Know Your Enemy

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Many listeners will have seen the recent protests in France, protests that began with high school students marching out of classrooms for better conditions in them, then grew to a broader backlash against the cost of living and a crisis of affordability in the country that filled the country's streets—protests that sometimes were accompanied by violence and looting, and that ultimately were met with a brutal police crackdown and mass arrests. All this, of course, comes just months before the French presidential elections, which polls show National Front candidate and longtime tribune of the far-right in France, Marine Le Pen, comfortably leading. To help us understand the situation, we again call on our French connection, Marseilles-based journalist and friend-of-the-show Cole Stangler. We get his on the ground report from the protests as he experienced them in Marseilles, discuss the brutality of the government and police's response, parse how the French right, center, and left have reacted, parse what it all might mean for the country's upcoming presidential contest, whether the profound crisis might lead to fundamental constitutional reforms, and more!
Watch Cole's show, What Do We Want? here.
Sources:
Cole Stangler, Le Miroir Américain (2025)
— Paris Is Not Dead: Surviving Hypergentrification in the City of Light (2023)
— "France Needs More Than a New Leader. It Needs a New France," New York Times, Dec 22, 2025
Emile Chabal, "Why Is France Perpetually Rioting?" Foreign Policy, Oct 19, 2026

In this episode, we're joined by Rozina Ali for a conversation about Seasons of Fury, her new book about the rise, persistence, and changing contours of Islamophobia in the United States, a story she tells through the lives of four very different American families. It's an elegantly written feat of reporting that is depressing, moving, and enraging, and a damning portrait of the bigotry, surveillance, harassment, and criminalization directed at Muslims—long before 9-11 and in that day's wake, a poison in our public life that afflicts us still today.
Sources:
Rozina Ali, Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America (2026)
Spencer Ackerman, "A Harrowing Look at How Muslim Americans Became Targets After 9/11," New York Times, Sept 30, 2026
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.
In this episode we talk to our friend John Ganz about the nature and function of conservative intellectuals—or "intellectuals," whichever you prefer—past and present. In particular, the Trump era has been a kind of real-time experiment in seeing how rightwing writers and second-hand dealers in ideas degrade, contort, and reinvent themselves. From there we consider what intellectuals, right and left, actually do and what influence, if any, they (we?) have, and how that's changed from the halcyon days of midcentury generalists to our fragmented and mind-numbing "media landscape" today. It'll be a fun one, for some of you!
Subscribe to Unpopular Front here.
Sources:
John Ganz, Unpopular Front:
— "America is Mine, and it Owes Me a Living," Oct 5, 2026
— "From Shitpost to Bullshit: The Function of Conservative Intellectuals," Sept 30, 2026
— "Better Late Than Never? The Right Wakes Up to Fascism...Kinda," Sept 22, 2026
A.J.A. Woods, The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West (2026)
Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton (1993)
— Presidential Leadership in Political Time: Reprise and Reappraisal (2020)
George Scialabba, What Are Intellectuals Good For? (2009)

Dave Weigel is a longtime favorite political reporter of ours—someone we've both read for years, and find unusually unblinkered by partisan loyalties—so we couldn't think of a better guide to the 2026 midterms elections than him. What everyone knows is that, right now, polls show a possible Democratic wave in the offing; we try to understand why, and the ways both parties are responding to a genuinely new phenomenon of the Trump Era: the economy struggling, and voters blaming Trump directly. We discuss the flop of a GOP convention in Texas; how Republicans seem to be re-running outdated campaigns—in part because they've already achieved so many of their policy goals on "hot-button cultural issues"; the Democratic strategy of conceding on such cultural issues to seem "normal" and focus on the economy; and more.
Register to see Matt and Sam live and in person at Jewish Currents Live on Sunday Oct 11 here.
Sources:
Read all of Dave's reporting and columns at Semafor here.
David Weigel, "Researchers Probe How Democrats Could Win Working-Class Voters," Semafor, Sept 14, 2026
— "Candidates Contend with the Rise of 'Resurfaced' Old Clips," Semafor, Sept 9, 2026
...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.
A sundowning, octogenarian president radically out of step with the country's mood, surrounded by Yes Men (and Women), cowards, and idiots, whose administration and party are plunging in popularity as war rages on: it's deja vu all over again, this time expressed through the pathological personage that is Donald Trump. As his second term fails and his attacks on the very foundations of effective government becoming ever-more apparent, the morbid symptoms are piling up—Trump's fantastical retreat into building projects, his posting through the A.I. revolution, ongoing obsession with JFK and the Kennedys, and more—we take stock and discuss the perils of this moment, as people who believe in nothing surround a president who knows nothing, and the situation gets desperate.
Listen again: "The Kennedy Imprisonment" (w/ Jeet Heer), Nov 17, 2023
Sources:
"Trump Renames A.I. and Threatens to 'Annihilate' Iran in U.N. Speech," ABC News, Sept 22, 2026
Ryan J. Foley, "AP Exclusive: ICE Hides Locations of Thousands of Detainees with Final Removal Orders," Associated Press, Sept 21, 2026
Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, & Adam Entous, "Hegseth’s Purge of Top Generals Leaves the Army Rudderless," New York Times, Aug 25, 2026
Christine Hauser, "U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln Sailor Says Father Was Arrested by Border Patrol," New York Times, Aug 24, 2026
Gina Ragusa, "Trump's White House Event Fails as Audio Cuts Out During Helipad Unveiling," Yahoo News, Sept 21, 2026
Miranda Jeyaretnam, "DOGE Initiative Resulted in Federal Employees Getting Paid Billions to Not Work, New Government Report Finds," Sept 15, 2026
John Ismay, Helene Cooper, & Eric Schmitt, "Concerns Grow Over Conditions on Navy Carrier," New York Times, Aug 13, 2026
Michael S. Rosenwald, "David George Gordon, Apostle for Bugs on the Dinner Plate, Dies at 76," New York Times, Sept 21, 2026
Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958)