In Bed With The Right

Exploring the chilling machinations of November 1933, the hosts unpack the oddity of elections under a dictatorship. They discuss how the Nazi regime turned voting into a spectacle designed to erase genuine choice. Personal accounts, like Victor Klemperer’s diary, reveal the humiliation and subtle resistance of individuals. Delving into propaganda tactics and youth mobilization, they highlight the regime's manipulation of civil society. The episode also touches on exiled intellectuals grappling with their responses to Nazism and the challenge of reckoning with the past.

Joined by cultural commentators Matt Bernstein and Sarah Marshall, the discussion dives into the world of moral panics. Matt details how AIDS panic perpetuated homophobia and shaped policy, while Sarah shares historical fears, like the windshield pitting myth from 1954. They explore themes like nostalgia, misinformation, and urban myths, such as the Halloween poisoning scare. The conversation wraps up with strategies for empathy and statistical literacy to counteract vulnerability to panics, making for a lively and insightful exchange.

In this episode, Moira walks Adrian through "The Great Feminization" -- a recent talk/essay that took the right wing by storm, and that subsequently got its author invited to discuss women ruining things in the New York Times. The essay posited that women's entry into the American workforce is to blame for ... wokeness? General societal disorder? The Decline of the West (TM)? Among the topics this episode touches on: the reasons why ideas like these are catching on at this particular moment; the reconceptualization of class distinction through (supposed) gender markers; the history of the "Great Feminization" thesis, and its relationship to "anti-liberal" and other "anti-woke" thinking on the Right.A few links:-- Helen Andrews, "The Great Feminization"-- "Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?", Helen Andrews in Conversation with Leah Libresco Sargeant and Ross Douthat-- Becca Rothfeld's review of Leah Libresco Sargeant's The Dignity of Dependence, which Moira mentioned in the episode, can be found here.

In this episode, writer Sarah Weinman walks Moira and Adrian through the story of the 1978 case Oregon v. Rideout and how spousal rape became a crime in the US. Weinman's book about the case -- Without Consent -- is out now. A moving, upsetting story about how the judicial system keeps pace (or doesn't) with legislation; how media shape how we think about social progress; and how that progress can come from strange places. PLEASE NOTE: This one comes with basically all the trigger and content warnings.

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 eighth installment covers October 1 to October 31, 1933. It's all about the economy: about how the Nazis tackled (or pretended to tackle) the economic problems in Germany; how monetary policy interlocked with rearmament; and how everyday Germans experienced the economy versus the Nazi party and the elites.On the episode we mention our LIVE SHOW: if you're interested in joining us in San Francisco on November 20, tickets can be purchased here.A selection of books we consulted for or referred to in this episode:Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi EconomyAlbrecht Ritschl, "Deficit Spending in the Nazi Recovery, 1933-1938"Götz Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare StateChristiane Kuller, Bürokratie und Verbrechen: Antisemitische Finanzpolitik und Verwaltungspraxis im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland

To get you ready for spooky season, here's In Bed with the Right with a second look at some classic horror films, asking: What's scary about gender? And what's gendered about fear in these movies? The second part of our "Powers of Horror (Film)" two-parter dives into two more classic 1970s horror, into changing workplaces and fairy tales, into gialli and mouths with mouths in them. Our focus is on 1977's Suspiria and 1979's Alien. Hope you enjoy!

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.