In Bed With The Right

Happy Holidays from In Bed with the Right!!! Unfortunately, the festive season has gotten away from us and the two remaining episodes on our schedule are absolute monsters (the two-hour final (!) installment of Project 1933, and our episode on the media hubbub around "American Canto"), so to tide you over while we record and edit we thought we'd do a re-release of one of our Patreon magna opera from the Patreon. So this week, feast your ears on Part 1 (today) and Part 2 (Thursday) of our deep dive into the life and times of Andrew Sullivan -- editor, blogger, Iraq War hawk, and noted gender conservative! Our deep dive is -- fair warning -- about 3 hours long. But we felt Sullivan -- who is, as Moira put it, sort of "gender conservatism's Forrest Gump" -- was worth spending time with. He intersects with so many strands and trends, so many institutions and pathologies of the last forty years. Specifically, we're going through his complicated work by focusing on specific texts, by situating them in their moment and explaining their legacy. This first episode covers Sullivan's early years, 1980 - 1996: Oxford, Harvard, The New Republic, The Bell Curve, and Virtually Normal.If you like what you've heard, and you haven't already, consider subscribing to our Patreon at patreon.com/InBedWiththeRight! We have a lot of cool episodes coming up, including the aforementioned one on NuzziGate, RFK Jr., and structures of impunity.

It's cold outside, the Holidays are here, and you know what that means: It's Cursed-Discourse Awards-Season, motherf@ckers! Not-even-close-to-live from a theatre miles away from the Dolby Theater, it's the Third Annual Cursties!!! For the third year in a row, Moira, Adrian and special guest Michael Hobbes give out awards for the most cursed discourses around sex and gender for 2025. Problem is: we've dealt with so many cursed discourses around sex and gender in 2025, and pretty much all cursed discourses seem to have with gender panic these days. And In Bed with the Right has covered so so so so many of them!So we decided to narrow our noms to one particular genre of cursedness this year, and to present awards for ... drumroll ... achievements in anti-wokeness.! From queer tieflings to kids getting coddled in the 4th dimension, from socialist mayors (and not the one you're thinking of!) to French people teaching Americans how to islamophobia, to the world's creepiest Blue Man Group, this one has something for everybody!Some links to articles we mention:-- Matt Bernstein's in-depth episode on the long dark road of Debra Messing can be found here-- Adrian's New Republic article about a row over "islamogauchisme" in France can be found here-- Michele Goodwin's interview with Jess Michaels as part of her series Surviving Epstein can be found here

Dive into the complex history of the natural childbirth movement, exploring its evolution from eugenics in the 1930s to modern radical networks. Hear about real medical abuses that fuel distrust and alternative choices. The podcast critiques the romanticized ideal of 'natural' births while highlighting the risks of historical maternal and infant mortality. It even reflects on controversial figures like Ina May Gaskin and the impact of the Free Birth Society. Ultimately, it emphasizes the importance of prioritizing safety over ideology in childbirth.

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"