Kyle Spencer on the Dangers of Political Extremism, the Tragedy of Charlie Kirk, and the Future of American Democracy

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.8 • 554 Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kyle Spencer is a journalist and the author of Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America’s Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power (Ecco). We spoke about this book in November 2022—it features Charlie Kirk prominently. In light of Kirk's death, I invited Kyle back onto the program to discuss his life, his work, and the very combustible and very tragic political moment in which we now find ourselves. I hope this conversation helps bring clarity and insight. *** ⁠⁠Otherppl with Brad Listi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, etc. Get ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠How to Write a Novel,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brad's email newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠proud affiliate partner of Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Birthday coming up?
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0:33.0	All right, everybody, welcome to the program.
0:40.7	This is The Other People Show, a weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations with today's leading writers.
0:47.4	It's a books and culture show.
0:49.0	My name is Brad Listy.
0:50.3	I'm in Los Angeles.
0:51.9	Happy Sunday to you.
0:53.2	I hope you're okay out there wherever you happen to be.
0:55.9	Don't forget to subscribe to this program wherever you listen,
0:59.6	and you can follow me on Blue Sky and Instagram.
1:05.7	So back in November of 2022,
1:09.7	I had a conversation on this program with journalist and author Kyle Spencer.
1:15.4	This was episode 801.
1:18.0	Kyle Spencer had just published her book, Raising Them Right, the Untold Story of America's Ultra Conservative Youth Movement and its plot for power, which is a deeply
1:29.5	reported look at the rise of far-right youth activism in America. And specifically, it looked
1:36.9	at the influence of figures like Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. Kyle Spencer met and interviewed Charlie Kirk in the course of her
	...

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