Best Ronald Barker Podcasts (2024)

1
Trump Survives, Biden Doesn't. Where Are We? [Teaser] 5:52

13m ago5:52

5:52

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy In the week-and-a-half since we last offered you, our beloved subscribers, the highest quality election punditry around, a lot has happened: on the Democratic side of the ledger, "The Podcasters' Coup" succeeded and Joe Biden has stepped down as the party's presi…

1
Yoram Hazony’s Israeli Model (w/ Suzanne Schneider) 1:06:09

10d ago1:06:09

1:06:09

Last week, as Israel continued to prosecute its eliminationist war against Palestinians in Gaza, an eclectic group of right-wing bigwigs gathered in Washington, DC for the fourth iteration of the National Conservatism conference — convened by Yarom Hazony, an Israeli-born writer, activist, and former speechwriter for Benjamin Netanyahu. As our gues…

1
If Joe’s Cooked, What Now? (w/ Ettingermentum) [Teaser] 4:32

1d ago4:32

4:32

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy Just about two weeks ago, we gave a nearly real-time reaction to Joe Biden's catastrophically inept performance in his first presidential debate against Donald Trump. The fallout has been swift but not certain—a flood of stories in the press were unleashed, givin…

1
The Wolfe in the White Suit (w/ Osita Nwanevu) [UNLOCKED] 1:34:04

8d ago1:34:04

1:34:04

We took the holiday week off, so we're sharing an episode from behind the paywall. Coming soon: new episodes on The Biden Problem, SCOTUS, and Israeli illiberalism as an inspiration for the global right. *** In this episode, from January 2024, writer Osita Nwanevu joins for a rip-roaring conversation about legendary prose stylist, "new journalist,"…

1
Joe's Gotta Go [Teaser] 4:25

23d ago4:25

4:25

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy We watched it, and you probably did too. Here is our analysis of the incredibly depressing, even shocking first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. While the topic of this episode is self…

1
Has the Far Right Won in Europe? (w/ David Adler & David Broder) [Teaser] 3:51

15d ago3:51

3:51

We're joined by two experts on European politics to explain the EU parliamentary election results: David Adler, general coordinator of the Progressive International, and David Broder, historian of Italy and Europe editor at Jacobin. What do the results say about the strength of the far right in Europe? And why has Emmanuel Macron of France called s…

1
When the Clock Broke (w/ John Ganz) 1:31:19

29d ago1:31:19

1:31:19

Something happened to America — and to American conservatism — in the early 1990s: an unspooling, a coarsening, a turn from substance to symbol and from narrative to fragment; prevailing political myths ceased to make sense or have purchase, and nothing sufficiently capacious or legible emerged to replace them, leaving only a dank, foggy climate of…

1
The Gay Men Who Built the Conservative Movement (w/ Neil J. Young) 1:24:45

1M ago1:24:45

1:24:45

In this special Pride Month episode of Know Your Enemy, Matt and Sam talk to historian Neil J. Young about his new book, Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right. His absorbing account picks up in after World War II, when neither party made for a good political home for gay people, which helped make a libertarian approach to sexual politic…

1
Will the Trump Verdict Matter? [Teaser] 3:10

2M ago3:10

3:10

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Matt and Sam break down the Trump guilty verdict—what happened during the trial, why the jury might have reached the decision they did, how Republicans and the right reacted, and the ways it all could matter…

1
What Was the CIO? (w/ Tim Barker and Ben Mabie) 1:21:36

2M ago1:21:36

1:21:36

Historian Tim Barker and editor/organizer Ben Mabie join to discuss a thrilling episode in the history of American labor. Barker and Mabie are two co-hosts of Fragile Juggernaut, a Haymarket Originals podcast exploring the history, politics, and strategic lessons of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (or CIO). Along with co-hosts Alex Press, …

1
Consider the Cranks (w/ David Austin Walsh) 1:34:04

2M ago1:34:04

1:34:04

Historian David Austin Walsh joins to discuss his excellent new book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right — a fascinating re-description of the relationship between the far right and the American conservative movement from the 1930s to the end of the Cold War. How did figures like William F. Buckley, Jr. relate to figure…

1
The Inconclusive Mr. Buckley [Teaser] 2:33

3M ago2:33

2:33

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Matt and Sam gab about "The Incomparable Mr. Buckley," a new PBS documentary on William F. Buckley Jr., which features Matt Sitman (!) as a talking head — along with a rogue's gallery of KYE friends and form…

1
Against Despair (w/ Christian Wiman) 1:08:08

3M ago1:08:08

1:08:08

This conversation is a little different. We wanted to take a break from the election-year political jousting to talk to the poet Christian Wiman about Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, one of the most singular books published in recent memory—part memoir, part commonplace book, part poetry collection. As with his previous My Bright A…

1
"Write Like a Man" (w/ Ronnie Grinberg) 1:16:40

3M ago1:16:40

1:16:40

Historian Ronnie Grinberg's new book Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals couldn't be better "Know Your Enemy" fodder. (Main characters include: Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz, Diana and Lionel Trilling, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and Mary McCarthy!) These writers, Grinberg shows, built and sustained a novel, secul…

1
Arguing the World: Howe, Kristol, Glazer, and Bell [Teaser] 3:41

3M ago3:41

3:41

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy It was inevitable that Know Your Enemy would eventually discuss Arguing the World, the 1998 documentary about four Jewish intellectuals who emerged from the alcoves and arguments of City College in the 1930s…

1
Taylor Swift Derangement Syndrome (w/ B.D. McClay) 1:18:42

4M ago1:18:42

1:18:42

Why are Republicans and the right losing their minds over Taylor Swift, the gifted songwriter and globe-bestriding pop star? Why do they think her NFL-playing, Super Bowl-winning boyfriend is secretly gay—precisely because he's dating Taylor Swift? Why is this slice of Americana being portrayed as a deep-state op meant to hand the 2024 election to …

1
UNLOCKED: Keeping Up with the Bozells 1:34:15

4M ago1:34:15

1:34:15

What can four generations of men named "L. Brent Bozell" tell us about the trajectory of modern American conservatism? Well, quite a lot. In this classic KYE bonus episode from February 2021, newly unlocked for these last weeks of Lent, Matt and Sam discuss one of the first families of the postwar right, which ends up being a story about faith, fan…

1
Why the Right Loves Foreign Dictators (w/ Jacob Heilbrunn) 1:26:21

4M ago1:26:21

1:26:21

The right's romance with odious foreign dictators didn't start with Putin or Viktor Orbán, and their profound contempt for democracy long predates January 6. In his new book, America Last: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators, Jacob Heilbrunn traces this tradition on the right—in many ways their most deeply rooted and enduring tr…

1
A Remedy for Envy? René Girard Redux [TEASER] 2:59

5M ago2:59

2:59

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Matt and Sam return to René Girard via Pope Francis—whom Matt personally met at a recent general audience at the Vatican, and whose homily at that audience addressed the problem of envy, and what Christianit…

1
René Girard and the Right (w/ John Ganz) 1:39:44

5M ago1:39:44

1:39:44

The late René Girard, former Stanford professor of literature and mentor to Peter Thiel, is having something of a moment on the right these days—as Sam Kriss recently put it in a Harper's essay, Girard's name is being "dropped on podcasts and shoved into reading lists," and "Girardianism has become a secret doctrine of a strange new frontier in rea…

1
Thinking the "Far Right" [Teaser] 4:01

5M ago4:01

4:01

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Matt and Sam return to some historiographic questions from our episode with Kim Phillips-Fein — especially how to think the relationship between "right" and "far right" — and then discuss the troubling retur…

1
Project 2025: Building a "Better" Trump Administration 1:26:37

6M ago1:26:37

1:26:37

As listeners might have noticed, 2024 is a presidential election year, and already the prospect of Donald Trump returning to power is looming over the campaign and the media's coverage of it. In a second term, Trump has promised to weaponize the Justice Department to punish his enemies, deconstruct major portions of the administrative state, and mo…

1
[TEASER] The Politics of Seinfeld (w/ Gabe Winant and Jesse Brenneman) 4:12

6M ago4:12

4:12

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Journeyman actor Peter Crombie, who appeared in films such as Seven, Born on the Fourth of July, and Natural Born Killers, died earlier this month, on January 10, 2024, at the age of 71. But his most famous,…

1
The History of the History of the Right (w/ Kim Phillips-Fein) 1:06:54

6M ago1:06:54

1:06:54

When did the American conservative movement begin? Who were its chief protagonists? What were their main motivations? Is the conservative movement a social movement, like any other, or is it something different? Should scholars have "sympathy" for their conservative subjects in order to study them? And are there important distinctions to be drawn b…

1
Tom Wolfe (w/ Osita Nwanevu) [TEASER] 3:06

7M ago3:06

3:06

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Writer Osita Nwanevu joins for a rip-roaring conversation about legendary prose stylist, "new journalist," and novelist Tom Wolfe. Reviewing a new documentary about Wolfe ("Radical Wolfe" on Netflix), Osita …

1
Bomb Power (w/ Erik Baker) 1:28:19

7M ago1:28:19

1:28:19

For our final main episode of 2023, we're dipping back into the Wills well to discuss Garry's under-appreciated 2010 book, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State. Joining us is our great friend Erik Baker, lecturer in the History of Science Department at Harvard University and an editor at The Drift magazine. In Bomb Powe…

1
Milton Friedman and the Making of Our Times (w/ Jennifer Burns) 1:37:30

8M ago1:37:30

1:37:30

In this episode, Matt and Sam are joined by Stanford historian Jennifer Burns to discuss her new biography of Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist whose influence would reach far beyond the academy when, during his last decades, he became one of the most effective popularizers of libertarian ideas—in books, columns, and even a ten-par…

1
Anarcho-Capitalism in Argentina? (w/ David Adler) [TEASER] 3:01

8M ago3:01

3:01

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Know Your Enemy Latin America correspondent David Adler returns to breakdown the (terrible) election results from Argentina, where Javier Milei, a deranged disciple of Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, and A…

1
The Kennedy Imprisonment (w/ Jeet Heer) 1:41:30

8M ago1:41:30

1:41:30

In this episode, Matt and Sam welcome the Nation's Jeet Heer to the podcast to continue their journey into the work of Garry Wills—in particular, Wills's under-appreciated 1982 masterpiece, The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power. The book might be thought of as a sequel to his earlier Nixon Agonistes (1970). As Wills puts it in his introdu…

1
More Questions, More Answers [Teaser] 2:33

8M ago2:33

2:33

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy In which we answer more of your excellent questions, including: the right-wing panic over children; how to leave grad school; Tillich, Niebuhr, and Dorothy Day; why 21st century Bob Dylan is the best Bob Dyl…

1
Your Questions, Answered 1:35:35

9M ago1:35:35

1:35:35

Once a year Matt and Sam take questions from listeners—and they always prove to be incredibly smart and interesting. This time around was no different, with questions that include such topics as: the crisis in Israel and Palestine, the influence of postliberal thinkers on the right, polarization and our political future, the state of the GOP, Willi…

1
In Search of Anti-Semitism (w/ John Ganz) 1:12:44

9M ago1:12:44

1:12:44

In a 1991, William F. Buckley, Jr. dedicated almost an entire issue of National Review to an essay entitled "In Search of Anti-Semitism." In its pages, Buckley attempted to adjudicate a conflict that was then roiling America's right wing intelligentsia — over whether two of its leading lights, Pat Buchanan and Joseph Sobran, were guilty of antisemi…

1
House of Pain (w/ Eric Levitz) [Teaser] 2:54

9M ago2:54

2:54

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy always wanted to make history—and he did when, earlier this week, he became the first Speaker of the House to be ousted from the job after eight Republicans joined Democ…

1
The Debate, the Donald, and the Strike [Teaser] 2:58

10M ago2:58

2:58

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Matt and Sam suffer through the second GOP debate—a pathetic display from a gaggle of generally uninteresting reactionaries with no chance of defeating Trump in the primary—and then turn to an extended conve…

1
Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL (w/ Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, & Peter Beinart) 1:05:40

10M ago1:05:40

1:05:40

A few weeks ago, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, eagerly joined in a campaign, originating on the far right, to demonize the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a century-old Jewish civil rights organization whose leaders have criticized Musk for allowing anti-semitic and white supremacist hate speech to proliferate on Twitter/X. To many progres…

1
Reading the Trump Indictments [Teaser] 2:37

11M ago2:37

2:37

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Former president Donald Trump is currently facing 91 criminal charges in four different jurisdictions — Georgia, Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia. Two of these indictments — Special Prosecutor…

1
What the Cold War Did to Liberalism (w/ Samuel Moyn) 1:11:00

11M ago1:11:00

1:11:00

In his provocative new book, Liberalism Against Itself, historian Samuel Moyn revisits the work of five key Cold War thinkers—Judith Shklar, Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and Lionel Trilling—to explain the deformation of liberalism in the middle of the twentieth century, a time when, in his telling, liberals abandoned their commi…

1
The First 2024 GOP Presidential Debate [TEASER] 2:09

11M ago2:09

2:09

Matt and Sam stayed up late to record just minutes after the first GOP presidential debate ended on Wednesday night; we did this for you, our beloved subscribers, because we care. This episode (full of blistering insights) is the result of that decision. "Enjoy." Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of ou…

1
The Hochman Affair 1:18:25

11M ago1:18:25

1:18:25

Three weeks ago, one-time Know Your Enemy guest and “frenemy” of the show Nate Hochman was fired from Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign for his role in producing a campaign video featuring a Nazi “sonnenrad” symbol. (You may have read about it!) Unsurprisingly, the Hochman affair inspired some soul-searching on the part of your podcast hosts: ha…

1
Grateful Dead Conservatives (w/ Sophie Haigney) [TEASER] 2:17

11M ago2:17

2:17

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy The Grateful Dead Conservative (w/ Sophie Haigney) Another fun summer-y episode for you, our beloved subscribers: This time, we talked to writer, Paris Review editor, and Grateful Dead super-fan Sophie Haigney…

1
Midge Decter: Anti-Feminist Cold Warrior (w/ Moira Donegan & Adrian Daub) 1:22:42

12M ago1:22:42

1:22:42

In this episode, Matt and Sam join Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub — co-hosts of the new podcast “In Bed With The Right" — for an in-depth look at the life, times, and work of the late Midge Decter, who died in 2022. Decter was inspired by a distinctly conservative, mid-century American reading of Freudian psychology, mobilized in defense of traditio…

1
TEASER: Sin and Salvation in the Righteous Gemstones (w/ Jesse Brenneman) 2:20

1y ago2:20

2:20

Subscribe 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 welcome their intrepid producer and great friend Jesse Brenneman back to the third mic to talk about HBO's The Righteous Gemstones. In addition to being a wildly entertaining entry to the Danny Mc…

1
Legal Trouble 1:17:46

1y ago1:17:46

1:17:46

After several trying months, Matt and Sam can finally discuss the lawsuit against KYE and Dissent magazine filed by Young Americans Foundation , the successor organization to Young Americans for Freedom. (We prevailed, for now anyway.) Then we turn to three SCOTUS rulings from the end of the session: (1) Biden vs Nebraska (the student debt ruling);…

1
Impossible Professions: Freud and Janet Malcolm (ft. Patrick Blanchfield & Abby Kluchin) 1:51:45

1y ago1:51:45

1:51:45

Know Your Enemy presents: an episode of Ordinary Unhappiness — a new podcast about psychoanalysis with hosts Abby Kluchin and Patrick Blanchfield. Their guest? Sam Adler-Bell! In the episode that follows, we talk about how Sam came to study conservative thought from a leftist perspective and what role psychoanalysis plays in that project; discuss t…

1
Grow Up, Men (w/ Phil Christman) [TEASER] 2:13

1y ago2:13

2:13

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy In this follow-up to "What's Wrong with Men?, Matt and Sam talk with the essayist and critic Phil Christman about his 2018 Hedgehog Review article, "What Is It Like To Be a Man?"—an article that figured promin…

1
The Prayers and Prophecies of Pat Robertson [TEASER] 3:35

1y ago3:35

3:35

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy Last week, televangelist, businessman, conspiracy theorist, and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson died at the age of 93. Though mostly known today for his deranged comments about homosexua…

1
What's Wrong With Men? 1:51:59

1y ago1:51:59

1:51:59

"Many men in this country are in crisis, and their ranks are swelling," Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said at the National Conservatism conference in 2021. "And that's not just a crisis for men. It's a crisis for the republic." Some version of this sentiment — that men are in trouble, adrift, or falling behind — is shared by writers and thinkers acr…

1
The 2024 Race: "It's Showtime, Folks!" (TEASER) 2:08

1y ago2:08

2:08

Subscribe 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 take the pulse of the 2024 presidential race: Is DeSantis already doomed? Does Trump still have the juice? Can Biden handle a full campaign schedule? And how do you solve a problem like Kamala? Th…

1
"Succession," "Extrapolations," and TV Writing Today (w/ Dorothy Fortenberry and Will Arbery) 1:16:55

1y ago1:16:55

1:16:55

With the Writers Guild of America strike underway, the plight of television writers—especially their treatment in the age of streaming and artificial intelligence—is garnering new, and overdue, attention. Matt and Sam are joined by two friends of the podcast, Will Arbery and Dorothy Fortenberry, who write for major television shows: Will is a write…

1
TEASER: The January 6th Committee Report 1:43

1y ago1:43

1:43

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this bonus episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy The boys discuss Matt's recent Dissent essay on the 845-page report of the "Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol." What did the Jan 6 report — and the committee's…

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