Where the West Is Headed, with Louise Perry

Heteropessimist Horror

“Backrooms” and “Obsession,” the indie sensations that beat out Star Wars at the box office this weekend, reflect a distinctly Zoomer worldview, one marked by despair about relationships and the loss of ’90s-era confidence. Matthew and Julia explore the ruined temples of American commerce and announce the rise of heteropessimist horror. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod [http://patreon.com/againstthepod].

Yesteryear and the Tradwife Panic

Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, about a tradwife influencer who wakes up one day to find herself trapped on a nineteenth-century homestead, is topping the fiction bestseller charts. Liberals applaud the novel’s social critique, but Matthew and Julia are less impressed. Does the tradwife really represent the benighted past, as Burke thinks? Or is she the wave of the future? For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod [http://patreon.com/againstthepod].

Repent and Submit

Young adults are driving a surge in Catholic conversions. Meanwhile, some on the right are looking east, to Islam. Matthew and Julia talk about the two hottest trends in religious conversion, and the many motives converts have—from spiritual hunger to gender politics to civilizational survival. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod [http://patreon.com/againstthepod].

Californian Psycho

Democrats are eager to nominate a straight white man for president—which may explain why Gavin Newsom is leaning into “toxic” masculinity. Julia and Matthew discuss the California governor’s strange but telling decision to compare himself to Patrick Bateman, the serial-killer protagonist of American Psycho. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod [http://patreon.com/againstthepod].

Who Killed the New Atheism?

Was it Richard Dawkins? Rebecca Watson? Fedora Guy? Or maybe Tom Holland? Matthew and Julia discuss why the New Atheism died and will never be resurrected. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod [http://patreon.com/againstthepod].