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Mailbag us! (Patreon)

Published:
2026-05-30 09:23:13
Imported:
2026-09

Content

This summer we'll be celebrating three years of In Bed with the Right -- hard to believe our first episode came out in July 2023! To celebrate and to reflect on the 130ish episodes we've put out during that time, we're welcoming a couple of returning guests, Moira might make Adrian record from a restaurant he dissed on the pod (and that you all told him he was wrong about), and we're doing another mailbag episode! To that end, please feel free to send us your questions, or just issues you'd like us to address by June 29th! You can also reply in-thread here!

Files

Comments

Dr McG

I love you guys! You bring me so much intrigue, joy, satisfaction and laughter. I appreciate the work you do that brings me fascinating information about things I don’t know about, and that sensitively and thoroughly covers things that are more in my wheelhouse. I don’t have a question good enough, but I wanted to congratulate you on everything you’ve overcome and achieved with IBWTR. I happen to have very close professional experience of some of what you’ve been covering regarding trans children and trans healthcare in England, and I have felt touched and appreciative of your coverage of it. If you have any questions you don’t already have answered about that please feel free to let me know. Not many of my current or old colleagues will speak on it but a couple of them may well, off-record, because it’s you. Thank you for your humour, brilliance and unrelenting curiosity, for your bravery and your integrity!

Carl

jz

eli

Congratulations on your trianniversary! I always find IBWTR's analysis so incisive and cogent - thank you for giving us so much food for feminist thought. I do have a question I've been really wanting to ask: is Freud washed? (Essentially I've always had the impression that there wasn't a lot of actual evidence for Freud's theories, so I was wondering why Freudianism still seems to be taken quite seriously in some areas of cultural and literary analysis, including in some - not all, obviously - feminist theory. I work in STEM so I fully admit I might just be a philistine who has been too taken in by the epistemic authority of these fields, but there’s such a big gap in the reputability of Freud, Jung, Lacan etc. in medicine/neuroscience vs the social sciences that I’m really interested in a discussion of why that might be!)

Charley

Please could Moira do an episode on cultural feminism and its comparison to other strands of feminist thought. I don’t much like the “essential female nature” sound of it it at all, but I’d be fascinated to hear a deeper dive 😊

Colleen

How about an episode on space, scifi and the billionaire obsession with colonizing Mars?

Tobias Heal

Congrats on reaching 3 years! I already left a comment to this effect on the first TERF island episode so apologies if you've already seen it but I figured this would be a good place to bring it up again. I'd love to hear more from Moira about the history of Cultural Feminism's wild goose chase through anthropology looking for a matriarchal society. More broadly, I've also been wondering why people, on the right and sometimes on the left, feel the need to have current political projects justified by the existence of a similar state or society in the past. This obviously goes for modern conservatives in the US idolising the 1950s, but I've seen it for many periods, such as the Roman Empire. It's especially true for prehistory where people's actions and interactions are often viewed as more simplistic and therefore more "natural". Conversely, I've also seen it take the opposite view where some periods, notably the middle ages (my period of study) are popularly viewed as the antithesis of what society should be. I'm an archaeology PhD student and one thing that's very clear to me is that past societies had things which worked and other things that didn't work, and that this is completely disconnected from any problems that modern society might have. Anyway, a bit rambly (sorry) but I'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics.

ed

Congrats on the episodes! These last few years would have been unbearable without my favorite haters! Would love to hear an episode on Theweleit’s Male Fantasies.

Bob

What is the most toxic or sexist piece of media that you actually enjoy?

Loraine

This is truly unimportant, but as a listener from Germany, I've been curious for a while why Adrian seems to pronounce his surname "wrong". Is it not wrong, but maybe your husband's surname? Is there some reason for it? These are the things I wonder about everytime i tune in 😅🤭 which is very, very often because i love this show a lot! 👐

Vivian Cirilano

Congrats on 3 years! I’m curious if either of you have seen Attack on Titan?

Joy

I’m so curious about the books or podcasts or media that you enjoy for fun! I know you spend a lot of time consuming less desirable content for the show, so what do you turn to for yourself in your own time? Congrats on 3 years!!

Chris Lutsko

Hey y'all! [PRAISE REDACTED] I have two questions: 1. What do you think about the rise of the bro democrat? Guys like Platner, Newsome, Beto, seem to be trying to capture masculinity from the Republicans. 2. Can Moira please explain what is going on with supreme Court wives? Ginny and Martha deserve a rant

Karen Cox

I have two: I would donate you a kidney for an episode analyzing gender and the Texas Senate race. So far ALL of Ken Paxton’s attacks have been against James Talarico’s gender identity. I really want to hear you insult Ken Paxton. 2. I would love an episode on Scott Yenor, Heritage Foundation fellow and too wingnutty for a position in the Florida government. He has been ignored by the Left because his focus is solely on women existing in public and BernieBros agree with him about that. 3. Finally and relatedly, could you cover Left misogyny? I think feminism is a fundamental requirement to be considered progressive but there are lots of people who disagree. I would love your analysis!

Melissa S

Congrats, you two! I’ve been hooked on your pod since finding your Usha Vance episode, it’s so refreshing to find such a thoughtful podcast about gender relations. Moira, I’ve heard you mention Sophie Lewis in passing a few times. “Enemy Feminisms” was one of my favorite books of 2025, did you get a chance to read it? What are your thoughts on the book and Lewis’s work more broadly?

Kärin Zätt

Have either of you watched heated rivalry? Do you have any feelings about the cultural impact of a queer show getting so huge? If there was a lesbian show like it, what would you want to see from it? I don't personally think that a show about lesbians would ever get as huge as one about gay (and bi) men, but I wish it would. I've seen people say that what makes the show interesting is the confrontation of traditional masculinity in a hyper masculine community/career, so a lesbian version would be more interesting in a community/career that is hyper feminine, like ballet or something. Like, there are so many lesbians in women's hockey, and it's already less traditionally feminine. Personally, I find the show's meteoric rise really fascinating, and I love seeing something so Canadian get popular across the world. I think the show could say a lot more about gender and sexuality, but it's an interesting jumping off point for talking about queerness in sports. They also put a trans male actor on one of the teams, which is cool, but it isn't discussed in the show at all. Anyway, I just wanna hear y'all's thoughts the show, if you have any.

Kärin Zätt

And congratulations on three years! I haven't been here the entire time, but I've been here for a couple years now! I love the show so much, and I look forward to new episodes so much ❤️

JanaKat

This is niche but maybe an episode on the politics and influence of military SF, especially as published by Baen? And how gender ties into it of course, such as the infamous "Oh John Ringo No". The Sad/Rabid Puppies fiasco got a lot of attention, but I feel like fans tend to discount just how far back an organized rightwingosphere in SF writing goes, and how much of a pass the authors got before they started actively trying to wreck other authors' careers.

Katherine Sunseri

Congrats on the three-year anniversary! I'm the listener who ran into you two at Parsifal, so this is a super belated thank you for the shout-out on that episode. I really liked the recent Thomas Aquinas episode and would be interested in more episodes about the relationship between sex, gender, and Christianity! I think you mentioned a possible St. Paul episode at some point and I would be so here for that. I think Martin Luther would also make for an interesting subject. Thanks for all you do!!

jacq

u guys are the goats. seriously I recommend this podcast to everyone I possibly can & have so enjoyed hearing your relationship grow as the podcast has. been around since oct 2024 and can’t wait for more!! would you ever go on tour? or have a speaking engagement on the east coast//in humble nyc? also, i’d be interested to hear episodes on: dave portnoy/bar stool sports & dimes sq. yay. happy 3 yrs!!

Vee

A German cultural question that I’m hoping Adrian has come across: what’s the deal with the feminist rap movement in Germany? I’m mostly thinking of artists like Ikkimel alongside Mariybu, 6euroneunzig etc, and I’d be interested in knowing where it came from, and how people are responding to it - there doesn’t (seem to be) an equivalent in the anglophone world at the moment. (Love the show, highlight of my Tuesdays, no I don’t know what I did to my streaming algorithm to end up in this rabbit hole!)

Marie Dubus

Thank you for your podcast, it has been a real help for me to navigate Germany since I moved here and got me through many flares and hospital stays throughout my chronic illness journey. Your episode on Natural Law came out exactly as I was reading the chapter on Natural Law in Ed Cohen's book A Body Worth Defending: Immunity, Biopolitics and the Apotheosis of the Modern Body. It was super helpful as despite being raised Catholic, I didn't know anything about it. I've been trying to educate myself on Disability Studies and I'm understanding the bridges with Gender Studies, which leads me to my question: do you have any insight into how the right positions itself on disability? Also, if you have any recommendation on podcasts or books on that matter, I would be gratefull!

Conall Doss

Would love a Harold Bloom episode someday!

Em Castro

Hi! I would love to see an episode about Erika Kirk - her role in the conservative ecosystem before her husband’s death, the pyrotechnic grieving widow tour, the internet’s reaction to the photos of her and JD Vance, and just all the weird conservative ideas about women that she embodies.

AW

I'd love if you guys could do a gender analysis on the interface of blue collar jobs with white collar jobs, specifically something like engineer and technicians/operators in a chemical plant. Most of my career has been in these kinds of spaces. It's been really interesting to balance because not only is there the white collar/blue collar divide, there is also the gendered nature of the work too.

Nick

Seconding the Talarico question! Esp. the Stephen Miller tweet “congratulating” the Democrats on nominating their “first transgender candidate for Senate”

Karen Cox

That comment from Miller immediately made me think of Moira and Adrian.

Amy

Second this. I have wondered.

anne

Would LOVE a discussion about snark subreddits/stan culture being an alt right pipeline

Elizabeth

I would love it if you would go over the JT LeRoy incident? Scandal? Hoax? Not sure what to call it, but I’ve always found it an interesting interaction among gender, gender identity, and literature. I’m still weirdly fascinated by the whole thing. Plus “Cherry Lips” rocks.

Astraea

Seconding this!

Astraea

Omg. I am an astronomer. I would either absolutely love this episode or I would throw my phone off a cliff. (Not because of the hosts, whom I trust to do the topic justice, but because of whatever dumbfuck nonsense the billionaires have said this week.)

Astraea

Oh man. I've only recently learned how much Martin Luther is to blame for misogyny and the limiting of women's formal authority in modern Protestant traditions. If Moira and Adrian wanted to do an episode on that dude, I would be *here for it.*

Astraea

Would you guys have any interest in further exploring gender and STEM? I'm a woman in STEM, specifically the physical sciences. I find a lot of the silicon valley billionaire nuttosphere fascinating (and terrifying) on both gender and "no that's not how science actually works" levels. And yeah, some of those guys are lying and they know they're lying, but I think a lot of them *genuinely* have this idea of how scientific discovery works, what "knowledge" actually is, etc. that is just wildly untrue. (Like, hasn't been true for more than a century, but arguably was never true at all.) I know Adrian wrote a whole book about the kind of thinking ("thinking") that tech idolizes, but I'd love to hear more about our current misconceptions of science from both the "how science is actually, really done" perspective, and from the "well science is 'male' because it's just pure rationality, which we all know is a male trait" perspective. (The latter perspective is bullshit, hit me up if you want a five-hour rant!)

Nick

There’s also the whole “he’s a vegan” angle which started because he once ordered a taco with egg and cheese but no meat in it, I think Miller said on Fox News that Talarico “bleeds soy milk” - would love a whole episode on meat-eating and masculinity tbh! Carol Adams’s wild book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory in particular

Athina

Woo-hoo sycophant sesh!!!🙌 Can you please do a literal episode? As in, the George Conways among us sharing a bed with The Right? Doesn't have to be a kinky episode but WE WILL pay more for that.

Sam Maloney

I have an infinite amount of questions but I’ll try to keep it brief and limit it to a few simple ones. 1)How have your students/Collegues reacted to your podcast? Do any/how many of them do you think or know listen. 2)Is there anyone on the right you like to much or are to afraid of to do an episode on? 3)The perv/creep/preacher system use has kind of fallen off in recent podcast episodes. Do you think it’s out dated or perhaps needs to be expanded upon or did you just get tired of it? Fun Questions 1) Will we ever get more Wagner content out of Adrain? 2) Can we get a squirrel update? Does he have a name? 3) I know Adrain is writing a book, is there anything he’d like to share he hasn’t already? For Moira, has she considered writing a book? If yes about what?

Lu

Congratulation on 3 years! I have to say, I really enjoyed the project 1933 episodes. I hope you do something similar in the future - the denazification episodes you were talking about sound interesting. Also, I really hope you do an episode on Theweleit books! My question is: Adrian, as a german, are you familiar with the tv show Babylon Berlin? Any thoughts? All the best!

Emily Sloan-Pace

Have you gone fountain hopping on campus and which is your favorite?

Laura R

This is more for Adrian, but I'm curious about gender norms in East Germany (where women were expected to work and childcare was state funded) and West Germany (where men were generally considered the breadwinner afaik), and how those attitudes changed after reunification. Keep up the good work - love your podcast!

Rebecca Ross

Congrats IBWTR! We’re all the better for it ❤️. Midcentury Revisionist Freudism and Ralph Greenson Please. And I know this one is real nitch but I’d love an episode on Judith Hermann’s seminal book Trauma & Recovery and the scrubbing of gender analysis that came after in the world of trauma scholarship (besel van der kolk, Gabor mate, Peter Levine). Perhaps a bit too niche but please know I’m here for it all!

Ben

You’ve mentioned before that you’ve thought about doing a big QAnon and gender episode, and I’d still really like to hear your takes on it. (One thing I’ve always found strange and sad about its proponents is that it always seemed to attract a coalition of predators and abuse survivors.) Do you have any big takeaways about generally the relationship between conspiracy theories and gender dynamics? I’d also be interested in your thoughts on the gendered ways that the character of the “conspiracy theorist” is constructed in media and popular imagination. (If you read this question, no need to mention my name.)

Daniel

How do you address the framing of feminism/LGBTQ rights as a form of colonialism? I think you made a brief reference to this in a recent episode, but I’m in my first gender studies class and versions of this argument have come up several times from students who are politically very left-wing. I’ve struggled to know how to respond when gender conservatism is framed as decolonization, and would really appreciate hearing how you navigate these kinds of discussions. Thanks for making such an incredible show!

Dayin

Congratulations on 3 years guys you guys are the GOATs I’m begging you guys to watch and do an episode on the genz gender freaknomenon that is HBO’s Euphoria. It’s absolutely fascinating (at least four years ago it was). Is it woke? Is it deeply misogynist? Is it male fantasy? Is it prescient? Etc. Also, with heated rivalry reminding the public once more that straight women love MLM, I’ve seen a lot of people trying to explain the phenomenon and have yet to hear a satisfying answer. But I know Moira and Adrian is smarter than that. I feel like the great conversation you guys had about booktok in the romantasy episode could sort of expand into this topic as well. Love you guys!!!

Abigail Agresta

Thank you for three years of delightful podcasts! Two questions, one more involved than the other. First, the Wuthering Heights episode made me wonder: what are your gender-related "problematic faves" (moves, books, tv, etc), and how do you think about problematic faves in your own life and more broadly? Second and entirely unrelated question: would you consider doing an episode on nostalgia and gender on the left, particularly in the context of the revelations about Cesar Chavez? Obviously there's a lot to say about nostalgia on the right, but I think there is something interesting going on on the left, where there needs to be an effort to create ancestors in order to show that the society we are working toward is possible. And there ends up being a gendered element to that. In my union organizing work in grad school back in the day there were a lot of white boy labor historians connecting our struggle to a proud union tradition that was very masculine-coded and could almost feel like cosplay at times. I know they were acting in good faith, and I think a lot of similar people on the left are, but it also feels like a dynamic that should be examined more than it is (in the feminist tradition of self-criticism). And I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Mary Westervelt

As a parent of a soon-to-be college student, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what students can study to counteract the endumbening effects of AI + media mediocrity

Hrisyana Doytchinova

Hi Moira and Andrian, first off: congrats on 3 years! I’d love to hear you talk more about the intersection of gender, providing free care labor and women’s displacement from the work place. (Perhaps very niche, I am in the Netherlands and here we have a massive number of part time employed women, in the high 60s last time I checked (that is %), and little public services (kindergarten and after school activities are all private, with government subsidies, backed by private equity), I see a link to the US via the rise of trad wives and lower participation in unions, and ofc neoliberal policies but am curious what you think about it! Ps something similar also came up in the 1933 series where, if my memory is correct, you mentioned women were paid to leave their jobs so that “men could take over”.) Thanks and congrats again!!!

Katherine Lawson

I'm curious about what kind of media both Adrian and Moira consume. I mean, at this point I am PRETTY sure that Adrian is not a daily reader of the NZZ but anything in the German language?

AW

I had another question similar to my question above that is around masculinity and disregarding safety and/or just being reckless. Like it's feminine to be careful or something? Idk - its an unfinished thought but something I noticed and wondering if there was something there.

Emma Duffy

Congratulations on three years. I've really enjoyed being able to listen to you both on my walk to work. I always love the Cinema of Cancellation episodes. Moira mentioned Industry in the latest one, which is another show that I think is actually trying to cover some different ground but I've also really struggled to keep watching. So my question is, are there any shows or movies that either of you have seen that you think can act as counterprogramming to the Cinema of Cancellation, or even older stuff that might be positioned against the likes of Fatal Attraction and other backlash cinema?

Billie

Best 130 episodes of my life. G'day from sunny Australia, where nothing ever stopped being racist, misogynist and homophobic. I dream of Moira and Adrian diving into the creative exploits and impulses of (women's and lesbian) separatism, what cool shit it produced as well as the weird ways it has filtered down into gender and sexuality conservative 'spaces' discourse, civic and legal infrastructure. I say without hyperbole - that shit is blowing the fuck up here right now. Sending love x

Joy

Oh also Moira can you tell us about your dog

Owen Symes

Would love for you guys to tackle Freud at some point! I found him fascinating out of college and then read Frederick Crews's pretty thorough takedown "The Making of an Illusion" and have been pretty sour on him since.

Alex Touzet

hi!!! as always thanks for what you do :-)) i’d love to hear you discuss how sexual assault is used by the right wing as a point in anti-immigration debates. it’s something i’ve heard a lot in both the US and in Europe —i’m in the UK and it’s increasingly popular to bring up here despite the fact most rapes are committed by white native-born brits!

Kiera

Congrats on your 3 years! And happy pride!! 🌈 Going off the previous suggestion, you’ve discussed how European far right’s anti immigrant racism intersects with gender politics. I’m curious if you could do a deeper dive into that topic — anti-hijabi women legislation in France, anti immigrant rhetoric on the false basis of higher prevalence of sexual assault, etc.

Athina

You are practically ibwtr royalty🙇

Jacqueline

Hello! I know it’s a lot to ask but I’d love to hear your thoughts on Euphoria, especially the most recent season and finale. There’s a lot there in terms of preacher/pervert content

Cousin April

Yay! Happy 3 years! I think my favorite episodes are when you discuss old Germans whose names I've only heard in passing. My dream episode would be if you teamed up with Clare Fallon and Emma Grey from Love to See It and talked about reality dating shows. I'm sure you have a million episode ideas (I've looked over this thread), so instead a quicker question: What, in your opinion, is the silliest unneccessarily gendered product you've come across while shopping?

Rowan (edited)

Comment edits

2026-11-01 16:00 Happy 3rd birthday, I always enjoy listening to the podcast. Thank you for making it. Topic suggestion: As an Autist myself I'd really like an episode about why precisely the Right thinks that one of the worst things you can be is autistic, this seems especially true in America but there is a bit in my native UK too. I don't understand why we are *such* a bogeyman. Sure, it's no walk in the park, but a lot of that is to do with the neurotypical world we do our best to navigate in. However to rather risk deadly things like measles over the mere chance their kid might turn out autistic on the basis of heavily discredited science seems bizarre to me. I also wonder if the greater numbers of women and girls being diagnosed has made a difference to the rhetoric; there is certainly quite a bit of discourse about "overdiagnosis" in the UK which I think is really just a result using more accurate less male-centric criteria.
2026-06-05 09:01 Happy 3rd birthday, I always enjoy listening to the podcast. Thank you for making it. Topic suggestion: As an Autist myself I'd really like an episode about why precisely the Right thinks that one of the worst things you can be is autistic, this seems especially true in America but there is a bit in my native UK too. I don't understand why we are *such* a bogeyman. Sure it's no walk in the park, but a lot of that is to do with the neurotypical world we do our best to navigate in. However to rather risk deadly things like measles over the mere chance their kid might turn out autistic on the basis of heavily discredited science seems bizarre to me. I also wonder if the greater numbers of women and girls being diagnosed has made a difference to the rhetoric; there is certainly quite a bit of discourse about "overdiagnosis" in the UK which I think is really just a result of using more accurate less male-centric criteria.

Happy 3rd birthday, I always enjoy listening to the podcast. Thank you for making it. Topic suggestion: As an Autist myself I'd really like an episode about why precisely the Right thinks that one of the worst things you can be is autistic, this seems especially true in America but there is a bit in my native UK too. I don't understand why we are *such* a bogeyman. Sure it's no walk in the park, but a lot of that is to do with the neurotypical world we do our best to navigate in. However to rather risk deadly things like measles over the mere chance their kid might turn out autistic on the basis of heavily discredited science seems bizarre to me. I also wonder if the greater numbers of women and girls being diagnosed has made a difference to the rhetoric; there is certainly quite a bit of discourse about "overdiagnosis" in the UK which I think is really just a result of using more accurate less male-centric criteria.

Ben

This might be a strange suggestion, but I think a fruitful discussion of odd and niche places right wing gender discourses come up could be in the broad “meme stocks” sphere. Will Sommer at the Bulwark recently wrote an article that gives a primer for the intersection between meme stocks and the Trump II admin. This crowd has a very much gendered performance of grievance against who they interpret as the “powers that be” and it somehow always ends in fantasies of erotic domination of their perceived enemies or at least just yelling at women (a former Bed Bath and Beyond CEO was a key target of misogynistic anger for them for a while).

Newt Barletta

Ok I would love an episode on Allen Ginsberg (and also burroughs and the beat poets in general). Not necessarily right wing but they had a very American very masculine thing going on while still managing to be gay about it that I think harkens back to your original gender politics theme

Danielle Franzen

As a Gen Xer, I’d like to know: why the hate? I mean, I know why we suck (for example we had Riot Grrrl and Lilith Fair but only 39% of us identify as feminists…) I want to hear it from Moira and Adrian. <3

Kasspatz

I just joined the Patreon after listening to your show for the last year and loving every single episode. Like many people here, I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as hugely interested in the American right per se, but I will listen to whatever Moira and Adrian feel like talking about. (I discovered this podcast via the collab episodes with Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri and was immediately drawn in by the vibes.) Funny story, I have apparently been a fan of Moira for the better part of a decade but did not realize it until recently. I once emailed one of her Guardian pieces to every person within a 100 mile radius of me (it was this one: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/01/amber-heard-johnny-depp-trial-metoo-backlash). But I somehow didn't realize that Moira from my favorite podcast was the author until a couple months ago! And then even more recently I discovered Moira was also behind the "S**tty media Men" Google doc back in the day. So what I thought were three unique beacons of feminist moral clarity in my life turned out to all just be one person. At that point I guess I kind of had to become a paying subscriber to the pod! By the way, this is not to neglect Adrian. I am also a massive Adrian fan! Having studied German literature in undergrad and lived in Germany for many years, I absolutely live for his takes on German cultural quirks and current events. But more importantly, I love his gender studies takes on everything and thoroughly enjoy hearing him dunk on Elon Musk et al. I have to admit that some of my favorite episodes have been your movie and TV analysis ones. I have wanted to request a Lena Dunham episode forever, but you just teased that one is coming up so I can’t wait for that!! One topic that I would love to hear your view on is the Real Housewives phenomenon on Bravo. (Didn’t Adrian mention watching a lot of Bravo at one point?) I would especially love to hear what you think about the connections to gay “diva worship” culture (also please explain that phenomenon too), camp/drag culture, and why these shows have been able to have such incredible staying power despite having all-female casts and centering female friendships. Another topic I would love to hear get the IBWTR treatment (though I appreciate this might be too niche) is the German AfD party and the weird characters who populate the movement, including their token lesbian Alice Weidel. Also I would like to hear Adrian explain the backdrop of Germans’ preoccupation with immigration and “Integration” to Moira. I think this is a much more mainstream anxiety in Germany than in the US. I also second the suggestion made by another subscriber in this chat to address the show Heated Rivalry. But maybe instead of a full episode, please just tell us in the Mailbag episode whether you’ve seen it and what you think. Surely you have both watched it by now! Thanks for everything, your podcast really adds to my quality of life in this global dumpster fire we call the current moment.

Christine

A few questions for your consideration: 1. I seem to be increasingly seeing discourse about the ‘regretful trump voter.’ I’m not sure what to think about this or if these people exist. Do you think there is any ‘regret’ in the culture about some of the beliefs around gender that have motivated the right recently? Or is that the one part of the agenda that has remained firm? 2. I’ve been consuming some discourse recently about AI and the idea of consciousness (specifically an interview I heard with David Chalmers). What do you think about the philosophy of consciousness? Do you think gender plays any role? 3. What do you think about the rise of online gambling?

Sinéad

I would love to hear some of your thoughts on the recent renewal of interest in Freud (or a Freud episode please!) ,& psychoanalysis & how it feels in some ways like part of the right wing & me too backlash - Moira I feel like you might have lots to say!

Anna

Hi both, love the podcast, thank you for all your work! Moira, is there an update on your book? Adrian, as the Mann expert, can you give a thumbs up/down on Vaterland when the time comes, please?

AW

One more question - can you guys explain the whole effective altruism thing? Once upon a time, I thought the idea was good - use your 80,000 working life hours to do good. But then the things they identified was mostly governing AI (and kinda pushing the AGI is going to kill us all narrative) and also building stuff in Africa (giving a bit of a white savior thing) and quantifying human lives in terms of value (and dehumanizing them in the process). It seems very tech bro san Francisco to me, so I thought it might be up your (Adrian's) alley.

AW

Can they all just go to mars already and leave us tf alone here on earth? Lol

Astraea

The thing that kills me most about effective altruism is the complete but unacknowledged conflation between "effective" and "maximally efficient." Like, I do think it's good to know whether giving out mosquito nets actually reduced malaria rates - if it didn't, then that indicates a different or additional intervention is needed. But if you are sitting on literal billions of dollars, then this whole "I have to save the maximum number of lives for the least dollars per life" thing starts to ring a bit hollow. You're a goddamn hundred-billionaire, and you're complaining it costs $1.05 to save a life instead of $1.02? At some point you have to choose between your ideological commitment to "business mindset can solve everything" belief structures and actually, you know, doing the good you say you want to do in the world. (Sorry. Rant trigger. I think effective altruism would be great if it were actually about effectiveness and altruism. Sadly, these days it mostly seems to be about making San Fran tech bros feel extra special clever.)

Astraea

If you haven't listened to the Romantasy episode, I highly recommend it. They touch on this somewhat (although more in regards to responsibility and self-restraint than literal physical safety). The punch line is the same, though - it's feminine to do the responsible thing, and real men dgaf about "rules" and "common sense" and "meeting the basic responsibilities of adulthood in 2026."

eli

I'd also be interested in an analysis of East of Eden's gender politics, particular of Cathy Ames! I haven't read the book yet because even just the Wikipedia summary of the plot sounds wildly misogynistic (Cathy as an evil femme fatale who seduces and destroys men starting from when she's just a child) but it seems like it would be a rich text for feminist analysis with the male characters as well.

SnowPenguin

Congratulations on 3 years! In previous episodes you said feminism has a tradition of critiquing itself and in the plagiarism episode you discussed people using plagiarism as a catch all for all left wing ideas they are against. My question is, when people use all criticism of left wing ideas is used in bad faith, how do you maintain high standards of internal rigour and criticism, to improve the work.

Jenalyn Myggland

Is there anything to the interplay of “Camp” and the rise of the pervert and the fall of the preacher (creeps just be creeping). I’ve noticed some of Camp’s subversions have become mainstream now that we’re deep into a perverted patriarchy rather than a preacher patriarchy, and I would love to know if there’s something actually going on there! (Trends I’ve noticed include Mar-a-lago, lingerie as clothes, rise of kink, the social dominance of RuPaul). Essentially the question is: Is camp still camp when it’s accepted by the dominate ruling class? And has modern camp had to evolve now that the dominant class is perverts rather than preachers?

Brianna Lavelle

I would love for you guys to address something at the intersection of gender and disability justice! I don’t think you’ve done an episode related to disability yet. Perhaps the psychologization of long covid, which disproportionately affects women and trans people? Or the recent popularity of blaming autoimmune diseases on lack of “bitchiness”? 80% of people with autoimmune diseases are women and it’s become trendy to say “throw a chair and avoid getting an autoimmune disease.” Basically implying that these diseases are caused by repressed emotions, which there is no evidence for and which blames women for their suffering.

Lindsay Ethridge

Where do you get your news? I’m a long time NYT subscriber and more than ready to move on, but not sure where to go. Also, Thank y’all! You make everything better!

Astraea

Every woman I know with an autoimmune disease is FAR more likely to express her anger and throw some chairs than women without chronic illnesses. This is because of the *unbelievable fucking gaslighting* that comes with being a woman trying to get treatment for autoimmune conditions. I had never heard of this "it's because of your repressed emotions" bullshit before, but as Aubrey Gordon has said more than once: I hate it extremely much!

Cat P

Hi A&M, thank you for doing such good work. Your recent episodes on the Pill got me thinking there’s so much misinformation on HRT for perimenopause and menopause, and the rampant misogyny therein, it seems episode-worthy.

milarii

This is late so who knows if you’ll see it… but I would love an episode on benefits and assistance (things like WIC/SNAP, social security, disability, state payment for being a caregiver for an older relative). I work in food assistance, and over 70% of our participants are female. We all know the “welfare queen” stereotype. And caring for elderly or disabled relatives usually falls on women. Overall, women are just more likely to be victims of poverty, and there is obviously a TON of vitriol directed towards people who use public benefits to survive. I would love a breakdown on that from you two!

Julia Pavlick

Congratulations on 3 years!! I laugh so much while listening to this podcast and also liberally recommend select episodes to my students if they do their research projects on related topics (the birth control misinfo one and epstien one are big hits) :-). Your episodes also help me wake up while getting ready in the morning as a very tired phd student, for which i am eternally grateful. As a first year phd student, I will also be incapable of writing concise questions. Thanks in advance for reading. 1. Just in general, I would love to hear more about your guys’ teaching, and in a more nosy way, any thoughts you might have on the “literacy crisis” discourse in American colleges and universities today. Not even the “literacy crisis” itself (though I’d love your takes there too), but how it’s being discussed in 2026, among those inside and outside the academy. Personally, I feel like the uncritical acceptance that there IS one has allowed ostensibly left leaning faculty to unleash some generational resentments and/or conservative impulses “yearning for a mythic past” for hit tweets, but maybe i’m just too online. Side note: the first few pages of Mike Rose’s 1989 Lives On The Boundary gives a funny overview of how old the “literacy crisis” discourse is (as well as real inequities that drive these fears), BUT i would love your guys’ perspectives both as teachers in higher ed and as observers of new 21st century culture war shit/new right wing attacks on the university/legit AI threats/etc. to weigh in. Maybe in short, i’ll ask: Can your students read??? 1. Forgive me if moira has already discussed this, and if this is half-rant, but i’d love to hear her thoughts on the tensions between “men’s mental health” (and dis/ability, honestly) discourse and DV+IPV+gender-based sexual violence/patriarchal violence against women. I feel like i keep seeing conversations about DV+IPV and sexual abuse get diverted back to the (imagined?) psychological distress of (typically) male abusers and rapists. Maybe this is too tiktok discourse-y, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the TherapyJeff controversy surrounding his supposedly harm reductive solution to the abuse described in the “Rape Academy” article/big investigative report (https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2026/03/world/expose-rape-assault-online-vis-intl/index.html). Lots of discourse for a week about if his hotline idea would help men who were “struggling” with “intrusive thoughts” about drugging and raping their wives, but much less discourse on how we got from point A (the men described in the article, who partake in an online network to trade tips about how to drug and rape their wives the most discreetly) to point B (men who would call a hotline instead). Imo, the fundamental tension of this discourse seems to be if people think the rape+DV+IPV is egodystonic vs egosyntonic (if they feel the violence aligns with their values/beliefs/self image AKA if they actually wanted to commit it or not), but this feels like a neglected discussion aside from a few trusted voices. Any thoughts moira or either of you have about the uses/invocations of “men’s mental health” (possibly to divert conversations away from patriarchal structures and belief systems underlying sexual violence?) i would be SUPER interested to hear. Moira’s commentary on the #MeToo backlash and the depp/heard trial+discourse (the whole “mutual abuse” johnny has feelings too thing) has made me much more cynical about “men’s mental health” being invoked in the post #MeToo era, ESPECIALLY as it relates to DV+IPV. It’s not like the same morbid obsession with the male psyche we see true crime fans engage in for other acts of violence (despite how often mass killers and school shooters also coincidentally have a history of DV+IPV on their female partners)… Lundy Bancroft’s book Why Does He Do That? has also gone kinda viral (which troubles the mental illness explanation for DV+IPV and reframes it as calculatingly intentional) which has made a little dent in the public discourse, but of course many people (especially on the left) are still really into the idea that men who hurt women ~secretly mentally don’t want to be doing it in some way that should really matter~, which I would LOVE to hear moira’s commentary on in particular. How do supposedly progressive observers of patriarchal violence fail to account for the actual role patriarchy and its belief system play? How does the newer emphasis on mental health and (dis)ability complicate our ideas of agency and responsibility for this violence? What does all this mean for WOMEN’S mental health? Any connections to #MeToo backlash or cancel culture panic? And moira, i see you in the replies of one of the only other voices i trust on this (@madtranny on twitter), so any commentary on the left specifically and abolitionist responses to DV+IPV through RJ/TJ “accountability processes,” and how these frame the mental/physical agency of abusers and rapists? Or just how people are applying idea of “harm reduction” to DV+IPV to cope with the horrifying reality of just how many men are committing this kind of violence? Literally anything you have to say on this, i’m all ears. 3. Do your students know about the podcast LOL. Also how do you navigate having such a public online presence while having non-podcast work (something as personal and FERPA-bound as teaching) that you do at the same time? Thanks!!!

Ben

I’d be interested in some more discussion of the gendered way that the American political electorate is covered by the media, especially in how that then intersects with coverage of race. I’ve been especially fascinated by how Hispanic voters are used as some kind of barometer for where America is at politically. In 2020 and especially 2024, I feel like a lot of hay was made about how shifts in the Hispanic vote towards Republicans said something substantial about how feminized the Democratic Party had become.

Vanessa

BOOK CLUB- Girl Dinner by Olivia Blake (I think). Feels like the author speed ran the entire podcast back episodes and rage wrote a book (in a good way)

Nicole F.

When is the call her daddy episode? Or a larger episode on how even in feminist circles we sweep “silly/shallow/slutty” women under the rug.

Madeleine Logeais

I'm sure I'm too late for this mailbag round, but I would love to hear you discuss the encyclical, Magisterium Humanitas. I read it and found so many ties to your AI episode, as well as natural law being mentioned. I also found Pope Leo's style and argument to be so different from American tech/political leadership (in a way that underscores the right's hyper-aggressive masculinity). I learned so much about the history of catholic doctrine on labor (dignity of work etc) and how it was kind of a response to marxism that tried to move left on class economics but keep the emphasis on family structure. I feel like there's a lot of, seemingly, strategic absence of discussion of gender in the encycical that you both would be well equipped to read between the lines of.

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