Podcast
Know Your Enemy
Hosted by Matthew Sitman · EN
A leftist's guide to the conservative movement, one podcast episode at a time, with co-hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell.
36episodes
Episodes
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The Seven Year Anniversary Mailbag Episode
4d ago01:16:05Tap to summarizeNot only was May 6th the seven-year anniversary of Know Your Enemy, an occasion to celebrate your support of our work, but it's been nearly a year since we last opened the mailbag and answered listener questions. As always, we loved thinking about the topics you so thoughtfully and intelligently asked us to consider, and we take up a number of them in this episode: the future of the MAGA coalition and GOP politics post-Trump, the promise and perils of graduate school, novels we unexpectedly loved, our favorite places to read, how the left should understand liberalism, among others! * BUY TICKETS FOR KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC * Sources: Katherine Miller, Margie Omero, & Adrian J. Rivera, "'Disappointed,' 'Surprised,' 'Betrayed': 11 Trump Voters on What Has Gone Wrong," New York Times, April 27, 2026 Christopher Caldwell, "The End of Trumpism," The Spectator, Mar 30, 2026 Helena Rosenblatt, The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century (2018) Daniel Schlozman & Sam Rosenfeld, The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics (2024) Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (1981) William T. Kavanaugh, "Killing for the Telephone Company: Why the Nation-State is Not the Keeper of the Common Good," Modern Theology, April 2004 Roger Scruton, Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life (2005) ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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Reasons To Believe [Teaser]
2w ago00:04:34Tap to summarizeListen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. REMINDER: COME SEE KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC Given the string of recent episodes that, in various ways, grappled with religion we wanted to take a step back and offer a rather personal conversation about believing in God, or not, and what difference it might makes. The discussion begins by revisiting when we first met over a decade ago and talked a lot about faith, then ranges widely, including: atheism vs agnosticism, W.H. Auden, why we're not experiencing a religious revival in the United States (but could be soon), and more. Sources: Christopher Beha, Why I Am Not an Atheist (2026) Edward Mendelson, "The Secret Auden," New York Review of Books, March 20, 2014 David Martin, w/ a reply from Edward Mendelson, "Why Auden Married," New York Review of Books, April 24, 2014 Matthew Sitman, "Saving Calvin from Clichés: An Interview with Marilynne Robinson," Commonweal, Oct 5, 2017 Ryan Burge, "Religion Has Become A Luxury Good For The Middle Class, Married College Graduate With Children," Religion Unplugged, July 12, 2023 Daniel Cox, "The Illusion of America's Religious Revival," American Storylines, Nov 13, 2025 Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (1983) — The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other (1975) The Living Thoughts of Kierkegaard, edited & with an introduction by W.H. Auden (1999) W.H. Auden, "In Praise of Limestone," in Nones (1951) "Jill Lepore on Nationalism, Populism, and the State of America," EconTalk, April 15, 2019
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Peter Thiel and the Antichrist
3w ago01:30:01Tap to summarizeOver the course of the past year, Peter Thiel—the Trump backing, Vance boosting gay tech billionaire—has been delivering a series of lectures on the Antichrist, using an examination of the Biblical antagonist of the End Times to make an argument about the supposed perils of this political moment. We got our hands on transcripts of these talks as delivered last year in San Francisco, and explain what Thiel said and why it matters. Topics include: Thiel's conservative evangelical upbringing, the influence of Rene Girard on his thinking, and how Thiel's Antichrist lectures relate to his broader thinking and worldview; the place of the Antichrist in the eschatology of different Christian traditions, and the curious similarities between Thiel's understanding of the Antichrist and that found in the work of Timothy LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind novels; Christianity's recent trendiness in Silicon Valley; the way Thiel's account of how the Antichrist will come to power connects to his economic interests; and more! ** BUY TICKETS FOR KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC ** Listen again: "Rene Girard and the Right" (w/ John Ganz), KYE, Feb 26, 2024 "A Remedy for Envy? Rene Girard Redux," KYE, March 4, 2024 (for subscribers) Sources: Peter Thiel, "The Straussian Moment," 2007 Ross Douthat interviews Peter Thiel (transcript), New York Times, June 26, 2025 Max Chafkin, The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and the Rise of the Silicon Valley Oligarchs (2021) Timothy LaHaye, Revelation Unveiled (1999) Elisabetta Povoledo, "Peter Thiel Fears the Antichrist Is Coming. In Rome, Some Call His View Heresy," New York Times, March 17, 2026 Johana Bhuiyan, Dara Kerr, Nick Robins-Early, "Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist," The Guardian, Oct 10, 2025 Peter Thiel & Sam Wolfe, "Voyages to the End of the World," First Things, Oct 1, 2025 Emma Goldberg, "Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley," New York Times, Feb 11, 2025 Kate Lucky interview w/ Michelle Stephens, "‘Wouldn’t It Be Funny if We Tricked a Bunch of People into Going to Church?’" Christianity Today, Aug 11, 2025 Laura Bullard, "The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession," Wired, Sep 30, 2025 John Ganz, "What Happened Here," Unpopular Front, Feb 4, 2025 ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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The Pope and the President [Teaser]
4w ago00:04:46Tap to summarizeListen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Once more we take up religion and politics, this time a conversation about President Donald Trump's attacks on Pope Leo XIV—the first successor of St. Peter from the United States—mostly, though not only, over the pope's pleas for peace as Trump rages war against Iran. Why is the incredibly unpopular Trump going after the beloved pontiff? Why does Trump's Catholic vice president, J.D. Vance, argue that Leo should stay out of politics and stick to morality, as if politics was not irreducibly a moral enterprise? Who is Pope Leo, and what seem to be his priorities for his papacy? How to make sense over the arguments about just-war theory that Leo's various statements about war and peace—notably, that God does not hear the prayers of those who wage war—have generated? We answer all these questions, and more! COME SEE KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC Sources: "Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor," May 15, 1891 "Reflection of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Prayer Vigil for Peace," April 11, 2026 "U.S. Bishops’ Chairman on Doctrine Issues Clarification on Just War Theory," April 15, 2026 Chris Cameron, "Vance Says Pope Leo Should Stay Out of U.S. Affairs," New York Times, April 13, 2026 Matthew Sitman, "Pope Francis and Civil Unions: We Need Clarity, Not a Media Blackout," Commonweal, Oct 27, 2020 Jason Horowitz & Natalie Kitroeff, "Pope Francis’ Views on Same-Sex Civil Unions Were Cut From a 2019 Vatican Interview," New York Times, Oct 22, 2020 Gerald W. Schlabach, "Just War? Enough Already," Commonweal, May 31, 2017
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The Bund: Fighting Fascism, Fighting Zionism (w/ Molly Crabapple)
Apr 1001:25:44Tap to summarizeIn 1897, a small group of Jewish Marxists on the outskirts of the Russian empire founded the General Jewish Labour Bund. The Bundists were revolutionary socialists, unapologetic internationalists, champions of the Yiddish language, and implacable foes of nationalism of every stripe, including (especially) Zionism. Bundists helped found the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, organized militias to defend Jews against pogroms, fought on the frontlines of the 1905 and 1917 revolutions, fought fascists wherever they found them, and helped lead the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The history of the Bund is largely forgotten today — in part because Bundists were such early and prescient critics of Zionism. As one of its leader said in 1933, "If Jewish nationalism, as a general rule, is not bloodthirsty, this is only out of necessity, not virtue; if an appropriate opportunity arose, Jewish nationalism would show its sharp teeth and nails no less than the nationalisms of other nations.” Thankfully, Crabapple spent the last seven years rediscovering the Bund's fascinating history for her new book: Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. It was thrilling to have her on to discuss it. “For leftist Jews longing for resources within our own past for combating the Zionist death cult," Crabapple says, "the Bund is a model.” Further Reading: Molly Crabapple, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund, (April 2026) Sam Adler-Bell, "For leftist Jews, the Bund is a model’: the radical history behind one of Europe’s biggest socialist movements," The Guardian, Apr 7, 2026. Max Strasser, "What Does Judaism Look Like Without Zionism?" NYTimes, Apr 6, 2026. *BUY TICKETS TO SEE MATT AND SAM AND MIKE DUNCAN IN NEW YORK* ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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Misogyny, MAGA-style [Teaser]
Apr 100:05:17Tap to summarizeListen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Last month, our very own Sam Adler-Bell published a deeply reported article in New York magazine about "the women leaving the New Right." That is, the women who've come to realize, as Sam pithily puts it, this truth about the MAGA movement: "Sexism wasn’t merely the price of entry; it was the theme of the party." MAGA-style misogyny is different than the oldfangled, pre-Trump, pre-Fuentes, pre-Tate brothers iteration that marked the conservative movement in decades past. In this episode, Matt interviews Sam about the article, and they discuss misogyny on the right, old and new; what the women he spoke to describe experiencing during their time on the New Right, the bargain they thought they were getting by joining its ranks, and what they found in reality; the nasty misogyny that, even more than his racism and antisemitism, animates Nick Fuentes; dating and romance on the New Right; rightwing religion, patriarchy, and the 19th amendment; and more. Sources: Sam Adler-Bell, "The Young Women Leaving the New Right," New York, March 12, 2026 Ian Ward, "Doug Wilson Has Spent Decades Pushing for a Christian Theocracy. In Trump’s DC, the New Right Is Listening," Politico, May 23, 2025 Mariel Padilla, Grace Panetta, & Mel Leonor Barclay, "Who’s Questioning Women’s Right to Vote?" The 19th, Aug 12, 2025 Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958)
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From Neocon to Never-Trump (w/ Bill Kristol)
Mar 2301:10:48Tap to summarizeThere’s perhaps no living person who better embodies the themes, contradictions, ethos, and pathos of “Know Your Enemy” than William Kristol, this week’s guest. Today, Kristol is editor-at-large of The Bulwark, a valuable redoubt of unreconstructed Never-Trumpism, which he helped found in 2018. But before dedicating himself, full-time, to the admirable if quixotic mission of undermining Donald Trump from the center-right — alienating many of his one-time friends in the process — Kristol was best known as an influential practitioner of neoconservatism: a staffer in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations; cofounder (in 1995 and 1997, respectively) of The Weekly Standard and the Project for a New American Century; a prominent champion of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; and faithful son of one of neoconservatism’s First Couples: Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb. Kristol was also trained in political philosophy by the Harvard Straussian (and frequent KYE subject) Harvey Mansfield. As such, we had an enormous amount to discuss in a limited amount of time. A few things we covered: What was neoconservatism? How should political theory inform political action? Why didn’t Never-Trump conservatism work? Where did Trumpism come from? Are Straussians to blame for the Iraq War? And, why does Kristol (a longtime proponent of regime change in Iran) oppose Donald Trump’s current war with the Islamic Republic? Further Listening: "Harvey Mansfield on Political Philosophy," Conversations with Kristol, Jun 30, 2014 "Know Your Frenemies (w/ Samuel Moyn)," KYE, Aug 10, 2020. Further Reading: William Kristol & Robert Kagan, "Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy," Foreign Affairs, Jul 1, 1996. William Kristol & David Brooks, "What Ails Conservatism," Wall Street Journal, Sept 15, 1997. Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement, (2011) William Kristol and Steven Lenzner, "What was Leo Strauss up to?" National Affairs, Fall 2003. Anne Norton, Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire, (2004) Sam Adler-Bell, "How the War on Terror Fuels Trump," Jacobin, Aug 13, 2016. ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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James Talarico and the Politics of Progressive Christianity [Teaser]
Mar 1600:04:25Tap to summarizeListen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. In this episode, we shift our attention from the Trump administration to the winner of the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Texas, state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian, James Talarico. Even before prevailing in that contest earlier this month, Talarico had been having something of a moment, appearing on Ezra Klein's podcast, being profiled by the New Yorker, and generating a wave of media coverage, much of it focused on Talarico's Christian faith, his criticisms of the religious right, and what it all might mean for his political prospects in a state that remains stubbornly red. We explore what we like and what we find frustrating about Talarico's attempt to mix religious rhetoric and populism; how he navigates the complexities of speaking the language of a particular religious tradition in an increasingly secular, pluralistic society; Dr. King, the Civil Rights Movement, and prophetic religion; the place of religion on the left, and how it differs from the religious right; Herbert McCabe and socialism; and more. Sources: "James Talarico’s Beautiful Answer to Christian Nationalism," Ezra Klein Show, Jan 13, 2026 Matthew Sitman, "Whither the Religious Left?" New Republic, April 15, 2021 — "Against Moral Austerity: On the Need for a Christian Left," Dissent, Summer 2017 — "Finding the Words for Faith: Meet Christian Wiman, America’s Most Important Christian Writer," The Dish, Sept 3, 2014 Bill McCormick, S.J., "Joe Biden Said Now Is The Time To Heal. But What If Americans Don’t Want Reconciliation?" America, Nov 13, 2020 Vincent Lloyd, "Marcuse the Lover," Telos, Winter 2013 Alex Thompson, "Faith-forward Texas Senate Candidate Follows Porn Actors, Escorts on Instagram," Axios, Nov 8, 2025 Tad Friend, "James Talarico Puts His Faith in Texas Voters," New Yorker, Feb 23, 2026 Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer (2013) Joseph Bottum, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (2014)
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Trump's War Against Iran (w/ Matt Duss)
Mar 601:16:33Tap to summarizeOn February 28, both the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation's Supreme Leader, along with other political leaders and government officials, destroying various military targets, and bombing a girls elementary school that took at least 175 lives, many of them children. Just under a week into the war, where are we? Why did Trump decide to attack Iran now? What reasons did they give, and were any of them plausible? What have the consequences been so far? And what can Democrats do to fight back? To answer these questions, we had on Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and a former foreign policy adviser to Bernie Sanders. Other topics include: Michael Ledeen and the right's fixation on Iran; Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and the Iranian hostage crisis, and more. Sources: Matthew Duss, "War With Iran Would Be Illegal and Stupid. Democrats Should Care," Foreign Policy, Feb 27, 2026 Zachary Basu, "Trump's Lethal Presidency," Axios, Mar 2, 2026 Mark Mazzetti, Julian E. Barnes, et al, "How Trump Decided to Go to War," New York Times, Mar 2, 2026 Michael Ledeen, The War Against the Terror Masters: Why It Happened. Where We Are Now. How We'll Win (2002) — The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction (2007) — Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West (2009) ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!
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Standing Athwart History, Yelling "Slop!" (w/ John Ganz) [Teaser]
Feb 2700:02:41Tap to summarizeListen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. On Monday, Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo posted this: "The Right's collective brain is getting melted in a vat of slop, conspiracy, and algorithm-chasing. An intelligent man will guard himself against all of it." Given that Rufo was, after J.D. Vance, perhaps the most prominent Haitians-are-eating-pets-in-Ohio conspiracy theorist in the country, his complaint generated many, many responses rightfully calling him out for his lack of self-awareness and his own role in mainstreaming such a politics. As our friend John Ganz wrote, "Is this hypocrisy, stupidity, or unabashed malevolence? Try all three: it’s politics. Specifically, it’s the politics of the American Conservative Movement. People cry out for a new William F. Buckley. Give the title to Rufo, I say; he’s doing the job already." In this episode we talked to Ganz about how the dynamic Rufo identified has always been a feature of the postwar conservative movement, stretching back at least to William F. Buckley, Jr. and Brent Bozell's defense of McCarthyism; what's distinctive about the Right's present slop era, especially the alignment of conservative movement propagandists, the Republican Party, and the state; populism and the "Madisonian model"; and more! Sources: John Ganz, "I Told You So..." Unpopular Front, Feb 24, 2026 — "Finding Neverland: The American right’s doomed quest to rid itself of Trumpism," New Republic, Feb 17, 2020 Olivia Bellusci, "Candace Owens Drops Trailer for Investigative Series About Erika Kirk Months After Charlie’s Death," Yahoo, Feb 24, 2026 Matthew Sitman, "Riding the Trump Tiger," Commonweal, Aug 7, 2015 Nathan Taylor Pemberton, "Is ‘Slopulism’ Shaping Our Politics?" New York Times, Feb 13, 2026 Ruby Cramer, "You Don't Know Bernie Sanders," Buzzfeed, Dec 16, 2019. Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, (1982)
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