Podcast: In Bed with the Right
Welcome to In Bed With the Right podcast
Hosts Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub welcome a range of scholars and critics to analyze right-wing ideas about gender, sex, and sexuality – and to plumb the ways in which these ideas persist in and shape our present moment. Please join them for deep dives into some old ideas that are unfortunately upending lives right now.
- New episodes now available! Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple, Patreon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- Follow the podcast on Bluesky @inbedwiththeright.bsky.social
- Transcripts available through the Apple Podcasts app on Mac, iOS, or Windows
Hosts
Moira Donegan
Moira Donegan is writer in residence for the Clayman Institute, where she plans to participate in the intellectual life of the Institute, host its artist salon series, teach a class in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies, and mentor students, while continuing her own projects and writing. Her criticism, essays, and commentary, which cover the intersection of gender, politics, and the law, have appeared in places such as the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, and Bookforum. Donegan has been an editor at the New Republic and n+1, and currently she writes a column on gender in America for The Guardian. Her first book, Gone Too Far: #MeToo and the Future of Feminist Politics, is forthcoming from Scribner.
Adrian Daub
In fall 2019, Daub became the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute. A Stanford professor of comparative literature and German studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Daub was Stanford’s director of the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from 2016 to 2020.
New episodes in 2025
2024 episodes
Episode 50: The second annual Cursties, Part II
In what is already being described as a Festivus miracle, we present you – at long last! – the second part of the second annual Cursties! It's Moira, Adrian, and special guest Michael Hobbes doing the annual airing of the grievances (we're deferring the feats of strength until next year). Featuring the most cursed discourses of this particularly cursed-discourse-rich year: with walk-on cameos by Octavian George Collins, the Power Gay, Charli XCX, and many, many more.
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Episode 49: The second annual Cursties, Part I
2024's hottest awards show is THE SECOND ANNUAL CURSTIES. Conjured up by Adrian, Moira and special returning guest Michael Hobbes, this all-gay gabfest has everything. Rapid onset transphobia! How to divorce Matt Walsh! The White Lotus! That thing where a heterosexual is so heterosexual it ... seems kind of gay?
Stay tuned for the second half of this episode (and for another Episode Note referencing an SNL skit that's so old it can now legally apply for a learner's permit) next week!
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Episode 48 [PATREON EXCLUSIVE]: The ballad of Luigi Mangione
See In Bed with the Right's Patreon for subscriber-only content.
Episode 47: Trans kids
Moira walks Adrian through the right-wing fixation on trans kids and the way it is reshaping our politics. In early December, the U.S. Supreme Court heard U.S. v. Skrmetti, and is almost certain to uphold a Tennessee law banning most forms of gender-affirming care for minors. In 2016, a trans bathroom ban in North Carolina led to a nationwide outcry and boycotts. Eight years later, laws like Tennessee's SB1 have passed in a majority of U.S. states, and the outcry is comparatively muted. What happened?
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Episode 46: Live from City Lights Books it's THE CANCEL CULTURE PANIC
Back in September, Adrian and Moira did an event at San Francisco's legendary City Lights Bookstore for an event launching Adrian's new book, The Cancel Culture Panic: How an American Obsession Went Global. It was a memorable, energized and often delightfully weird evening that we're thrilled to bring you (slightly edited) as a special episode of In Bed with the Right.
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Episode 45 [PATREON EXCLUSIVE]: Precious bodily fluids, part II
See In Bed with the Right's Patreon for subscriber-only content.
Episode 44: So you want to be a right-wing grifter...with Matt Bernstein
As a special holiday treat, podcaster extraordinaire Matt Bernstein (A Bit Fruity) joins Moira and Adrian to talk about the right-wing grift machine. It's a tough world out there, so here's your step by step guide to completely selling your soul for some sweet, sweet reactionary billionaire cash! Detours include: Candace Owens, Oli London, Riley Gaines, Chaya Raichik, and various Twinks for Tr**p.
Speaking of grifting: If you like the show, consider supporting it via its brand new Patreon! It may or may not also be a perfect gift for the red-pilled anti-wokester in your life!
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Episode 43 [PATREON EXCLUSIVE]: The total woman
See In Bed with the Right's Patreon for subscriber-only content.
Episode 42: 2024 Election debrief, part 1
Moira and Adrian delve reluctantly into the horror, the horror – aka the results of the 2024 presidential election. We didn't realize it when we recorded it, but this will be first installment in a series. This episode touches on split-ticket voting, post-election anti-wokeness debates, and the "tech bro" narrative.
In the episode, we also mention Kate Manne's Substack essay "Trump's Election is a Triumph of Rape Culture" – and we point folks to the new IBWTR Patreon! Like and subscribe, as they say!
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Episode 41: George Gilder and the birth of right-wing Silicon Valley
Stanford researcher Becca Lewis talks Moira and Adrian through the life and influence of George Gilder, who started out as a standard anti-feminist and then reinvented himself as an evangelist for Silicon Valley, supply-side economics ... and also anti-feminism.
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A very special announcement from In Bed with the Right
In Bed With the Right has an announcement: the show is coming to Patreon! You can sign up for extra content (two episodes per month!) here! But our main feed (meaning episodes wherever you have been listening to us) will not be affected – in fact, there's a new episode coming Tuesday. But if you'd like to hear Moira and Adrian talk their way through some weirder, wilder, more niche topics – such as conservative fixations on Precious Bodily Fluids – well, then check out the Patreon!
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Episode 39: The meme wars with Morgan Sung
Journalist Morgan Sung (who hosts the terrific podcast Close All Tabs) talks Moira and Adrian through the memes, stan armies, influencers, hatewatchers, bots, and trolls of the 2024 election. How has digital campaigning changed since 2016? How do the platforms influence our politics?
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Episode 38: The election
Hey, did you know there's an election coming up? And that gender might have something to do with the outcome? In this special emergency episode (recorded on Oct. 30, 2024), Moira and Adrian talk about how gender is influencing the final stages of the campaign, as well as how gender influences how the campaign is being metabolized by the media. They also watch a clip shared by Elon Musk, so you don't have to.
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Episode 37: We need to talk about Usha
Moira and Adrian talk with New York writer and CNN contributor Irin Carmon about Usha Vance and the liberal-coded women in the orbit of the various MAGA men.
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Episode 36: Jordan Carroll on science fiction and the alt-right
Jordan Carroll, author of the new book Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right, walks Moira and Adrian through the connections between science fiction fandom, gender conservatism, and the alt right. Space marines, aliens, Bene Gesserit, and insane God Emperors: this one has them all!
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Episode 35: Talia Lavin on the Christian Right's view of marriage / parenting
Author Talia Lavin (whose Wild Faith is out on 10/15/24) talks Moira and Adrian through the Christian Right's takeover of American life, through objects that are unlikely to appear on your bookshelf, but that nevertheless shape the way many Americans live and what policies they have to live with. From the parenting manuals like James Dobson's Dare to Discipline to Stormy Omartian's marriage guide Power of a Praying Wife, Talia lays out how an image of the family and child-rearing built on subservience, authoritarianism, and often enough violence has become part and parcel of our American landscape. (A big trigger warning on domestic, physical, and sexual abuse.)
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Episode 34: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
Moira and Adrian grab their Stanley cups and identical hair extensions to follow guest Kate Kelly into the reality show phenomenon "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" – an episode all about the gender politics of the LDS Church, mixed orientation marriages, and, for some reason, "soft swinging."
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Episode 33: The V.P. debate
It's debate night in America, and you know what that means: MASCULINITY THUNDERDOME! In this special emergency episode, Moira and Adrian discuss the different styles of masculinity on display at the vice presidential debate. Also, read Moira's article on this debate.
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Episode 32: In-vitro fertilization
Moira talks Adrian through the latest fissure in the war on reproductive freedom: in-vitro fertilization! A fixation of conservative protestants and the Catholic church alike, a stand-in for changing family structures, queer families – but also a serious losing issue for the Republican Party! Come for a discussion of ensoulment, nocturnal emissions, and stay for St. Brigid, Saint and abortion provider!
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Episode 31: Pro-natalism
In this episode of In Bed With The Right, Moira walks Adrian through the long, creepy history of pro-natalism, and its resurgence amongst conservatives. It is textbook "weird"!
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Episode 30: The Olympic Games (of gender panic)
In honor of the Olympic Games in Paris and of the way conservatives seem intent to freak out about them almost daily, Adrian walks Moira through the various ginned-up controversies: drag queens recreating paintings! Female boxers boxing! People either conforming or not conforming to their gender!
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Episode 29: Harris
In another emergency episode in a veritable era of emergencies, Adrian and Moira discuss the gender politics of Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, her potential V.P. picks, coconut trees, and those darn Dem cat ladies á la J.D. Vance.
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Episode 28: Richard Wagner: Act III
Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker and author of the book Wagnerism, joins Moira and Adrian to talk about Siegfried, the Wagner clan, and Wagner’s complicated and multifaceted legacy.
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Episode 27: Biden
Moira and Adrian talk about Joe Biden's campaign, the age question, and the fallout from the calamitous presidential debate. NOTE: We recorded this before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, which is why we don't talk about it here.
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Episode 26: J.D. Vance with Gabe Winant
In a special emergency episode, Moira and Adrian talk with historian Gabe Winant about J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's pick for vice president. Gender, class, and the political ascendancy of creep masculinity.
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Episode 25: Richard Wagner: Act II
Adrian and Moira return for another episode on the life and works of Richard Wagner, investigating the radical political/philosophical influences that led him to some of the good, the bad, and the downright racist tropes in his operas.
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Episode 24: LIVE SHOW on Anita Bryant, with Sarah Marshall of You're Wrong About
For this live show, Moira and Adrian blinking step into the big world and come face to face with other human beings! Specifically Sarah Marshall of the amazing You’re Wrong About podcast, and an audience of 60 lovely people on Stanford’s campus. Together they discuss the life and times of Anita Bryant, OG anti-gay crusader – and why we’re still living in an America she helped shape.
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Episode 23: RFK Jr.
Moira walks Adrian through the strange, tragic, enraging life of RFK Jr. – vaccine skeptic, presidential candidate, and literal brain worm survivor. Along the way, your hosts touch on Kennedy masculinity, American aristocracy, and the fine art of styling yourself as an outsider while the whole world can't stop deferring to you.
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Episode 22: Richard Wagner: Act I
Adrian leads Moira through the life and career of composer Richard Wagner – a not-so-great man with some of world history's worst fans. Aesthetics, politics, revolutionary zeal that curdles into something far more ominous! This one is – as befits its source material – epic!
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Episode 21: "The Campus" in the American imagination with Samuel Catlin
Samuel Catlin (University at Buffalo) joins Moira and Adrian to talk about "The Campus" – about the peculiar mental image Americans seem to have, how little it comports with reality, and the uncanny power that it nevertheless exercises.
You can read Samuel's essay "The Campus Does Not Exist" over at Parapraxis magazine
You can read Moira Weigel's article "Hating Theory" (which we refer to in the episode)
And you can pre-order Adrian's book The Cancel Culture Panic (which he's heavily cribbing from in this ep)
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Episode 20: Conservatism's daddy issues
Moira and Adrian speak to political scientist Jeff Dudas about his 2017 book Raised Right: Fatherhood in Modern American Conservatism. The conversation touches on campus panics, Clarence Thomas's many father figures, and neoconservative failsons.
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Episode 19: Judith Butler's Who's Afraid of Gender?
In this episode, Moira and Adrian delve into Judith Butler's latest book – about the worldwide movement against "gender" and the role it plays in right-wing politics.
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Episode 18: Trad wives
Moira guides Adrian through the strange, troubling world of tradwifery – the latest trend in butter-churning, vaguely religious gender conservatism that's taken over your Instagram feed. Come for Adrian's immediate discomfort, stay for Moira's grand unifying theory that links Phyllis Schlafly, the #Girlbosses of the 2010s, and unnervingly peppy women currently hand-weaving their children's sweaters for social media clout!
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Episode 17: Otto Weininger, or gender and anti-semitism
Adrian takes Moira into the wild, wildly misogynist and deeply depressing world of Otto Weininger (1880-1903). A poster child for all manner of fin-de-siècle neuroses, to say nothing for massive quantities of self-hatred, Weininger may be a footnote today – but he was deeply and weirdly influential in his own time.
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Episode 16: Kate Manne on anti-fatness
Philosopher Kate Manne (Down Girl, Entitled) joins Moira and Adrian to talk about the politics of anti-fatness – where fatphobia came from historically, how it intersects with racism, sexism, and transphobia, and how interpreting bodies according to moralizing principles remains a right-wing idea that succeeds even in the leftiest of spaces.
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Episode 15: Taylor Swift
Follow Adrian following Moira following various conservative pundits down what is already shaping up to be one of 2024's weirder rabbit holes: the Great Taylor Swift Conspiracy! What it says about electoral politics in 2024, shifting media ecosystems, and the long history of masculinity-mysticism.
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Episode 14: Prisoner of Sex -- Norman Mailer vs. Kate Millett and women
In her 1970 book Sexual Politics, feminist critic Kate Millett devoted 20 pages to a critique of novelist and public intellectual Norman Mailer. In this episode, Moira guides Adrian through Mailer’s very cool, very level-headed response: a 250-page screed against Millett in particular and feminism in general.
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2023 episodes
Episode 13: The Cursties with Michael Hobbes
2023 was a year rich in truly cursed discourses; In Bed With the Right has already analyzed many of them. In this episode – our first annual CURSTIES – your able hosts (with guest Michael Hobbes) analyze a few that have fallen through the cracks, and vote for the most cursed discourse of the year!
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Episode 12: The Morehouse man with Saida Grundy
Founded in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Morehouse College in Atlanta remains one of the most elite HBCUs. As Saida Grundy argues, the all-male college also sheds light on gender conservatism, Black masculinity, and the politics of respectability.
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Episode 11: Homocons
Together with their guest, historian Samuel Hueneke, Moira and Adrian delve into the history of the homocons: gay (and sometimes, very sometimes, lesbian) conservatives. Toggling between the beginnings of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the gay marriage fracas of the early aughts, and today's anti-trans panics, they ask: is this an invariant of queer public life? Or is there a history and tradition here?
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Episode 10: Nietzsche and his heirs
Moira and Adrian continue their earlier discussion of the thought and influence of Friedrich Nietzsche – morality and the critique of metaphysics, antisemitism, and anti-feminism.
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Episode 9: Marriage boosters with Rebecca Traister
Every few years, it seems, a set of academics and pundits discovers marriage as a panacea for a host of social ills – poverty, unhappiness, social cohesion, research assistants. Moira, Adrian, and their guest, New York magazine writer Rebecca Traister, are less-than-excited to report it’s back and just as threadbare as ever. But this time – since this is the 2020s – with a dollop of “this is something the woke left doesn’t want us to talk about.” A long conversation about feminism, capitalism, anti-feminism, the neocons, data, and vibes.
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Episode 8: Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is one of the 19th century's most versatile, counterintuitive and ... well, misogynistic thinkers. Moira and Adrian talk about the legacy of his thought in later movements, both feminist and anti-feminist, and about a specific style of irony and contrarianism that Nietzsche pioneered and that seems to thrive in the internet age – often enough, in league with reactionary gender politics.
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Episode 7: "The Transsexual Empire" with Susan Stryker
Often considered the ur-text of trans-exclusionary feminism, Janice Raymond’s “The Transsexual Empire” came out in 1979, but rehearses a bunch of tropes you could just as well get off J.K. Rowling’s Twitter feed. In their conversation with historian Susan Stryker, Moira and Adrian explore the very specific milieu from which Raymond and her book emerged – a radical lesbian feminist theology deeply disappointed with the Catholic Church.
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Episode 6: Perverts, creeps, and priests!
It's Moira and Adrian's version of a classic Cher song: "Perverts, creeps, and priests"! This episode takes deep dives into three texts that illuminate contemporary "crisis-of-masculinity" debates: those that invoke the Bible, those that invoke science, and those that invoke only their own proudly flaunted neuroses. Where are these right-wing discourses about masculinity in agreement, and where are they in conflict? Everyone agrees men are in crisis – who gets to decide what exactly the crisis is?
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Episode 5: Crisis of masculinity
Moira leads Adrian through the endless discourse about the "crisis of masculinity" – where it comes from, what has motivated it in the past, and why we're having it again. Together, the two of them take a long tour de dudes: from Silicon Valley to Mike Pence's bedroom, from the Old West to Jordan Peterson's couch. What is the unique state of emergency that men find themselves in? Is it real? And why is it – once again – supposed to be feminism's fault?
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Episode 4: Fag hags with Moira and Adrian
Ever since the 1960s, the figure of the “fag hag” – a (mostly) straight woman hanging around gay men – has been a mainstay in and around queer spaces. As a woman who refused heterosexuality she aroused the ire of social conservatives, but also critiques from within the community. In this episode, Moira and Adrian investigate: why did conservatives hate the hag? How radical was this figure really? And is she still a thing?
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Episode 3: Susan Sontag with Merve Emre
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was a writer, critic, and activist, one who isn’t thought of (and didn’t think of herself) as conservative. In this episode, your hosts talk with Merve Emre to think through Sontag’s writing on gender and on the women’s movement. How do Sontag’s leeriness about identity and identification, her ambivalent attitudes to bodies, sex and beauty, and her elitism land in today’s political climate and landscape?
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Episode 2: Midge Decter with Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell
Midge Decter (1927-2022) has often been called the "grandmother of neoconservatism" – hers was in some ways a pretty classic trajectory, from New Deal liberalism to profound unease with the social movements of the 1960s, to the center of the conservative movement and Republican politics. But unlike most of her fellow neocons, Midge Decter always framed her trajectory quite openly in terms of gender: repulsion from a certain kind of women's liberation, and attraction to a certain kind of masculinity. In this episode, Moira and Adrian delve into the weird, cantankerous world of Midge Decter with the co-hosts of Know Your Enemy, Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell.
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Episode 1: Gay marriage with Moira and Adrian
Join us for the first episode of the all-new show In Bed With The Right. For their inaugural episode, Moira and Adrian delve into right-wing (ahem) contributions to the gay marriage debate. Ten years ago the Supreme Court decided Windsor v. U.S. and Hollingsworth v. Perry, which together spelled the beginning of the end of the gay marriage debate (gay marriage would be established nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges two years later). But did the issue really go away? How did the terms of the debate back then on the right influence today's moral panics, and how do they motivate a far-right Supreme Court?
In Bed with the Right - Trailer
Get a sneak peek at the upcoming, all-new show In Bed With the Right hosted by Moira Donegan and TFP's very own Adrian Daub.
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