In Bed With The Right

Just in time for spooky season, here's In Bed with the Right with a look at some classic horror films, asking: What's scary about gender? And what's gendered about fear in these movies? In keeping with the Halloween theme, we got way into this and watched way too many scary movies. And so we made a two parter. This first part dives into 1973's The Wicker Man and 1976's Carrie. The second part will be about Suspiria (1977) and Alien (1979). Here are the texts we refer to in this episode:Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"Carol Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws (1992)Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror (1982)David Sanjek, "Twilight of the Monsters: The English Horror Film 1968-1975"

You guys, IBWTR just hit 100 episodes! And we'll be honest, this milestone snuck up on us. We'll be celebrating this anniversary over the next few episodes -- including a deep dive into CBS News' new boss, another Wagner-show, and a Live Show in San Francisco! But for now we thought we'd kick off our festivities by tackling more questions from you, our amazing listeners! We ended up with a far-ranging conversation about #MeToo, cinema, bodies, hormones and Doing the Reading! Hope you enjoy! (Oh, and Adrian's Substack post on Tár can be found here.)

Fetal personhood is one of those doctrines that have moved from the fringes of the conservative legal movement (and even from the fringes of right wing theology) to the center. While it is not clear how much support there is at the US Supreme Court for the idea that fetuses are people and have rights under the 14th Amendment, this once-obscure doctrine has been filtering into abortion and pregnancy criminalization since the Dobbs decision. In this episode, Moira walks Adrian through the strange history of this doctrine, and through its awful consequences for pregnant people or those who can become pregnant. (Content Warning: discussions of pregnancy loss and sexual violence)Here is a list of the books we relied on in researching this episode -- all of these are very much worth your time:Mary Ziegler, Persohood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction (2025)Jennifer Holland, Tiny You: A Western History of the Anti-Abortion Movement (2020) (you can also watch a 2021 conversation between Adrian, Jennifer Holland and Melissa Murray here)Leslie J. Reagan, When Abortion was a Crime (new edition 2022)Michelle Goodwin, Policing the Womb (2022)Lauren Berlant, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City (1997)Pregnancy Justice, Pregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs

Explore how September 1933 marked a pivotal moment in Nazi cultural politics as Adrian and Moira delve into the regime's systematic takeover. Discover the role of Viktor Klemperer's observations on culture and exile and how filmmakers like Leni Riefenstahl sculpted fascist imagery through spectacular propaganda. Uncover the tensions between assimilated Jewish culture and Nazi exclusion tactics, while discussing exiles like Thomas Mann grappling with these shifts. The conversation links these historical battles to our current cultural landscape, illuminating the echoes of the past.

This is the second part of our epic deep dive into the life of Phyllis Schlafly -- the far-right firebrand who brought down an amendment and arguably helped transform a political party. In Part 2, Moira walks Adrian through Schlafly's attack on the Equal Rights Amendment, and how she pioneered a whole new style of politics to defeat what had been essentially a done deal -- or carried it into the mainstream, at any rate.Here is a list of books we'll be referring to in both parts of this episode:Andrea Dworkin, Right Wing WomenJane J. Mansbridge, How We Lost the ERAMarjorie J. Spruill, Divided We StandDonald T. Critchlow, Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots ConservatismPhyllis Schlafly, A Choice Not an EchoPhyllis Schlafly, Strike from Space

Dive into the fascinating life of Phyllis Schlafly, the far-right influencer who reshaped conservative politics. Discover how she politicized anti-feminism to derail the Equal Rights Amendment and her connections to groups like the John Birch Society. Uncover her early life in Depression-era St. Louis and how WWII shifted gender roles. Learn about her rise from pamphleteer to a key figure in the Republican Party, including her role in Goldwater's campaign and the grassroots anti-communism movement. It's a compelling look at a pivotal figure in American conservatism.

For this episode of In Bed with the Right, Adrian and Moira return to the year 1933. They continue the story of how Hitler seized power, what it did to society, what it felt like to live through it, and -- as always -- what role gender and sexuality played in events. Reminder: We're going month by month for these episodes. This sixth installment covers August 1 to August 31, 1933. Meaning: This is a summer episode. It finds many of the institutions the Nazis have subjugated on summer break, the ongoing processes of synchronization and Nazification either already completed or about to kick into high gear. So this is an episode about the little stuff, the summer things: what our bodies do as the institutions betray us, how external pressures create coalitions, but also open up fissures, how old identities disappear without anything quite ready to take their place. And of course: what happens to our sense of time at times of peril. It's an episode full of small, interpersonal dramas, nervousness, regret and fear for the future -- punctuated by sudden outbursts of state-sanctioned violence and political cruelty. It is, in other words, a perfect episode for the summer of 2025.

It's taken us forever to do this, but here it is at last: In Bed With the Right's first ever mailbag episode! We asked our Patreon supporters to send in questions, and they sent tons and tons. All of them were brilliant and fun, and because we wanted to answer as many of them, and because we couldn't shut up when answering them, it's only Part 1! This episode delves into how the podcast came to be, our main takeaways from Project 1933, the history of HR departments, identity politics, the "girl code", and what gives us hope for the future (yes, really!).

Historian Quinn Slobodian (Crack-Up Capitalism, Hayek's Bastards, and the forthcoming Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed) walks Moira and Adrian through the fate of IQ on late 20th century and early 21st century right wing thought. How did this concept bring together the nationalist right and self-described libertarians? How did it become a load bearing self-identifier for many a "gifted" kid of the 1990s? And how did it take hold so thoroughly among the Silicon Valley elite?

For this episode of In Bed with the Right, Adrian and Moira return to the year 1933. They continue the story of how Hitler seized power, what it did to society, what it felt like to live through it, and -- as always -- what role gender and sexuality played in events. Reminder: We're going month by month for these episodes. This fifth installment covers July 1 to June 31, 1933 -- and is devoted entirely to two separate, but intertwined phenomena: Nazi collaborators and the Catholic Church. We cover the different valences of resistance and collaborations in Germany in 1933 -- from culture war stuff, to Nazification, to practices like the Hitler salute. But we also cover the tricky situation of the Catholic Center Party in 1933, and the "Reichskonkordat", a treaty concluded in July that gave the Catholic Church a measure of autonomy within the Nazi state ... but at the cost of an oath of loyalty to Hitler's state.