In Bed With The Right

Episode 118 -- The Romantasy Boom

For this episode, Moira and Adrian are joined by Abby Kluchin from the Ordinary Unhappiness [https://ordinaryunhappiness.buzzsprout.com/] podcast to discuss a recent publishing phenomenon and its implications for gender politics: romantasy, a genre that's been emerging over the last 10 years with renewed force. Series like Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses and the Empyrian-novels by Rebecca Yarros mix fantasy tropes with costume drama and pretty explicit sex scenes -- and they rely on a very particular kind of trauma heroine, and what seems to be a very particular understanding of gendered trauma.

Episode 117 -- Birth Control Misinformation

For this episode, Moira walks Adrian through the conservative attack on birth control, and in particular the influencer-led, MAHA-adjacent surge of misinformation about menstruation and birth control. At issue is ultimately a deeply reactionary, and deeply troubling picture of the gendered body and women's autonomy. Topics covered include: cycle synching, the politics of "naturalness" and the weaponization of legitimate grievances with the medical establishment for ideological purposes. Here is the list of books/articles we refer to in this episode: -- Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty [https://bookshop.org/p/books/killing-the-black-body-race-reproduction-and-the-meaning-of-liberty-dorothy-roberts/4734397dc5c35983?ean=9780679758693&next=t] (1998) -- Mikaeli Anne Carmichael, Rebecca Louise Thomson, Lisa Jane Moran, Thomas Philip Wycherley, "The Impact of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Athletes’ Performance: A Narrative Review [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7916245/]"

Episode 116 -- A Murder in Minneapolis

On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was murdered by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a killing that was captured by multiple camera phones and witnessed by dozens. Since the killing, the Trump administration has used several gendered lines of attack to discredit Renee Nicole Good, to celebrate the killing and to make propagandistic hay of this murder. In this emergency episode (recorded 2 days after the killing), Moira and Adrian talk about the killing, about the question of gender and where we go from here. Among the topics discussed: the echoes of the murder of George Floyd, the parallels with the Gestapo, and the "look what you made me do"-theory of authority.

Episode 115 [PATREON PREVIEW] -- Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto with Michael Hobbes

To start the year off right, Moira and Adrian were joined by Michael Hobbes to discuss Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto, the media hubbub about it, and what both artifacts say about our media environment, our elites, and about gender. Pieces we cite in the episode: Becca Rothfeld's review [https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/12/02/olivia-nuzzi-american-canto-memoir-review/] of the book in the Washington Post Alexandra Jacobs' review [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/books/review/american-canto-olivia-nuzzi.html] of the book in The New York Times

Episode 114 -- Project 1933, Part X: December 1 - December 31

For this episode of In Bed with the Right, Adrian and Moira return to the year 1933. They continue the story of how Hitler seized power, what it did to society, what it felt like to live through it, and -- as always -- what role gender and sexuality played in events. Reminder: We're going month by month for these episodes. This tenth installment covers December 1 to December 31, 1933. In this episode, Moira and Adrian close out the story of this terrible year, draw out some overall observations at the end of about 30 hours of recording and 15 hours of podcast, and trace the fates of some of the protagonists of this series after 1933. Thank you for staying with this series for hours and hours of this complicated and depressing story!