In Bed With The Right – Details, episodes & analysis

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'!

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!

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 of that it nevertheless exercises.

You can read Samuel's essay "The Campus Does Not Exist" over at Parapraxis magazine: https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/the-campus-does-not-exist

You can read Moira Weigel's article "Hating Theory" (which we refer to in the episode) here: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/21427

And you can pre-order Adrian's book "The Cancel Culture Panic" (which he's heavily cribbing from in this ep) here: https://www.amazon.com/Cancel-Culture-Panic-American-Obsession/dp/1503640841/

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.

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.

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 childrens' sweaters for social media clout!

Adrian takes Moira into the wild, wildly misogynist and deeply depressing world of Otto Weininger (1880-1903). A posterchild 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.

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.

Follow Adrian following Moira following various conservative pundits down what is already shaping up to be one of 2024 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. 

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.