Explore every episode of the podcast Antifascist Dad Podcast
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| 2. Gaza Encampment w/ Sara Rasikh | 15 Oct 2025 | 00:44:40 | |
UofT encampment organizer Sara Rasikh joins me to walk through the inside story of “Occupy for Palestine”—from the first tents at King’s College Circle (May 2, 2024) to the court-ordered dismantling (July 3). We talk logistics, negotiation, care work, spiritual life in the camp, and the personal risks for student spokespeople. I set the scene with “Fascist / Squish / Antifascist” news on Greta Thunberg’s deportation and how liberal institutions police dissent—then close with a “fashy dad” segment on UK PM Keir Starmer and the criminalization of Palestine Action supporters. If you’ve wondered what encampments actually do—politically, ethically, and communally—this is your primer. Guest Listen & Support Content notes References
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| 1. Yallidarity w/ Nathan Evans Fox | 01 Oct 2025 | 00:43:54 | |
Welcome to the inaugural episode of Antifascist Dad Podcast! Matthew Remski sits down with songwriter Nathan Evans Fox to talk about kinship, Appalachia, and the viral hymn that’s resonating across communities. Nathan shares the roots of his concept of yallidarity—solidarity rooted in labor, joy, food, music, and taking care of one another. They discuss the myths and realities of Appalachia, the erasure of labor history, and the dangers of “bootstrap” individualism. Nathan tells about his upbringing in fringe charismatic churches, the connections between charismatic Christianity and Trump-style politics, and how faith traditions can nurture resilience—or be co-opted by empire. Above all, they dig into Nathan’s viral Hillbilly Hymn: why the cops disappear when Jesus returns, why kinship always beats bootstraps, and how to imagine abolitionist futures that don’t erase culture but reorient it toward joy, justice, and care. Everything Nathan Evans Fox. Part 2 of this discussion with Nathan up now on Patreon. All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad
Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad
Show Notes: Gaza-bound flotilla rejects Israeli claims of Hamas funding | Euronews Contact Restored with Global Sumud Flotilla after Israeli Interference - Palestine Chronicle Chapters
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| UNLOCK 1.1 Yallidarity w/ Nathan Evans Fox Pt.2 | 18 Oct 2025 | 00:38:36 | |
Summary Guest Where to follow / support Content notes
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| 15. Mother and Minister in Minneapolis w/ Rev. Angela Denker | 21 Jan 2026 | 00:37:03 | |
I’m joined by Rev. Angela Denker, Lutheran minister, journalist, and mom in Minneapolis, as the city groans under intensified ICE activity. We discuss realities on the ground for families and schools, how she talks with her own kids about fear and safety, and why she believes clear, steady adult context matters in a fragmented media world. As a minister, Denker's visitation and public theology assignments weave pastoral care and sacramental life into public resilience. As a journalist, the core revelation of her book Disciples of White: The Radicalization of American Boyhood, revolves around her framework of “White Jesus” as a cultural product that sanctifies hierarchy, masculinity, and domination. We talk about how that distortion links to the wider ecosystem of white Christian nationalism. Part 2 now up on Patreon, explores misogyny in the church, antifascist readings of parables, and hard questions about force, nonviolence, and witness. Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood | Broadleaf Books All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCK: 13.1 More Degenerate Art, Please! w/ Sarah Jaffray pt.2 | 18 Jan 2026 | 00:36:48 | |
I'm back with Sarah Jaffray to probe the aesthetics of fascism and the politics of cultural memory. We talk about how fascist movements rely on a triumphalist victim complex that cannot tolerate vulnerability or disability, and how this connects to the Nazi impulse to purify society through the language of degeneracy and the “enemy within.” Of course we also ping Hitler’s own frustrated artistic ambitions and the nineteenth-century “beautiful ruin” vibe, tracing how nostalgia for an imagined past becomes a visual template for authoritarian order. I close out with a personal coda on writing, mentorship, attention, and rebuilding an inner voice after a personal collapse—through time and cursive. You can support the show on Patreon! All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad NotesBarron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art”: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991. Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung. “Bauhaus History 1919–1933.” Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1935. Dixon, Paul. “Uncanny Valley.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dix, Otto. “War (Der Krieg), 1929–1932.” Dresden State Art Collections. Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2003. G... Chapters
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| 9. Trans People Drive Fascists Bananas w/ Sara Rose Caplan | 03 Dec 2025 | 00:44:52 | |
Donald Trump casually embraces the word “fascist” in front of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and doesn't bat an eye when Mamdani accuses him of funding genocide. This smug absorption of rhetorical confrontation is something we need to think about. On the same day Mamdani brought socialism discourse to the Oval Office, the Democratic leadership voted in favour of House Resolution 58, “Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism,” which features Jordan Peterson’s favorite “100 million deaths” talking point from the dodgy stats of 1997's Black Book of Communism. But guess what? this same week, the province of Kerala, which has be led by democratically-elected communist parties since 1957, declared that it had eradicated extreme poverty for 64K households through an intensive micro-plan program involving helping folks making like than $3/day get good documents, ration cards, travel allowances, health care, house repairs, and palliative nursing. And: I'm joined today by trans philosopher and performer Sara Rose Caplan. We explore why trans people drive fascists bananas; fascism as a fear response to freedom and uncertainty; C.T. Nguyen’s idea of “games as existential balm”; the Cassandra feeling of warning about fascism while no one listens; philosophy as “thinking in slow motion”; and why you can’t win arguments with bad-faith actors like Matt Walsh. Part 2 is available now on Patreon. Sara Rose Caplan is a trans woman, performer, and educator originally from Houston, Texas. She studied philosophy in undergrad before spending a decade in LA as an improv comedian. This fall, she started working on a MA in philosophy at Cal State LA under the mentorship of trans philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher, though she has sadly had to put her studies on hold as she and her wife, also trans, have decided to leave the United States for safer, hopefully less christofascist shores up North. Sources: Text - H.Con.Res.58 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Denouncing the horrors of socialism. The Right Can’t Figure Out What to Do With Zohran Mamdani Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post The Black Book of Communism Is a Shoddy Work of History How Kerala eliminated extreme poverty | Brookings Kerala becomes the first state to eradicate extreme poverty | Peoples Democracy
Support the project/instant access to Pt 2. ... Chapters
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| UNLOCK 7.1 Antifascist Father w/ David Inczauskis, S.J. Pt 2 | 30 Nov 2025 | 00:40:35 | |
In Part 2, David and I go deeper into the contradictions, tensions, and possibilities of the Catholic Church at this political moment. We discuss ideological purity, coalition building, critiques of capitalism, the role of synodality, and how leftists and religious radicals can meet each other in common struggle. What are the spiritual and emotional dimensions of direct action? What gives people courage to resist? The effort to bring communion to detainees is not a stunt but a deeply rooted pastoral act grounded in human rights, sacramental practice, and a public demonstration of both humility and defiance. What happens when people of very different beliefs show up at the same protest? What does collaboration look like when disagreements run deep? What happens if coalitions fracture? The right is always ready to fill the vacuum when the left stumbles backwards. Finally: a diary entry on post (?) religious antifascist parenting. David's excellent podcast on Liberation Theology Chapters
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| 8: Antifascist Parenting: Depression/Hope-Whiplash | 26 Nov 2025 | 00:30:14 | |
I posted a short reflection to TikTok last week, and it landed harder than I expected. It’s about the emotional double-life I believe many of us are living: one foot in the adult world of political vigilance and despair, and one foot in the child-world of curiosity, play, and care. Today I’m expanding that theme and pairing it with another challenge: how suspicion-driven Left analysis shapes our emotional availability, our social trust, and our parenting. How do we balance vigilance with openness? How do we keep our melancholy from becoming our children’s inheritance? And how do we stop feeling like orphans in a world where radical elders have been scattered, suppressed, or lost? I’d love to hear your experience with this:
Preorder link for Antifascist Dad (North Atlantic Books, April 2026) | |||
| SPECIAL EPISODE: Matthew Interviewed by Cory Johnston at Skeptical Leftist | 24 Nov 2025 | 01:34:39 | |
Just a coupla antifascist Canadian dads having a chat about stuff.
In this special crossover episode, I join Cory Johnston of the Skeptical Leftist podcast for a conversation about cult dynamics, fascism, antifascist parenting, masculinity, and how to support kids with empathy in a collapsing world. We talk about parenting in a political emergency, how to avoid overwhelming kids with adult anxieties, and how to build trust-based conversations about power, policing, misinformation, and existential fear. We get into masculinity, emotional repression, the unpaid labor of women, the politics of care, and how becoming a co-parent radicalized me more deeply than any book ever could. We also spend time on atheist/religious alliances, liberation theology, body-image capitalism, surviving neoliberal time-pressure, and how to nurture political imagination without drowning in guilt or fatalism. Our interview on YouTube. Cory's Linktree. My book to preorder. Chapters
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| UNLOCK 6.1 A Dare Wrapped in a Joke Wrapped in a Void w/ Cy Canterel Pt 2 | 22 Nov 2025 | 00:36:56 | |
In Part 2 of my conversation with Cy Canterel, we keep digging into how people form identity, belief, and belonging inside the swirl of irony, nihilism, and digital performance that defines so much of contemporary life. We explore the psychology of online radicalization—what actually pulls people toward fascist aesthetics, what ambivalence can teach us about resistance, and how the very same infrastructures that feed alienation can also host creativity, solidarity, and care. Also: more on the Graham Platner story as a living case study in fluid online identity: how meaning shifts, how people change, and how communities can choose to interrupt cycles of rage instead of reproducing them. Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines Chapters
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| 7. Antifascist Father w/ David Inczauskis, S.J. | 19 Nov 2025 | 00:49:46 | |
I sit down with Jesuit priest and liberation theologian Father David Inczauskis, S.J., who has been helping lead faith-based protests at Chicago’s Broadview ICE Detention Center. We get into the lived meaning of community life, the risks and necessities of nonviolent resistance, and why liberation theology is suddenly back at the center of the global Catholic conversation. Before we talk, I take about ten minutes to get clear — personally and ideologically — about my own evolving relationship to Catholicism, anticapitalism, and antifascist organizing. If you’ve ever struggled with the contradictions of religious institutions while still feeling pulled toward their radical roots, this may resonate. We also close with Fascist Dad of the Week, featuring the tragic anti-heroism of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose devotion to a decrepit sex criminal seems to grow deeper with every press conference. Liberation Theology Primer on Conspirituality YouTube: https://youtube.com/@antifascistdad Join the community and get all Part 2 episodes + extras on Patreon: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times
just say the word. Chapters
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| 6. A Dare Wrapped in a Joke Wrapped in a Void w/ Cy Canterel | 12 Nov 2025 | 00:47:09 | |
I sit down with feral scholar and TikTok analyst Cy Canterel to explore one of the strangest and most opaque zones of contemporary politics: the swirling online subcultures where memes, irony, nihilism, and fragmented identity collide with rising fascism. Cy brings a rare combination of systemic thinking, psychological insight, and lived experience as an autistic researcher who understands outsider culture from the inside. Together we trace how today’s meme-driven environments blur the lines between subculture and politics, and why attempts to “decode” online radicalization so often miss the mark. What looks like political ideology is often a shared subcultural language. What looks like a manifesto might actually be a dare, a joke, or an attempt to create meaning in the void. We talk about the very ambiguous case of Tyler Robinson, alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, and why the bullet-casing engravings left behind point less toward a stable ideology and more toward the chaotic, dare-based dynamics of online subcultures. We also begin unpacking the emerging story of Graham Platner, and why he has become a Rorschach test for liberal and left anxieties. Cy argues that online extremism is not distortion of human nature, but a predictable outcome of alienation, platform incentives, and a society that doesn’t give people — especially young men — stable roles, narratives, or futures. But she also insists the internet itself isn’t broken. The tools could be used for creativity, care, and community; they’ve simply been captured by the wrong incentives. If you’re a parent, educator, caregiver, or anyone trying to understand what’s happening to young people online — and what can actually intervene in these dynamics — Cy’s insights are super helpful. Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines • Subscribe on Patreon for Part 2 and full archive access: • Preorder Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (April 26, 2026) • Follow me on Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social • Rate & Review — it helps this project reach more people! • Share this episode with educators, caregivers, or anyone trying to understand online radicalization. Chapters
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| UNLOCK 4.1 Courage in Resistance w/ Ben Case Pt 2 | 08 Nov 2025 | 00:50:18 | |
In Part 2 of our conversation, Ben Case and I move from frameworks to consequences. We revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a concrete case of “little” versus “big” violence, asking what deterrence, backlash, and dignity look like when an act becomes a meme and a cautionary tale at the same time. Ben draws on his Muay Thai career to talk about fight training as a metaphor for political life: how normalizing adrenaline and pain helps you keep your head during arrests, how to tell hurt from injury, and why the ability to read an adversary in real time matters as much as strategy documents. We sit with responsibility: what communities owe each other when actions bring heat, how mutual aid and legal defense slot into any honest conversation about risk, and why some moments demand acting without guarantees simply to preserve human dignity. In the closing segment, I unpack the Graham Platner morality play: a black box for the contemplation of masculinity, recklessness, red flags, trauma, accountability, marks of Cain, internet vs. public identities, and the status of trust in the spectacle. Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public. Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs. TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad. Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026. Notes: Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case) 'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC Sullivan man launches campaign for U.S. Senate | PenBay Pilot The Political Awakening of the Oyster Farmer Taking on Susan Collins | The New Republic Who is Graham Platner and why is he everywhere right now? | Maine Public Can a Maine Oyster Farmer Defeat a Five-Term Republican Senator? Chapters
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| 5. Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway | A Review | 05 Nov 2025 | 01:18:02 | |
Note: This review is also available on YouTube. How many wellness brofluencer podcasters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three: one to film it, one to sell the “ancestral light protocol,” and one to warn bulbs are “seed oils for your eyes.” In this longer solo episode I dig into Scott Galloway’s Notes on Being a Man (Simon & Schuster, published Nov 5). Galloway is everywhere—NYU Stern prof, serial entrepreneur, and podcast mainstay—and his new book will land loudly with U.S. liberals searching for ways to “win back men” from Trumpism. I read the book closely—praise where it’s due, pushback where it matters—and make the case that while Galloway offers genuine, sometimes moving reflections on love, fatherhood, and responsibility, his framework ultimately shores up the liberal-capitalist status quo that keeps feeding the conditions in which authoritarianism grows. Across the hour, I map Galloway’s 44 “notes” into five big buckets—reframing masculinity, capitalist pep talk, productivity metaphors, pro-family traditionalism, and the kinder-gentler counterweight to manosphere alpha tropes—and test how each plays in the current political economy. I highlight where the book’s affective power (memoir + confessional humility) outpaces its thin endnotes and limited policy imagination; where “protect, provide, procreate” functions as a sticky brand more than a credible gender theory; and where straw-man takes (on “toxic masculinity,” college, participation trophies) obscure structural realities. I also dig into the contradictions: the book’s bootstrap sermons versus its tender late-chapter wisdom on loyalty and unconditional love; the patriotic gloss versus the missing history; and how a spirituality of private consolation can soothe readers without moving them toward material change. If you’re a parent, teacher, organizer—or just a listener trying to make sense of “men’s crisis” content without getting pulled rightward—this breakdown offers context, citations to chase, and a rubric for reading similar books with both empathy and rigor. Find me on YouTube and TikTok as @antfascistdad. Part 2's and extras on Patreon. Note: Brief: Galloway and the Mooch: The Lost Boys of Capitalism (Pt 1) Chapters
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| UNLOCK 3.1 You Can’t Exile Antifascism w/ Mark Bray — Pt 2 | 02 Nov 2025 | 00:36:45 | |
Hello everyone! Part 2 opens with reflections on Mark’s balance between public scholarship and private parenting, then moves into his distinction between liberal history and fascist propaganda—the moment when sourcing gives way to myth. We discuss how protest slogans can be misread yet remain essential to antifascist diversity and vitality, and end with Mark’s hope for new generations unburdened by despair but grounded in struggle, truth, and imagination. Bray, Mark. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2017. Bray, Mark, and Robert H. Haworth, eds. Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. Translated by Mark Bray and Joseph McCabe. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019 Meet the Portland protest frog that started a movement - YouTube ‘I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,’ says Portland ICE protest frog that got pepper sprayed by federal agents - oregonlive.com ICE Agents Shoot Pepper Spray into Protester's Frog Costume Air Vent Antifa expert at Rutgers University flees US amid death threats He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US | WIRED Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats Rutgers Expert on Antifa Flees to Spain After Death Threats - The New York Times Antifa Expert to Flee with Family to Spain Following Death Threats | Democracy Now! Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House
You can pre-order Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books | April 26 2026) Chapters
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| 14. How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism w/ Craig Johnson | 14 Jan 2026 | 00:31:21 | |
I sit down with historian of fascism Craig Johnson to talk about one of the hardest and most urgent questions facing parents right now: how do we talk to our sons about fascism in a world where so much political socialization happens online, fast, and without supervision? I open the episode in the shadow of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE—and how disorienting it feels to say what we plainly saw while powerful institutions deny it. As a parent of two sons, I think out loud about what it means to slow things down, to regulate myself first, and to create a space where fear, grief, anger, and dignity can all be held without panic or cynicism. Johnson argues that fascist movements have always relied on young men to do their dirty work, and traditional Western masculinity—organized around power, domination, speed, and violence—creates a gateway. Boys aren't inherently fascist, but gendered expectations are easily exploited. We talk about how platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Discord are dense ecosystems where irony, transgressive humor, and memes function as social signals. Racist or sexist jokes are designed to pull kids in quietly, and how adult outrage can sometimes backfire by confirming the fascist story that these ideas are “forbidden.” When a kid brings a meme to you, that moment is a crossroads. Punishment and shutdown don’t work. Curiosity, care, and asking a child to explain the joke can slow everything down and open space for honesty. Notes: How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism — Johnson Fifteen Minutes of Fascism — Johnson's podcast Part 2 now up on Patreon. All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 4. Courage in Resistance w/ Ben Case | 29 Oct 2025 | 00:51:32 | |
Antifascist courage is a choreography of mutual aid, preparation, and care. In this episode I talk with scholar-organizer and retired Muay Thai fighter Ben Case, author of Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (2022), about how “physical courage” develops across a spectrum of practices — from speaking up for a co-worker and signing a union card to holding a picket line and putting your body between ICE and your neighbor. We dig into the realities of “big” vs. “little” violence, the strategic and moral limits of “respectable” protest narratives, and why bodies, training, and solidarity matter when the state blurs dissent with “disorder.” Ben lays out how fight-sport training can normalize adrenaline, prevent panic, and sharpen on-the-spot judgment; why movements we label “nonviolent” often include non-armed force; and how a range of tactics actually functions together on the ground. We also revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a case study in consequence, deterrence, and dignity — and what it does (and doesn’t) tell us about backlash and movement strategy. Ben Case is an antifascist organizer and researcher whose work interrogates how punditry and policy launder certain protest tactics as “legible” while criminalizing others. He’s a retired pro Muay Thai fighter, a coach/official, and the author of Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence. His scholarship and fieldwork examine how non-armed force (property damage, de-arrests, sabotage) gets mislabeled or erased — with real consequences for movements and public understanding. Part 2 now on Patreon: the second half of my conversation with Ben — plus a segment on the Graham Platner morality play (PTSD, internet alienation, a Nazi tattoo, accountability, and the anxieties of masculinity). Will remain paywalled for 2–3 weeks. Join at @antifascistdadpodcast to hear it now. Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public. Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs. TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad. Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026. Notes: Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case) 'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC Chapters
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| UNLOCK 2.1 Gaza Encampment w/ Sara Rasikh Fox Pt.2 | 26 Oct 2025 | 00:25:33 | |
Part 2 with Sara Rasik opens with my reflections on Part 1 (how UofT organizers timed the encampment to convocation, why student testimony was patronized as a “mental-health” issue) and on how movement memory travels from 1980s anti-apartheid organizing to Gen Z. Then Sara and I work through the hard stuff: “students should be studying,” “supporting terrorism,” safety claims, the meaning of “from the river to the sea,” movement discipline, gatekeeping and rules, and what was built even after tents came down. We end on globalize the intifada as a transnational language forliberation—and a closing story about the Macklemore “Hind’s Hall” moment with my kids. Guest
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| 3. You Can't Exile Antifascism w/ Mark Bray | 22 Oct 2025 | 00:41:12 | |
Mark Bray, historian of antifascism is now in exile, thanks to the backlash over Charlie Kirk’s murder and the Trump administration's accelerating attempts to label antifascists as terrorists. Bray, his partner and their two young children fled the US after the local Turning Point USA chapter posted a petition to have him fired from Rutgers, where he teaches. Altogether, these attacks prompted a flood of death threats. But no one can exile the work. Mark joins me to ground antifascism in history, movement strategy, and parenting. We unpack how education becomes propaganda when sourcing and truth-testing are abandoned; and how movements need a diversity of rhetoric—from accessible to militant. Also: navigating slogans like Abolish ICE, ACAB, and Globalize the Intifada, and the Glastonbury “Death to the IDF” chant. We compare liberal/centrist antifascism with mass, working-class antifascism, and manage to end on hope: making space for young people’s bold experiments even when veteran organizers feel the weight of years. Also: news from the Portland Frog detachment! The full second half—movement discipline, courts vs. power, deeper dive on slogans, and my reflection on Mark’s “technique vs. content” distinction—is live now for supporters: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast. Pre-order the book that powers this podcast: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (pub date April 26, 2026) Notes Bray, Mark. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2017. Bray, Mark, and Robert H. Haworth, eds. Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. Translated by Mark Bray and Joseph McCabe. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019 Meet the Portland protest frog that started a movement - YouTube ‘I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,’ says Portland ICE protest frog that got pepper sprayed by federal agents - oregonlive.com ICE Agents Shoot Pepper Spray into Protester's Frog Costume Air Vent Antifa expert at Rutgers University flees US amid death threats He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US | WIRED Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats Chapters
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| 13. More Degenerate Art, Please! w/ Sarah Jaffray | 07 Jan 2026 | 00:34:41 | |
What makes art politically dangerous to fascism—and why does empathy now count as transgression? Today I'm joined by art historian, educator, and curator Sarah Jaffray for a wide-ranging conversation about modern art, fascism, and the politics of perception. Starting from the Nazis’ infamous “Degenerate Art” campaign, Sarah traces how artists in the aftermath of World War I deliberately abandoned realism, narrative, and institutional aesthetics in order to resist authoritarian power. We explore why fascist movements obsess over image control, why abstraction and disorientation can be politically subversive, and how artists make the invisible visible—in part by slowing us down and drawing out deeper levels of attention. We discuss Dada, Surrealism, New Objectivity, Otto Dix, and George Grosz alongside contemporary struggles over AI-generated art and outcome-driven creativity. We talk a lot about time: the time art requires, the time empathy needs, and the way authoritarian systems try to eliminate both. Sarah argues for art as witness, process, and lived testimony in the face of political dehumanization. Part Two of this conversation, available now on Patreon, continues into practical guidance on aesthetic freedom and creative survival under pressure. Antifascist Dad is out on April 26! You can preorder here. NotesBarron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art”: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991. Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung. “Bauhaus History 1919–1933.” Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1935. Dixon, Paul. “Uncanny Valley.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dix, Otto. “War (Der Krieg), 1929–1932.” Dresden State Art Collections. Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2003. Gross, George. “Background and Biography.” Tate. Harrison, Charles, Francis Frascina, and Gill Perry. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Hitler, Adolf. Speech at the opening of the Entartete Kunst exhibition, Munich, July 19, 1937. Holbein, Hans (the Younger). “The Ambassadors... Chapters
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| UNLOCK 11.1 The Communism of Love w/ Richard Gilman-Opalsky pt 2 | 31 Dec 2025 | 00:47:45 | |
Happy New Year, everyon! This is Part 2 of my conversation with Richard Gilman-Opalsky on the “Communism of Love." We talk about improvisation in music, parenting, and politics. Suppressing improvisation is rooted in an obsession with control, predictability, and rigid developmental maps—hallmarks of fascist thinking. Against that are openness, uncertainty, and experiment as conditions of human flourishing. We talk family and education, where communistic relations already exist in partial, uneven ways. What would it mean to de-privatize care—while recognizing, as bell hooks warned, that family is not a reliable site of love for everyone? Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast
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| 12. The Little Match Girl: An Antifascist Rewrite | 24 Dec 2025 | 00:19:36 | |
Happy Solstice, Holiday, Christmas, Deep Winter, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa to you all. A familiar short story today, this time ending in revolution—not sentimentality. Notes:H.C. Andersen : The Little Match Girl (Hersholt translation) Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast TikTok and YouTube: @antifascistdad You can still pre-order my book and as a gift, and let them know in a card! Chapters
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| UNLOCK 10.1: Don't Talk About Politics w/ Sarah Stein Lubrano Part 2 | 21 Dec 2025 | 00:31:55 | |
In Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, we move from the critique of debate and “critical thinking” into the deeper question: what actually radicalizes us? Sarah talks about the moments that changed her politics—teaching in prisons, supporting a student after sexual violence—and why no amount of abstract knowledge could have done the same work. I share how parenting an autistic kid has transformed my sense of who the world is designed for, and what it means to resist capitalist norms around productivity, learning, and success. Also: why televised debates and “reasoning as warfare” formats (ahem, Jubilee) are great entertainment but terrible tools for social change, how the marketplace-of-ideas myth functions as liberal ideology, and why protest rarely changes governments or “the public” directly, but can permanently change the protesters themselves. For Lubrano, good politics looks a lot like good friendship: long-term, non-transactional, joyful where possible. She offers advice to a hypothetical 15-year-old on how to enter political life without burning out: learn to be a good friend, find a broken part of the world you care about, and commit to fixing it together. I close with an in-person story about meeting my previous guest, Sarah Rose Kaplan, and watching her improv a small act of mutual aid with three hungry kids in a Toronto restaurant—a live illustration of Lubrano’s thesis that new social experiences can change lives. Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge, and works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (Bloomsbury).
Buy Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds
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| 11. The Communism of Love w/ Richard Gilman-Opalsky | 17 Dec 2025 | 00:49:09 | |
I asked communist philosopher and jazz drummer Richard Gilman-Opalsky a deceptively simple question: What do we actually mean when we say “love”? Richard’s "Communism of Love," insists that love is an active, non-exchange relation that contradicts the logic of capitalism. You can’t measure or spreadsheet it, or cost it out. Unfortunately, this fact can also curdle into an excuse for sidelining and ignoring the vast amount of unpaid, often gendered, domestic labor—the "secret workshop" described by feminist marxists—where the concept of love is abused and "weaponized" to justify working for free, claiming that love is its own reward. We talk about how real caregiving love requires parents to actively participate in their children's becoming—what they are not yet. That means getting over the anxiety of control and the tendency to treat children as emotional/financial investments. Parenting, like revolutionary politics and improvisational jazz, requires a constant, collective improvisation and a love for possibilities over rigid predetermined structures. In “Fascist, Squish, and Antifascist News of the Week” I focus on Ontario Premier Doug Ford responding to reporting about a Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer supplying ICE. Part Two is up now on Patreon, where Richard and I go deeper into improvisation, music, and why fascist control hates the freedom required for human flourishing. Support the show and hear Part Two on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast Show Notes:Canadian Defence Review. “Roman Shimonov: 2025 Defence Executive of the Year.” Canadian Defence Review, 2025. Canadian Press. “ICE Ordering Fleet of 20 Armoured Vehicles from Canadian Firm.” CityNews Halifax, December 2, 2025. Canadian Press. “ICE Says Armoured Vehicles Ordered from Roshel Produced in U.S.” CityNews Toronto, December 4, 2025. Canadian Press. “Sale of Canadian Armoured Vehicles to ICE Agency ‘Deeply Troubling’: Kwan.” CityNews Toronto, December 3, 2025. CPAC. “NDP MP Jenny Kwan Discusses Arms Exports Bill (C-233).” Headline Politics, September 19, 2025. Duggan, Kyle. “Anita Anand Won’t Say Whether Canada Would Block Export of Armoured Vehicles for Use by ICE.” The Globe and Mail, December 2025.
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| UNLOCK 9.1 Trans People Drive Fascists Bananas w/ Sara Rose Caplan pt 2 | 14 Dec 2025 | 00:35:25 | |
In part two, Sara and I open with the question Matt Walsh can’t stop weaponizing: “What is a woman?” Sara walks me through her one-woman show that answers Walsh by shifting the frame to a deceptively simple word—“chair.” Through a live game with the audience, she demonstrates how even basic terms are messy, negotiated, and context-bound, and how fascist language games depend on pretending that words like “woman” have timeless, universal meanings. We dig into why bad-faith questions are a form of bullying, what it means to feel the ground of language fall away under your feet, and how that eerie feeling can also open up freedom and solidarity. We talk about affect as antifascist strategy—why Sara cultivates a calm, philosophical delivery online, how it relates to depression, privilege, and safety, and how it offers a model of trans dignity that refuses both panic and “debate me, bro” energy. I end with a reflection on coming to understand gender performativity as a cis guy. Links from Sara: Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social Support the project/instant access to Pt 2. Preorder the book that this podcast is building toward: If this episode helped you think or talk differently about fascism and gender, you can:
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| 10: Don't Talk About Politics w/ Sarah Stein Lubrano | 10 Dec 2025 | 00:42:00 | |
What if the entire “marketplace of ideas” story about how people change their minds is mostly wrong? In this episode, I talk with political theorist and organizer Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano about why debate, podcasts, and “critical thinking” rarely shift anyone’s core political commitments. Sarah and I dig into her book Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds, the limits of political education, the classed nature of “critical thinking,” cognitive dissonance and cult dynamics, and why good politics begins with friendships, cooperative projects, and building a different world together. Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge. Sarah works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds (Bloomsbury).
Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/ (Bloomsbury Publishing) Mentioned in this episode
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| UNLOCK 14.1 How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism w/ Craig Johnson Pt 2 | 25 Jan 2026 | 00:43:08 | |
Picking it back up with historian of fascism Craig Johnson with the question of why fascism can feel cool—especially online—and how we might interrupt that appeal without fighting on fascism’s terms. But fascism isn't just pretending to be cool: it’s popular, aesthetic, and subcultural, and it sells itself through speed, power, transgression, and a sense of newness. There's a tactical dilemma: how to puncture influencers like Andrew Tate or Nick Fuentes without reinforcing their own status metrics (looks, dominance, sexual access). Craig feels, for instance, that jawline mockery backfires, and why we have to keep the critique on what actually matters: cruelty, exploitation, and fascist politics. No one organizes alone: tactics are collective, context-dependent, and always strategic. We close on coalition-building and why real, lived diversity makes fascist lies harder to sell. I end with a brief coda on talking with my kids about the attack on Caracas. Notes: How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism — Johnson Fifteen Minutes of Fascism — Johnson's podcast All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 16. Mark Carney is Not Your Antifascist Dad | 28 Jan 2026 | 00:27:26 | |
Carney’s recent speech at Davos really is as important as everyone’s saying it is. But in my view, it’s not important for the obvious truth we just heard him confess, but for the lessons it provides about the deep contradictions and hypocrisies of liberal politics, and how when it pretends to stand up to fascism it’s really asking that the capital order return to an era of better optics. Carney told a truth about neoliberalism that conceals a bigger lie about capitalist inevitability, and how pulling this off with the affect of a more benevolent patriarch can be really attractive and distracting. Part two, available now on Patreon, explores Carney’s masculinity and paternal political style in depth. Does he offer secure attachment? Notes ICE taps Canadian firm for 20 armoured vehicles despite Trump trade war | Globalnews.ca Leadnow. “Stop the Contract: No Canadian Weapons to ICE.” ECONOMIC WARFARE. (Hansard, 17 January 1940) All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCK 25.1 Mark Carney's “Elbows Up” Hockey Schtick: a Review | 13 Apr 2026 | 00:23:56 | |
A close reading of "Elbows Up" — the hockey slogan Mark Carney skated on to sell his Trump response policies over the past year. It began on March 1, 2025. Mike Myers mouthed the phrase on SNL, inspiring former NDP MP Charlie Angus to publish a galvanizing Substack two days later tracing it to Gordie Howe. The slogan conscripts the legacy of a working-class Saskatchewan kid who was underpaid for decades by union-busting Jack Adams, repackaging disciplined obedience to capital as national pluck. Meanwhile Carney's budget eliminates 40,000 federal jobs and cuts $57 billion from public programs while gutting Indigenous Services and environmental funding. Anishinaabe scholar Niigaan Sinclair and others in Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay collection push back hard. Elbows up, it turns out, describes the posture of a man who knows he'll be having beers with the other team when the game is over. Sources:Charlie Angus's original March 3, 2025 "Elbows Up" Substack Carney's March 22, 2025 "Elbows Up" post on X with Mike Myers Gordie Howe biography and career — Wikipedia Gordie and Edna's shared skates — Maclean's 1966 archive Ted Lindsay union organizing and Adams's retaliation — Hockey Writers Carney's 2025 budget: 40,000 public service jobs cut, $57 billion from programs — Globe and Mail 15% departmental cuts apply to Indigenous Services Canada — Policy Options Environment and Climate Change Canada faces $1.3 billion in cuts — Ecojustice Foreign aid cut $2.7 billion, breaking campaign promise — Results Canada Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay anthology Elbows Up: Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance
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| 26. Antifascist Gardening Theology w/ Ciarra Jones | 08 Apr 2026 | 01:00:12 | |
I first came across Ciarra Jones on TikTok as @thegardeningtheologian, and I was moved by her eloquent, queer, and plant-based antifascism. She grew up in the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church, but through her studies at UC Berkeley and Harvard Divinity School she developed a public theology grounded embodiment. We talk about what public theologians actually do, how dying-to-the-flesh theology creates the conditions for fascist dehumanization, and why religion is a social determinant of health. She walks me through her own deconstruction — from traveling youth minister preaching against queerness at sixteen to queer womanist theologian — and explains how her grandfather's garden in Sacramento became a ritual site. We talk about "the good enough" gardener, Charlie Kirk's debate style as Christian nationalist domination, and why the hardest God to believe in is one who is simply pleased with you. https://ciarrajonesconsulting.com/ Sources:Pamela Lightsey, Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology (Pickwick Publications, 2015) Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Orbis Books, 2015) Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Simon & Schuster, 2010) Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Bantam, 2003) Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear (Random House, 2021) Prentis Hemphill, The Embodiment Institute SOCIALS
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| UNLOCK 21.1 Against the Hierarchy of Bodies w/ Michelle Cassandra Johnson pt 2 | 03 Mar 2026 | 00:40:14 | |
Back with Michelle, and pivoting from diagnosis to practice. We get a powerful story from her anti-racism work about calling someone into accountability without shaming or discarding them — and what real healing can look like in the room. Michelle also reflects on growing up in the Black Baptist church, how her spiritual life has always been inseparable from her political life, and why faith — in something beyond what we can currently see — may be essential to sustaining resistance. CODA: A story from Antifascist Dad about the first inklings I had as a kid that I was white, and what that meant. Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, and in May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, was released. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. https://www.michellecjohnson.com/. Notes:All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCKED 19.1 From the Mormon Priesthood to Trans Advocate Dad w/ Blair Hodges Pt 2 | 01 Mar 2026 | 00:35:31 | |
Back for Pt 2 of my conversation with Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, former Mormon insider, and dad to a trans kid—by digging into Mormon masculinity. Blair explains how Mormon emotional vulnerability descends from early charismatic revival culture, but also how a rising alt-right strain inside the church is pushing toward a more punitive “muscular” Christianity. On parenting: why children’s rights and autonomy require dismantling authoritarian habits, how neurodivergence exposes the cruelty of “normal” discipline, and how institutions often treat kids as property. Also: the privilege of political disengagement, what it feels like when the “flood” of fascism reaches your floor, and why listening to marginalized people is the starting point for real antifascist practice. I close by reading a short excerpt from my upcoming book, a section on gender performance and why trans liberation matters to all of us. Notes:Relationshapes: Blair Hodges All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 20: Fascist Pipeline, Evangelical Pipeline w/ Brad Onishi | 25 Feb 2026 | 00:44:22 | |
Welcoming friend and colleague and fellow dad Brad Onishi (Straight White American Jesus, Preparing for War), to explore the parallels between evangelical conversion and fascist recruitment. Brad was a convert to evangelicalism at 14 and shares how teenage anxiety, alienation, and the search for belonging made him vulnerable to a worldview that offered refuge, certainty, and an enemy to fight. Bottom line: both fundamentalist religion and far-right movements promise clarity in chaotic times—binary thinking, moral urgency, and cosmic stakes. At the top: I trace the historical roots of the Satanic Panic and connect it to the current flood of conspiratorial reactions to the Epstein files. If we're parenting or mentoring, we have to recognize spiritual warfare narratives when they resurface on social media. They only confuse things. Part 2 now up on Patreon. Brad Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, and co-host of the Straight White American Jesus (SWAJ) podcast. He founded Axis Mundi Media in 2023 in order to provide a platform for research-based podcasts focused on safeguarding democracy from the threats of extremism and authoritarianism. His writing has appeared at the New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, NBC News, HuffPost, and many other outlets. Onishi is a frequent guest on national radio, podcast, and television outlets, including “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross and MSNBC. His podcast, SWAJ, ranks in the top 50 of Politics shows on Apple’s podcast charts – ahead of programs from NPR, the NYT, and other national outlets. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next is available now. CORRECTION: In the intro, I said that Paul 23 presided over Vatican 2. It was actually John 23. Notes:Satanic Panic archive on Conspirituality. The Devil You Know — Sarah Marshall All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Antif... Chapters
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| UNLOCK 20.1: Fascist Pipeline, Evangelical Pipeline w/ Brad Onishi | 23 Feb 2026 | 00:38:35 | |
Part 2 with Brad Onishi. What interrupts extremist pipelines? Brad dishes on his Japanese American family and how multicultural, multiethnic community might inoculate against fascist identity formation. I discuss the flip side: whiteness as the erasure of roots, the vulnerability of deracinated teens searching for story What are the healthier forms of religion—traditions that invite complexity, mystery, and emotional range rather than binary thinking and enemy-making? The coda is on self-regulation, frugality, and inner renewal as part of antifascist life. Do we need antifascist spirituality? Brad Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, and co-host of the Straight White American Jesus (SWAJ) podcast. He founded Axis Mundi Media in 2023 in order to provide a platform for research-based podcasts focused on safeguarding democracy from the threats of extremism and authoritarianism. His writing has appeared at the New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, NBC News, HuffPost, and many other outlets. Onishi is a frequent guest on national radio, podcast, and television outlets, including “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross and MSNBC. His podcast, SWAJ, ranks in the top 50 of Politics shows on Apple’s podcast charts – ahead of programs from NPR, the NYT, and other national outlets. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next is available now. Notes:Satanic Panic archive on Conspirituality. The Devil You Know — Sarah Marshall All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCK 18.1 Talking to Young People about the Epstein Files pt 2 | 22 Feb 2026 | 00:22:43 | |
What happens when a person we admire is implicated in networks of abuse? How can kids navigate guilt by association without sliding into cynicism or spectacle? Occult Features of Anarchism | The Anarchist Library The End of Ice - The New Press — Dahr Jamail We Are the Middle of Forever Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth — Jamail and Rushworth All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 19. From the Mormon Priesthood to Trans Advocate Dad w/ Blair Hodges | 18 Feb 2026 | 00:43:02 | |
I’m joined by my friend Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, nonprofit comms pro, and dad to a trans kid—for a conversation that starts with his powerful public testimony opposing Utah’s anti–gender-affirming-care bills. Blair unpacks what it’s like raising a trans child in a “blue dot” city under a hostile state supermajority, and how the so-called “Utah Way” pairs polite PR with targeted cruelty—from flag bans to efforts to rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in the centre of town. We also trace Blair’s journey from Mormon priesthood culture to trans advocacy: how missionary life cracked his worldview open, how Mormon theology hardens into cis-hetero supremacy, and how real relationships—and research—changed his mind. Part two (now on Patreon) goes deeper on Mormon masculinity, authoritarian parenting, children’s rights, and why protecting his kid ultimately mattered more than reforming an institution from within. Relationshapes: Blair Hodges All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCK 17.1 Understanding the Boys and Men of 4Chan w/ Dale Beran pt 2 | 15 Feb 2026 | 00:42:53 | |
I'm back with Part 2 of my conversation with Dale Beran, turning to what happened to the people he followed while reporting on early 4chan, and what it means to grow out of a life shaped by anonymous online worlds. Some were able to step away as their offline lives improved, but others remained tied to screens in cycles of addiction. I also share how Dale’s work has helped me talk with my own kids about online culture, bullying, and the attention economy, as a form of inoculation against extremism and despair. This episode ends with an informal report on how conversations about online spaces are going in this antifascist house. Notes:All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 18. Talking to Young People about the Epstein Files | 11 Feb 2026 | 00:23:21 | |
An audio essay on how to talk with young people about the Epstein files from an antifascist perspective. How to hold questions without amplifying sensationalism. How to name harms amidst the absence of accountability. Also: fragmented Epstein File discourse could trigger a QAnon-style wave on the left, unless adults provide steadier sources, context, and care. Notes:Occult Features of Anarchism | The Anarchist Library All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCK 16.1 Mark Carney is Not Your Antifascist Dad pt.2 | 08 Feb 2026 | 00:25:12 | |
As he laid it out at Davos, Carney’s prescription for avoiding fascist chaos is more of the same conservative capitalism that accelerates fascism: tax cuts, deregulation, fast-tracked investment in oil, AI, and minerals, and new trading blocs with the more stable “middle powers.” He’s not talking about or taking action domestically to support labour unions, redistribution, social safety nets, or anti-racist and democratic protections. Carney’s calm, paternal style makes his status quo vision emotionally appealing to liberals seeking stability. Antifascism cannot be a gentler version of domination. We don’t need a kinder patriarch inside the sweatshop. We need politics and parental figures that lead us out of it. CODA: Alex Pretti was a hero, but the straightforward normalcy of his decent actions tell us something about the contested territory of masculinity in this fascist era. Notes: Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 17. Understanding the Boys and Men of 4Chan w/ Dale Beran | 04 Feb 2026 | 00:39:48 | |
Writer Dale Beran visits to discuss the far-right online subcultures he documented in his excellent 2019 book, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office. I ask whether the cohort of alienated, terminally online young men still exists and whether it lost power after gaining it. TLDR? The specific 4chan generation has aged or splintered, but the type endures, and its ideas have been mainstreamed—especially through Elon Musk’s transformation of Twitter into a platform that rewards provocation and misinformation. Did these young men ever face a real ideological fork? Do they regret that meme-friendly scapegoating traveled faster than deeper structural explanations? We also whether the left should start meming harder. DALE BERAN is a writer and artist whose work has been published in McSweeney’s, Quartz, The Huffington Post, The Daily Dot, The Nib, and The Baltimore City Paper. He has a BA in classics from Bard and a JD from Fordham. He lives in Baltimore. All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| UNLOCK 24.1: Mutual Aid in Islam w/Mona Haydar | 06 Apr 2026 | 00:39:59 | |
In part two of my conversation with Mona Haydar, we move from the theological architecture of Islamic mutual aid into the lived political pressure of Muslim identity in America. We dig into the good Muslim/bad Muslim trap that Mahmood Mamdani diagnosed: the demand to perform as secular, unthreatening, and patriotic. Mona holds to the view that the post-9/11 reckoning ultimately drove communities toward authenticity over performance. We also trace her political awakening through hip-hop and spoken word in Flint, Michigan, where the Black community encouraged her to use her voice against racial and economic injustice. On the subject of hijab, Mona reframes it as a rejection of capitalist objectification — a demand to be met as a soul before a body. I add a personal coda about a Russian literature class that gave me an early, unexpected glimpse of a similar type of gender-disruption that I never forgot.
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| UNLOCK 15.1 Mother and Minister in Minneapolis w/ Rev. Angela Denker Pt 2 | 01 Feb 2026 | 00:37:34 | |
I'm back with Rev. Angela Denker, discussing antifascist faith under pressure. Angela names the misogyny threaded through white Christian nationalism—from “submission” theology to the contempt aimed at women who refuse it—and explains why the killing of Renee Good landed as specifically gendered terror. We talk about the double-bind of ministry: how churches can be both sites of harassment and, in places like Minneapolis, hubs of women-led resistance and care. Then I ask Angela to “translate” an antifascist Jesus for nonreligious young people by riffing on familiar parables—the Prodigal Son, Workers in the Vineyard, and the Talents—as lessons about mercy, economic fairness, and the moral danger of hoarding. The conversation turns to the hardest question: where nonviolence meets its limits, and how Lutheran traditions wrestle with power, resistance, and the realities of state violence. I close with reflections on Bishop Rob Hirschfeld’s call for clergy to “get their affairs in order” and what that kind of embodied witness implies about capitalism, solidarity, and the spiritual scar tissue we carry. Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood | Broadleaf Books All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 25. Polite Canada Remilitarizes w/ Brent Patterson | 01 Apr 2026 | 00:46:14 | |
I sit down with Brent Patterson, a veteran anti-militarism organizer whose four decades of work span prison abolition, Indigenous solidarity, and campaigns against state violence. We examine the Carney government's remilitarization agenda. It is not a response to genuine security threats, but as a coherent economic strategy dressed in the language of sovereignty and national pride. We look at the math on the F-35 warplane purchase: what it actually costs, who controls it, and what that money could do instead. We talk about Arctic resource extraction and the military infrastructure being built to enable it, the integration of Canadian and US military supply chains, the No More Loopholes arms export bill, and the gap between Canada's international self-image and its actual record of 1,600 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Serbia. We close with Brent's forty years of organizing experience — the losses, the marginal wins, and what sustains people in a long struggle.
Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International, and writes for Rabble.ca. SOURCES NATO total military spending 2024: $1,506 billion — SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 NATO 5% GDP target agreed at The Hague summit — Atlantic Council NATO Defence Spending Tracker Canada's Department of National Defence spent $34.5 billion in FY2024 — Canadaspends Carney commits Canada to $150 billion annually in defence by 2035 — Globe and Mail, June 2025 Carney's first budget: $81.8 billion in defence investment over five years — CBC News, November 2025 DND defence spending targets and NATO commitments — Canada.ca Full 45-year F-35 life-cycle cost estimated at C$73.9 billion — Parliamentary Budget Office, November 2023 F-35 acquisition cost jumps 50% to C$27.7 billion — Skies Mag / Auditor General, June 2025 Full acquisition cost now C$33 billion including infrastructure and weapons — Flight Global, June 2025 Full history of Canada's F-35 procurement process — Wikipedia Chapters
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| UNLOCK 23.1 The Future of Socialism in Canada w/ Jasmine Peardon pt. 2 | 30 Mar 2026 | 00:41:20 | |
In part two of my conversation with Jasmine Peardon, we trace her path from UBC to federal public policy to a master's at Concordia, and the radicalization that travel through the Global South and October 7 accelerated. We share a moment of recognition about India: how white spiritual tourists and white activists alike can move through a country absorbing deference without understanding colonialism. Jasmine identifies intergenerational socialist mentorship as her core source of resilience — the older comrades who remind her that none of this is new. We work through Kshama Sawant's lesson on concrete demands: "pull out of NATO" beats "anti-imperialist" every time, because it forces a defence. Jasmine also has some advice for 12-year-olds to read freely and build practical skills — let political consciousness develop without urgency. In the coda I return to the Regina Manifesto of 1933 and the Lewis family dynasty to ask what threads of socialist history have survived to reach us now. Sources:The Great Depression in Canada Great Depression — The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan The Arid Years — Legion Magazine Unemployment During the Great Depression — The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan The Regina Manifesto at 90: lessons for the Canadian left Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas (1904–1986) Rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Regina Manifesto — The Canadian Encyclopedia Moishe Lewis — EBSCO Research Starters David Lewis — The Canadian Encyclopedia Lewis family (Canada) — The Canadian Encyclopedia The Regina Manifesto (1933) — Socialist History Project Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed—Onward to a Socialist Future All music by Kallie Marie.
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| 24: Mutual Aid in Islam w/Mona Haydar | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:50:13 | |
I've wanted to understand the radical flank of Islam for a long time, and I feel a little ashamed it took me this long. In this episode I talk with Mona Haydar — rapper, poet, chaplain, and Muslim activist — about the theological architecture of Islamic mutual aid: zakat, the mandatory redistribution of wealth; sadaqa, voluntary charity rooted in truthfulness; and taqwa, the reverence and permeating consciousness that Ramadan is designed to build. Mona makes the case that if Muslims fully practiced these commandments, global poverty could be eliminated. We also get into 9/11's psychic reckoning for American Muslim communities, the good Muslim/bad Muslim trap that Mahmood Mamdani diagnosed, and why Islamophobic attacks — including right here in Toronto from my own city councillor — keep producing conversion waves rather than retreat. Part Two is on Patreon.
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| UNLOCK 22.1 Fascism is Also Rational | 22 Mar 2026 | 00:17:15 | |
In Toronto, the morning after US strikes ignited oil depots across Tehran. I reach for Michael Parenti. His core insistence is that fascism is not madness or mob psychology but a calculated counter-revolution: deployed when socialist and labour movements threaten property relations, used to crush unions, criminalize minorities, and restore profitability through repression. It puts the irrational back into perspective. Sources: Michael Parenti, Black Shirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997, City Lights Books) https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/blackshirts-reds-rational-fascism/ Michael Parenti, Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life (2013, Bordighera Press) https://www.michael-parenti.org/book-waiting-for-yesterday Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew (1945/1948 English translation, Schocken Books) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330311/anti-semite-and-jew-by-jean-paul-sartre/ Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: @matthew_remski YouTube: antifascistdad TikTok: @antifascistdad Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House Chapters
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| 23. The Future of Socialism in Canada w/ Jasmine Peardon | 18 Mar 2026 | 00:45:47 | |
Canada's proto-fascist scorecard is racking up big numbers. Jasmine Peardon — organizer, policy researcher, and New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus candidate for party president — joins me to discuss this critical turning point. We look at Mark Carney's Davos speech as a case study in political dishonesty. We trace the NDP's founding compromise: born in 1961 as a merger with the anti-capitalist CCF, the party has always held its socialist roots at arms length. Jasmine's out to change that. We discuss the presidential vote structure that stacks the deck against grassroots candidates, the Yves Engler vetting scandal, and the concept of movement capture — how progressive energy gets absorbed and neutralized by parties that want your vote but not your values or full-time organizing. Also: the solidarity economy's double-tax problem: ordinary people paying twice for dignity while their taxes continue to fund war. Part two is on Patreon now. Sources: Canada's economy lost 84,000 jobs in February, unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7% The Military Wins and Public Programs Lose in Carney's Budget Canada releases Budget 2025: Canada Strong Budget 2025: A "historic moment" for the arms industry White nationalist fight clubs pose risk for 'extreme violence,' warns government report 'Active clubs' are all over Canada. What are they? White Nationalism in Canada: Organized, Emboldened, and Growing RCMP charges military members allegedly plotting to form militia and seize land How a White Nationalist Club Thought It Found Safe Haven in a Montreal Gym Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore Here's one easy trick to combat foreign political interference in our media Postmedia and the American Hedge Fund Takeover of Canada's Newspapers For the sake of our democracy, American hedge funds should be banned from owning Canadian newspapers B.C. premier says Alberta separatists seeking assistance from U.S. is 'treason' Canadian separatists optimistic after meetings with Trump officials Chapters
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| 22. Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will | 11 Mar 2026 | 00:19:11 | |
What does it mean to hold both clear-eyed despair and committed action at the same time? I trace the antifascist axiom "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" through my own life — my late mother's instinctive class consciousness, my writing teacher Luciano's daily creative discipline, and my early Buddhist practice of contemplating impermanence. I unpack Eve Sedgwick's concept of paranoid versus reparative reading, and why the left's hypervigilance can foreclose on the energy needed for repair. I correct the common attribution of the mantra to Gramsci, locating the phrase's origin in Romain Rolland's 1920 review of Raymond Lefebvre's WWI novel — a cry from Flanders Fields about bourgeois sacrifice of the young. And I map the tension between intellect and will onto bodily experience, arguing that theory and mutual aid aren't competing demands but two characteristics of how we already live. Sources Romain Rolland, review of Le Sacrifice d'Abraham, L'Humanité, 19 March 1920 — transcription and translation Antonio Gramsci, "Address to the Anarchists," L'Ordine Nuovo, 3–10 April 1920 Raymond Lefebvre (1891–1920), Le Sacrifice d'Abraham (Flammarion, 1919) Academic treatment of the phrase's history: "Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will," Rethinking Marxism (2019) Political reading of the slogan: "Pessimism of the Will," Viewpoint Magazine (2020) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading," in Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Duke University Press, 2003) Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social Instagram: @matthew_remski YouTube: antifascistdad TikTok: @antifascistdad Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House Chapters
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| 21. Against the Hierarchy of Bodies w/ Michelle Cassandra Johnson | 04 Mar 2026 | 00:37:19 | |
Sitting down today with racial equity educator and spiritual director Michelle Cassandra Johnson about what she calls the “hierarchy of bodies” — the long-standing social logic that determines whose lives are protected, valued, and believed. Against mainstream claims that rising authoritarianism is shocking or unprecedented, Michelle argues that today’s crises reflect very old patterns of domination rooted in race, power, and proximity to privilege. Why do some communities experience the current political moment as rupture while others recognize it as continuity? What are the downstream effects of the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion work? What does anti-racism training actually look like on the ground — and why re relationship, solidarity, and accountability more important than shame or guilt? Is multiracial community grounded in care the strongest inoculation against fascism? Part 2 now up on Patreon. Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, and in May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, was released. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. https://www.michellecjohnson.com/. Notes:All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Instagram: @matthew_remski TikTok: @antifascistdad Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad Chapters
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| 27. The Proto-Fascism of “Trust me” Carney w/ Leftie Jane | 15 Apr 2026 | 01:11:59 | |
My guest today is Jane Yearwood—aka Leftie Jane on the TikTok and Instagram machines. She lives here in Toronto and does amazing political commentary from a leftist and disability justice POV. Today we’ll be looking at why so many Canadians seem to believe that MAGA-stye fascism couldn’t possibly take root here, even though it actually is. So we talk about Canadian exceptionalism, including how settler colonial history and US foreign policy alignments have always been hidden from public education and are now almost invisible behind the halo of Mark Carney. We talk about online activism and reflect on the generations between us and the middle school students she tutors, and also her love for libraries as third spaces, but the heart of our focus is on five bills currently reshaping Canadian law. Bill C12, Bill C9, Bill C15, Bills C8 and C22. We give them good names for clarity:
One thing Jane wanted me to stress in these notes, because we weren’t quite explicit about this in our conversation, is the sheer volume and rush of reality-changing legislation is strategic. It has a very “flooding the zone” vibe to it. This is the Steve Bannon innovation of deliberate saturation of media channels with so much information and noise that critical thinking becomes impossible. That wave is mirrored only by Carney’s extended charm offensive, which reached a peak on March 29th when he was glazed by the celebrity class at the Juno Awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys. All things Leftie Jane! linktree SourcesBill C12 retroactivity and refugee claims, Migrant Rights Network Amnesty International statement on Bill C12 and international humanitarian law Avi Lewis on Canada’s deportation system, The Walrus Bill C9 (Combating Hate Act) text, Parliament of Canada Civil liberties concerns on Bills C8 and C22, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Bill C15 omnibus provisions and ministerial exemption powers, Parliament of Canada Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk postcard campaign Jodi Dean, Communicative Capitalism: Democracy and the Illusion of Connection, MIT Press
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