The Radicalist

This debate came about after I wrote an essay, “Trans Women Are Trans Women,” in response to Matthew Adelstein's essay, “Why I Think Trans Women Are Women.” I wanted to have the conversation for two reasons.First, I'm a student of philosophy and former university lecturer of logic, debate, writing, and public speaking — basically, how to think and express those thoughts — so for me, civil discourse is a personal discipline much like chess or martial arts, two of my favorite pastimes. But it's also a benefit to society because if more of us openly engaged in civil discourse over contentious issues by playing the game rugby-rough but, like all good ruggers, able to grab beers after — we'd be better off.Second, because this slogan represents the most extremist form of woke ideology, alongside “math is racist,” and as I wrote, it's profoundly dangerous:Orwell had a word for the process of distorting basic truths in order to further some political agenda or enforce ideological conformity. He called it doublespeak. I often call it ontological gaslighting, like the scene in the book in which the Party finally gets Winston to accept that two plus two is five. This is how the book ends, because this is the final and greatest defeat of the human soul by an authoritarian regime. Namely, getting someone to deny an objective fact. As Winston writes in his diary early in the novel, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” To put that the other way around, slavery is the impulse to say that two plus two makes five. If that is accepted, all else follows.Two plus two is five. Silence is violence. Math is racist. Men are women. Adelstein claims long hair or painted nails makes one more of a woman, and having enough feminine traits actually makes one a woman. But divorced from the female, such traits are no longer feminine and cannot confer womanhood. Samurai had long hair and Babylonian men painted their nails before battle.He also defines “woman” socially but treats the phrase “A trans woman is a woman” in a vacuum. Yet trans writer Alyssa Ferguson, trans athlete Veronic Ivy, trans biologist Julia Serano, and trans philosophers Sophie Chappell and Talia Betcher claim trans women are female. Adelstein makes abstract assertions about a political slogan, like saying Sieg Heil simply means “Hail victory” or jihad just means “struggle,” but we all know that if we'd decided to call adult human females “apples” instead of “women,” we'd be here debating whether trans women are apples.That's because what trans women identify as only has meaning for them insofar as it denotes female. As I explain in the debate, trans women don't identify as men who think they're women. They identify as women who are women. Even Adelstein's own definition of “woman” is fundamentally grounded in the female, as you'll see. That's why I said if we agree trans women are not females, as he and I do up front, the rest is definitional word play, which is where the debate immediately goes after that. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko talks to former guest Kevin Ray about a disturbing experience he recently had on the New York subway, the pathology of woke activism, its influence in the arts and why things are getting worse rather than better, Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian novel We, his experience with compelled speech, and the effort to turn educators into activist therapists.Kevin Ray is a New York City theater director with over 20 years of experience as an arts educator. He produced and directed “Unearthly Visitants,” based on ghost stories by Edith Wharton, “The Machine Stops,” from EM Forster's short story, and “We,” from Russian dissident Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian science-fiction novel. You can find more on his website or find him on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.The Radicalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Mia Hughes about the different waves of the trans movement, the DSM-V and gender dysmorphic disorder, how the trans movement operates as a cult, legal support for trans activism in U.S. states, prevalence rates, indicators of social contagion, the WPATH scam, how the Biden administration inserted itself into medical standards, autogynephilia, definitional creep of the term “trans,” politically Trans identity, and the science-based treatment for trans identity.Mia Hughes is senior fellow at MacDonald-Laurier Institute, director of Genspect Canada, co-host of Beyond Gender, author of the WPATH Files, and former researcher on gender issues at Michael Shellenberger's nonprofit Civilization Works. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Ross Benes about his upcoming book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. They discuss the political legacy of Jerry Springer and reality TV, what Beanie Babies and Pokemon can teach us about financial markets, the rise of WWE kayfabe in corporate culture, the dialectic of high and low culture, how porn drove tech adoption on VHS and streaming, Insane Clown Posse and the outsider effect from woke to MAGA, how media deregulation led to the dominance of trash culture writ large but notably in our politics, 1999 as a cultural inflection point, and the shape of moral panics from Mortal Kombat and Stone Cold Steve Austin to TikTok and ChatGPT.Benes (X, website) is a journalist and market research analyst whose writing has appeared in Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. He is regularly cited by The Los Angeles Times, NPR, and Bloomberg. His previous books include Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold and Turned On: A Mind-Blowing Investigation into How Sex Has Shaped Our World. Raised in Nebraska, he now lives with his family in Hudson Valley, New York.The Radicalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

After President Trump announced “Liberation Day” on April 2, the Dow sank 350 points and the S&P 500 recorded a historic three-day loss.But never mind the regional security risks, or the fact that this should've been done through negotiation with our allies rather than unilateral action, what's perhaps most remarkable about this event is the way it has been received by the MAGA faithful. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Josef Volodzko speaks with Ilya Shapiro about constitutional originalism, Supreme Court reform, political bias on the bench, DEI in our courts, Shapiro's scandal at Georgetown Law, free speech on campus, the illiberal takeover of legal education — which is the subject of his new book Lawless — and much more.Shapiro is a constitutional scholar and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute whose work focuses on free speech, higher education, and the justice system. He is also formerly the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, vice president of the Cato Institute, and director of its Center for Constitutional Studies. He writes the newsletter Shapiro's Gavel, his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Review, and is the author of Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court. His new book, Lawless: The Miseducation of America's Elites, came out in January.The Radicalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Katherine Brodsky about her book No Apologies: How to Find and Free Your Voice in the Age of Outrage—Lessons for the Silenced Majority.Brodsky is a former guest on the pod, when she appeared to discuss civility and open discourse. She is also the author of the newsletter Random Minds and a columnist at Michael Shermer's newsletter Skeptic. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

In response to escalating Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes, President Trump ordered large-scale airstrikes this week, targeting Houthi military infrastructure in the capital city of Sanaa. These strikes are intended to protect international maritime commerce as well as send a warning shot over the bow to Iran for supporting these pirates, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio called them yesterday. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Allin Kimbrough, who grew up in the Quiverfull movement and its famous branch the Duggar family cult, a group of independent Baptist fundamentalists whose lifestyle was celebrated on The Learning Channel show 19 Kids and Counting and who later became the topic of the grim 2023 Amazon documentary Shiny Happy People, involving the story of how their eldest son molested his own sisters as well as his child pornography conviction.David and Allin also discuss the cult's ties to Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, and Russia, as well as the day-to-day routine of growing up in a crazy Christian cult. For more, see David's interview with cult expert Steven Hasan. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

The White House press secretary recently called New York Times reporter Peter Baker a “left-wing stenographer” after he questioned Trump's decision to bar AP for not using the term “Gulf of America.” But just how biased is the NewYork Times, and in what ways? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This week, David Volodzko discusses nonpartisanship and the Oval Office ambush involving President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Sarah-Jane Murray about how medieval politics changed the way people at the time told stories, how politics influence narrative structure generally, theoretical frameworks in medieval narratives, the ethics of interpretation, postmodern hermeneutics, storytelling as the foundation of civilization, the universality of story design, and more.Murray is a professor at Baylor University and an expert in medieval literature who translated the Ovide Moralisé and is the author of From Plato to Lancelot: A Preface to Chrétien de Troyes, Basics of Story Design: 20 Steps to an Insanely Great Screenplay, and the children's book Ralph's Christmas Quest. She is also an Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose films—such as Primary Concern, a documentary about America's looming healthcare crisis—have appeared on PBS and Netflix. In 2023, she founded The Greats Story Lab at the intersection of film, education, and emerging technologies. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Alexander von Sternberg about the concept of velvet jihad, which he coined—inspired by French historian David Todd's A Velvet Empire: French Informal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century—to describe Islamic cultural imperialism. They also discuss the recent pogrom in Amsterdam, the influence of rhetoric on behavior, Sharia law, the myth of media-induced violence, and more.Alexander von Sternberg is the host of the podcast History Impossible, a graduate student of history, and a former guest on The Radicalist. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Ashley Rindsberg is senior editor at Pirate Wires and author of the books Tel Aviv Stories and The Gray Lady Winked: How The New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions & Fabrications Radically Alter History, which he was inspired to write after reading how the paper's reported that Poland invaded Nazi Germany and not the other way around.In this conversation, we discuss Israel, our current media environment and public mistrust of news outlets today, why the news needs to be more like Spotify, where Pirate Wires sits in the media landscape, AI-generated news, free speech on Wikipedia, the woke ecosystem, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Katherine Brodsky is the author of the newsletter Random Minds and has been a correspondent for Variety for over a decade. She has also contributed to publications such as The Washington Post, WIRED, The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, Playboy Magazine, New York Magazine's Vulture, USA Today, and many others. As a journalist, she has mostly covered film, TV, culture, business, travel, tech—and espionage. She has interviewed figures ranging from the Dalai Lama to Elon Musk. She is also the author of the 2024 book No Apologies: How to Find and Free Your Voice in the Age of Outrage―Lessons for the Silenced Majority. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Part II:The debate:Notice he @'s FIRE, where I work, with claims of slander (never mind slander is spoken while libel is written), as if trying to get me in trouble or fired. This is precisely the disgusting kind of tactics we've all come to expect from woke activists.Respectfully brother, it only seems more clear to me now that I did not misunderstand you. But let's break this down just in case. You said X will happen. Namely, if people who oppose identity politics support Zionism, “we will lose” because the woke left will “smell this hypocrisy a mile away.” I replied, who cares what the woke left thinks?You then claimed I misunderstood you because if X happens, Y will result. Namely, the woke left will ‘point out the hypocrisy and make it clear to all watching.' Pointing out this hypocrisy will become the woke left's “greatest weapon,” you added, “and they will win.” So I was correct, you did in fact say X will happen, and then proved it by explaining that your main concern here is the result of X happening. But we needn't go back-and-forth on this. If you want to put the focus on Y, I am happy to oblige, and in fact I agree that's a better place to put it, so thanks for the redirection. But my view remains unchanged. Yes, you are right that the woke left will allege hypocrisy, fill the comments below with accusations to that effect, third-party viewers will see them, and some will be persuaded. I will give you all of that. But again I say, who cares what these people think? The woke left supports a litany of malevolent causes, most of which I noted above, and Americans have become so sick of it that even many liberals ended up voting for the very person they had spent years hate-posting about. That's how much they despise this stuff. And the electoral college now has a not-insignificant Republican bias that will seriously bruise Democratic chances at the White House for the next decade or so, as data scientist David Shor has noted. Another point Shor makes, though everyone has noticed it by. now, is that despite Republican rhetoric on racial conflict, nonwhite voters did not go blue in higher numbers, as one might have expected. In fact, it appears the reverse happened. And given Democrats' post-election lamentations about how this merely proves that Americans are super racist, I see zero signs of lessons being learned, so we can reasonably expect Republican power to grow further still. In conclusion, the idea that we ought to fear a mob of psychopathic narcissists because they will accuse Zionists of hypocrisy and convince enough people to “win” is not a persuasive argument when their influence is dying faster than DEI. Not only am I not at all concerned about third-party viewers hearing what the woke left says, but it may surprise you to learn that I think not enough people have heard the gospel. If I had my way, I would broadcast their remarks as far and wide as humanly possible because I think the greatest weapon against the woke left is to hand the woke left a giant microphone so that they can tell everyone precisely what they think about white people, men, women, Jews, Christians, Israel, America, the West, police, soldiers, CEOs, and so on. But if I may, in the name of civil discourse, let me offer this steelman: If you can find a way to make this argument about liberals instead of progressives, i.e. about the moderate left instead of the woke left, then you'll have me up at night—and then your argument will inspire the kind of bone-chill I think you were going for—except I don't see any way this can be applied to the moderate left, and the idea that we might lose the woke left is like telling a moderate Republican they might lose the racist right. Boo hoo.Now let's see if he engages with any of my points above. Spoiler: nope!I stand corrected, though in my defense, I did make clear at the very top in multiple posts that I read anti-Zionist white identitarian as woke left, and you said you meant both, so thank you for clarifying, and since I've given you my thoughts on one, here are my thoughts on the other—everything I said about the woke left is only more true of the woke right, and for the same reasons. Perhaps you can explain what you mean by woke right, but I see it as essentially a fascist movement, minus the altruistic window dressing that the woke left used to capture so many hearts, and therefore minus any of the cultural influence, particularly as the woke right is already being excommunicated to a degree. Additionally, and more directly to your point, I fail to see the hypocrisy in being a Jewish nationalist while also opposing fascist and antisemitic movements, whether they be of the left or right. It seems like you're saying these are all identity politics, which is of course true, so if you're in favor of Jewish IP but not Nazi IP, you're a hypocrite. And I disagree.You're punching at wind with some assumptions about my understanding of identitarianism, political socialization, and anti-IP, not to mention that to say the woke left has been “more specific than just opposing fascism or antisemitism” is a bit unfair because it is fact both those those things and I never suggested there was nothing more to the story. But again, can you explain this hypocrisy? Is it as I assumed, that if you support Jewish IP but not right-wing or left-wing IP, then you only support IP when it suits you and therefore you are a hypocrite, or something like that?So support of a Jewish state but not a Nazi state is hypocrisy? That's like saying that because I oppose Nazi politics but not Danish politics, I'm a hypocrite.Okay, I'm sorry. I did skip over “If one claims to oppose identity politics.” Not because I was being obtuse but because I find the technicality unserious, particularly since none of the people you listed above oppose identity politics in the way that you claim, and I think you know already know this. Specifically, none of them have ever said anything that should make you think they oppose identity politics so broadly as to include Zionism, the Civil Rights movement, women's suffrage, or disability rights. They are not using the term is the strict literal sense that you are when you examine their remarks, so it makes no sense to talk about hypocrisy in the context of opposing literally all identity politics. Yes, some folks say things like, “identity politics are bad,” and then we can do some bad faith interpretation and try to catch them on a trumped-up procedural victory by arguing in ackshually rhetoric that they're hypocrites because this techincally includes things they support, but that would very obviously be a straw man. I wonder, what would happen if you steel-manned or star-manned their positions? If I say in 2023 that I hate wokeness, this means the far-left, and if it is later pointed out that the right can be woke too, you cannot use this to go back and pick apart what I said unless you're willing to discard the spirit of my message in favor of the letter, which is a great way to, as you say, deliberately misunderstand people. So until you can provide evidence that Kisin, Weiss, or whoever else may be on your list actually meant the kind of perfectly totalizing definition you have in mind, I am not sure what to add here. But let's park that and go back to your main point. A bunch of neo-Nazi fascists are going to accuse classical liberals of hypocrisy because they support the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, and because these people hate Jews. So when liberals express their support for Israel, particularly liberals of Jewish ancestry like Kisin, Weiss, or myself, they will be targeted by racist buffoons and labeled hypocrites, as well as sundry other names I care not to list. And this is supposedly concerning because if we do not capitulate to these Nazis and surrender our principles and our belief in civil liberties, liberal democracy, and Enlightenment values—then “they will win.” I understand you do not believe Israel represents the things I just listed, but I am not debating facts here, just the position that you are critiquing. And while I share your fear at the prospect, I laugh at the probability. But let me end with where we agree, and correct me if I miss a step. We are both free speech liberals, we both love democracy and peace, we both want happiness and security for the children on both sides of this horrific conflict in the Middle East, we both despise bigotry in any manifestation, we both oppose all the malicious forms of identity politics, and we both support the form that we personally consider to be healthy, though our own tallies there may differ. And yet when I hear folks say they oppose identity politics, I am generally not confused by what they mean, and I presume that if pressed by even the strictest definition, they could probably navigate the denotation without having to sacrifice the connotation.Now I have made painfully clear that you cannot quote people saying, “identity politics is bad” and then argue that they meant every conceivable form unless that's what they said or meant. Otherwise, you're a total bad actor. But hilariously, here is his reply.But wait, he's not done dishonestly quoting people.Jake, did you just decide to not read anything I wrote in my last post? Please go back and read it, or if you like, I can repeat below or even expand. No hard feelings, after all, you showed me the same patience. But this “gotcha” that you think you have is an illusion rooted in a simple logical fallacy.And the name of that fallacy is equivocation. Once, no harm no foul. But pressed, it's total bad faith. We don't have Kisin and Weiss present but you have me, and are claiming I'm the perfect example of what you mean, so in the name of good faith, park the gotcha tactics and attempt to understand what I mean, as I did for you.He never does. In other words, I am telling him he's completely missing my point, and even though he spent pages harping on me for missing his, he simply doesn't care. Instead, this is when his partner kicks open the door.Every time I engage you, you instantly resort to immature insults, and the discussion never rises above exactly the kind of thing that makes social media such a nightmare. Carry on.This is borderline unhinged given that I made multiple attempts to understand him correctly—and ultimately conceded—but when the tables were turned, he ignored me and instead his partner jumped in to insult me while he sat back giving applause.Apparently, he “can't take a single L” after a thread where he repeatedly ignored my points and then concludes, after I bent over backwards to make sure I understood him, that I am a dishonest person. Because that's how dishonest people behave.Moreover, I never said she has no admirable traits. That's an outright lie. I don't even know her. I only know that she is incredibly rude and behaves unintelligently whenever I engage her. But of course, I do not therefore assume this is how she behaves to everyone in her life.So remember, listen to your harshest critics most of all—up until you realize they have no value to offer you, keep it simple, and above all, keep it civil. But also, make sure your opponent agrees to the way you characterize their statements before moving forward. That's a good rule in any debate, but also just plain common sense. Are you trying to dishonestly catch people up or truly understand their position? Because otherwise, you're probably being a dishonest pseudo-intellectual.The Radicalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with terrorism expert Jonathan Schanzer about terrorism funding, the efficacy of sanctions, the Iranian regime and Hamas funding, the Israel-Hamas War, the Russo-Ukraine War, China's potential invasion of Taiwan, and more.Jonathan Schanzer (website, X) is senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and host of the FDD Morning Brief, where he covers the latest news from the Middle East.Schanzer is also a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he froze the funding of Hamas and Al-Qaeda, and has worked as a researcher at think tanks including the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Forum.Schanzer has written hundreds of articles on the Middle East and U.S. national security and several books including State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State, Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine, and Al-Qaeda's Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror.His most recent book is Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko talks with Alexander von Sternberg about Amin al-Husseini, the Nazi godfather of Palestinian nationalism, his early life, his embrace of Nazism, his efforts to send Jewish children to death camps, his legacy since then, and his place in the Palestinian movement today.Von Sternberg is the host of the historical podcast History Impossible. He's also a writer whose essays and reviews have been published in a number of publications including Queer Majority, Quillette, Merion West, and Areo Magazine.For more on this subject, see von Sternberg's six-hour podcast episode on al-Husseini, The Muslim Nazis: The German Voice of Islam.You can also listen to Volodzko as a guest on History Impossible here. Finally, here is a list of some of the books mentioned in this week's episode: Palestine 1936, The Arabs and the Holocaust, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, Islam and Nazi Germany's War, The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years, and Through the Eyes of the Mufti. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Adam Coleman about fatherlessness in the black community, the insecurity of trans activists, white supremacist logic, the harm of victim mentality, what makes a good marriage, the psychology of happiness, the meaning of life, finding God, the search for purpose, what true empowerment looks like, the hidden value of suffering, and connecting with others.Coleman (X) is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor,” the founder of Wrong Speak Publishing, author of the Substack Speaking Wrong at the Right Time, and the host of Breaking Bread. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Jeff Booth about the nature of inflation, the inevitability of Bitcoin, why other cryptocurrencies are inferior, Bitcoin's volatility, common criticisms of Bitcoin, global adoption, the possibility of a Bitcoin standard, the social benefits of Bitcoin, and more.Jeff Booth is a tech entrepreneur, founding partner of the Bitcoin venture fund ego death capital, co-founder of addy, giving the public exposure in Canadian real estate, and author of The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future. In 2016, Goldman Sachs named him among its 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, and he currently sits on the boards of Core Scientific, Scoop Solar, Fedi and Breez. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

In this episode, David Volodzko discusses some of the medical questions surrounding the controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whether Khelif is trans, and what's ultimately missing from the debate. Near the end, David references his recent essay on the subject, Raging Bullshit, in which he argues that Khelif's recent victory against Italian boxer Angela Carini was unjust. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Barrington Martin II about Covid, the U.S. presidential election, President Biden's mental state, the attempted assassination of former President Trump, the danger of political drama, racism in America, cancel culture, calming our political monkey mind, inconvenient truths about slavery, the marketplace of ideas, freedom of speech, the transition to the right of many young black American men, and more.Barrington (X) is a philosopher, writer, host of The Barrington Report, and former congressional candidate for Georgia's 5th District. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theradicalist.comDavid Volodzko speaks with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about her new Substack project Restoration, the September 11 attacks, her father's influence on her views, whether Islam can be reformed, the importance of Saudi Arabia's political shift, what it would take for the West to win its conflict with subversive powers such as Islamism and Marxism, her conversion to C…

A shorter version of this essay was originally published as a Substack Note.If Trump wins, it will be because he has an immovable base. There's nothing he can say to repulse them. At a campaign rally in January 2016, he claimed, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters.”If Trump wins, it will be because he's actually funny sometimes. Elizabeth Warren is a Methodist white woman from Massachusetts who tried to prove she is Cherokee with a DNA test that said 0.09% to 1.5%, all because Trump kept calling her “Pocahontas.”But mostly, if Trump wins, it will be because of the left. Because Ruth Bader Biden's “senior moments” are serious, yet he refuses to step aside. Because we've been gaslit for years with Drag Queen Story Hour and trans literalists who scream at lesbians for not wanting to go home with men in dresses or who threaten to rape TERFs.Because of the sickening antisemitism we have witnessed around October 7. Because of the Stalinist nature of cancel culture. Because of increasingly brazen anti-white racism. Because of CRT and BLM and DEI. Because we are done with everything and everyone being called racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and imperialist.Because we see the impact on young men and boys from being told they are inherently scum and guilty of toxic masculinity. Because we are sick of hearing the lie that we live in a white supremacist, rape culture. Because of the endless disparaging of our great nation, its history, its practices, the Christian faith of many, and every dead white man of great stature.Because of the anti-Western, anti-science, anti-Enlightenment values that the left has adopted. Because none of this stuff has made the country any better and yet the belief that it would was the only reason anyone went along with any of it.If Trump wins, it will be because the woke left simply won't wake up.The Radicalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Rio Veradonir about an Enlightenment-based liberal approach to gay rights as opposed to the extremism that characterizes so much activism today, neo-Marxist social justice warriors, the liberal solution to trans athletes and sexual displays at Pride festivals, the strategic mistake Democrats are making in highlighting certain concerns, the misconception that Pride is just for gay people, the importance of the gay community in having a positive relationship with police, declining support for same-sex marriage among Republicans, and much more.Rio Veradonir is the editor-in-chief of Queer Majority, a news outlet that covers issues related to the gay community with a classically liberal perspective. He is also assistant director at The Bi Foundation and lead organizer of amBi, the world's largest bisexual social group. For more information, you can subscribe to QM's newsletter, follow Veradonir on X, and check out the good work being done at Project Liberal. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

The socialist magazine Jacobin embarrassed itself this week by claiming the new miniseries Shōgun “shows something rarely seen on screen: the shocking hubris of the colonizer and dehumanization of the colonized.”Social media had a field day with this because, as we all know, Japan was not only never colonized but was one of history biggest colonizers. A friend asked me, why was Japan never colonized? Here's my answer. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Doug Klain (website, X), a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, where he focuses on Russia's war on Ukraine. He is the former assistant director of the Eurasia Center and currently a policy analyst at the nonprofit Razom for Ukraine.The conversation covers the recent German military leak and what was actually said, the kinds of weapons Ukraine needs, the general state of the war, the impact of U.S. politics, Ukrainian grain exports, a potential Trump presidency, whether Putin will stop at Ukraine if he wins the war, Russia's genocidal actions in Ukraine, the evisceration of Russian media, the impact of sanctions, Zelenskyy's recent change in generals, Russia and Ukraine's respective methods of waging war, Ukrainian drone warfare, why it matters for Americans to support Ukraine, his work with Razom for Ukraine, the impact of Samizdat Online, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with Stefan Tompson, the founder of Visegrád 24, which aggregates and curates news and current affairs on various social media platforms including X, where it currently has over 900,000 followers.The conversation covers disinformation on social media, the Israel-Hamas War, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, TikTok as a Chinese psyop, the West's enemies within, the origins of woke progressivism, the glories of Western civilization, the importance of civil discourse, immigration, the beauty of Muslim and black pride, slavery, white guilt, the Jewish community, drag shows, Roman Catholic faith, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Arash Azizi reacted to my recent essay, The Case for Colonizing Gaza, by responding to a troll who had called the essay “blatantly racist,” to which Arash Azizi replied, “It's not just racist but outright fascist.”There is nothing racist or fascist about it, any more than there was about the U.S. occupation of Germany since that is precisely what I am recommending. Moreover, when he was a guest on this show, he commiserated with me as I described my anguish over the suffering in the Israel-Hamas War, so he knows better than anyone not to accuse me of racism against Palestinians.That said, here are some unprepared thoughts on this and the deplorable pattern of deliberate misunderstanding and accusations of racism on social media these days.Update: Arash Azizi unfollowed me on X shortly after this post went live. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

David Volodzko speaks with David Brin about comet dust formation, anti-institutionalism in Hollywood, how science-fiction has saved humanity, the moral philosophy of Star Trek, how tolerance and diversity have metastasized into a cancer, the infantile nihilism of Star Wars, how AI may buttress authoritarianism, the sinister laws of Wall Street AI, the existence of alien life, his recent WIRED article on AI, his Newsweek article on “empathy bots,” and much more.David Brin (website, X) is an astrophysicist and NASA consultant whose science-fiction novels have won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and other awards. His books include The Postman, which was adapted as a film by Kevin Costner, Earth, Existence, and Foundation's Triumph, the last in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. His nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the Freedom of Speech Award. His new book is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Jonathan Choe (profile, X) is a journalist and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center of Wealth and Poverty, where he focuses on the homelessness crisis in Seattle.In our conversation, we talked about Korea, his family life, his firing from KOMO for covering a Proud Boys rally, the pattern of news outlets caving to radical leftists by firing their own journalists, crime in Seattle and the failure of “defund the police,” Seattle's stalled revitalization efforts, the homeless-industrial complex, the fentanyl epidemic, the pro-Palestinian protests in Seattle and their link to the city's communist protest network, the failures of corporate media, how platforms like X have democratized information, and the future of independent journalism. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Ryan Ruffaner (Substack, YouTube) is an industrial-organizational psychologist specializing in organizational development and selection systems. He is also a member of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Ethics (CAPE) in the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychologists (SIOP), a DEI researcher, and a member of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR).His writing on DEI includes the Quillette essay “Ditching Diversity Myths” and Substack essays such as “DEI May INCREASE Surface-Level Divisions, Hurt Information Elaboration” and “DEI Destroys Organizational Justice.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Ramesh Sepehrrad is an Iranian-American international relations and conflict resolutions expert who is also the advisory board chair of the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), a D.C.-based non-profit with 40 chapters nationwide. She is also an adjunct professor of Middle East studies at the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore.During our conversation, we discussed Iran's influence behind October 7, what the U.S. has done right and done wrong in its approach to Iran, the persecution of Sepehrrad's own family under the Iranian regime, the ongoing protests in the country, and prospects for the nation's future. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Christine Abely is the author of the new book The Russia Sanctions: The Economic Response to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. She is also an assistant professor of contracts and international business transactions at New England Law. Abely (website, university profile, X) formerly worked at several Massachusetts law firms in business litigation and international trade and sanctions law and was an adjunct lecturer at Boston University School of Law. She has written in the areas of compliance, contracts, and international trade and sanctions.In this conversation, Abely explains everything you ever wanted to know about Russia sanctions, especially in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware are the authors of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America.Hoffman is a senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations and has been studying terrorism and insurgency for almost half a century. He is a professor at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, professor emeritus of terrorism at the University of St. Andrews, and the former corporate chair in counterterrorism at RAND Corporation.Jacob Ware is a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he studies domestic and international terrorism and counterterrorism. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and serves on the editorial boards for the academic journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism and the Irregular Warfare Initiative at the Modern War Institute at West Point. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Julie Behling was a Christian missionary in Russia in the late 1990s. She earned a dual master's in Russian languages and literature as well as Russian and East European studies at Florida State University, working on the side as a Russian language teacher. She wrote her thesis on the survival tactics of underground Christian movements in the Soviet Union. In 2022, she published her book, Beneath Sheep's Clothing: The Communist Takeover of Culture in the USSR & Parallels in Today's America. Now she has written and directed a documentary film based on the book. I saw the official trailer last week and contacted Behling for an interview. You can now also watch the film's intro. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This week, the Los Angeles Times announced that it has laid off at least 115 people, or more than 20% of its newsroom. They did it via Zoom, took no questions, and gave no answers. Jared Servantez, assistant editor of breaking news at the paper, said a colleague told him, “that was like a drive-by.” The L.A. Times is the 5th largest daily in the nation after The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post. This is cataclysmic, not just because of what it will do to the L.A. Times or the breadth and depth of news coverage in the City of Angels, but because of what it heralds for the newspaper industry more generally. There is a pale rider darkening the door of American newsrooms. Why is this happening? Let me explain. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

We had Bolsheviks in my family. The brothers Wołodźko. I remembered the story when I saw progressives in the West celebrating Hamas's atrocities on October 7. How could thinking people persuade themselves they were fighting oppression by justifying the rape and mutilation of 1,400 innocent Jews? How could they give full-throated support to those that would see them raped, enslaved, or beheaded? These are the kind of people, Christopher Hitchens once wrote, who would find a viper in their child's bed and place the first call to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. But he was writing decades ago. The problem now is far worse. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Richard Nixon gave the first speech of his presidential campaign in February 1968 at the New Hampshire Highway Hotel in Concord. It was a volatile time in American life.Then as now, Americans lived with the looming threat of Russian aggression, North Korean hostility, and a distant war against barbaric forces that left American public opinion bitterly divided. So it wasn't terribly surprising that I was reading the paper on Christmas Eve when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a story in the New York Times suggesting a parallel between the Vietnam protests of the 1960s and the pro-Palestinian protests of today. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Wilfred Reilly is an associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University who is known for fighting dogma with data. His 2019 book Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War, looked at a dataset of 409 allegedly false hate crimes and found that a substantial percentage are hoaxes, such as the Jussie Smollett case.His 2020 book Taboo: 10 Facts [You Can't Talk About] reviews facts about race, gender, and class that have become taboo in American society.His upcoming book Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me is set to be released in June.In this conversation, we discuss his mother's influence on his thinking, what it means to have an honest conversation about race, whether diversity is always better, hate crime hoaxes, taboo facts about race and gender, the color-blind approach to race, race and IQ, his unfiltered frankness on social media, and much more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Elizabeth Spalding is the chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) and founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum. She teaches U.S. foreign policy and national security at Pepperdine University and at Hillsdale College, and she is the author of The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism and co-author with her father Lee Edwards of A Brief History of the Cold War.In this conversation, we discuss North Korea, China, Russia, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and the centrality of the lie in communist states, the importance of honest journalism and the battle for truth and freedom in our era of disinformation, the reason people in the West are drawn to figures such as Vladimir Lenin, and just how many people have been killed by communism. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This letter is a response to Benjamin Carlson, the author of the newsletter The Carlson Letter, the former executive editor of The Atlantic and former China correspondent for AFP. His work has also appeared in The New Republic, Esquire, and Rolling Stone, and he was my colleague at GlobalPost. I contacted Ben with the idea of a letter exchange and he selected the topic. Before reading my response below, I suggest starting with his initial letter. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

James Scaminaci is an independent researcher and former civilian senior intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army's Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center (ITAC) and the European Command's Joint Analysis Center (JAC), specializing in the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, counter-organized crime, and counter-terrorism.He received his PhD in sociology from Stanford University and has written about the Christian Right in America, the Patriot militia movement, the Tea Party, and the concept of fourth-generation warfare.In this conversation, we discuss Hamas's massacre on October 7, the Christian Right in America, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement, Trump's connection to NAR, anti-LGBT bigotry in Russia, “spiritual kung fu” in China, the racist roots of the pro-life and militia movements, the NRA, the corporate origins of the war on science, how woke leftists harm the lower class, why AOC is not really socialist, the military strategist John Boyd, the discursive force of identity politics, deep-fake propaganda, and much more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

As you can imagine, there has been a lot speculation over Hitler's psychopathology. Unsurprisingly, his monstrous behavior extended to his personal relationships—and to the bedroom. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

In this episode, I spoke with Nico Perrino, the executive vice president at FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which was founded in 1999 to protect free speech on college campuses in the United States and has since expanded its efforts beyond campuses to American society in general. As I wrote in my previous post, Fire in the Belly, his organization is “one of the greatest institutions of American democracy.”Nico is also the creator and host of FIRE's So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, co-director and senior producer of the 2020 documentary “Mighty Ira: A Civil Liberties Story” about the life and career of former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser, and was creative consultant on the 2015 film “Can We Take a Joke?” about censorship in stand-up comedy.In this conversation, we talk about the First Amendment and its philosophical grounding, the ongoing pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas protests and the state of free speech at American universities, my firing from The Seattle Times and the state of free speech in American media, Ira Glasser, censorship in stand-up comedy, and much more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

From the beginning of history, our ancestors have practiced the art of storytelling, wrapped in blackness as they huddled around the flickering fire, telling the legends of their people in the warm, crackling glow, passing on the best of themselves. This has always been the way, for we are storytellers.Is it any wonder then that we would seek to protect the very instrument of our being, or that throughout history societies have celebrated and defended our freedom of speech?In the 5th century BC, the practice of speaking freely or parrhesia was a necessary aspect of Athenian democracy, practiced in both the assembly and the agora, where citizens spoke openly—provided they were not women or slaves. Or think of the Roman Republic, which could not have existed had its senators been unable to voice critical concerns. And of course, the Enlightenment itself was nothing if not a flowering of ideas the sum total of which was not worth a single breath had it not been shared.Freedom of speech is the most precious of all liberties, the one by which we defend all others, the horn we sound when another freedom is in peril, the shield we raise against the arrows of deception, and the spear we send into the ranks of oppression. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This follows the first letter of my correspondence with Margaret Anna Alice in which we discuss fascism, censorship, and humor. Margaret Anna writes about propaganda, psychology, and health at Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass. If you find her letter below as fascinating and informative as I do, follow the link to her Stack and subscribe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theradicalist.comKris Goldsmith is an Iraq War combat veteran who came home from serving as a forward observer in the slums of Baghdad only to realize he had signed up after 9/11 but never had a chance to do the job he was trained to do. When he came home, he fought in veteran advocacy for 15 years before using his military training to protect freedoms at home by huntin…

The writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, “The duty of the survivor is to bear testimony to what happened. You have to warn people that these things can happen, that evil can be unleashed. Race hatred, violence, idolatries—they still flourish.”Yet the history of the word holocaust itself tells the story of our collective refusal to learn this lesson.This feels to me the proper way to set into a history of the word holocaust, because so much of its history, as you will see, is actually not about Jews, and yet the word is now irrevocably about nothing other than man's inhumanity to Jews. It is an inhumanity that seems only to fade in order to surprise you that it has been gaining strength in the shadows, an inhumanity that we felt was far behind us and now find right in our faces. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe

Yevgeny Simkin is a contributor at The Bulwark and co-founder of Samizdat Online.During the Soviet Union, samizdat was the grassroots practice of evading censorship by reproducing banned publications, often by hand. Samizdat Online is the digital incarnation of this practice, publishing articles from an array of outlets while bypassing firewalls and protecting readers' anonymity to bring truth to people living under authoritarian rule. Samizdat's only requirement for publishing articles is that they come from an outlet that has been banned by an autocratic leader.This interview includes two separate conversations, held weeks apart, that I have stitched together as one episode. In the first, we discuss his life growing up in Russia and the antisemitism he faced there, how he cut his teeth at CBS and the erosion of public trust in the media since the days of Edward R. Murrow, how Russia's invasion of Ukraine has affected his Ukrainian and Russian employees, the state of life in rural Russia today, the playful flexibility of Russian grammar and why he thinks poetry is more beautiful in Russian than in English, the ethos of pre-Soviet folktales and where Russia went wrong as a nation, the rise of Putin and the bedrock importance of free speech in the media, and Samizdat Online's efforts in Russia, Iran, China, and beyond.In the second half, we discuss the events of October 7, Osama bin Laden's reputation repair on TikTok, antisemitism in the United States, David Hirsh's thoughts on the banality of evil, and a few exciting updates for Samizdat Online. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theradicalist.com/subscribe