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Break Glass in Case of Emergency
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!
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1:31:51
Command + F + Hitler [Teaser]
Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.he theme of this rank punditry episode is Getting in Trouble on the Internet, and we begin with the frankly unsurprising story of the Young Republican Hitler group chats, then move on to a longer discussion about Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, Graham Platner, and the revelations about controversial past posts on Reddit about guns and fighting fascism, rural white voters, his ideological allegiances, and more—all recorded before the news of his tattoo, now covered over, of a Nazi skull-and-bones insignia. Along the way we talk about what makes a change of mind and heart persuasive, how grace comes to us in our struggles, if Platner is Fetterman 2.0, and the class dimension of all these debates, and finally close with a relatively hopeful take on the "No Kings" protests last weekend.Sources:Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo, "'I Love Hitler': Leaked Messages Expose Young Republicans' Racist Chat," Politico, Oct 14, 2025Julianne McShane, “No One in the GOP Hitler Chat Was a ‘Kid’: We checked. Sorry, JD Vance," Mother Jones, Oct 15, 2025Adam Wren, Erin Doherty & Jessica Piper, "Maine Senate Candidate Promoted Violent Political Action in Since-Deleted Online Posts," Politico, Oct 16, 2025Lauren McCauley, "Unearthed Reddit Comments Present First Stumble in Platner’s Rise," Maine Morning Star, Oct 17, 2025Kimberlee Kruesi & Patrick Whittle, "Maine Senate Candidate Platner Says Tattoo Recognized as Nazi Symbol Has Been Covered," Associated Press, Oct 23, 2025Ben Terris, "The Hidden Struggle of John Fetterman," New York, May 2, 2025Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer (2013)
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How Charles Murray (Almost) Predicted the Trump Era
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!
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1:32:56
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1:32:56
How To Give A Damn [Teaser]
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)
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Death, Power, and the Charlie Kirk Memorial (w/ Pat Blanchfield)
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!
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1:26:21
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1:26:21