTube)— Transcript of President Donald Trump's speech at Kirk Memorial— The story behind the hymn, "It is Well with My Soul" (link)Jack Jenkins, "At Charlie Kirk's memorial, religion, politics and antagonism toward liberals combine," Religion News Service, Sept 22, 2025Amber Phillips, "3 takeaways from the Charlie Kirk memorial," Wash Post, Sept 22, 2025Elizabeth Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making, (2004)Gabriel Winant, "On Mourning and Statehood: A Response to Joshua Leifer," Dissent, Oct 13, 2023...and don't forget to subscribe on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

29 Syys 1h 26min

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.The assassination of Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, seemed to change the landscape of American politics in an instant, inspiring a startlingly unanimous battlecry of vengeance from the conservative movement, the GOP, and the Trump White House. In this episode, Matt and Sam respond to this ominous moment, analyzing Kirk’s legacy, the politics of martyrdom, and the dangers that lurk ahead. Two notes: (1) This episode was recorded on Tuesday 9/16, before some of the administration's specific repressive efforts — e.g. the FCC intimidating ABC into suspending late night host Jimmy Kimmel — had taken place. (2) Matt's sound quality is diminished toward the end of episode because of a technical problem with his mic.

19 Syys 3min

Since the start of the Trump Era over a decade ago, few words have been deployed as often as "democracy": how it's become imperiled, who threatens it, and what to do to defend it. In The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, Osita Nwanevu sets out to understand the true meaning of democracy and defend it from its critics, not just on the right but those liberals who doubt the capacity of ordinary voters to determine their country's fate in a complex world. From there, he levels a critique of the Constitution for its myriad democratic deficits, then details what refounding the United States to be genuinely democratic—politically and economically—would require of us.Listen again: "The Wolfe in the White Suit" (w/ Osita Nwanevu), July 5, 2024Sources:Osita Nwanevu, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding (2025)— "Conservatism’s Baton Twirler," New York Review of Books, Sept 25, 2025. Sheldon Wolin, Fugitive Democracy: And Other Essays (2016)Michael J. Klarman, The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution (2016)Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998)Walter Lippman, Public Opinion (1922)Publius, Federalist 49 (February 1788)Matthew Sitman, "Will Be Wild," Dissent, April 18, 2023...and don't forget to subscribe on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

12 Syys 1h 20min

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Roman Polanski's 2019 film about the Dreyfus affair, An Officer and a Spy, only recently made it's U.S. "premier," running for a few weeks in August at Film Forum in New York City. When it originally was released, it couldn't find an American distributor (and likewise was shunned by streaming services), a consequence of the MeToo moment meeting Polanski's criminal past—in 1978 he fled to Europe after being indicted for the rape of a 13 year-old girl in the United States. Polanski's past is particularly relevant for his film about the falsely accused Jewish officer in the French military, to whom, in publicity materials circulated when An Officer and a Spy came out in Europe in 2019, the director explicitly compared himself.Of course, we couldn't possibly have had on any other guest than John Ganz to help us understand the politics of the Dreyfus affair, both in 1895 and 2025, and what to make of Polanski's cinematic rendering of it. Topics include: Polanski's life and crimes; Hannah Arendt's treatment of the Dreyfus affair in The Origins of Totalitarianism; anti-semitism in 19th and early 20th century France; the way Polanski largely ignores the political convulsions caused by the Dreyfus affair, instead handling it more as a crime procedural, and why he might have done so; and more.Sources:John Ganz, "Reading, Watching," Unpopular Front, Aug 10, 2025— "Gramscians vs Sorelians," Unpopular Front, Jan 23, 2021— "The Third Republic and Today," Unpopular Front, Jan 27, 2021— "The Century of Rubbish," Unpopular Front, Feb 2, 2021— "From Republic to Reaction," Unpopular Front, Feb 4, 2021David Bell, "An Officer and a Spy," H-France, March 2021Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)

5 Syys 3min