Refuse Fascism

Sam talks to Dr. Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, assistant professor of religion and anthropology at Northeastern University about Christian Dominionism, rising antisemitism and the fascist movement's continued momentum. Follow her on Twitter at @riccardiswartz and visit her site at riccardiswartz.com Refuse Fascism is more than a podcast! You can get involved at RefuseFascism.org. We're still on Twitter a...

Sam Goldman chats with fellow RefuseFascism.org co-editors Coco Das and Paul Street about the aftermath of the 2022 midterms, Donald Trump declaring his 2024 candidacy and associated happenings this past week. Follow Coco on Twitter at @Coco_Das and subscribe to Paul on Substack at paulstreet.substack.com . Read Paul's book This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America...

Sam Goldman interviews Bradley Onishi about his new book (available January 2023) Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next Brad Onishi is a former insider in the Christian nationalist movement who spent seven years as a minister in Southern California. Listen to his podcast Straight White American Jesus , follow him on Twitter at @BradleyOnishi a...

Sam Goldman interviews writer Sarah Posner about antisemitism, Christian Zionism and increasing anti-trans hysteria in the radicalizing Republican Party. Read Sarah's recent piece The GOP’s Christian Supremacy Problem and follow her at sarahposner.com or on Twitter @sarahposner or mastodon.social/@sarahposner .  Also mentioned in this episode: The US Christian Right groups actively involved i...

Sam Goldman interviews writer Teddy Wilson about the latest developments from the fascist movement in the US, including the violent wing of the anti-abortion movement, the January 6th commission, and the wave of antisemitism coming from prominent powers and from their ground soldiers. Teddy chronicles the US fascist movement in detail at hist Substack: radicalreports.substack.com . Follow Teddy on...

Sam Goldman interviews Andrew Seidel, a constitutional and civil rights attorney and the author of two books: The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American and American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom . He's also co-editor of an academic text, Law and Religion: Cases and Materials 5th Edition, with Prof. Leslie Griffin of UNLV law school. Andrew i...

The courageous movement in Iran is reaching an incredibly inspiring new stage that needs to be understood, learned from and supported by people who care about justice everywhere. To learn more about the situation, Sam Goldman interviews two experts on the topic: Jasmin Ramsey, Deputy Director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (follow @ICHRI and @jasminramsey ; website iranhumanrights.org ) an...

Sam Goldman interviews historian of fascism, Federico Finchelstein, about the upcoming run-off election in Brazil for incumbent fascist Bolsonaro vs. former president Lula da Silva. Follow Dr. Finchelstein on Twitter @FinchelsteinF . Then, reflections on the 100 days since the federal right to abortion was overturned in the US and what it will take to restore this fundamental right - a Blue W...

Sam talks to Paul Street and Anthony DiMaggio about Trump’s open embrace of the fascist Qanon movement, the kidnapping of Venezuelan migrants by Florida governor Desantis, media and politicians’ normalization of fascism and much more. Paul Street is an historian and member of the Refuse Fascism editorial board, author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America ; f...

Sunsara Taylor, co-host of The RNL (Revolution Nothing Less) Show and one of the initiators of RiseUp4AbortionRights.org discusses the new post-Roe federal legislation introduced by Lindsey Graham which would ban abortions after 15 weeks, overriding all protections for abortion rights at the state level. Follow Sunsara on Twitter at @SunsaraTaylor . Then, Sam Goldman interviews Dr. Heather Costell...

Sam interviews independent journalist and researcher Teddy Wilson about the base for fascism in the US and how they are responding to recent events. Subscribe to Teddy’s regularly updated Substack at radicalreports.substack.com and follow him on Twitter at @reportbywilson . Mentioned in this episode: The Oath Keepers Data Leak: Unmasking Extremism in Public Life from the ADL  Refuse Fascism i...

On the occasion of our 125th episode, RefuseFascism.org editorial board members Coco Das and Paul Street share recollections on the mission and analysis of the organization. Follow Coco Das on Twitter @Coco_Das . Read the statement Coco co-authored which was published in The New York Times as a full page advertisement days after the 2020 electoral defeat of Donald Trump here . Get Paul’s latest bo...

Sam Goldman interviews writer Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life , a novel about a midwife and abortion provider from the 1800’s based on a true story. Read Manning’s op ed for The Washington Post , “Antiabortion laws are forced-birth laws. Here’s what that looks like.”   Follow Manning's work which includes other eloquent and pointed opinion pieces about women, abortion, and more, plu...

Sam Goldman interviews Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law and University of Michigan and cohost of Strict Scrutiny podcast, discussing the past, present and future of the Trump-appointee dominated SCOTUS. Follow Leah Litman on Twitter at @leahlitman . Plus: Merle Hoffman, one of the co-founders of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights speaking at the Society for Ethical Culture. Follow @RiseUp4Abortion a...

Sam interviews Dr. Henry Giroux, renowned educator and author of recently published pieces The Nazification of American Education and The US Is Descending Into a Crisis of Overt Fascism. There’s Still a Way Out .  Also see Florida students return to schools reshaped by Gov. DeSantis' anti-'woke' education agenda . Follow Dr. Giroux on Twitter at @HenryGiroux and visit his website at henryagir...

Sam interviews writer and pundit Danielle Moodie about the current state of fascism in the United States and how to actually stand up to the fascist bullies (hint: it’s not what the Democrats are doing right now). Listen to Danielle every weekday on her podcast Woke AF and every week on Democracy-ish (with Wajahat Ali). Follow her on Twitter at @deetwocents on Instagram @deetwocents at and on TikT...

Sam speaks to the Rachael Wachstein (first interviewed on Episode #35 in December 2020 - find her on Facebook ) again, this time to discuss Robert Crimo, Jr., the mass shooter who murdered people at the Highland Park July 4 parade this year, 2022. Wachstein witnessed not only this horrific event but recognized Crimo as one of the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" fascists she had been counter-protesting...

It's just a few weeks into the hellscape that is a post-Roe United States... Sam and Mark chat about just a few of the stories that have come out in recent weeks illustrating the growing catastrophe. Donate to support the Indiana doctor currently under fire from fascist forces for providing abortion care to a 10 year old rape victim who traveled from Ohio here . Recommended Reading: They Will Neve...

Sam interviews Dr. Thomas Lecaque about apocalyptic Christianity, the GOP in 2022 and the medieval roots of support for secular fascists like Trump from Christian nationalists. Read his recent articles Patriot Front and the Next Stage of the Culture War , "Jesus, guns, babies": Religious violence is now at the core of the Republican Party , and this piece from 2019 in The Washington Post: The apoc...

Sam and Coco Das discuss Coco's new article for The Independent: Roe has been overturned and women’s bodies are no longer their own in America. Here’s what to do now . Follow Coco at @Coco_Das . Over the past couple weeks SCOTUS has issued a series of rulings that flag that they are no longer concerned with the appearance of legitimacy: rights no longer need to be read to people arrested by the po...

On our first post-Roe episode, we share some of the voices from the streets over the last couple days outside the Supreme Court demanding the federal government restore the fundamental right to abortion across the country NOW, including Sunsara Taylor ( @sunsarataylor ), Paxton Smith ( @paxtonsmith ) and youth organizers. Then, writer and pundit Wajahat Ali talks to Sam about the January 6 hearing...

Sam Goldman takes a break from protesting outside the Supreme Court to interview writer Jill Filipovic about the looming abortion rights disaster. Follow Jill’s work at jill.substack.com and follow her on Twitter at @JillFilipovic . Then, Sunsara Taylor interviews lawyer and host of the Amicus podcast Dahlia Lithwick about the legal rationale behind overturning the right to abortion and the many o...

Sam Goldman interviews Dr. Federico Finchelstein on the recent Op Ed he wrote with Dr. Jason Stanley in the LA Times: White replacement theory is fascism’s new name . Follow @FinchelsteinF on Twitter and check out his newest book, Fascist Mythologies: The History and Politics of Unreason in Borges, Freud, and Schmitt . Recommended reading: The first January 6 hearing served up surprising revelatio...

In the aftermath of the horrific massacre of schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, which was close on the heels of a white supremacist killing spree in Buffalo, NY, we’re re-sharing the extremely relevant interview Sam Goldman did with Dr. Carol Anderson in November 2021. Dr. Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University and the author of Whi...

Coco Das @Coco_Das and Sam Goldman @SamBGoldman have been busy rallying people in the streets with RiseUp4AbortionRights.org over the past couple weeks - we share some of those speeches today. Join in nationwide protests this Thursday May 26 to raise your voice and raise hell as SCOTUS is on the verge of overturning Roe and allowing many abortion bans to go through. Find or organize a protest here...