Know Your Enemy

Benjamin Moser's provocative, exquisitely written new book, Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History , couldn't be a more timely intervention in debates over Israel, Zionism, and the U.S.-Israeli relationship. It's a series of portraits of various Jewish people who came to oppose Zionism. Some are religious, some secular; some began as Zionists then changed their mind, others found it dubious from the get-g...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Many listeners will have seen the recent protests in France, protests that began with high school students marching out of classrooms for better conditions in them, then grew to a broader backlash against the cost of living and a crisis of affordability in the country that filled the country's streets—protests...

In this episode, we're joined by Rozina Ali for a conversation about Seasons of Fury , her new book about the rise, persistence, and changing contours of Islamophobia in the United States, a story she tells through the lives of four very different American families. It's an elegantly written feat of reporting that is depressing, moving, and enraging, and a damning portrait of the bigotry, surveill...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. In this episode we talk to our friend John Ganz about the nature and function of conservative intellectuals—or "intellectuals," whichever you prefer—past and present. In particular, the Trump era has been a kind of real-time experiment in seeing how rightwing writers and second-hand dealers in ideas degrade, co...

Dave Weigel is a longtime favorite political reporter of ours—someone we've both read for years, and find unusually unblinkered by partisan loyalties—so we couldn't think of a better guide to the 2026 midterms elections than him. What everyone knows is that, right now, polls show a possible Democratic wave in the offing; we try to understand why, and the ways both parties are responding to a genui...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. A sundowning, octogenarian president radically out of step with the country's mood, surrounded by Yes Men (and Women), cowards, and idiots, whose administration and party are plunging in popularity as war rages on: it's deja vu all over again, this time expressed through the pathological personage that is Donal...

This episode is a free-wheeling conversation with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor about their superb (and superbly written) new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World . Both terms in its title—"end times" and "fascism"—are ones we've discussed at length in previous episodes, but what insights are gained from exploring their dynamic relationship, now? What is new about this combin...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. In this conversation, Matt and Sam range widely, beginning with Sam's recent NYT review of a book explaining how Hitler "dismantled a democracy in 53 days" then discussing the late, great conservative historian John Lukacs's Hitler of History , a survey of the many biographies written of the Nazi dictator. What...

Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history, and it isn't close. Between his family's crypto business — designed to enable foreign oligarchs, criminals, and state actors to bribe the administration while enriching Trump and his family — his insider trading and manipulation of the stock market, a tariff regime designed to bind business interests to Trump's personal whims, and the...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. We talk to Astra Taylor and Aaron Regunberg about their recent New Republic article about MAGA's embrace of animal rights—which, like RFK Jr. and "Make America Healthy Again," has allowed them to make inroads with constituencies typically associated with the left. What actually is the Trumpist right's vision of...

In this episode, we're pleased to welcome back historian Kim Phillips-Fein, one of the truly outstanding observers of the right, past and present, working today, for a conversation about her new book, Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America . It makes for a companion episode of sorts to our recent discussions on Lincoln an...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. What is going on with the right? Why are they so mad at each other? What accounts for their apparent malaise? Why are they arguing about the price of burritos? Is anyone qualified to replace Ross Douthat at the NY Times? How is Reihan Salam's Manhattan Institute gearing up to combat Mayor Zohran Mamdani? Will i...

This episode begins by noting the proximity of two of the most significant events of the twentieth century, one archaeological, the other political: the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 and the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948. What do they have to do with each other? A lot, it turns out, at least when it comes to archaeology's role in Israeli nationalism, from justifying th...

This episode originally aired June 15, 2026 on Patreon — we're unlocking it for the rest of you.  Author and Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart returns to "Know Your Enemy" to discuss Tucker Carlson's newfound anti-Israel politics, their connection to his broader nationalist project, and how the left should think about right-wing anti-zionism. Sources: Peter Beinart, " What Tucker Carls...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Matt and Sam are joined by their great friend Dorothy Fortenberry to discuss the debacle of Graham Platner: the Maine Democratic Senate nominee who was forced to drop out amid allegations of rape. We compare notes about our evolving estimations of Platner, his appeal, and his scandals; uncover the gendered fant...

Lindsey Graham's death last week at 71 was as remarkable for the senator's relative "youth" as its possible political and electoral consequences, so much so that it actually prompted conspiracy theories about the precise nature of his passing. Meanwhile, 84-year old Mitch McConnell's status as among the living remains shrouded in mystery, and former president 83-year old former president Joe Biden...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. This conversation is something of a follow-up to our last episode on Garry Wills's Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America . We begin by "providing receipts" for the views of prominent midcentury conservative intellectuals (Willmoore Kendall, Russell Kirk, and Mel Bradford, to name a few) about the...

We're ringing in the 250th anniversary of the United States with an episode on Garry Wills's superb, Pulitzer Prize-winning 1992 book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade the America . It's central argument is that Abraham Lincoln succeeded in revolutionizing how Americans thought of the founding of their country, especially the Declaration of Independence, with the Gettysburg Address—a r...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. In this episode we break down the results from last week's Democratic primaries in New York City, which saw candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America prevail in key congressional races (as well as downballot in local and state races). We break down what happened, review the deranged responses...

As promised, here is our episode about Pope Leo XIV's recent encyclical, Magnifica humanitas , in which he brings to bear Catholic social teaching on the perils of artificial intelligence and what they reveal about what it really means to be human being. It's a distinctly Augustinian reading of our nature and destiny, marked not just by Leo's attention to our limits as flawed and fallible creature...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Author and Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart returns to "Know Your Enemy" to discuss Tucker Carlson's newfound anti-Israel politics, their connection to his broader nationalist project, and how the left should think about right-wing anti-zionism. Sources: Peter Beinart, " What Tucker Carlson Means W...

Pull up a chair and pour yourself a drink! For the third installment in our occasional series on important conservative books, or important books written by or embraced by conservatives, we take up Leo Strauss's Natural Right and History , based on his 1949 Walgreen Lectures at the University of Chicago (where he taught for two decades) and published in 1953. To help us, we called on our friend Ma...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Last month, on May 14th, we were joined by nearly 800 listeners in New York City for the first ever Know Your Enemy live show, " Decline and Fall ." The event was a fundraiser for Dissent , so we called in the big guns, our great friend Mike Duncan, to join us on stage. Many KYE listeners will be familiar with...

In this episode we have a conversation with reporter Jasper Craven about his new book, God Forgives, Brothers Don't: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood , which is a made-for-KYE feat of research that offers a fascinating way into perennial themes of this show: masculinity, U.S. empire, the relationship between violence and civilization, and the surprising camp...

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. As always, listeners asked more mailbag questions than we could respond to in one episode, so we continue answering them here for subscribers. In this second round we take up: a playlist of KYE's Straussian-related episodes; (Straussian) esoteric writing versus (French) death of the author and the art of writin...