Know Your Enemy

For KYE's first ever live show, Matt and Sam were joined by Mike Duncan, host of the Revolutions and History of Rome podcasts, to discuss how the right (and left) talk about American decline.

Transcribed - Published: 1 June 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Jasper Craven about his new book, God Forgives, Brothers Don't: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood.

Transcribed - Published: 26 May 2026

Matt and Sam answer even more listener questions about Straussianism, esoteric writing, prose style, Steely Dan, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 18 May 2026

Matt and Sam answer listener questions about post-Trump politics, the meaning of Zohran, the fate of liberalism, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 May 2026

Matt and Sam have a personal, wide-ranging conversation about religious faith in our troubled times.

Transcribed - Published: 4 May 2026

Matt and Sam discuss Peter Thiel's lectures on the Antichrist and what they reveal about both his politics and this political moment.

Transcribed - Published: 27 April 2026

Matt and Sam discuss Leo XIV approach to the papacy, President Trump's attacks on the first American pope, just war theory, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2026

Molly Crabapple joins to discuss her new book, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund."

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2026

Matt interviews Sam about his recent New York magazine article, "The Women Leaving the New Right," and MAGA-style misogyny.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Bill Kristol about his journey from neoconservative thought leader to anti-Trump "liberal."

Transcribed - Published: 23 March 2026

Matt and Sam discuss the Christian populism of James Talarico, Presbyterian seminarian and winner of the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Texas.

Transcribed - Published: 16 March 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Matt Duss, a leading foreign policy expert on the left, about the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.

Transcribed - Published: 6 March 2026

Matt and Sam talk to John Ganz about rightwing intellectuals yet again being surprised the leopard is eating their face.

Transcribed - Published: 27 February 2026

Matt and Sam talk to writer Pedro Gonzalez about his break with MAGA and the New Right.

Transcribed - Published: 23 February 2026

Matt and Sam discuss the 2003 film, Shattered Glass, about disgraced New Republic writer and fabulist Stephen Glass.

Transcribed - Published: 16 February 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Jason Zengerle about his new book, Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind.

Transcribed - Published: 9 February 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Lydia Polgreen about her reporting from Minneapolis.

Transcribed - Published: 2 February 2026

Matt and Sam discuss Venezuela, Greenland, and the "Donroe Doctrine" with the Progressive International's David Adler and Matt Kirkegaard.

Transcribed - Published: 26 January 2026

Matt and Sam discuss the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, and the perilous times it exemplifies.

Transcribed - Published: 19 January 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Robert Draper about his reporting from the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and how the Republican Party "lost its mind" in the months that followed.

Transcribed - Published: 12 January 2026

Matt and Sam talk to Matt Dinan about teaching, the AI apocalypse, and the state of our souls.

Transcribed - Published: 2 January 2026

We're unpaywalling our excellent conversation with Kate Wagner (of McMansion Hell) about Trump's White House ballroom project and the politics of architecture.

Transcribed - Published: 22 December 2025

Matt and Sam look back at the American right in 2025—and offer predictions about the year ahead.

Transcribed - Published: 15 December 2025

Matt and Sam are joined by KYE's intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman, to discuss the recent film, One Battle After Another.

Transcribed - Published: 8 December 2025

Andrew Elrick interviews Matt and Sam about friendship and politics, conservative views of friendship, and how friendship shapes their podcast.

Transcribed - Published: 1 December 2025

Matt and Sam talk to Laura Field about her new book, Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right.

Transcribed - Published: 24 November 2025

Matt and Sam talk to McMansion Hell's Kate Wagner about Trump's White House ballroom.

Transcribed - Published: 17 November 2025

Matt and Sam talk to Peter Beinart about Zohran and Islamophobia, Jews and anti-semitism, the genocide in Gaza, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2025

Matt and Sam are very worried.

Transcribed - Published: 3 November 2025

Matt and Sam discuss the Young Republican Hitler group chat, Graham Platner, the No Kings rallies, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2025

Matt and Sam read Charles Murray's 2012 book, "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010."

Transcribed - Published: 15 October 2025

Matt and Sam indulge in some rank punditry: on Zohran's campaign, Hegseth's pathetic speech to the generals, and ICE authoritarianism on the march.

Transcribed - Published: 6 October 2025

Matt and Sam discuss the Charlie Kirk memorial service/MAGA rally with Pat Blanchfield.

Transcribed - Published: 29 September 2025

Matt and Sam discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and where they think we're heading in its wake.

Transcribed - Published: 19 September 2025

Matt and Sam talk to Osita Nwanevu about his new book, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.

Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2025

Matt and Sam discuss Roman Polanski's 2019 film about the Dreyfus affair, An Officer and a Spy, with John Ganz.

Transcribed - Published: 5 September 2025

Matt and Sam interview Dan Flynn about his extraordinary new biography of Communist-turned-National Review-editor Frank Meyer.

Transcribed - Published: 28 August 2025

In light of James Dobson's death this week, we've unlocked Matt's conversation with Talia Lavin about her book, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America.

Transcribed - Published: 23 August 2025

Matt and Sam talk with Daniel HoSang about the gains the GOP and Trump are making with racial minorities.

Transcribed - Published: 18 August 2025

Matt and Sam answer listener questions about Christian Zionism, Roy Cohn, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 August 2025

Matt and Sam answer listener questions about Trump 2.0, Judaism and Catholicism, bourbon, literature, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 4 August 2025

A number of listeners wanted the KYE take on the Jeffrey Epstein story — here it is.

Transcribed - Published: 28 July 2025

Mike Duncan (host of the "Revolutions" podcast) joins to discuss the conservative obsession with the fall of Rome — and the real lessons of Roman history.

Transcribed - Published: 18 July 2025

It's Zohran time! Matt and Sam talk to campaign strategist Waleed Shahid about Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani's decisive victory in NYC's Democratic mayoral primary.

Transcribed - Published: 11 July 2025

Matt and Sam talk to Sam Tanenhaus about his long-awaited biography of William F. Buckley, Jr.

Transcribed - Published: 4 July 2025

Matt and Sam are joined by Curt Mills of The American Conservative to discuss the intra-MAGA conflict over Israel's war in Iran.

Transcribed - Published: 27 June 2025

Journalist Tammy Kim joins the pod to talk about the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles — and the raids that precipitated them.

Transcribed - Published: 23 June 2025

Matt, Sam, and Jesse watch "Reagan" (2024) — a terrible movie about a(-nother) senile president.

Transcribed - Published: 12 June 2025

Matt and Sam discuss Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.

Transcribed - Published: 7 June 2025

Matt and Sam discuss Christopher Caldwell's "The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties," a broadside against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Transcribed - Published: 2 June 2025