Against the Grain
A podcast hosted by Matthew Schmitz and Julia Yost that explores how the right is remaking America. It features discussions on political and cultural shifts from a conservative perspective.
Episodes
Heteropessimist Horror
“Backrooms” and “Obsession,” the indie sensations that beat out Star Wars at the box office this weekend, reflect a distinctly Zoomer worldview, one marked by despair about relationships and the loss of ’90s-era confidence. Matthew and Julia explore the ruined temples of American commerce and announce the rise of heteropessimist horror. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthe
Yesteryear and the Tradwife Panic
Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, about a tradwife influencer who wakes up one day to find herself trapped on a nineteenth-century homestead, is topping the fiction bestseller charts. Liberals applaud the novel’s social critique, but Matthew and Julia are less impressed. Does the tradwife really represent the benighted past, as Burke thinks? Or is she the wave of the future? For more like this, beco
Repent and Submit
Young adults are driving a surge in Catholic conversions. Meanwhile, some on the right are looking east, to Islam. Matthew and Julia talk about the two hottest trends in religious conversion, and the many motives converts have—from spiritual hunger to gender politics to civilizational survival. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Californian Psycho
Democrats are eager to nominate a straight white man for president—which may explain why Gavin Newsom is leaning into “toxic” masculinity. Julia and Matthew discuss the California governor’s strange but telling decision to compare himself to Patrick Bateman, the serial-killer protagonist of American Psycho. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Who Killed the New Atheism?
Was it Richard Dawkins? Rebecca Watson? Fedora Guy? Or maybe Tom Holland? Matthew and Julia discuss why the New Atheism died and will never be resurrected. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Where the West Is Headed, with Louise Perry
Louise Perry is one of the most perceptive observers of the trends that are transforming the West. Matthew and Julia talk to her about the migration boom, the fertility bust, and the quiet resurgence of religion—in society and her own life. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul
If Donald Trump is a dangerous and unpopular extremist, why hasn’t the Democratic Party’s opposition to him yielded a sustainable majority? Matthew and Julia talk to Alicia Nieves, a veteran of pro-immigrant activism and Democratic Party politics. Nieves argues that the party has lost touch with its working-class identity and that if present trends hold, it will cease to be competitive at the fede
The Epstein Skeptics
The release of the Epstein files has been met by an outpouring of paranoid speculation—and a growing chorus of expressing justified skepticism. Matthew and Julia welcome the newcomers to the party and rebuke the holdouts. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Melania Mania
Amazon Studios’ documentary about Melania Trump exceeded box-office expectations in its first weekend, despite being panned by critics and review-bombed by (non-)viewers. Matthew and Julia discuss the First Lady as style icon, fashion-industry professional, and culture-war flashpoint. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Close Encounters with Ross Douthat
Are we living in a secular age? Organized religion has suffered decades of decline. But belief in conspiracies is on the rise, amid UFO disclosures, satanic panics, and lab-leak theories. Among intellectuals and elites, the New Atheism of the Aughts has been replaced by a trend toward traditional belief. Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist and author of Believe, joins Matthew and Julia. For mor
Norman, Conqueror
Orgies, amphetamines, stabbings, and an even more scandalous turn to the right: Matthew and Julia discuss how Norman Podhoretz survived the sixties and defined the decades that followed. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Jacob Savage on the Lost Generation
In 2014, prestige institutions decided they had to become much more diverse—and quickly. They didn’t purge established Boomers. Instead, they did everything they could to avoid hiring white millennial men. Jacob Savage joins Matthew and Julia to tell the story of a generation derailed by DEI. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
How Hipsterism Led to Trumpism
Millennial Brooklyn may be left-coded, but with its nostalgic masculinism, organic food obsessions, and rural white aesthetics, the hipster era anticipated the MAGA right. Matthew and Julia explain the connection by digging into the life and influence of the original millennial-era hipster, the alternative magazine publisher Jim Goad.For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod
The Great Helenization
Are women ruining the workplace? Are meme-makers ruining conservative intellectual culture? Is our literature better off without litbros like David Foster Wallace? Matthew and Julia talk with Helen Andrews, author of the viral Compact essay “The Great Feminization.” For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.
World War What?
The legacy of World War II seems unsettled as never before. Figures on left and right flirt with fascist iconography, and influencers question who the war’s true villain was. Are these signs of a growing discontent with the conventional lessons of the “Good War” and the postwar settlement they support? To sort fact from falsehood, Sean McMeekin, professor of history at Bard College and author of S
Your Guide to Rightwing Fashion
Fashion is having a conservative moment. The carefree femininity of “barbiecore” is out; power suits are in. Matthew and Julia visit four stores in Manhattan that are participating in the right shift in American style. There they find evidence of a new respect for masculinity, and a less progressive understanding of what it means to be a man or woman. For more like this, become a member at patreo
The Transgressive Catholicism of J.-K. Huysmans
In 1892, the avant-garde novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans shocked secular Paris by converting to Catholicism. In his strange life, brilliant writings, and transgressive commitment to traditional religion, Huysmans anticipated many of the spiritual trends we see around us today—from occultism to exhaustion with porn and screens. Matthew and Julia discuss. For more like this, become a member at patreon.
It’s Fight Night in America
On Saturday, September 13, Terence Crawford defeated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to become the undisputed super-middleweight champion of the world. Matthew and Julia were in Las Vegas for the fight between the quiet man from Omaha and the Mexican superstar. They discuss the importance of combat sports to national and class identity, the appeal of boxing for anti-bourgeois writers, the rise of MMA in Ame
Notes on Camp of the Saints
Controversial and long hard to obtain, Jean Raspail’s novel The Camp of the Saints (1973) has been touted by some as a prescient description of the politics of mass migration and attacked by others for its presentation of migrants. On September 16, a new translation with an introduction by Nathan Pinkoski will appear from Vauban Books. Matthew Schmitz and Julia Yost interview Nathan about the book
The Right-Coding of Sydney Sweeney (Teaser)
Sydney Sweeney’s roles in HBO’s “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” made her one of the faces of Gen Z. Is the ad campaign about her “great jeans”—combined with the revelation that she’s a registered Republican—a sign that young people are turning right? Matthew Schmitz and Julia Yost discuss how a girl with all-American looks became a potent symbol in the culture war. For more like this, subscribe a
NEW: The Epstein Myth
Due to a production error, some listeners have had trouble playing this episode. We are republishing it for their convenience.Jeffrey Epstein was a real man who committed real crimes. But the truth about his case has been obscured by the Epstein myth—a synthesis of conspiracy theories that explains everything from the failures of US foreign policy to the inequities of our legal system by laying bl
The Epstein Myth
Jeffrey Epstein was a real man who committed real crimes. But the truth about his case has been obscured by the Epstein myth—a synthesis of conspiracy theories that explains everything from the failures of US foreign policy to the inequities of our legal system by laying blame on a particular group: the Jews. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/againstthepod.
Ari Aster DESTROYS Lena Dunham (Teaser)
Which is a more realistic portrayal of the way we live now—Ari Aster’s “Eddington” or Lena Dunham’s “Too Much”? Matthew Schmitz and Julia Yost on the face-off between two great millennial directors. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/againstthepod.
The Strange Career of Peter Navarro, the Man Behind Trump's Tariffs
How Peter Navarro, a Democratic congressional candidate and idealistic liberal, survived run-ins with dominatrixes, sex cultists, and Martin Sheen on his way to becoming a MAGA martyr and Trump’s tariff czar. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/againstthepod.
How American Culture Shifted Right
Matthew and Julia explain the right’s takeover of American culture—how it happened, what it means, and what the future holds. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/againstthepod.
