Best Leftists Look At Conservatism Podcasts (2025)

This episode originally aired November 17, 2025 on Patreon — we're unlocking it as a holiday treat. If there's a Trump-era topic that manages to fascinate without being entirely depressing, it's probably the ongoing arguments about architecture that his ascension has occasioned. Proponents of a RETVRN to the architectural ideals of ancient Greece a…

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What We Got Wrong (and Right) about the Right in 2025 [Teaser] 6:28

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. As the end of the year approaches, we wanted to look back at another year of trying to understand the American right—what we got wrong, what we got right, and what to expect in 2026. The conversation begins with the cracks showing in Trump's coalition, his plumm…

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Yi Sun-Sin: The Greatest Admiral of all Time? 24:56

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Send us a text We explore a towering figure of naval warfare and ask whether he stands atop all of history's admirals.By Bel Aves

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One Podcast After Another (w/ Jesse Brenneman) 1:04:43

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Given the not-terribly-uplifting streak of episodes we've had lately, we thought it was time for a Know Your Enemy movie night, and were joined by the podcast's intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman, for a conversation about Paul Thomas Anderson's 2025 film, One Battle After Another. Its tagline—"When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a grou…

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Freedom to Choose: How Milton Friedman Saved Capitalism 34:44

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Send us a text We look at one of the towering figures of conservativism and explore whether his policies would work today.By Bel Aves

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On Friendship (w/ Andy Elrick) 1:30

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Should you try to improve your friends or leave them be? Do friendship and politics mix? Is friendship about virtue or delight? In 2023, we were interviewed by Andrew Elrick, now a professor at Marist University, for a documentary podcast he was making about men…

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Thankfulness and Thanksgiving 16:29

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Send us a text What is Thanksgiving really about? We explore on this episode. And Happy Thanksgiving America!By Bel Aves

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The Furious Minds of MAGA (w/ Laura Field) 1:09:36

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Laura K. Field's Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, published earlier this month, is a book we simply had to discuss. Listeners to this podcast will recognize its cast of characters—conservative intellectuals like Patrick Deneen, Michael Anton, John Eastman, Adrian Vermeule, and Harry Jaffa, among others—whose ideas and influence Fiel…

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The Mirror, the Window and the Anchor: A Conservative Stand 41:55

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Send us a text In one of of the most important podcasts I have ever done, this provides a clear outline of conservatism against that of the left, and other right wing ideologies. It also illustrates a way forward for our nation.By Bel Aves

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Trump's Big, Beautiful Ballroom (w/ Kate Wagner) [Teaser] 4:27

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. If there's a Trump-era topic that manages to fascinate without being entirely depressing, it's probably the ongoing arguments about architecture that his ascension has occasioned. Proponents of a RETVRN to the architectural ideals of ancient Greece and Rome are …

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Exorcising the Movies: A Look at 1970s Cinema compared to the 80s 53:04

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Send us a text Joined by my brother Chris for a look at what made 70s movie unique, and what ended that period.By Bel Aves

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Zohran, the Jews, and Reckoning with Gaza (w/ Peter Beinart) 1:14:27

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This episode isn't focused on a single topic or text, but rather just wanting to have a wide-ranging conversation with our guest, Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and author of the recent book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. We start by discussing the appalling wave of Islamophobic attacks against Zohran M…

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A History of American Government Shutdowns 34:36

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Send us a text We go back to the 1980s, and before, to see the root causes of shutdowns and look at 1996, 2013 and 2018 versions.By Bel Aves

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Break Glass in Case of Emergency 1:31:51

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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 …

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It's a Long Road to the Top If You Wanna Rock and Rule: Ten Rulers who Rose from Nothing 33:10

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Send us a text We go from peasant Liu Bang to peasant Diocletian to explore rulers who rose to the Top.By Bel Aves

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Command + F + Hitler [Teaser] 3:53

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. The 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 Main…

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The Holy Roman States of America 28:03

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Send us a text We look at the complexity of the Holy Roman Empire, its dispersal of power and need to compromise, and compare it with the United States government of today.By Bel Aves

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How Charles Murray (Almost) Predicted the Trump Era 1:32:56

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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…

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Warrior Spirit: What Pete Hegseth Got Right and Wrong in his Big Speech 31:22

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Send us a text We look at recent DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth's big speech on the warrior ethos through the prism of history.By Bel Aves

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How To Give A Damn [Teaser] 3:56

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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. The…

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Death, Power, and the Charlie Kirk Memorial (w/ Pat Blanchfield) 1:26:21

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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 happ…

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Repairing the House: Jeff Mayhugh and the Effort to Add Representation to Congress 52:55

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Send us a text We feature Jeff Mayhugh of the No Cap Fund who discusses the history of Congress, and his efforts to expand the House of Representatives to make it more, well, representative. To learn more about the No Cap Fund please

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The Assassination of Charlie Kirk [Teaser] 3:37

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. The assassination of Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, seemed to change the landscape of American politics in an instant, inspiring a startlingly unanimous battlecry of vengeance from the conservative movement, the GOP, and the Trump…

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My Plan for Fixing our Historic Debt and Deficit: Let the Madness Begin 42:34

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Send us a text My fellow Americans, arm yourselves with pitchforks and torches as I unveil a way to close our $1.7 trillion deficit and try to pay down the debt.By Bel Aves

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Bad Apples: A History of Government Run Grocery Stores 31:50

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Send us a text We take a look at gov. run groceries in the US, and other nations, and at the grocery business itself to discover whether it is a good idea. Hint, it is not.By Bel Aves

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The Case for Democracy (w/ Osita Nwanevu) 1:20:27

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Since the start of the Trump Era over a decade ago, few words have been deployed as often as "democracy": how it's become imperiled, who threatens it, and what to do to defend it. In The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, Osita Nwanevu sets out to understand the true meaning of democracy and defend it from its …

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An Officer and a Spy (w/ John Ganz) [Teaser] 3:48

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Roman Polanski's 2019 film about the Dreyfus affair, An Officer and a Spy, only recently made it's U.S. "premier," running for a few weeks in August at Film Forum in New York City. When it originally was released, it couldn't find an American distributor (and li…

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What is Conservatism: A Discussion with Josh Lewis 58:09

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Send us a text Josh Lewis, founder and publisher of the Saving Elephants podcast, a show that brings conservatism to the Millennials, joins us for a discussion about conservatism, congress and Chester Arthur.By Bel Aves

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Lost Cause, Lost Minds: A History of the Origins of the Civil War – Part Two 40:44

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Send us a text We continue our series on the origins of the Civil War taking a look at the society of the South and the States Rights vs. Slavery ArgumentsBy Bel Aves

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Frank Meyer, Inventor of Conservatism (w/ Daniel J. Flynn) 1:45:13

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Devoted Know Your Enemy listeners will recall that, in November 2021, we released a fairly dense, theory-driven episode on Frank Meyer, the Communist from New Jersey whose exploits on behalf of the Party in the UK got him kicked out of the country and back to the United States, where he eventually turned right and became a key figure in the post-wa…

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The Christian Right's "Wild Faith" (w/ Talia Lavin) [Unlocked] 1:00:48

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This episode was first published in October 2024, and has been un-paywalled following the death this week, on August 21, of Focus on the Family founder and influential figure on the religious right, James Dobson, at age 89. Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to hear more episodes just for subscribers. In this episode, Matt is joined by journal…

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Lost Cause, Lost Minds: A History of the Origins of the Civil War – Part One 46:35

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Send us a text We explore the recent upsurge of support for the old Confederacy and provide arguments about the origins of the Civil WarBy Bel Aves

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The Minority Voters Moving Right (w/ Daniel Martinez HoSang) 1:27:05

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A major topic following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election has been his gains with racial and ethnic minorities, a trend that's scrambled many people's assumptions about American politics, not least those of anti-racist liberals. Why have minority voters drifted toward Trump, despite his many comments and campaign pledges that…

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Conservative Historian Bookshelf - Volume 3 25:35

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Send us a text We explore books about the Roman Republic, Colonial America, England, the Ancient Greeks and more.By Bel Aves

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From Armageddon to Zionism — More Listener Questions [Teaser] 4:59

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Our mailbag runneth over! Unsurprisingly, we received so many excellent questions from subscribers for our most recent episode that we decided to answer even more of them. Once again religion seemed to be on the minds of listeners, and we take up charismatic Chr…

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Drunk Cinema: A History of Movies about Alcoholics 47:59

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Send us a text Joined by my brother Chris, we look at movies ranging from the Lost Weekend to Arthur to When a Man Loves a Woman.By Bel Aves

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Has Trump 2.0 Been a Success So Far? — And Other Questions 1:10:29

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It's been nearly a year since we asked our subscribers to send us questions for a mailbag episode—which they did, with remarkable thoughtfulness and intelligence, for our 100th episode back in September 2024. A lot has happened since then (to say the least), so we wanted to once again open up the mailbag and find out what was on the minds of Know Y…

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Top 10 Historical Upgrades: Nations whose Rulers Went from Zero to Hero 36:04

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Send us a text We look at ancient Egypt, Rome and China, Medieval Europe and Modern America to find the best leader upgrades.By Bel Aves

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Trump's Epstein Problem [Teaser] 4:27

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Over July 4th weekend, the Department of Justice and FBI put out a memo essentially declaring "case closed" on the matter of Jeffrey Epstein, the well-connected sex criminal and pedophile who died (apparently) by suicide in federal custody in 2019. No more files…

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A Critique of the Leftist View of History 48:41

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Send us a text We hear from Professor Eric Heinze who expresses both his praise, but also provides a critique of the leftist approach to history. Heinze goes after traditional history but does not spare the left over lack of historical criticism of Soviet, Cambodian and Cuban regimes.By Bel Aves

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How Republics End (w/ Mike Duncan) [Unlocked] 1:15:39

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This episode from January 2025 has been un-paywalled for your summer enjoyment... A stock rhetorical trope on the right is to invoke ancient Rome when talking about American decline—often making direct comparisons between the Goth invaders and contemporary immigrants, obsessing over homosexuality and Rome's fall, and more. If their understanding of…

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Top 10 Historical Downgrades: Going from Good Leaders to Terrible, Awful Ones 41:23

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Send us a text We go from Akbar to Washington to Edward I, and their ignoble successors.By Bel Aves

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Zohran! (w/ Waleed Shahid) [Teaser] 3:48

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. We don't do too many New York City-focused episodes on Know Your Enemy, but Zohran Mamdani's decisive win in the Democratic mayoral primary last month certainly warrants this one. The thirty-three year old democratic socialist, state assemblyman, and Muslim of I…

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The Luddites: Fear of Technology in 19th Century Britain 26:11

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Send us a text AI? Robots? Machine Learning? Fear of technology is not new. We go to 19th century Britain to meet the Luddites, a group who also experienced technological change.By Bel Aves

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A Complicated Man: William F. Buckley, Jr. (w/ Sam Tanenhaus) 1:52:33

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This episode is one that Matt and Sam have been anticipating for years: after two-and-a-half decades of research and writing, Sam Tanehaus's authoritative biography of William F. Buckley, Jr.—youthful booster of America First, enfant terrible at Yale, CIA agent, founder of National Review, best-selling author, brilliant television host, and more—ha…

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A History of Protests 39:34

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Send us a text We begin by exploring protests in the ancient world, stop in Medieval England, and come to the present day. We also explore the mindset of protests today.By Bel Aves

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Giving Up Power: Presidents Who Did not Run Again 40:11

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Send us a text We look at six presidents who chose not to seek another term including Joe Biden. What were the motivations and decision drivers.By Bel Aves

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MAGA's War Over the War with Iran (w/ Curt Mills) [Teaser] 3:30

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Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy. Donald Trump's rise in U.S. politics over the past decade has been inextricable from his "America First" foreign policy and withering criticisms of the Iraq War, nation building, and both the neoconservatism that led the Republican Party to disaster during Georg…

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(Nathanael) Greene New Deal 38:10

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Send us a text We talk with Salina Baker, author of The Line of Splendor, a historical novel about Nathanael Greene. We explore the general's life and the Revolutionary War.By Bel Aves