Antifascist Dad Podcast Castos https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com Your waypoint for antifascist lore, strategy, and wisdom from the generations, and now. Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 en © 2025 https://episodes.castos.com/68dd5c14aba874-80083188/images/AntifascistDad-SquareLogo.jpg Antifascist Dad Podcast https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com Your waypoint for antifascist lore, strategy, and wisdom from the generations, and now. Matthew Remski episodic Your waypoint for antifascist lore, strategy, and wisdom from the generations, and now. Matthew Remski threadsofyoga@gmail.com false https://feeds.castos.com/pxp17 yes <![CDATA[28. How to Sell a Genocide w/ Adam Johnson]]> Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2425153 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/28-how-to-sell-a-genocide-w-adam-johnson Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His new book How to Sell a Genocide (Pluto Books, out now) draws on analysis of over 12,000 articles and 5,000 TV segments to document how US center-left legacy media — the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and others — provided systematic PR cover for the genocide in Gaza.

Johnson and I dig into the quantitative evidence for asymmetric language, the invention of the "Hamas-run health ministry" pejorative, the three masks of helpless/fuming/umpire Biden, and the "moats of rationalization" that allowed liberal audiences to intellectually and emotionally distance themselves from industrial-scale slaughter live-streamed into their phones. All royalties from Adam's book go to the Middle East Children's Alliance.

LINKS

]]> 52 1 false Adam Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed. His new book How to Sell a Genocide (Pluto Books, out now) draws on analysis of over 12,000 articles and 5,000 TV segments to document how US center-left legacy media — the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and others — provided systematic PR cover for the genocide in Gaza.

Johnson and I dig into the quantitative evidence for asymmetric language, the invention of the "Hamas-run health ministry" pejorative, the three masks of helpless/fuming/umpire Biden, and the "moats of rationalization" that allowed liberal audiences to intellectually and emotionally distance themselves from industrial-scale slaughter live-streamed into their phones. All royalties from Adam's book go to the Middle East Children's Alliance.

LINKS

]]> 01:07:28 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 26.1 Springtime for Democratic Socialism in Canada]]> Sun, 19 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2411724 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-261-springtime-for-democratic-socialism-in-canada On March 29, 2026, Avi Lewis won the federal NDP leadership on the first ballot in Winnipeg, taking 56% of the vote in a field of five candidates. This episode contextualizes this huge win for international listeners — because what just happened in Canada matters to anyone who follows democratic socialist politics anywhere.

I trace the Lewis family's roots from the Jewish Labor Bund  through to the founding of the CCF and the Regina Manifesto. I cover the right-wing media meltdown, the redbaiting from Alberta's PostMedia papers, and the dissociative pundit-class response I'm calling "moneyball fugue state."

And I dig into the oldest conflict in leftist politics — Rosa Luxemburg's question about whether a socialist can enter the bourgeois state without becoming its servant — and why I think we need both revolutionary and reform comrades right now.

Sources

Avi Lewis elected NDP leader on first ballot with 56% of the vote — NDP official announcement

Full leadership results and candidate breakdown — CBC live coverage

Avi Lewis takes over a diminished NDP — can he make it a force again? — The Walrus

NDP elects Avi Lewis as new federal leader — Globe and Mail

What does Avi Lewis's arrival mean for the party? — CBC News

Matthew Polacko, "The Rightward Shift and Electoral Decline of Social Democratic Parties under Increasing Inequality," West European Politics 45, no. 4 (2022): 665–692

LSE summary of the Polacko paper — LSE European Politics blog

The Regina Manifesto (1933) — The Canadian Encyclopedia

]]> full 51 1 false On March 29, 2026, Avi Lewis won the federal NDP leadership on the first ballot in Winnipeg, taking 56% of the vote in a field of five candidates. This episode contextualizes this huge win for international listeners — because what just happened in Canada matters to anyone who follows democratic socialist politics anywhere.

I trace the Lewis family's roots from the Jewish Labor Bund  through to the founding of the CCF and the Regina Manifesto. I cover the right-wing media meltdown, the redbaiting from Alberta's PostMedia papers, and the dissociative pundit-class response I'm calling "moneyball fugue state."

And I dig into the oldest conflict in leftist politics — Rosa Luxemburg's question about whether a socialist can enter the bourgeois state without becoming its servant — and why I think we need both revolutionary and reform comrades right now.

Sources

Avi Lewis elected NDP leader on first ballot with 56% of the vote — NDP official announcement

Full leadership results and candidate breakdown — CBC live coverage

Avi Lewis takes over a diminished NDP — can he make it a force again? — The Walrus

NDP elects Avi Lewis as new federal leader — Globe and Mail

What does Avi Lewis's arrival mean for the party? — CBC News

Matthew Polacko, "The Rightward Shift and Electoral Decline of Social Democratic Parties under Increasing Inequality," West European Politics 45, no. 4 (2022): 665–692

LSE summary of the Polacko paper — LSE European Politics blog

The Regina Manifesto (1933) — The Canadian Encyclopedia

]]> 00:37:04 <![CDATA[27. The Proto-Fascism of “Trust me” Carney w/ Leftie Jane]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:10:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2420267 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/27-the-proto-fascism-of-trust-me-carney-w-leftie-jane My guest today is Jane Yearwood—aka Leftie Jane on the TikTok and Instagram machines. She lives here in Toronto and does amazing political commentary from a leftist and disability justice POV.

Today we’ll be looking at why so many Canadians seem to believe that MAGA-stye fascism couldn’t possibly take root here, even though it actually is. So we talk about Canadian exceptionalism, including how settler colonial history and US foreign policy alignments have always been hidden from public education and are now almost invisible behind the halo of Mark Carney.

We talk about online activism and reflect on the generations between us and the middle school students she tutors, and also her love for libraries as third spaces, but the heart of our focus is on five bills currently reshaping Canadian law. Bill C12, Bill C9, Bill C15, Bills C8 and C22. We give them good names for clarity:

  • Bill C12: the scapegoat a migrant save a billionaire bill

  • Bill C9: the no more protesting against genocide bill

  • Bill C15: make Carney and his friends kings again

  • Bill C8: the we’re going to spy on all your s*** bill

  • Bill C22: the unlawful access to information bill

One thing Jane wanted me to stress in these notes, because we weren’t quite explicit about this in our conversation, is the sheer volume and rush of reality-changing legislation is strategic. It has a very “flooding the zone” vibe to it. This is the Steve Bannon innovation of deliberate saturation of media channels with so much information and noise that critical thinking becomes impossible. That wave is mirrored only by Carney’s extended charm offensive, which reached a peak on March 29th when he was glazed by the celebrity class at the Juno Awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys.

All things Leftie Jane! linktree

Sources

Bill C12 retroactivity and refugee claims, Migrant Rights Network

Amnesty International statement on Bill C12 and international humanitarian law

Avi Lewis on Canada’s deportation system, The Walrus

Bill C9 (Combating Hate Act) text, Parliament of Canada

Civil liberties concerns on Bills C8 and C22, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Bill C15 omnibus provisions and ministerial exemption powers, Parliament of Canada

Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk postcard campaign

Jodi Dean, Communicative Capitalism: Democracy and the Illusion of Connection, MIT Press

Chapters

  • (00:00:06) - Trust Me Carney With Lefty Jane
  • (00:02:23) - Why Canadians Can't See the Fascism at home
  • (00:04:40) - The Future of Communication in a Digital World
  • (00:25:53) - Bill C12: Scapegoat a Migrant, Save a Billionaire
  • (00:38:37) - Bill C9: An Attack on Protest
  • (00:43:56) - Bill C15: The Unlawful Access to Information Bill
  • (00:49:48) - Disability Activists Write Postcards
  • (00:58:45) - The Fight for Public Spaces
]]> full 50 1 false My guest today is Jane Yearwood—aka Leftie Jane on the TikTok and Instagram machines. She lives here in Toronto and does amazing political commentary from a leftist and disability justice POV.

Today we’ll be looking at why so many Canadians seem to believe that MAGA-stye fascism couldn’t possibly take root here, even though it actually is. So we talk about Canadian exceptionalism, including how settler colonial history and US foreign policy alignments have always been hidden from public education and are now almost invisible behind the halo of Mark Carney.

We talk about online activism and reflect on the generations between us and the middle school students she tutors, and also her love for libraries as third spaces, but the heart of our focus is on five bills currently reshaping Canadian law. Bill C12, Bill C9, Bill C15, Bills C8 and C22. We give them good names for clarity:

  • Bill C12: the scapegoat a migrant save a billionaire bill

  • Bill C9: the no more protesting against genocide bill

  • Bill C15: make Carney and his friends kings again

  • Bill C8: the we’re going to spy on all your s*** bill

  • Bill C22: the unlawful access to information bill

One thing Jane wanted me to stress in these notes, because we weren’t quite explicit about this in our conversation, is the sheer volume and rush of reality-changing legislation is strategic. It has a very “flooding the zone” vibe to it. This is the Steve Bannon innovation of deliberate saturation of media channels with so much information and noise that critical thinking becomes impossible. That wave is mirrored only by Carney’s extended charm offensive, which reached a peak on March 29th when he was glazed by the celebrity class at the Juno Awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys.

All things Leftie Jane! linktree

Sources

Bill C12 retroactivity and refugee claims, Migrant Rights Network

Amnesty International statement on Bill C12 and international humanitarian law

Avi Lewis on Canada’s deportation system, The Walrus

Bill C9 (Combating Hate Act) text, Parliament of Canada

Civil liberties concerns on Bills C8 and C22, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Bill C15 omnibus provisions and ministerial exemption powers, Parliament of Canada

Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk postcard campaign

Jodi Dean, Communicative Capitalism: Democracy and the Illusion of Connection, MIT Press

]]> 01:11:59 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 25.1 Mark Carney's “Elbows Up” Hockey Schtick: a Review]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2409209 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-251-polite-canada-remilitarizes-part-2-elbows-up A close reading of "Elbows Up" — the hockey slogan Mark Carney skated on to sell his Trump response policies over the past year.

It began on March 1, 2025. Mike Myers mouthed the phrase on SNL, inspiring former NDP MP Charlie Angus to publish a galvanizing Substack two days later tracing it to Gordie Howe. The slogan conscripts the legacy of a working-class Saskatchewan kid who was underpaid for decades by union-busting Jack Adams, repackaging disciplined obedience to capital as national pluck. Meanwhile Carney's budget eliminates 40,000 federal jobs and cuts $57 billion from public programs while gutting Indigenous Services and environmental funding.

Anishinaabe scholar Niigaan Sinclair and others in Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay collection push back hard. Elbows up, it turns out, describes the posture of a man who knows he'll be having beers with the other team when the game is over.

Sources:

Charlie Angus's original March 3, 2025 "Elbows Up" Substack

Carney's March 22, 2025 "Elbows Up" post on X with Mike Myers

Gordie Howe biography and career — Wikipedia

Gordie and Edna's shared skates — Maclean's 1966 archive

Jack Adams — Wikipedia

Ted Lindsay union organizing and Adams's retaliation — Hockey Writers

Carney's 2025 budget: 40,000 public service jobs cut, $57 billion from programs — Globe and Mail

15% departmental cuts apply to Indigenous Services Canada — Policy Options

Environment and Climate Change Canada faces $1.3 billion in cuts — Ecojustice

Foreign aid cut $2.7 billion, breaking campaign promise — Results Canada

Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay anthology Elbows Up: Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance

Chapters

  • (00:09:52) - "Are You Canadian?" Mike Myers
  • (00:20:06) - Critics of Elbows Up
]]> full 49 1 false A close reading of "Elbows Up" — the hockey slogan Mark Carney skated on to sell his Trump response policies over the past year.

It began on March 1, 2025. Mike Myers mouthed the phrase on SNL, inspiring former NDP MP Charlie Angus to publish a galvanizing Substack two days later tracing it to Gordie Howe. The slogan conscripts the legacy of a working-class Saskatchewan kid who was underpaid for decades by union-busting Jack Adams, repackaging disciplined obedience to capital as national pluck. Meanwhile Carney's budget eliminates 40,000 federal jobs and cuts $57 billion from public programs while gutting Indigenous Services and environmental funding.

Anishinaabe scholar Niigaan Sinclair and others in Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay collection push back hard. Elbows up, it turns out, describes the posture of a man who knows he'll be having beers with the other team when the game is over.

Sources:

Charlie Angus's original March 3, 2025 "Elbows Up" Substack

Carney's March 22, 2025 "Elbows Up" post on X with Mike Myers

Gordie Howe biography and career — Wikipedia

Gordie and Edna's shared skates — Maclean's 1966 archive

Jack Adams — Wikipedia

Ted Lindsay union organizing and Adams's retaliation — Hockey Writers

Carney's 2025 budget: 40,000 public service jobs cut, $57 billion from programs — Globe and Mail

15% departmental cuts apply to Indigenous Services Canada — Policy Options

Environment and Climate Change Canada faces $1.3 billion in cuts — Ecojustice

Foreign aid cut $2.7 billion, breaking campaign promise — Results Canada

Elamin Abdelmahmoud's essay anthology Elbows Up: Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance

]]> 00:23:56 <![CDATA[26. Antifascist Gardening Theology w/ Ciarra Jones]]> Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2411567 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/26-antifascist-gardening-theology-w-ciarra-jones I first came across Ciarra Jones on TikTok as @thegardeningtheologian, and I was moved by her eloquent, queer, and plant-based antifascism. She grew up in the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church, but through her studies at UC Berkeley and Harvard Divinity School she developed a public theology grounded embodiment. We talk about what public theologians actually do, how dying-to-the-flesh theology creates the conditions for fascist dehumanization, and why religion is a social determinant of health.

She walks me through her own deconstruction — from traveling youth minister preaching against queerness at sixteen to queer womanist theologian — and explains how her grandfather's garden in Sacramento became a ritual site. We talk about "the good enough" gardener, Charlie Kirk's debate style as Christian nationalist domination, and why the hardest God to believe in is one who is simply pleased with you.

https://ciarrajonesconsulting.com/ 

Sources:

Pamela Lightsey, Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology (Pickwick Publications, 2015)

Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Orbis Books, 2015)

Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Bantam, 2003)

Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear (Random House, 2021)

Prentis Hemphill, The Embodiment Institute

SOCIALS

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Anti-Fascist Gardening Theology with Ciara Jones
  • (00:06:51) - Public Theology
  • (00:15:12) - Public Theology and the Parable of the Sower
  • (00:24:46) - Exploring Queerness in the Church
  • (00:37:30) - The Garden of My Grandfather
  • (00:41:02) - Philosophy Bro: Charlie Kirk
  • (00:59:03) - Avi Lewis Win at the NDP National Federal Convention
]]> full 48 1 false I first came across Ciarra Jones on TikTok as @thegardeningtheologian, and I was moved by her eloquent, queer, and plant-based antifascism. She grew up in the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church, but through her studies at UC Berkeley and Harvard Divinity School she developed a public theology grounded embodiment. We talk about what public theologians actually do, how dying-to-the-flesh theology creates the conditions for fascist dehumanization, and why religion is a social determinant of health.

She walks me through her own deconstruction — from traveling youth minister preaching against queerness at sixteen to queer womanist theologian — and explains how her grandfather's garden in Sacramento became a ritual site. We talk about "the good enough" gardener, Charlie Kirk's debate style as Christian nationalist domination, and why the hardest God to believe in is one who is simply pleased with you.

https://ciarrajonesconsulting.com/ 

Sources:

Pamela Lightsey, Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology (Pickwick Publications, 2015)

Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Orbis Books, 2015)

Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Bantam, 2003)

Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear (Random House, 2021)

Prentis Hemphill, The Embodiment Institute

SOCIALS

]]> 01:00:12 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 24.1: Mutual Aid in Islam w/Mona Haydar]]> Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2402357 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-241-mutual-aid-in-islam-wmona-haydar In part two of my conversation with Mona Haydar, we move from the theological architecture of Islamic mutual aid into the lived political pressure of Muslim identity in America. We dig into the good Muslim/bad Muslim trap that Mahmood Mamdani diagnosed: the demand to perform as secular, unthreatening, and patriotic. Mona holds to the view that the post-9/11 reckoning ultimately drove communities toward authenticity over performance.

We also trace her political awakening through hip-hop and spoken word in Flint, Michigan, where the Black community encouraged her to use her voice against racial and economic injustice. On the subject of hijab, Mona reframes it as a rejection of capitalist objectification — a demand to be met as a soul before a body. I add a personal coda about a Russian literature class that gave me an early, unexpected glimpse of a similar type of gender-disruption that I never forgot.

Mona Haydar

Chapters

  • (00:02:30) - 9/11 transformed Islam
  • (00:21:20) - Where Do Mutual Aid Communities Meet?
  • (00:31:48) - Hijab
  • (00:37:27) - Louis Theroux
]]> 47 1 false In part two of my conversation with Mona Haydar, we move from the theological architecture of Islamic mutual aid into the lived political pressure of Muslim identity in America. We dig into the good Muslim/bad Muslim trap that Mahmood Mamdani diagnosed: the demand to perform as secular, unthreatening, and patriotic. Mona holds to the view that the post-9/11 reckoning ultimately drove communities toward authenticity over performance.

We also trace her political awakening through hip-hop and spoken word in Flint, Michigan, where the Black community encouraged her to use her voice against racial and economic injustice. On the subject of hijab, Mona reframes it as a rejection of capitalist objectification — a demand to be met as a soul before a body. I add a personal coda about a Russian literature class that gave me an early, unexpected glimpse of a similar type of gender-disruption that I never forgot.

Mona Haydar

]]> 00:39:59 <![CDATA[25. Polite Canada Remilitarizes w/ Brent Patterson]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2406361 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/25-polite-canada-remilitarizes-w-brent-patterson I sit down with Brent Patterson, a veteran anti-militarism organizer whose four decades of work span prison abolition, Indigenous solidarity, and campaigns against state violence. We examine the Carney government's remilitarization agenda. It is not a response to genuine security threats, but as a coherent economic strategy dressed in the language of sovereignty and national pride.

We look at the math on the F-35 warplane purchase: what it actually costs, who controls it, and what that money could do instead. We talk about Arctic resource extraction and the military infrastructure being built to enable it, the integration of Canadian and US military supply chains, the No More Loopholes arms export bill, and the gap between Canada's international self-image and its actual record of 1,600 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Serbia. We close with Brent's forty years of organizing experience — the losses, the marginal wins, and what sustains people in a long struggle.

Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International, and writes for Rabble.ca.

SOURCES 

NATO total military spending 2024: $1,506 billion — SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024

NATO 5% GDP target agreed at The Hague summit — Atlantic Council NATO Defence Spending Tracker

Canada's Department of National Defence spent $34.5 billion in FY2024 — Canadaspends

Carney commits Canada to $150 billion annually in defence by 2035 — Globe and Mail, June 2025

Carney's first budget: $81.8 billion in defence investment over five years — CBC News, November 2025

DND defence spending targets and NATO commitments — Canada.ca

Full 45-year F-35 life-cycle cost estimated at C$73.9 billion — Parliamentary Budget Office, November 2023

F-35 acquisition cost jumps 50% to C$27.7 billion — Skies Mag / Auditor General, June 2025

Full acquisition cost now C$33 billion including infrastructure and weapons — Flight Global, June 2025

Full history of Canada's F-35 procurement process — Wikipedia

Chapters

  • (00:03:23) - Canada's $35 billion F35 deal
  • (00:12:18) - What Does Militarization Tell Us About Global Capitalism?
  • (00:14:13) - Canada's Remilitarization Plans
  • (00:29:23) - Canadian Military Spending and National Sovereignty
  • (00:38:59) - Wins and Losses
  • (00:42:07) - What Would You Tell Young Activists in Their 20s?
]]> full 46 1 false I sit down with Brent Patterson, a veteran anti-militarism organizer whose four decades of work span prison abolition, Indigenous solidarity, and campaigns against state violence. We examine the Carney government's remilitarization agenda. It is not a response to genuine security threats, but as a coherent economic strategy dressed in the language of sovereignty and national pride.

We look at the math on the F-35 warplane purchase: what it actually costs, who controls it, and what that money could do instead. We talk about Arctic resource extraction and the military infrastructure being built to enable it, the integration of Canadian and US military supply chains, the No More Loopholes arms export bill, and the gap between Canada's international self-image and its actual record of 1,600 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Serbia. We close with Brent's forty years of organizing experience — the losses, the marginal wins, and what sustains people in a long struggle.

Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International, and writes for Rabble.ca.

SOURCES 

NATO total military spending 2024: $1,506 billion — SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024

NATO 5% GDP target agreed at The Hague summit — Atlantic Council NATO Defence Spending Tracker

Canada's Department of National Defence spent $34.5 billion in FY2024 — Canadaspends

Carney commits Canada to $150 billion annually in defence by 2035 — Globe and Mail, June 2025

Carney's first budget: $81.8 billion in defence investment over five years — CBC News, November 2025

DND defence spending targets and NATO commitments — Canada.ca

Full 45-year F-35 life-cycle cost estimated at C$73.9 billion — Parliamentary Budget Office, November 2023

F-35 acquisition cost jumps 50% to C$27.7 billion — Skies Mag / Auditor General, June 2025

Full acquisition cost now C$33 billion including infrastructure and weapons — Flight Global, June 2025

Full history of Canada's F-35 procurement process — Wikipedia

ALIS/ODIN: F-35 data stored on US servers, placing it under US government jurisdiction — Infodas technical analysis

No kill switch, but Mission Data Files give US effective control over allied F-35 fleets — The Aviationist, March 2025

NDP: US will maintain full control of F-35 maintenance and software updates — NDP press release

US Air Force 350th Spectrum Warfare Group reprograms every F-35 in the world — DefenseScoop, August 2023

Australia, Canada, UK Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL) located at Eglin AFB, Florida — Janes

F-35 availability rate 50% in FY2024, 17 points below minimum requirement — DoD Inspector General / 19FortyFive, December 2025

Full mission capable rate only 30% in 2023 — Project on Government Oversight

Lockheed paid $1.7 billion despite poor F-35 readiness — Military Times, December 2025

Estimated 1,598 CF-18 bombing missions over Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Serbia — Canadian Dimension

CF-18 combat history: Libya, Serbia, Iraq missions — CBC News

Budget 2025: C$2.7 billion cut to foreign aid over four years — CBC News, November 2025

Carney broke campaign promise not to cut foreign aid — Results Canada

90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in the Arctic — USGS Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, 2008

Arctic oil resources overview — US Energy Information Administration

Carney announces $35 billion for Arctic military and infrastructure — CBC News

Canada exports over $1 billion annually in arms to the US — Project Ploughshares

Bill C-233 No More Loopholes Act defeated 295 to 22 — Canadian Affairs, March 2026

PBO: $3.5 billion per year additional needed to achieve 50% reduction in chronic homelessness — Parliamentary Budget Office, 2024

265,000 to 300,000 Canadians experience homelessness annually — Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness

Homelessness costs Canada $10 billion per year; federal housing spending lower per capita than 1989 — Homeless Hub

Full text of Carney's January 20, 2026 Davos speech — CBC News

]]> 00:46:14 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 23.1 The Future of Socialism in Canada w/ Jasmine Peardon pt. 2]]> Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:30:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2397277 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-231-the-future-of-socialism-in-canada-w-jasmine-peardon-pt-2 In part two of my conversation with Jasmine Peardon, we trace her path from UBC to federal public policy to a master's at Concordia, and the radicalization that travel through the Global South and October 7 accelerated.

We share a moment of recognition about India: how white spiritual tourists and white activists alike can move through a country absorbing deference without understanding colonialism.

Jasmine identifies intergenerational socialist mentorship as her core source of resilience — the older comrades who remind her that none of this is new. We work through Kshama Sawant's lesson on concrete demands: "pull out of NATO" beats "anti-imperialist" every time, because it forces a defence. Jasmine also has some advice for 12-year-olds to read freely and build practical skills — let political consciousness develop without urgency.

In the coda I return to the Regina Manifesto of 1933 and the Lewis family dynasty to ask what threads of socialist history have survived to reach us now.

Sources:

The Great Depression in Canada

Great Depression — The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan

The Arid Years — Legion Magazine

Unemployment During the Great Depression — The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan

The Regina Manifesto at 90: lessons for the Canadian left

Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas (1904–1986)

Rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

Regina Manifesto — The Canadian Encyclopedia

New Democratic Party (NDP)

Moishe Lewis — EBSCO Research Starters

David Lewis — The Canadian Encyclopedia

Lewis family (Canada) — The Canadian Encyclopedia

Avi Lewis for NDP Leader

The Regina Manifesto (1933) — Socialist History Project

Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed—Onward to a Socialist Future

All music by Kallie Marie.

Chapters

  • (00:05:06) - How to get to where you are
  • (00:12:29) - GenZ obstacles to engagement
  • (00:26:17) - What Advice Would You Have For 12-Year-Old Self?
  • (00:30:20) - Cooperative Commonwealth Federation
  • (00:35:19) - Regina Manifesto, 1933
]]> 45 1 false In part two of my conversation with Jasmine Peardon, we trace her path from UBC to federal public policy to a master's at Concordia, and the radicalization that travel through the Global South and October 7 accelerated.

We share a moment of recognition about India: how white spiritual tourists and white activists alike can move through a country absorbing deference without understanding colonialism.

Jasmine identifies intergenerational socialist mentorship as her core source of resilience — the older comrades who remind her that none of this is new. We work through Kshama Sawant's lesson on concrete demands: "pull out of NATO" beats "anti-imperialist" every time, because it forces a defence. Jasmine also has some advice for 12-year-olds to read freely and build practical skills — let political consciousness develop without urgency.

In the coda I return to the Regina Manifesto of 1933 and the Lewis family dynasty to ask what threads of socialist history have survived to reach us now.

Sources:

The Great Depression in Canada

Great Depression — The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan

The Arid Years — Legion Magazine

Unemployment During the Great Depression — The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan

The Regina Manifesto at 90: lessons for the Canadian left

Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas (1904–1986)

Rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

Regina Manifesto — The Canadian Encyclopedia

New Democratic Party (NDP)

Moishe Lewis — EBSCO Research Starters

David Lewis — The Canadian Encyclopedia

Lewis family (Canada) — The Canadian Encyclopedia

Avi Lewis for NDP Leader

The Regina Manifesto (1933) — Socialist History Project

Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed—Onward to a Socialist Future

All music by Kallie Marie.

]]> 00:41:20 <![CDATA[24: Mutual Aid in Islam w/Mona Haydar]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:15:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2401779 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/24-mutual-aid-in-islam-wmona-haydar I've wanted to understand the radical flank of Islam for a long time, and I feel a little ashamed it took me this long. In this episode I talk with Mona Haydar — rapper, poet, chaplain, and Muslim activist — about the theological architecture of Islamic mutual aid: zakat, the mandatory redistribution of wealth; sadaqa, voluntary charity rooted in truthfulness; and taqwa, the reverence and permeating consciousness that Ramadan is designed to build. Mona makes the case that if Muslims fully practiced these commandments, global poverty could be eliminated. We also get into 9/11's psychic reckoning for American Muslim communities, the good Muslim/bad Muslim trap that Mahmood Mamdani diagnosed, and why Islamophobic attacks — including right here in Toronto from my own city councillor — keep producing conversion waves rather than retreat. Part Two is on Patreon.

Mona Haydar

Chapters

  • (00:08:03) - Muslim greetings
  • (00:09:59) - Meaning of Ramadan
  • (00:18:27) - The Flattening of the Real
  • (00:36:49) - Islam and the Trump era
  • (00:48:24) - Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Renewed Muslim
]]> 44 1 false I've wanted to understand the radical flank of Islam for a long time, and I feel a little ashamed it took me this long. In this episode I talk with Mona Haydar — rapper, poet, chaplain, and Muslim activist — about the theological architecture of Islamic mutual aid: zakat, the mandatory redistribution of wealth; sadaqa, voluntary charity rooted in truthfulness; and taqwa, the reverence and permeating consciousness that Ramadan is designed to build. Mona makes the case that if Muslims fully practiced these commandments, global poverty could be eliminated. We also get into 9/11's psychic reckoning for American Muslim communities, the good Muslim/bad Muslim trap that Mahmood Mamdani diagnosed, and why Islamophobic attacks — including right here in Toronto from my own city councillor — keep producing conversion waves rather than retreat. Part Two is on Patreon.

Mona Haydar

]]> 00:50:13 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 22.1 Fascism is Also Rational]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2388313 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-221-fascism-is-also-rational In Toronto, the morning after US strikes ignited oil depots across Tehran. I reach for Michael Parenti. His core insistence is that fascism is not madness or mob psychology but a calculated counter-revolution: deployed when socialist and labour movements threaten property relations, used to crush unions, criminalize minorities, and restore profitability through repression. It puts the irrational back into perspective.

Sources:

Michael Parenti, Black Shirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997, City Lights Books) https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/blackshirts-reds-rational-fascism/

Michael Parenti, Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life (2013, Bordighera Press) https://www.michael-parenti.org/book-waiting-for-yesterday

Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew (1945/1948 English translation, Schocken Books) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330311/anti-semite-and-jew-by-jean-paul-sartre/

Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social

Instagram: @matthew_remski

YouTube: antifascistdad

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast

Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Antifascist Dad: Optimism of the Intellectual
  • (00:02:08) - Lessons of Michael Parenti
  • (00:14:19) - How to survive a fascist dystopia
]]> 43 1 false In Toronto, the morning after US strikes ignited oil depots across Tehran. I reach for Michael Parenti. His core insistence is that fascism is not madness or mob psychology but a calculated counter-revolution: deployed when socialist and labour movements threaten property relations, used to crush unions, criminalize minorities, and restore profitability through repression. It puts the irrational back into perspective.

Sources:

Michael Parenti, Black Shirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997, City Lights Books) https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/blackshirts-reds-rational-fascism/

Michael Parenti, Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life (2013, Bordighera Press) https://www.michael-parenti.org/book-waiting-for-yesterday

Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew (1945/1948 English translation, Schocken Books) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330311/anti-semite-and-jew-by-jean-paul-sartre/

Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social

Instagram: @matthew_remski

YouTube: antifascistdad

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast

Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House

]]> 00:17:15 <![CDATA[23. The Future of Socialism in Canada w/ Jasmine Peardon]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2397278 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/23-the-future-of-socialism-in-canada-w-jasmine-peardon Canada's proto-fascist scorecard is racking up big numbers. Jasmine Peardon — organizer, policy researcher, and New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus candidate for party president — joins me to discuss this critical turning point.

We look at Mark Carney's Davos speech as a case study in political dishonesty. We trace the NDP's founding compromise: born in 1961 as a merger with the anti-capitalist CCF, the party has always held its socialist roots at arms length. 

Jasmine's out to change that. We discuss the presidential vote structure that stacks the deck against grassroots candidates, the Yves Engler vetting scandal, and the concept of movement capture — how progressive energy gets absorbed and neutralized by parties that want your vote but not your values or full-time organizing.

Also: the solidarity economy's double-tax problem: ordinary people paying twice for dignity while their taxes continue to fund war. Part two is on Patreon now.

Sources:

New Democratic Party (NDP)

Once upon a Waffle

Canada's economy lost 84,000 jobs in February, unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7%

The Military Wins and Public Programs Lose in Carney's Budget

Canada releases Budget 2025: Canada Strong

Budget 2025: A "historic moment" for the arms industry

White nationalist fight clubs pose risk for 'extreme violence,' warns government report

'Active clubs' are all over Canada. What are they?

White Nationalism in Canada: Organized, Emboldened, and Growing

RCMP charges military members allegedly plotting to form militia and seize land

How a White Nationalist Club Thought It Found Safe Haven in a Montreal Gym

Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore

Here's one easy trick to combat foreign political interference in our media

Postmedia and the American Hedge Fund Takeover of Canada's Newspapers

For the sake of our democracy, American hedge funds should be banned from owning Canadian newspapers

B.C. premier says Alberta separatists seeking assistance from U.S. is 'treason'

Canadian separatists optimistic after meetings with Trump officials

Chapters

  • (00:02:01) - Jasmine Peardon's challenge to the NDP
  • (00:12:42) - Mark Carney's 'clear picture' of Canadian politics
  • (00:14:39) - Is the New Democratic Party a Social Democratic Party?
  • (00:24:38) - How the Old Guard Will Respond
  • (00:39:04) - Party Politics and the Solidarity Economy
]]> 42 1 false Canada's proto-fascist scorecard is racking up big numbers. Jasmine Peardon — organizer, policy researcher, and New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus candidate for party president — joins me to discuss this critical turning point.

We look at Mark Carney's Davos speech as a case study in political dishonesty. We trace the NDP's founding compromise: born in 1961 as a merger with the anti-capitalist CCF, the party has always held its socialist roots at arms length. 

Jasmine's out to change that. We discuss the presidential vote structure that stacks the deck against grassroots candidates, the Yves Engler vetting scandal, and the concept of movement capture — how progressive energy gets absorbed and neutralized by parties that want your vote but not your values or full-time organizing.

Also: the solidarity economy's double-tax problem: ordinary people paying twice for dignity while their taxes continue to fund war. Part two is on Patreon now.

Sources:

New Democratic Party (NDP)

Once upon a Waffle

Canada's economy lost 84,000 jobs in February, unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7%

The Military Wins and Public Programs Lose in Carney's Budget

Canada releases Budget 2025: Canada Strong

Budget 2025: A "historic moment" for the arms industry

White nationalist fight clubs pose risk for 'extreme violence,' warns government report

'Active clubs' are all over Canada. What are they?

White Nationalism in Canada: Organized, Emboldened, and Growing

RCMP charges military members allegedly plotting to form militia and seize land

How a White Nationalist Club Thought It Found Safe Haven in a Montreal Gym

Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore

Here's one easy trick to combat foreign political interference in our media

Postmedia and the American Hedge Fund Takeover of Canada's Newspapers

For the sake of our democracy, American hedge funds should be banned from owning Canadian newspapers

B.C. premier says Alberta separatists seeking assistance from U.S. is 'treason'

Canadian separatists optimistic after meetings with Trump officials

Trump officials met with Canadian separatists; British Columbia premier alleges 'treason'

Are Trump officials driving Alberta's separatist movement in Canada?

NDP MP Lori Idlout crossing floor to Liberals, bringing Carney closer to majority

Latest floor-crossing puts Liberal majority within grasp — but Carney could still hit snags

MP Matt Jeneroux leaves Conservatives to join Liberals, citing 'national unity crisis'

Just one-in-four say Canadian MPs who cross the floor should be allowed to finish term with new party

Yves Engler for NDP Leader

Why I'm running for leadership of NDP

Avi Lewis for NDP Leader

Activist, filmmaker Avi Lewis launches campaign for federal NDP leadership

All music by Kallie Marie.

]]> 00:45:47 <![CDATA[22. Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2388310 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/22-pessimism-of-the-intellect-optimism-of-the-will What does it mean to hold both clear-eyed despair and committed action at the same time? I trace the antifascist axiom "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" through my own life — my late mother's instinctive class consciousness, my writing teacher Luciano's daily creative discipline, and my early Buddhist practice of contemplating impermanence. I unpack Eve Sedgwick's concept of paranoid versus reparative reading, and why the left's hypervigilance can foreclose on the energy needed for repair. I correct the common attribution of the mantra to Gramsci, locating the phrase's origin in Romain Rolland's 1920 review of Raymond Lefebvre's WWI novel — a cry from Flanders Fields about bourgeois sacrifice of the young. And I map the tension between intellect and will onto bodily experience, arguing that theory and mutual aid aren't competing demands but two characteristics of how we already live.

Sources

Romain Rolland, review of Le Sacrifice d'Abraham, L'Humanité, 19 March 1920 — transcription and translation

Antonio Gramsci, "Address to the Anarchists," L'Ordine Nuovo, 3–10 April 1920

Raymond Lefebvre (1891–1920), Le Sacrifice d'Abraham (Flammarion, 1919)

Academic treatment of the phrase's history: "Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will," Rethinking Marxism (2019)

Political reading of the slogan: "Pessimism of the Will," Viewpoint Magazine (2020)

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading," in Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Duke University Press, 2003)

Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social

Instagram: @matthew_remski

YouTube: antifascistdad

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast

Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House

Chapters

  • (00:00:06) - Mark Carney lib-fash dad reflections
  • (00:01:56) - Pessimism of the Intellectuals vs optimism of the Will
  • (00:18:23) - A Week in the Life of Fascism
]]> full 40 1 false What does it mean to hold both clear-eyed despair and committed action at the same time? I trace the antifascist axiom "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" through my own life — my late mother's instinctive class consciousness, my writing teacher Luciano's daily creative discipline, and my early Buddhist practice of contemplating impermanence. I unpack Eve Sedgwick's concept of paranoid versus reparative reading, and why the left's hypervigilance can foreclose on the energy needed for repair. I correct the common attribution of the mantra to Gramsci, locating the phrase's origin in Romain Rolland's 1920 review of Raymond Lefebvre's WWI novel — a cry from Flanders Fields about bourgeois sacrifice of the young. And I map the tension between intellect and will onto bodily experience, arguing that theory and mutual aid aren't competing demands but two characteristics of how we already live.

Sources

Romain Rolland, review of Le Sacrifice d'Abraham, L'Humanité, 19 March 1920 — transcription and translation

Antonio Gramsci, "Address to the Anarchists," L'Ordine Nuovo, 3–10 April 1920

Raymond Lefebvre (1891–1920), Le Sacrifice d'Abraham (Flammarion, 1919)

Academic treatment of the phrase's history: "Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will," Rethinking Marxism (2019)

Political reading of the slogan: "Pessimism of the Will," Viewpoint Magazine (2020)

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading," in Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Duke University Press, 2003)

Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social

Instagram: @matthew_remski

YouTube: antifascistdad

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast

Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House

]]> 00:19:11 <![CDATA[21. Against the Hierarchy of Bodies w/ Michelle Cassandra Johnson]]> Wed, 04 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2381947 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/21e-hierarchy-of-bodies-w-michelle-cassandra-johnson Sitting down today with racial equity educator and spiritual director Michelle Cassandra Johnson about what she calls the “hierarchy of bodies” — the long-standing social logic that determines whose lives are protected, valued, and believed. Against mainstream claims that rising authoritarianism is shocking or unprecedented, Michelle argues that today’s crises reflect very old patterns of domination rooted in race, power, and proximity to privilege.

Why do some communities experience the current political moment as rupture while others recognize it as continuity? What are the downstream effects of the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion work? What does anti-racism training actually look like on the ground — and why re relationship, solidarity, and accountability more important than shame or guilt? Is multiracial community grounded in care the strongest inoculation against fascism?

Part 2 now up on Patreon.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, and in May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, was released.

She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. 

https://www.michellecjohnson.com/.

Notes: 

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:02:06) - Carney Takes all that stuff he said about Davos back
  • (00:08:46) - Michelle on Anti-Fascism
  • (00:11:09) - White Shock to the System
  • (00:20:53) - Anti-Racism Training
  • (00:32:03) - Understanding Whiteness
]]> full 38 1 false Sitting down today with racial equity educator and spiritual director Michelle Cassandra Johnson about what she calls the “hierarchy of bodies” — the long-standing social logic that determines whose lives are protected, valued, and believed. Against mainstream claims that rising authoritarianism is shocking or unprecedented, Michelle argues that today’s crises reflect very old patterns of domination rooted in race, power, and proximity to privilege.

Why do some communities experience the current political moment as rupture while others recognize it as continuity? What are the downstream effects of the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion work? What does anti-racism training actually look like on the ground — and why re relationship, solidarity, and accountability more important than shame or guilt? Is multiracial community grounded in care the strongest inoculation against fascism?

Part 2 now up on Patreon.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, and in May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, was released.

She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. 

https://www.michellecjohnson.com/.

Notes: 

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:37:19 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 21.1 Against the Hierarchy of Bodies w/ Michelle Cassandra Johnson pt 2]]> Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:09:46 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2381952 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-211-hierarchy-of-bodies-w-michelle-cassandra-johnson-pt-2 Back with Michelle, and pivoting from diagnosis to practice. We get a powerful story from her anti-racism work about calling someone into accountability without shaming or discarding them — and what real healing can look like in the room.

We explore how multiracial, multicultural communities of care are built on the ground through shared language, listening, and repair. Why is the backlash against DEI and why relationship remains a quiet, radical force against fascism.

Michelle also reflects on growing up in the Black Baptist church, how her spiritual life has always been inseparable from her political life, and why faith — in something beyond what we can currently see — may be essential to sustaining resistance. 

CODA: A story from Antifascist Dad about the first inklings I had as a kid that I was white, and what that meant.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, and in May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, was released.

She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. 

https://www.michellecjohnson.com/.

Notes: 

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:02:15) - The Secret to Anti-Racism Healing
  • (00:06:59) - The Community of Anti-Fascism
  • (00:12:08) - Collective Care and Community Care
  • (00:15:58) - Inter-Spiritual Direction
  • (00:20:57) - The Use of Religion as a Tool of Oppression
  • (00:23:08) - Religion and Political Life
  • (00:27:29) - The End of Capitalism
  • (00:35:14) - How I first realized I was white
]]> full 41 1 false Back with Michelle, and pivoting from diagnosis to practice. We get a powerful story from her anti-racism work about calling someone into accountability without shaming or discarding them — and what real healing can look like in the room.

We explore how multiracial, multicultural communities of care are built on the ground through shared language, listening, and repair. Why is the backlash against DEI and why relationship remains a quiet, radical force against fascism.

Michelle also reflects on growing up in the Black Baptist church, how her spiritual life has always been inseparable from her political life, and why faith — in something beyond what we can currently see — may be essential to sustaining resistance. 

CODA: A story from Antifascist Dad about the first inklings I had as a kid that I was white, and what that meant.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups. Michelle is a six-time published author, and in May 2025, her sixth book, The Wisdom of the Hive, co-written with her best friend, Amy Burtaine, was released.

She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. 

https://www.michellecjohnson.com/.

Notes: 

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:40:14 <![CDATA[UNLOCKED 19.1 From the Mormon Priesthood to Trans Advocate Dad w/ Blair Hodges Pt 2]]> Sun, 01 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2364751 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/191-from-the-mormon-priesthood-to-trans-advocate-dad-w-blair-hodges-pt-2 Back for Pt 2 of my conversation with Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, former Mormon insider, and dad to a trans kid—by digging into Mormon masculinity. Blair explains how Mormon emotional vulnerability descends from early charismatic revival culture, but also how a rising alt-right strain inside the church is pushing toward a more punitive “muscular” Christianity.

On parenting: why children’s rights and autonomy require dismantling authoritarian habits, how neurodivergence exposes the cruelty of “normal” discipline, and how institutions often treat kids as property. Also: the privilege of political disengagement, what it feels like when the “flood” of fascism reaches your floor, and why listening to marginalized people is the starting point for real antifascist practice.

I close by reading a short excerpt from my upcoming book, a section on gender performance and why trans liberation matters to all of us.

Notes: 

Relationshapes: Blair Hodges

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:02:50) - Mormons' Emotionality
  • (00:07:25) - In Defense of Children's Rights
  • (00:13:59) - The Time of a Parent's Death
  • (00:16:10) - White People's Feelings About Fascism
  • (00:22:01) - The Concerns of a More Moderated Mormon
  • (00:31:14) - The Moment of Becoming Aware of Trans People
]]> full 34 1 false Back for Pt 2 of my conversation with Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, former Mormon insider, and dad to a trans kid—by digging into Mormon masculinity. Blair explains how Mormon emotional vulnerability descends from early charismatic revival culture, but also how a rising alt-right strain inside the church is pushing toward a more punitive “muscular” Christianity.

On parenting: why children’s rights and autonomy require dismantling authoritarian habits, how neurodivergence exposes the cruelty of “normal” discipline, and how institutions often treat kids as property. Also: the privilege of political disengagement, what it feels like when the “flood” of fascism reaches your floor, and why listening to marginalized people is the starting point for real antifascist practice.

I close by reading a short excerpt from my upcoming book, a section on gender performance and why trans liberation matters to all of us.

Notes: 

Relationshapes: Blair Hodges

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:35:31 <![CDATA[20: Fascist Pipeline, Evangelical Pipeline w/ Brad Onishi]]> Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2371381 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/20-fascist-pipeline-evangelical-pipeline-w-brad-onishi Welcoming friend and colleague and fellow dad Brad Onishi (Straight White American Jesus, Preparing for War), to explore the parallels between evangelical conversion and fascist recruitment. Brad was a convert to evangelicalism at 14 and shares how teenage anxiety, alienation, and the search for belonging made him vulnerable to a worldview that offered refuge, certainty, and an enemy to fight.

Bottom line: both fundamentalist religion and far-right movements promise clarity in chaotic times—binary thinking, moral urgency, and cosmic stakes.

At the top: I trace the historical roots of the Satanic Panic and connect it to the current flood of conspiratorial reactions to the Epstein files. If we're parenting or mentoring, we have to recognize spiritual warfare narratives when they resurface on social media. They only confuse things. 

Part 2 now up on Patreon.

Brad Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, and co-host of the Straight White American Jesus (SWAJ) podcast. He founded Axis Mundi Media in 2023 in order to provide a platform for research-based podcasts focused on safeguarding democracy from the threats of extremism and authoritarianism. His writing has appeared at the New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, NBC News, HuffPost, and many other outlets. Onishi is a frequent guest on national radio, podcast, and television outlets, including “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross and MSNBC. His podcast, SWAJ, ranks in the top 50 of Politics shows on Apple’s podcast charts – ahead of programs from NPR, the NYT, and other national outlets. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next is available now.

CORRECTION: In the intro, I said that Paul 23 presided over Vatican 2. It was actually John 23. 

Notes: 

Satanic Panic archive on Conspirituality.

The Devil You Know — Sarah Marshall 

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Antif...

Chapters

  • (00:00:07) - Fascist Pipeline, Evangelical Pipeline With Brad Onishi
  • (00:02:04) - The Satanic Panic Content on Instagram
  • (00:03:35) - The Catholic Church and the Sexual Abuse
  • (00:10:19) - The Satanic Panic Commentaries on the Epstein Files
  • (00:14:21) - Brad Onishi
  • (00:16:26) - Anti-Fascist Dad Podcast
  • (00:16:42) - There Are A Few Anti-Fascists In Portland
  • (00:17:16) - Nobody Is Born a Fundamentalist
  • (00:26:06) - Former Patriot Front Member on The Fear of the Enemy
  • (00:33:14) - Bradley on Antifascist Ideology
  • (00:43:17) - How multicultural and multi ethnic communities inoculate against fascism
]]> 37 1 false Welcoming friend and colleague and fellow dad Brad Onishi (Straight White American Jesus, Preparing for War), to explore the parallels between evangelical conversion and fascist recruitment. Brad was a convert to evangelicalism at 14 and shares how teenage anxiety, alienation, and the search for belonging made him vulnerable to a worldview that offered refuge, certainty, and an enemy to fight.

Bottom line: both fundamentalist religion and far-right movements promise clarity in chaotic times—binary thinking, moral urgency, and cosmic stakes.

At the top: I trace the historical roots of the Satanic Panic and connect it to the current flood of conspiratorial reactions to the Epstein files. If we're parenting or mentoring, we have to recognize spiritual warfare narratives when they resurface on social media. They only confuse things. 

Part 2 now up on Patreon.

Brad Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, and co-host of the Straight White American Jesus (SWAJ) podcast. He founded Axis Mundi Media in 2023 in order to provide a platform for research-based podcasts focused on safeguarding democracy from the threats of extremism and authoritarianism. His writing has appeared at the New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, NBC News, HuffPost, and many other outlets. Onishi is a frequent guest on national radio, podcast, and television outlets, including “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross and MSNBC. His podcast, SWAJ, ranks in the top 50 of Politics shows on Apple’s podcast charts – ahead of programs from NPR, the NYT, and other national outlets. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next is available now.

CORRECTION: In the intro, I said that Paul 23 presided over Vatican 2. It was actually John 23. 

Notes: 

Satanic Panic archive on Conspirituality.

The Devil You Know — Sarah Marshall 

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:44:22 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 20.1: Fascist Pipeline, Evangelical Pipeline w/ Brad Onishi]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:42:22 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2371383 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-201-fascist-pipeline-evangelical-pipeline-w-brad-onishi Part 2 with Brad Onishi. What interrupts extremist pipelines? Brad dishes on his Japanese American family and how multicultural, multiethnic community might inoculate against fascist identity formation. I discuss the flip side: whiteness as the erasure of roots, the vulnerability of deracinated teens searching for story

What are the healthier forms of religion—traditions that invite complexity, mystery, and emotional range rather than binary thinking and enemy-making? 

The coda is on self-regulation, frugality, and inner renewal as part of antifascist life. Do we need antifascist spirituality? 

Brad Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, and co-host of the Straight White American Jesus (SWAJ) podcast. He founded Axis Mundi Media in 2023 in order to provide a platform for research-based podcasts focused on safeguarding democracy from the threats of extremism and authoritarianism. His writing has appeared at the New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, NBC News, HuffPost, and many other outlets. Onishi is a frequent guest on national radio, podcast, and television outlets, including “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross and MSNBC. His podcast, SWAJ, ranks in the top 50 of Politics shows on Apple’s podcast charts – ahead of programs from NPR, the NYT, and other national outlets. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next is available now.

Notes: 

Satanic Panic archive on Conspirituality.

The Devil You Know — Sarah Marshall 

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:09) - Antifascist Dad: The Evangelical Pipeline
  • (00:02:26) - A Japanese American Family's Love
  • (00:10:54) - How to Grow Up When You're 14
  • (00:14:09) - The Pathways to Religious Solidarity
  • (00:19:45) - Emotions of Black Church Worship
  • (00:23:49) - Brad Onishi on Religion and the Trump Era
  • (00:29:48) - Michael Parenti on Soviet Socialism
]]> 39 1 false Part 2 with Brad Onishi. What interrupts extremist pipelines? Brad dishes on his Japanese American family and how multicultural, multiethnic community might inoculate against fascist identity formation. I discuss the flip side: whiteness as the erasure of roots, the vulnerability of deracinated teens searching for story

What are the healthier forms of religion—traditions that invite complexity, mystery, and emotional range rather than binary thinking and enemy-making? 

The coda is on self-regulation, frugality, and inner renewal as part of antifascist life. Do we need antifascist spirituality? 

Brad Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, and co-host of the Straight White American Jesus (SWAJ) podcast. He founded Axis Mundi Media in 2023 in order to provide a platform for research-based podcasts focused on safeguarding democracy from the threats of extremism and authoritarianism. His writing has appeared at the New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, NBC News, HuffPost, and many other outlets. Onishi is a frequent guest on national radio, podcast, and television outlets, including “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross and MSNBC. His podcast, SWAJ, ranks in the top 50 of Politics shows on Apple’s podcast charts – ahead of programs from NPR, the NYT, and other national outlets. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next is available now.

Notes: 

Satanic Panic archive on Conspirituality.

The Devil You Know — Sarah Marshall 

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:38:35 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 18.1 Talking to Young People about the Epstein Files pt 2]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2351913 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/181-talking-to-young-people-about-the-epstein-files-pt-2 What happens when a person we admire is implicated in networks of abuse? How can kids navigate guilt by association without sliding into cynicism or spectacle?

Using Deepak Chopra’s Epstein emails to Jeffrey Epstein, we can see what charisma offers people in pain, what red flags look like, and how media culture trains us to confuse popularity with truth.

Finally: how much apocalyptic evidence do we need before we pivot from doomscrolling to building durable forms of hope? I draw on Dahr Jamail’s arc catastrophe reporting to documenting Indigenous wisdom to explore the question.

Notes: 

Occult Features of Anarchism | The Anarchist Library

The End of Ice - The New Press — Dahr Jamail

We Are the Middle of Forever Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth — Jamail and Rushworth 

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:09) - How to Talk To Young People About The Epstein Files
  • (00:02:08) - Two Issues of Intergenerational Weight
  • (00:03:03) - Deepak Chopra and the New Age Industry
  • (00:10:58) - Coming soon: A Midlife Crisis
  • (00:19:48) - The Weight of Information
]]> full 29 1 false What happens when a person we admire is implicated in networks of abuse? How can kids navigate guilt by association without sliding into cynicism or spectacle?

Using Deepak Chopra’s Epstein emails to Jeffrey Epstein, we can see what charisma offers people in pain, what red flags look like, and how media culture trains us to confuse popularity with truth.

Finally: how much apocalyptic evidence do we need before we pivot from doomscrolling to building durable forms of hope? I draw on Dahr Jamail’s arc catastrophe reporting to documenting Indigenous wisdom to explore the question.

Notes: 

Occult Features of Anarchism | The Anarchist Library

The End of Ice - The New Press — Dahr Jamail

We Are the Middle of Forever Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth — Jamail and Rushworth 

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:22:43 <![CDATA[19. From the Mormon Priesthood to Trans Advocate Dad w/ Blair Hodges]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2362677 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/19-from-the-mormon-priesthood-to-trans-advocate-dad-w-blair-hodges I’m joined by my friend Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, nonprofit comms pro, and dad to a trans kid—for a conversation that starts with his powerful public testimony opposing Utah’s anti–gender-affirming-care bills.

Blair unpacks what it’s like raising a trans child in a “blue dot” city under a hostile state supermajority, and how the so-called “Utah Way” pairs polite PR with targeted cruelty—from flag bans to efforts to rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in the centre of town.

We also trace Blair’s journey from Mormon priesthood culture to trans advocacy: how missionary life cracked his worldview open, how Mormon theology hardens into cis-hetero supremacy, and how real relationships—and research—changed his mind.

Part two (now on Patreon) goes deeper on Mormon masculinity, authoritarian parenting, children’s rights, and why protecting his kid ultimately mattered more than reforming an institution from within.

PS from Blair!

On Mormons not being considered white, see W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (Oxford University Press).The best current one-volume history of the church in its American context, its political realignments, etc., see Benjamin E. Park, American Zion: A New History of Mormonism (W.W. Norton). The best history of Mormon thought on sexuality and gender is Talor G. Petrey, Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism (UNC Press). For a firsthand account of the church's chief architect overseeing its temple building program who came out as trans and subsequently lost her job and church membership, see Laurie Lee Hall, Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman (Signature Books). I interviewed her about the book on Relationscapes, "Trans In the Latter Days."

Notes: 

Relationshapes: Blair Hodges

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:59) - Blair Hodges at the Utah State House
  • (00:07:49) - Utah's anti-LGBTQ policies
  • (00:11:07) - Mormons on Their Mission
  • (00:17:15) - Mormons' perspectives on minority rights
  • (00:18:42) - Mormons on Gender and the Family
  • (00:24:20) - Mormon theology of the nuclear family
  • (00:28:47) - What Started to Break Down The Mormon Gendered Experience
]]> full 32 1 false I’m joined by my friend Blair Hodges—Salt Lake City journalist, nonprofit comms pro, and dad to a trans kid—for a conversation that starts with his powerful public testimony opposing Utah’s anti–gender-affirming-care bills.

Blair unpacks what it’s like raising a trans child in a “blue dot” city under a hostile state supermajority, and how the so-called “Utah Way” pairs polite PR with targeted cruelty—from flag bans to efforts to rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in the centre of town.

We also trace Blair’s journey from Mormon priesthood culture to trans advocacy: how missionary life cracked his worldview open, how Mormon theology hardens into cis-hetero supremacy, and how real relationships—and research—changed his mind.

Part two (now on Patreon) goes deeper on Mormon masculinity, authoritarian parenting, children’s rights, and why protecting his kid ultimately mattered more than reforming an institution from within.

PS from Blair!

On Mormons not being considered white, see W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (Oxford University Press).The best current one-volume history of the church in its American context, its political realignments, etc., see Benjamin E. Park, American Zion: A New History of Mormonism (W.W. Norton). The best history of Mormon thought on sexuality and gender is Talor G. Petrey, Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism (UNC Press). For a firsthand account of the church's chief architect overseeing its temple building program who came out as trans and subsequently lost her job and church membership, see Laurie Lee Hall, Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman (Signature Books). I interviewed her about the book on Relationscapes, "Trans In the Latter Days."

Notes: 

Relationshapes: Blair Hodges

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:43:02 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 17.1 Understanding the Boys and Men of 4Chan w/ Dale Beran pt 2]]> Sun, 15 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2343056 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-171-understanding-the-boys-and-men-of-4chan-w-dale-beran-pt-2 I'm back with Part 2 of my conversation with Dale Beran, turning to what happened to the people he followed while reporting on early 4chan, and what it means to grow out of a life shaped by anonymous online worlds. 

Some were able to step away as their offline lives improved, but others remained tied to screens in cycles of  addiction.

I also share how Dale’s work has helped me talk with my own kids about online culture, bullying, and the attention economy, as a form of inoculation against extremism and despair.

This episode ends with an informal report on how conversations about online spaces are going in this antifascist house. 

Notes:

It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office —Beran

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:08) - Boys and Men of 4chan grow up and move on, or don't
  • (00:04:12) - Stuck in Screens
  • (00:11:31) - The Alt-Right and Accountability
  • (00:21:30) - Are Parents Too Protective?
  • (00:26:38) - Ideas for 12-Year-Old Me
  • (00:32:36) - How We're Talking to Our Kids About the Internet
]]> full 31 1 false I'm back with Part 2 of my conversation with Dale Beran, turning to what happened to the people he followed while reporting on early 4chan, and what it means to grow out of a life shaped by anonymous online worlds. 

Some were able to step away as their offline lives improved, but others remained tied to screens in cycles of  addiction.

I also share how Dale’s work has helped me talk with my own kids about online culture, bullying, and the attention economy, as a form of inoculation against extremism and despair.

This episode ends with an informal report on how conversations about online spaces are going in this antifascist house. 

Notes:

It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office —Beran

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:42:53 <![CDATA[18. Talking to Young People about the Epstein Files]]> Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2351912 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/18-talking-to-young-people-about-the-epstein-files An audio essay on how to talk with young people about the Epstein files from an antifascist perspective. How to hold questions without amplifying sensationalism. How to name harms amidst the absence of accountability.

Also: fragmented Epstein File discourse could trigger a QAnon-style wave on the left, unless adults provide steadier sources, context, and care.

Notes: 

Occult Features of Anarchism | The Anarchist Library

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:04:44) - Talking To My Kids About Epstein
  • (00:15:28) - QAnon 2.0
]]> full 30 1 false An audio essay on how to talk with young people about the Epstein files from an antifascist perspective. How to hold questions without amplifying sensationalism. How to name harms amidst the absence of accountability.

Also: fragmented Epstein File discourse could trigger a QAnon-style wave on the left, unless adults provide steadier sources, context, and care.

Notes: 

Occult Features of Anarchism | The Anarchist Library

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:23:21 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 16.1 Mark Carney is Not Your Antifascist Dad pt.2]]> Sun, 08 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2340209 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-161-mark-carney-is-not-your-antifascist-dad-pt2 As he laid it out at Davos, Carney’s prescription for avoiding fascist chaos is more of the same conservative capitalism that accelerates fascism: tax cuts, deregulation, fast-tracked investment in oil, AI, and minerals, and new trading blocs with the more stable “middle powers.”

He’s not talking about or taking action domestically to support labour unions, redistribution, social safety nets, or anti-racist and democratic protections. 

Carney’s calm, paternal style makes his status quo vision emotionally appealing to liberals seeking stability. Antifascism cannot be a gentler version of domination. We don’t need a kinder patriarch inside the sweatshop. We need politics and parental figures that lead us out of it.

CODA: Alex Pretti was a hero, but the straightforward normalcy of his decent actions tell us something about the contested territory of masculinity in this fascist era.

Notes:

Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems
Jessica Hauser (friend of Alex Pretti) statement.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:08) - Carney's New Medicine, Same as the Old
  • (00:06:21) - Trudeau and Mark Carney: Secure Attachment?
  • (00:20:43) - Alex Pretti: The Normalcy of Heroism
]]> 1 false As he laid it out at Davos, Carney’s prescription for avoiding fascist chaos is more of the same conservative capitalism that accelerates fascism: tax cuts, deregulation, fast-tracked investment in oil, AI, and minerals, and new trading blocs with the more stable “middle powers.”

He’s not talking about or taking action domestically to support labour unions, redistribution, social safety nets, or anti-racist and democratic protections. 

Carney’s calm, paternal style makes his status quo vision emotionally appealing to liberals seeking stability. Antifascism cannot be a gentler version of domination. We don’t need a kinder patriarch inside the sweatshop. We need politics and parental figures that lead us out of it.

CODA: Alex Pretti was a hero, but the straightforward normalcy of his decent actions tell us something about the contested territory of masculinity in this fascist era.

Notes:

Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems
Jessica Hauser (friend of Alex Pretti) statement.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:25:12 <![CDATA[17. Understanding the Boys and Men of 4Chan w/ Dale Beran]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2343053 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/17-understanding-the-boys-and-men-of-4chan-w-dale-beran Writer Dale Beran visits to discuss the far-right online subcultures he documented in his excellent 2019 book, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office.

I ask whether the cohort of alienated, terminally online young men still exists and whether it lost power after gaining it. TLDR? The specific 4chan generation has aged or splintered, but the type endures, and its ideas have been mainstreamed—especially through Elon Musk’s transformation of Twitter into a platform that rewards provocation and misinformation.

Did these young men ever face a real ideological fork? Do they regret that meme-friendly scapegoating traveled faster than deeper structural explanations? We also whether the left should start meming harder. 

DALE BERAN is a writer and artist whose work has been published in McSweeney’s, Quartz, The Huffington Post, The Daily Dot, The Nib, and The Baltimore City Paper. He has a BA in classics from Bard and a JD from Fordham. He lives in Baltimore.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:02:34) - From Something Awful
  • (00:11:19) - Anti-Fascists Dad on The Alt-Right
  • (00:19:19) - The Left and the Far Right
  • (00:24:45) - The Memes on the Shooting
  • (00:28:19) - On Mediums and the Left
  • (00:38:06) - 4chan: Anonymity and the Alt-Right
]]> full 28 1 false Writer Dale Beran visits to discuss the far-right online subcultures he documented in his excellent 2019 book, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office.

I ask whether the cohort of alienated, terminally online young men still exists and whether it lost power after gaining it. TLDR? The specific 4chan generation has aged or splintered, but the type endures, and its ideas have been mainstreamed—especially through Elon Musk’s transformation of Twitter into a platform that rewards provocation and misinformation.

Did these young men ever face a real ideological fork? Do they regret that meme-friendly scapegoating traveled faster than deeper structural explanations? We also whether the left should start meming harder. 

DALE BERAN is a writer and artist whose work has been published in McSweeney’s, Quartz, The Huffington Post, The Daily Dot, The Nib, and The Baltimore City Paper. He has a BA in classics from Bard and a JD from Fordham. He lives in Baltimore.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:39:48 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 15.1 Mother and Minister in Minneapolis w/ Rev. Angela Denker Pt 2]]> Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2328416 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-151-mother-and-minister-in-minneapolis-w-rev-angela-denker-pt-2 I'm back with Rev. Angela Denker, discussing antifascist faith under pressure. Angela names the misogyny threaded through white Christian nationalism—from “submission” theology to the contempt aimed at women who refuse it—and explains why the killing of Renee Good landed as specifically gendered terror. We talk about the double-bind of ministry: how churches can be both sites of harassment and, in places like Minneapolis, hubs of women-led resistance and care.

Then I ask Angela to “translate” an antifascist Jesus for nonreligious young people by riffing on familiar parables—the Prodigal Son, Workers in the Vineyard, and the Talents—as lessons about mercy, economic fairness, and the moral danger of hoarding. The conversation turns to the hardest question: where nonviolence meets its limits, and how Lutheran traditions wrestle with power, resistance, and the realities of state violence.

I close with reflections on Bishop Rob Hirschfeld’s call for clergy to “get their affairs in order” and what that kind of embodied witness implies about capitalism, solidarity, and the spiritual scar tissue we carry.

Notes:

Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood | Broadleaf Books

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:08) - Mother and Minister in Minneapolis
  • (00:02:03) - White Christian Nationalism
  • (00:04:32) - Building Ministry Away from Misogyny
  • (00:10:19) - The Prodigal Son
  • (00:12:12) - Workers in the Vineyard
  • (00:13:47) - Parable of the Talents
  • (00:18:27) - Jesus and the Problem of Nonviolence
  • (00:28:16) - Hirschfeld's Advice to the Christian Clergy
  • (00:33:44) - Theological Scar Tissue
]]> false I'm back with Rev. Angela Denker, discussing antifascist faith under pressure. Angela names the misogyny threaded through white Christian nationalism—from “submission” theology to the contempt aimed at women who refuse it—and explains why the killing of Renee Good landed as specifically gendered terror. We talk about the double-bind of ministry: how churches can be both sites of harassment and, in places like Minneapolis, hubs of women-led resistance and care.

Then I ask Angela to “translate” an antifascist Jesus for nonreligious young people by riffing on familiar parables—the Prodigal Son, Workers in the Vineyard, and the Talents—as lessons about mercy, economic fairness, and the moral danger of hoarding. The conversation turns to the hardest question: where nonviolence meets its limits, and how Lutheran traditions wrestle with power, resistance, and the realities of state violence.

I close with reflections on Bishop Rob Hirschfeld’s call for clergy to “get their affairs in order” and what that kind of embodied witness implies about capitalism, solidarity, and the spiritual scar tissue we carry.

Notes:

Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood | Broadleaf Books

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:37:34 <![CDATA[16. Mark Carney is Not Your Antifascist Dad]]> Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2340009 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/16-mark-carney-is-not-your-antifascist-dad Carney’s recent speech at Davos really is as important as everyone’s saying it is. But in my view, it’s not important for the obvious truth we just heard him confess, but for the lessons it provides about the deep contradictions and hypocrisies of liberal politics, and how when it pretends to stand up to fascism it’s really asking that the capital order return to an era of better optics. Carney told a truth about neoliberalism that conceals a bigger lie about capitalist inevitability, and how pulling this off with the affect of a more benevolent patriarch can be really attractive and distracting.

Part two, available now on Patreon, explores Carney’s masculinity and paternal political style in depth. Does he offer secure attachment?

Notes

ICE taps Canadian firm for 20 armoured vehicles despite Trump trade war | Globalnews.ca

‘Deeply troubling’: Canadian legislators call for halt to ICE armored vehicle sale after report by The Independent

Leadnow. “Stop the Contract: No Canadian Weapons to ICE.”

“Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path” Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 

The Power of the Powerless 

ECONOMIC WARFARE. (Hansard, 17 January 1940)

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:07) - Mark Carney Is Not Your Anti-Fascist Dad
  • (00:03:14) - Roshel Selling Armored Vehicles to ICE
  • (00:08:31) - Havel's Power of the Powerless
  • (00:19:31) - Carney's Policies
  • (00:25:16) - A Kinder Father Figure?
]]> full 28 1 false Carney’s recent speech at Davos really is as important as everyone’s saying it is. But in my view, it’s not important for the obvious truth we just heard him confess, but for the lessons it provides about the deep contradictions and hypocrisies of liberal politics, and how when it pretends to stand up to fascism it’s really asking that the capital order return to an era of better optics. Carney told a truth about neoliberalism that conceals a bigger lie about capitalist inevitability, and how pulling this off with the affect of a more benevolent patriarch can be really attractive and distracting.

Part two, available now on Patreon, explores Carney’s masculinity and paternal political style in depth. Does he offer secure attachment?

Notes

ICE taps Canadian firm for 20 armoured vehicles despite Trump trade war | Globalnews.ca

‘Deeply troubling’: Canadian legislators call for halt to ICE armored vehicle sale after report by The Independent

Leadnow. “Stop the Contract: No Canadian Weapons to ICE.”

“Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path” Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 

The Power of the Powerless 

ECONOMIC WARFARE. (Hansard, 17 January 1940)

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:27:26 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 14.1 How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism w/ Craig Johnson Pt 2]]> Sun, 25 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2321437 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-141-how-to-talk-to-your-son-about-fascism-w-craig-johnson-pt-2 Picking it back up with historian of fascism Craig Johnson with the question of why fascism can feel cool—especially online—and how we might interrupt that appeal without fighting on fascism’s terms. But fascism isn't just pretending to be cool: it’s popular, aesthetic, and subcultural, and it sells itself through speed, power, transgression, and a sense of newness.

There's a tactical dilemma: how to puncture influencers like Andrew Tate or Nick Fuentes without reinforcing their own status metrics (looks, dominance, sexual access). Craig feels, for instance, that jawline mockery backfires, and why we have to keep the critique on what actually matters: cruelty, exploitation, and fascist politics.

No one organizes alone: tactics are collective, context-dependent, and always strategic. We close on coalition-building and why real, lived diversity makes fascist lies harder to sell.

I end with a brief coda on talking with my kids about the attack on Caracas.

Notes:

How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism — Johnson

Fifteen Minutes of Fascism — Johnson's podcast

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:01:07) - Does Fascism Pretend to Be Cool?
  • (00:10:23) - Andrew Tate and the Politics of Influence
  • (00:18:17) - Does the Left Have a Natural Immunity to Fascism?
  • (00:25:16) - Anti-Fascism: The Transgressive Value of Slog
  • (00:29:19) - On the Strategy of Protest
  • (00:32:48) - On Diversity and Anti-Fascism
]]> false Picking it back up with historian of fascism Craig Johnson with the question of why fascism can feel cool—especially online—and how we might interrupt that appeal without fighting on fascism’s terms. But fascism isn't just pretending to be cool: it’s popular, aesthetic, and subcultural, and it sells itself through speed, power, transgression, and a sense of newness.

There's a tactical dilemma: how to puncture influencers like Andrew Tate or Nick Fuentes without reinforcing their own status metrics (looks, dominance, sexual access). Craig feels, for instance, that jawline mockery backfires, and why we have to keep the critique on what actually matters: cruelty, exploitation, and fascist politics.

No one organizes alone: tactics are collective, context-dependent, and always strategic. We close on coalition-building and why real, lived diversity makes fascist lies harder to sell.

I end with a brief coda on talking with my kids about the attack on Caracas.

Notes:

How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism — Johnson

Fifteen Minutes of Fascism — Johnson's podcast

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:43:08 <![CDATA[15. Mother and Minister in Minneapolis w/ Rev. Angela Denker]]> Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2328410 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/15-mother-and-minister-in-minneapolis-w-rev-angela-denker I’m joined by Rev. Angela Denker,  Lutheran minister, journalist, and mom in Minneapolis, as the city groans under intensified ICE activity. We discuss realities on the ground for families and schools, how she talks with her own kids about fear and safety, and why she believes clear, steady adult context matters in a fragmented media world.

As a minister, Denker's visitation and public theology assignments weave pastoral care and sacramental life into public resilience. As a journalist, the core revelation of her book Disciples of White: The Radicalization of American Boyhood, revolves around her framework of “White Jesus” as a cultural product that sanctifies hierarchy, masculinity, and domination. We talk about how that distortion links to the wider ecosystem of white Christian nationalism.

Part 2 now up on Patreon, explores misogyny in the church, antifascist readings of parables, and hard questions about force, nonviolence, and witness.

Notes:

Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood | Broadleaf Books

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:00:05) - Mother and Minister in Minneapolis
  • (00:15:06) - Lutheran and Catholic clergy: an ecumenical conversation
  • (00:18:23) - What Does a Visitation Pastor Do?
  • (00:25:15) - White Jesus: The Story of Christian Nationalism
  • (00:32:42) - White Jesus and the Right
]]> false I’m joined by Rev. Angela Denker,  Lutheran minister, journalist, and mom in Minneapolis, as the city groans under intensified ICE activity. We discuss realities on the ground for families and schools, how she talks with her own kids about fear and safety, and why she believes clear, steady adult context matters in a fragmented media world.

As a minister, Denker's visitation and public theology assignments weave pastoral care and sacramental life into public resilience. As a journalist, the core revelation of her book Disciples of White: The Radicalization of American Boyhood, revolves around her framework of “White Jesus” as a cultural product that sanctifies hierarchy, masculinity, and domination. We talk about how that distortion links to the wider ecosystem of white Christian nationalism.

Part 2 now up on Patreon, explores misogyny in the church, antifascist readings of parables, and hard questions about force, nonviolence, and witness.

Notes:

Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood | Broadleaf Books

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:37:03 <![CDATA[UNLOCK: 13.1 More Degenerate Art, Please! w/ Sarah Jaffray pt.2]]> Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2311666 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-131-more-degenerate-art-please-w-sarah-jaffray-pt2 I'm back with Sarah Jaffray to probe the aesthetics of fascism and the politics of cultural memory. We talk about how fascist movements rely on a triumphalist victim complex that cannot tolerate vulnerability or disability, and how this connects to the Nazi impulse to purify society through the language of degeneracy and the “enemy within.” Of course we also ping Hitler’s own frustrated artistic ambitions and the nineteenth-century “beautiful ruin” vibe, tracing how nostalgia for an imagined past becomes a visual template for authoritarian order.

I close out with a personal coda on writing, mentorship, attention, and rebuilding an inner voice after a personal collapse—through time and cursive.

About — Sarah Jaffray 

You can support the show on Patreon!

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Notes

Barron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art”: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
https://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892362651.html

Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung. “Bauhaus History 1919–1933.”
https://www.bauhaus.de/en/das_bauhaus/21_history/

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1935.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Dixon, Paul. “Uncanny Valley.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/science/uncanny-valley

Dix, Otto. “War (Der Krieg), 1929–1932.” Dresden State Art Collections.
https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/334771

Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2003.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297974/the-coming-of-the-third-reich-by-richard-j-evans/

G...

Chapters

  • (00:09:29) - The Reich's critique of modern art
  • (00:16:03) - The Problem With Art History
  • (00:23:19) - In the Elevator With Art Historians
  • (00:23:54) - Antifascist Art
  • (00:27:14) - Advice for Young Writers
  • (00:32:48) - How to Rescue Your Inner Voice
]]> full 22 1 false I'm back with Sarah Jaffray to probe the aesthetics of fascism and the politics of cultural memory. We talk about how fascist movements rely on a triumphalist victim complex that cannot tolerate vulnerability or disability, and how this connects to the Nazi impulse to purify society through the language of degeneracy and the “enemy within.” Of course we also ping Hitler’s own frustrated artistic ambitions and the nineteenth-century “beautiful ruin” vibe, tracing how nostalgia for an imagined past becomes a visual template for authoritarian order.

I close out with a personal coda on writing, mentorship, attention, and rebuilding an inner voice after a personal collapse—through time and cursive.

About — Sarah Jaffray 

You can support the show on Patreon!

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Notes

Barron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art”: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
https://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892362651.html

Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung. “Bauhaus History 1919–1933.”
https://www.bauhaus.de/en/das_bauhaus/21_history/

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1935.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Dixon, Paul. “Uncanny Valley.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/science/uncanny-valley

Dix, Otto. “War (Der Krieg), 1929–1932.” Dresden State Art Collections.
https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/334771

Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2003.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297974/the-coming-of-the-third-reich-by-richard-j-evans/

Gross, George. “Background and Biography.” Tate.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-grosz-1188

Harrison, Charles, Francis Frascina, and Gill Perry. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300055191/primitivism-cubism-abstraction/

Hitler, Adolf. Speech at the opening of the Entartete Kunst exhibition, Munich, July 19, 1937.
English excerpts reproduced at:
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/entart.htm

Holbein, Hans (the Younger). “The Ambassadors.” National Gallery, London.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors

Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. 1911.
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3483

Lawrence, Jacob. “The Migration Series.” Museum of Modern Art.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/37346

Nochlin, Linda. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” ARTnews, 1971.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-2413/

Riley, Bridget. “Lecture and Interviews.” Tate Britain Archive.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bridget-riley-1845

Rothko, Mark. “Rothko Room.” Tate Modern.
https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/rothko-room

Schulz-Hoffmann, Carla, and Judith C. Weiss, eds. Neue Sachlichkeit / New Objectivity. Munich: Prestel, 2015.
https://www.prestel.com/books/neue-sachlichkeit-new-objectivity/

Tate. “Dada.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada

Tate. “Surrealism.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism

Velázquez, Diego. “Las Meninas.” Museo del Prado.
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/las-meninas/9fdc5f42-5e09-4c5a-9d50-70b43fca0a30

Walker, Kara. “Artist Overview.” Tate.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kara-walker-2660

Winckelmann, Johann Joachim. History of the Art of Antiquity. 1764.
English edition via Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21891

]]> 00:36:48 <![CDATA[14. How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism w/ Craig Johnson]]> Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2319954 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/14-how-to-talk-to-your-son-about-fascism-w-craig-johnson I sit down with historian of fascism Craig Johnson to talk about one of the hardest and most urgent questions facing parents right now: how do we talk to our sons about fascism in a world where so much political socialization happens online, fast, and without supervision?

I open the episode in the shadow of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE—and how disorienting it feels to say what we plainly saw while powerful institutions deny it. As a parent of two sons, I think out loud about what it means to slow things down, to regulate myself first, and to create a space where fear, grief, anger, and dignity can all be held without panic or cynicism.

Johnson argues that fascist movements have always relied on young men to do their dirty work, and traditional Western masculinity—organized around power, domination, speed, and violence—creates a gateway. Boys aren't inherently fascist, but gendered expectations are easily exploited.

We talk about how platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Discord are dense ecosystems where irony, transgressive humor, and memes function as social signals. Racist or sexist jokes are designed to pull kids in quietly, and how adult outrage can sometimes backfire by confirming the fascist story that these ideas are “forbidden.”

When a kid brings a meme to you, that moment is a crossroads. Punishment and shutdown don’t work. Curiosity, care, and asking a child to explain the joke can slow everything down and open space for honesty. 

Notes:

How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism — Johnson

Fifteen Minutes of Fascism — Johnson's podcast

Part 2 now up on Patreon.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

Chapters

  • (00:04:20) - How to Talk to My Son About Renee Good
  • (00:09:55) - Why Fascism Targets Boys
  • (00:14:39) - Are These Political Spaces Safe for Kids?
  • (00:23:15) - How to Talk to Your Child About Social Media
  • (00:28:10) - Hacking Virality
]]> 23 1 false I sit down with historian of fascism Craig Johnson to talk about one of the hardest and most urgent questions facing parents right now: how do we talk to our sons about fascism in a world where so much political socialization happens online, fast, and without supervision?

I open the episode in the shadow of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE—and how disorienting it feels to say what we plainly saw while powerful institutions deny it. As a parent of two sons, I think out loud about what it means to slow things down, to regulate myself first, and to create a space where fear, grief, anger, and dignity can all be held without panic or cynicism.

Johnson argues that fascist movements have always relied on young men to do their dirty work, and traditional Western masculinity—organized around power, domination, speed, and violence—creates a gateway. Boys aren't inherently fascist, but gendered expectations are easily exploited.

We talk about how platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Discord are dense ecosystems where irony, transgressive humor, and memes function as social signals. Racist or sexist jokes are designed to pull kids in quietly, and how adult outrage can sometimes backfire by confirming the fascist story that these ideas are “forbidden.”

When a kid brings a meme to you, that moment is a crossroads. Punishment and shutdown don’t work. Curiosity, care, and asking a child to explain the joke can slow everything down and open space for honesty. 

Notes:

How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism — Johnson

Fifteen Minutes of Fascism — Johnson's podcast

Part 2 now up on Patreon.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

]]> 00:31:21 <![CDATA[13. More Degenerate Art, Please! w/ Sarah Jaffray]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2311633 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/13-more-degenerate-art-please-w-sarah-jaffery What makes art politically dangerous to fascism—and why does empathy now count as transgression?

Today I'm joined by art historian, educator, and curator Sarah Jaffray for a wide-ranging conversation about modern art, fascism, and the politics of perception. Starting from the Nazis’ infamous “Degenerate Art” campaign, Sarah traces how artists in the aftermath of World War I deliberately abandoned realism, narrative, and institutional aesthetics in order to resist authoritarian power.

We explore why fascist movements obsess over image control, why abstraction and disorientation can be politically subversive, and how artists make the invisible visible—in part by slowing us down and drawing out deeper levels of attention. We discuss Dada, Surrealism, New Objectivity, Otto Dix, and George Grosz alongside contemporary struggles over AI-generated art and outcome-driven creativity.

We talk a lot about time: the time art requires, the time empathy needs, and the way authoritarian systems try to eliminate both. Sarah argues for art as witness, process, and lived testimony in the face of political dehumanization.

Part Two of this conversation, available now on Patreon, continues into practical guidance on aesthetic freedom and creative survival under pressure.

Antifascist Dad is out on April 26! You can preorder here.

Notes

About — Sarah Jaffray 

Barron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art”: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
https://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892362651.html

Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung. “Bauhaus History 1919–1933.”
https://www.bauhaus.de/en/das_bauhaus/21_history/

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1935.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Dixon, Paul. “Uncanny Valley.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/science/uncanny-valley

Dix, Otto. “War (Der Krieg), 1929–1932.” Dresden State Art Collections.
https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/334771

Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2003.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297974/the-coming-of-the-third-reich-by-richard-j-evans/

Gross, George. “Background and Biography.” Tate.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-grosz-1188

Harrison, Charles, Francis Frascina, and Gill Perry. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300055191/primitivism-cubism-abstraction/

Hitler, Adolf. Speech at the opening of the Entartete Kunst exhibition, Munich, July 19, 1937.
English excerpts reproduced at:
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/entart.htm

Holbein, Hans (the Younger). “The Ambassadors...

Chapters

  • (00:02:03) - Vanity Fair's Anti-Fascist Portraits
  • (00:07:17) - Interview
  • (00:08:22) - What Makes Transgressive Art Impactful?
  • (00:11:04) - In the Elevator With Art That's Transgressive
  • (00:12:59) - Art in the Age of AI
  • (00:18:34) - Art and the Uncanny Valley
  • (00:22:51) - The Shift in Modern Art History
  • (00:30:12) - The Degenerate Art Exhibition
]]> full 22 1 false What makes art politically dangerous to fascism—and why does empathy now count as transgression?

Today I'm joined by art historian, educator, and curator Sarah Jaffray for a wide-ranging conversation about modern art, fascism, and the politics of perception. Starting from the Nazis’ infamous “Degenerate Art” campaign, Sarah traces how artists in the aftermath of World War I deliberately abandoned realism, narrative, and institutional aesthetics in order to resist authoritarian power.

We explore why fascist movements obsess over image control, why abstraction and disorientation can be politically subversive, and how artists make the invisible visible—in part by slowing us down and drawing out deeper levels of attention. We discuss Dada, Surrealism, New Objectivity, Otto Dix, and George Grosz alongside contemporary struggles over AI-generated art and outcome-driven creativity.

We talk a lot about time: the time art requires, the time empathy needs, and the way authoritarian systems try to eliminate both. Sarah argues for art as witness, process, and lived testimony in the face of political dehumanization.

Part Two of this conversation, available now on Patreon, continues into practical guidance on aesthetic freedom and creative survival under pressure.

Antifascist Dad is out on April 26! You can preorder here.

Notes

About — Sarah Jaffray 

Barron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art”: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
https://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892362651.html

Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung. “Bauhaus History 1919–1933.”
https://www.bauhaus.de/en/das_bauhaus/21_history/

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1935.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Dixon, Paul. “Uncanny Valley.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/science/uncanny-valley

Dix, Otto. “War (Der Krieg), 1929–1932.” Dresden State Art Collections.
https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/334771

Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2003.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297974/the-coming-of-the-third-reich-by-richard-j-evans/

Gross, George. “Background and Biography.” Tate.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-grosz-1188

Harrison, Charles, Francis Frascina, and Gill Perry. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300055191/primitivism-cubism-abstraction/

Hitler, Adolf. Speech at the opening of the Entartete Kunst exhibition, Munich, July 19, 1937.
English excerpts reproduced at:
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/entart.htm

Holbein, Hans (the Younger). “The Ambassadors.” National Gallery, London.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors

Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. 1911.
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3483

Lawrence, Jacob. “The Migration Series.” Museum of Modern Art.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/37346

Nochlin, Linda. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” ARTnews, 1971.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-2413/

Riley, Bridget. “Lecture and Interviews.” Tate Britain Archive.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bridget-riley-1845

Rothko, Mark. “Rothko Room.” Tate Modern.
https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/rothko-room

Schulz-Hoffmann, Carla, and Judith C. Weiss, eds. Neue Sachlichkeit / New Objectivity. Munich: Prestel, 2015.
https://www.prestel.com/books/neue-sachlichkeit-new-objectivity/

Tate. “Dada.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada

Tate. “Surrealism.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism

Velázquez, Diego. “Las Meninas.” Museo del Prado.
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/las-meninas/9fdc5f42-5e09-4c5a-9d50-70b43fca0a30

Walker, Kara. “Artist Overview.” Tate.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kara-walker-2660

Winckelmann, Johann Joachim. History of the Art of Antiquity. 1764.
English edition via Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21891

]]> 00:34:41 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 11.1 The Communism of Love w/ Richard Gilman-Opalsky pt 2]]> Wed, 31 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2285794 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-111-the-communism-of-love-w-richard-gilman-opalsky-pt-2 Happy New Year, everyon! This is Part 2 of my conversation with Richard Gilman-Opalsky on the “Communism of Love."

Love isn’t something to trade, measure, or deserve, and this makes it incompatible with capitalism, and how it gets distorted into obligation, sacrifice, and unpaid, gendered domestic labor.

We talk about improvisation in music, parenting, and politics. Suppressing improvisation is rooted in an obsession with control, predictability, and rigid developmental maps—hallmarks of fascist thinking. Against that are openness, uncertainty, and experiment as conditions of human flourishing.

We talk family and education, where communistic relations already exist in partial, uneven ways. What would it mean to de-privatize care—while recognizing, as bell hooks warned, that family is not a reliable site of love for everyone?

Richard Gilman-Opalsky at UIS 

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@antifascistdad
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@antifascistdad
Matthew on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthew_remski 
Preorder Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times

Chapters

  • (00:03:01) - Piano Lessons & Improvisation
  • (00:04:23) - Jazz against the Fascists
  • (00:07:58) - Anti-Fascism and Humanism
  • (00:13:56) - The Right to Not Control Love
  • (00:23:44) - The Right to Deprivatize Love
  • (00:31:00) - The Communism of Christmas
]]> full 21 1 false Happy New Year, everyon! This is Part 2 of my conversation with Richard Gilman-Opalsky on the “Communism of Love."

Love isn’t something to trade, measure, or deserve, and this makes it incompatible with capitalism, and how it gets distorted into obligation, sacrifice, and unpaid, gendered domestic labor.

We talk about improvisation in music, parenting, and politics. Suppressing improvisation is rooted in an obsession with control, predictability, and rigid developmental maps—hallmarks of fascist thinking. Against that are openness, uncertainty, and experiment as conditions of human flourishing.

We talk family and education, where communistic relations already exist in partial, uneven ways. What would it mean to de-privatize care—while recognizing, as bell hooks warned, that family is not a reliable site of love for everyone?

Richard Gilman-Opalsky at UIS 

Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@antifascistdad
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@antifascistdad
Matthew on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthew_remski 
Preorder Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times

]]> 00:47:45 <![CDATA[12. The Little Match Girl: An Antifascist Rewrite]]> Wed, 24 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2289632 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/12-the-little-match-girl-an-antifascist-rewrite Happy Solstice, Holiday, Christmas, Deep Winter, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa to you all. A familiar short story today, this time ending in revolution—not sentimentality.

Notes:

H.C. Andersen : The Little Match Girl (Hersholt translation)

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast 

TikTok and YouTube: @antifascistdad 

You can still pre-order my book and as a gift, and let them know in a card!

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Intro
  • (00:06:42) - Little Match Girl: a Rewrite
]]> false Happy Solstice, Holiday, Christmas, Deep Winter, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa to you all. A familiar short story today, this time ending in revolution—not sentimentality.

Notes:

H.C. Andersen : The Little Match Girl (Hersholt translation)

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast 

TikTok and YouTube: @antifascistdad 

You can still pre-order my book and as a gift, and let them know in a card!

]]> 00:19:36 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 10.1: Don't Talk About Politics w/ Sarah Stein Lubrano Part 2]]> Sun, 21 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2279732 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/101-dont-talk-about-politics-w-sarah-stein-lubrano-part-2 In Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, we move from the critique of debate and “critical thinking” into the deeper question: what actually radicalizes us?

Sarah talks about the moments that changed her politics—teaching in prisons, supporting a student after sexual violence—and why no amount of abstract knowledge could have done the same work. I share how parenting an autistic kid has transformed my sense of who the world is designed for, and what it means to resist capitalist norms around productivity, learning, and success.

Also: why televised debates and “reasoning as warfare” formats (ahem, Jubilee) are great entertainment but terrible tools for social change, how the marketplace-of-ideas myth functions as liberal ideology, and why protest rarely changes governments or “the public” directly, but can permanently change the protesters themselves.

For Lubrano, good politics looks a lot like good friendship: long-term, non-transactional, joyful where possible. She offers advice to a hypothetical 15-year-old on how to enter political life without burning out: learn to be a good friend, find a broken part of the world you care about, and commit to fixing it together.

I close with an in-person story about meeting my previous guest, Sarah Rose Kaplan, and watching her improv a small act of mutual aid with three hungry kids in a Toronto restaurant—a live illustration of Lubrano’s thesis that new social experiences can change lives.

Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge, and works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (Bloomsbury).


– Website: https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com
– Substack: https://sarahsteinlubrano.substack.com
– X (Twitter): https://x.com/SSteinLubrano
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahsteinlubrano/
– Sense and Solidarity Initiative: https://senseandsolidarity.org
– Sense & Solidarity podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/2dcKkTCJNZM2j2CLKJZS3W

Buy Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds
– Publisher (Bloomsbury – main hub):
https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/

– Support the pod on Patreon!
– Preorder: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (out April 26, 2026). 
– TikTok: @AntiFascistDad
– If you have an antifascism story to share—especially about relationships, generations, or parenting—leave me a voice message on Signal at username: antifascistdad71.

Chapters

  • (00:03:05) - What Really Changes Our Minds?
  • (00:06:47) - Criticism of Argument as Warfare
  • (00:12:35) - Liberal's Biggest Mistake
  • (00:18:08) - The Long Term Strategy of Occupy
  • (00:21:46) - What Would You Tell the 15 Year Old About Political Life?
  • (00:25:06) - I Met Friend of the Pod Sara Rose Kaplan IRL!
]]> full 19 1 false In Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, we move from the critique of debate and “critical thinking” into the deeper question: what actually radicalizes us?

Sarah talks about the moments that changed her politics—teaching in prisons, supporting a student after sexual violence—and why no amount of abstract knowledge could have done the same work. I share how parenting an autistic kid has transformed my sense of who the world is designed for, and what it means to resist capitalist norms around productivity, learning, and success.

Also: why televised debates and “reasoning as warfare” formats (ahem, Jubilee) are great entertainment but terrible tools for social change, how the marketplace-of-ideas myth functions as liberal ideology, and why protest rarely changes governments or “the public” directly, but can permanently change the protesters themselves.

For Lubrano, good politics looks a lot like good friendship: long-term, non-transactional, joyful where possible. She offers advice to a hypothetical 15-year-old on how to enter political life without burning out: learn to be a good friend, find a broken part of the world you care about, and commit to fixing it together.

I close with an in-person story about meeting my previous guest, Sarah Rose Kaplan, and watching her improv a small act of mutual aid with three hungry kids in a Toronto restaurant—a live illustration of Lubrano’s thesis that new social experiences can change lives.

Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge, and works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (Bloomsbury).


– Website: https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com
– Substack: https://sarahsteinlubrano.substack.com
– X (Twitter): https://x.com/SSteinLubrano
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahsteinlubrano/
– Sense and Solidarity Initiative: https://senseandsolidarity.org
– Sense & Solidarity podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/2dcKkTCJNZM2j2CLKJZS3W

Buy Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds
– Publisher (Bloomsbury – main hub):
https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/

– Support the pod on Patreon!
– Preorder: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (out April 26, 2026). 
– TikTok: @AntiFascistDad
– If you have an antifascism story to share—especially about relationships, generations, or parenting—leave me a voice message on Signal at username: antifascistdad71.

]]> 00:31:55 <![CDATA[11. The Communism of Love w/ Richard Gilman-Opalsky]]> Wed, 17 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2285791 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/11-the-communism-of-love-w-richard-gilman-opalsky I asked communist philosopher and jazz drummer Richard Gilman-Opalsky a deceptively simple question: What do we actually mean when we say “love”? 

Richard’s "Communism of Love," insists that love is an active, non-exchange relation that contradicts the logic of capitalism. You can’t measure or spreadsheet it, or cost it out.

Unfortunately, this fact can also curdle into an excuse for sidelining and ignoring the vast amount of unpaid, often gendered, domestic labor—the "secret workshop" described by feminist marxists—where the concept of love is abused and "weaponized" to justify working for free, claiming that love is its own reward.

We talk about how real caregiving love requires parents to actively participate in their children's becoming—what they are not yet. That means getting over the anxiety of control and the tendency to treat children as emotional/financial investments. Parenting, like revolutionary politics and improvisational jazz, requires a constant, collective improvisation and a love for possibilities over rigid predetermined structures.

In “Fascist, Squish, and Antifascist News of the Week” I focus on Ontario Premier Doug Ford responding to reporting about a Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer supplying ICE.

Part Two is up now on Patreon, where Richard and I go deeper into improvisation, music, and why fascist control hates the freedom required for human flourishing.

Richard Gilman-Opalsky at UIS 

Support the show and hear Part Two on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast

Show Notes:

Canadian Defence Review. “Roman Shimonov: 2025 Defence Executive of the Year.” Canadian Defence Review, 2025.
https://canadiandefencereview.com/roman-shimonov-2025-defence-executive-of-the-year/

Canadian Press. “ICE Ordering Fleet of 20 Armoured Vehicles from Canadian Firm.” CityNews Halifax, December 2, 2025.
https://halifax.citynews.ca/2025/12/02/ice-ordering-fleet-of-20-armoured-vehicles-from-canadian-firm/

Canadian Press. “ICE Says Armoured Vehicles Ordered from Roshel Produced in U.S.” CityNews Toronto, December 4, 2025.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/12/04/ice-says-armoured-vehicles-ordered-from-roshel-produced-in-u-s/

Canadian Press. “Sale of Canadian Armoured Vehicles to ICE Agency ‘Deeply Troubling’: Kwan.” CityNews Toronto, December 3, 2025.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/12/03/sale-of-canadian-armoured-vehicles-to-ice-agency-deeply-troubling-kwan/

CPAC. “NDP MP Jenny Kwan Discusses Arms Exports Bill (C-233).” Headline Politics, September 19, 2025.
https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/ndp-mp-jenny-kwan-discusses-arms-exports-bill--september-19-2025?id=755fc44b-a0b7-4bb1-b972-855c673ec354

Duggan, Kyle. “Anita Anand Won’t Say Whether Canada Would Block Export of Armoured Vehicles for Use by ICE.” The Globe and Mail, December 2025.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/pol...

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - The Communism of Love with Richard Gilman Opalski
  • (00:01:47) - Canadian Arms to Fascists
  • (00:12:34) - Interview
  • (00:15:16) - Antifascist Dad: Love and the Right
  • (00:16:16) - Defining Love in the Culture
  • (00:20:51) - The Capitalist Theory of Love
  • (00:30:12) - Uncertainty and Parenting
]]> full 20 1 false I asked communist philosopher and jazz drummer Richard Gilman-Opalsky a deceptively simple question: What do we actually mean when we say “love”? 

Richard’s "Communism of Love," insists that love is an active, non-exchange relation that contradicts the logic of capitalism. You can’t measure or spreadsheet it, or cost it out.

Unfortunately, this fact can also curdle into an excuse for sidelining and ignoring the vast amount of unpaid, often gendered, domestic labor—the "secret workshop" described by feminist marxists—where the concept of love is abused and "weaponized" to justify working for free, claiming that love is its own reward.

We talk about how real caregiving love requires parents to actively participate in their children's becoming—what they are not yet. That means getting over the anxiety of control and the tendency to treat children as emotional/financial investments. Parenting, like revolutionary politics and improvisational jazz, requires a constant, collective improvisation and a love for possibilities over rigid predetermined structures.

In “Fascist, Squish, and Antifascist News of the Week” I focus on Ontario Premier Doug Ford responding to reporting about a Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer supplying ICE.

Part Two is up now on Patreon, where Richard and I go deeper into improvisation, music, and why fascist control hates the freedom required for human flourishing.

Richard Gilman-Opalsky at UIS 

Support the show and hear Part Two on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast

Show Notes:

Canadian Defence Review. “Roman Shimonov: 2025 Defence Executive of the Year.” Canadian Defence Review, 2025.
https://canadiandefencereview.com/roman-shimonov-2025-defence-executive-of-the-year/

Canadian Press. “ICE Ordering Fleet of 20 Armoured Vehicles from Canadian Firm.” CityNews Halifax, December 2, 2025.
https://halifax.citynews.ca/2025/12/02/ice-ordering-fleet-of-20-armoured-vehicles-from-canadian-firm/

Canadian Press. “ICE Says Armoured Vehicles Ordered from Roshel Produced in U.S.” CityNews Toronto, December 4, 2025.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/12/04/ice-says-armoured-vehicles-ordered-from-roshel-produced-in-u-s/

Canadian Press. “Sale of Canadian Armoured Vehicles to ICE Agency ‘Deeply Troubling’: Kwan.” CityNews Toronto, December 3, 2025.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/12/03/sale-of-canadian-armoured-vehicles-to-ice-agency-deeply-troubling-kwan/

CPAC. “NDP MP Jenny Kwan Discusses Arms Exports Bill (C-233).” Headline Politics, September 19, 2025.
https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/ndp-mp-jenny-kwan-discusses-arms-exports-bill--september-19-2025?id=755fc44b-a0b7-4bb1-b972-855c673ec354

Duggan, Kyle. “Anita Anand Won’t Say Whether Canada Would Block Export of Armoured Vehicles for Use by ICE.” The Globe and Mail, December 2025.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-anita-anand-block-export-armoured-vehicles-ice/

Ford Motor Company. “Ford Pro Upfitter Program.” Ford Canada.
https://www.fordpro.ca/en-ca/upfit/pro-upfitter/

Ford Motor Company. “Qualified Vehicle Modifier (QVM) Program Overview.” Ford Pro.
https://www.fordpro.com/en-us/upfit/qualified-vehicle-modifiers/

Gilmore, Rachel. “A Canadian Company Is Supplying Armoured Cars to ICE.” The Tyee, December 4, 2025.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/12/04/Canadian-Company-Armoured-Cars-ICE/

Global Affairs Canada. “Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada 2023.” Government of Canada.
https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/controls-controles/military-militaires/index.aspx?lang=eng

Global Affairs Canada. “Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada 2024.” Government of Canada.
https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/controls-controles/military-militaires/index.aspx?lang=eng

Global News. “Ford Welcomes ICE Plan to Order Ontario Armoured Vehicles.” Global News, December 3, 2025.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11558322/doug-ford-ontario-armoured-vehicles-ice/

Global News. “ICE Taps Canadian Firm for 20 Armoured Vehicles Despite Trump Trade War.” Global News, December 2, 2025.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11556588/us-ice-canada-roshel-armoured-vehicles/

Independent, The. “Canadians Call for Halt to ICE Armoured Vehicle Sale After Roshel News.” The Independent, December 2025.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-ice-vehicle-sales-trump-carney-b2878330.html

Leadnow. “Stop the Contract: No Canadian Weapons to ICE.” Leadnow Petition, December 2025.
https://leadnow.ca/stop-the-contract-roshel-ice/

Patterson, Brent. “Ontario-Based Company to Sell Armoured Vehicles to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Peace Brigades International–Canada, December 3, 2025.
https://pbicanada.org/2025/12/03/ontario-based-company-to-sell-armoured-vehicles-to-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-ice/

Patterson, Brent. “Questions and Concerns About the Pending Export of Canadian-Made Armoured Vehicles to the Israel Police.” Peace Brigades International–Canada, April 17, 2025.
https://pbicanada.org/2025/04/17/questions-the-pending-export-of-canadian-made-armoured-vehicles-to-the-israel-police/

Read, Justin Ling. “Canada Sold $18.9 Million of Military Goods to Israel Despite ‘Pause’.” The Maple, 2025.
https://www.readthemaple.com/canada-sold-18-9-million-of-military-goods-to-israel-despite-pause/

YouTube. “Anita Anand on Roshel–ICE Contract (Scrum Clip).” December 3, 2025.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ce7gk6LDLqA

Yahoo News Canada. “Canadian Firm Roshel to Provide ICE with Armoured Vehicles.” Yahoo News Canada, December 3, 2025.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/business-matters-canadian-firm-roshel-171906482.html



YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@antifascistdad
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@antifascistdad
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewremski
Preorder the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times: https://northatlanticbooks.com

]]> 00:49:09 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 9.1 Trans People Drive Fascists Bananas w/ Sara Rose Caplan pt 2]]> Sun, 14 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2251212 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-91-trans-people-drive-fascists-bananas-w-sara-rose-caplan-pt-2 In part two, Sara and I open with the question Matt Walsh can’t stop weaponizing: “What is a woman?” Sara walks me through her one-woman show that answers Walsh by shifting the frame to a deceptively simple word—“chair.” Through a live game with the audience, she demonstrates how even basic terms are messy, negotiated, and context-bound, and how fascist language games depend on pretending that words like “woman” have timeless, universal meanings.

We dig into why bad-faith questions are a form of bullying, what it means to feel the ground of language fall away under your feet, and how that eerie feeling can also open up freedom and solidarity. We talk about affect as antifascist strategy—why Sara cultivates a calm, philosophical delivery online, how it relates to depression, privilege, and safety, and how it offers a model of trans dignity that refuses both panic and “debate me, bro” energy.

I end with a reflection on coming to understand gender performativity as a cis guy.

Links from Sara:
https://equalitytexas.org/give/501c3/
https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/lastreetcare
https://www.instagram.com/sararosecaplan

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski 
YouTube: Antifascist Dad on YouTube 
TikTok: @antifascistdad

Support the project/instant access to Pt 2.
Patreon: patreon.com/AntifascistDadPodcast 

Preorder the book that this podcast is building toward:
Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times.

If this episode helped you think or talk differently about fascism and gender, you can:
• follow the show in your podcast app
• leave a rating or short review
• share this episode with a friend, comrade, or family member who’s struggling to talk about trans issues and fascism

Chapters

  • (00:00:09) - Anti-Fascist Dad: Trans People Drive Fascists Bananas
  • (00:01:56) - What is a Matt Walsh?
  • (00:12:20) - Does Philosophy Help Manage Anger?
  • (00:19:56) - Queer Advice for 13 Year Olds
]]> full 18 1 false In part two, Sara and I open with the question Matt Walsh can’t stop weaponizing: “What is a woman?” Sara walks me through her one-woman show that answers Walsh by shifting the frame to a deceptively simple word—“chair.” Through a live game with the audience, she demonstrates how even basic terms are messy, negotiated, and context-bound, and how fascist language games depend on pretending that words like “woman” have timeless, universal meanings.

We dig into why bad-faith questions are a form of bullying, what it means to feel the ground of language fall away under your feet, and how that eerie feeling can also open up freedom and solidarity. We talk about affect as antifascist strategy—why Sara cultivates a calm, philosophical delivery online, how it relates to depression, privilege, and safety, and how it offers a model of trans dignity that refuses both panic and “debate me, bro” energy.

I end with a reflection on coming to understand gender performativity as a cis guy.

Links from Sara:
https://equalitytexas.org/give/501c3/
https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/lastreetcare
https://www.instagram.com/sararosecaplan

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski 
YouTube: Antifascist Dad on YouTube 
TikTok: @antifascistdad

Support the project/instant access to Pt 2.
Patreon: patreon.com/AntifascistDadPodcast 

Preorder the book that this podcast is building toward:
Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times.

If this episode helped you think or talk differently about fascism and gender, you can:
• follow the show in your podcast app
• leave a rating or short review
• share this episode with a friend, comrade, or family member who’s struggling to talk about trans issues and fascism

]]> 00:35:25 <![CDATA[10: Don't Talk About Politics w/ Sarah Stein Lubrano]]> Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2267565 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/10-dont-talk-about-politics-w-sarah-stein-lubrano What if the entire “marketplace of ideas” story about how people change their minds is mostly wrong? In this episode, I talk with political theorist and organizer Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano about why debate, podcasts, and “critical thinking” rarely shift anyone’s core political commitments.

Sarah and I dig into her book Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds, the limits of political education, the classed nature of “critical thinking,” cognitive dissonance and cult dynamics, and why good politics begins with friendships, cooperative projects, and building a different world together.

Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge. Sarah works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds (Bloomsbury).

Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/ (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Mentioned in this episode
– Olivia Nuzzi, American Canto
– Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (audio excerpt)
– Leon Festinger, When Prophecy Fails and the origins of cognitive dissonance theory
– Thomas Kelly’s archival critique of Festinger’s study (discussed further on Conspirituality)
– System justification theory
– Aristotle on friendship and the “friend of virtue”
– The Dig podcast (as a political education project)
– The School of Life


– Please leave a rating and review so more people can find the show!
– Preorder my book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (out April 26, 2026)
– Become a supporter on Patreon.
– If you have an antifascism story to share – especially about relationships, generations, or parenting – leave me a voice message on Signal at username: antifascistdad71.

Chapters

  • (00:00:38) - Don't Talk About Politics With Sarah Stein Lubrano
  • (00:02:50) - Olivia Nuzzi's American Canto
  • (00:07:14) - "Don't Talk About Politics"
  • (00:12:50) - How Do People Change Their Minds?
  • (00:17:42) - What's Hard in the World?
  • (00:26:44) - Cognitive dissonance and the conversion
  • (00:38:54) - Fascist Dad of the Week
]]> full 17 1 false What if the entire “marketplace of ideas” story about how people change their minds is mostly wrong? In this episode, I talk with political theorist and organizer Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano about why debate, podcasts, and “critical thinking” rarely shift anyone’s core political commitments.

Sarah and I dig into her book Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds, the limits of political education, the classed nature of “critical thinking,” cognitive dissonance and cult dynamics, and why good politics begins with friendships, cooperative projects, and building a different world together.

Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge. Sarah works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds (Bloomsbury).

Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/ (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Mentioned in this episode
– Olivia Nuzzi, American Canto
– Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (audio excerpt)
– Leon Festinger, When Prophecy Fails and the origins of cognitive dissonance theory
– Thomas Kelly’s archival critique of Festinger’s study (discussed further on Conspirituality)
– System justification theory
– Aristotle on friendship and the “friend of virtue”
– The Dig podcast (as a political education project)
– The School of Life


– Please leave a rating and review so more people can find the show!
– Preorder my book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (out April 26, 2026)
– Become a supporter on Patreon.
– If you have an antifascism story to share – especially about relationships, generations, or parenting – leave me a voice message on Signal at username: antifascistdad71.

]]> 00:42:00 <![CDATA[9. Trans People Drive Fascists Bananas w/ Sara Rose Caplan]]> Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2251047 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/9-trans-people-drive-fascists-bananas-w-sara-rose-caplan Donald Trump casually embraces the word “fascist” in front of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and doesn't bat an eye when Mamdani accuses him of funding genocide. This smug absorption of rhetorical confrontation is something we need to think about.  

On the same day Mamdani brought socialism discourse to the Oval Office, the Democratic leadership voted in favour of House Resolution 58, “Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism,” which features Jordan Peterson’s favorite “100 million deaths” talking point from the dodgy stats of 1997's Black Book of Communism.

But guess what? this same week, the province of Kerala, which has be led by democratically-elected communist parties since 1957, declared that it had eradicated extreme poverty for 64K households through an intensive micro-plan program involving helping folks making like than $3/day get good documents, ration cards, travel allowances, health care, house repairs, and palliative nursing. 

And: I'm joined today by trans philosopher and performer Sara Rose Caplan. We explore why trans people drive fascists bananas; fascism as a fear response to freedom and uncertainty; C.T. Nguyen’s idea of “games as existential balm”; the Cassandra feeling of warning about fascism while no one listens; philosophy as “thinking in slow motion”; and why you can’t win arguments with bad-faith actors like Matt Walsh. Part 2 is available now on Patreon.

Sara Rose Caplan is a trans woman, performer, and educator originally from Houston, Texas. She studied philosophy in undergrad before spending a decade in LA as an improv comedian. This fall, she started working on a MA in philosophy at Cal State LA under the mentorship of trans philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher, though she has sadly had to put her studies on hold as she and her wife, also trans, have decided to leave the United States for safer, hopefully less christofascist shores up North.

Sources:

Text - H.Con.Res.58 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Denouncing the horrors of socialism. 

The Right Can’t Figure Out What to Do With Zohran Mamdani  

Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post 

The Black Book of Communism Is a Shoddy Work of History 

How Kerala eliminated extreme poverty | Brookings

Kerala becomes the first state to eradicate extreme poverty | Peoples Democracy



Links from Sara:
https://equalitytexas.org/give/501c3/
https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/lastreetcare
https://www.instagram.com/sararosecaplan

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski 
YouTube: Antifascist Dad on YouTube 
TikTok: @antifascistdad

Support the project/instant access to Pt 2.
Patreon: patreon.com/AntifascistDadPodcast 

...

Chapters

  • (00:02:58) - Trump Is Making the F word Okay
  • (00:06:33) - House Resolution 58 Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism
  • (00:17:54) - Intro: Sara Rose Caplan
  • (00:18:39) - Why Do Trans People Drive Fascists bananas?
  • (00:27:26) - What Does It Mean to Be Trans in America?
  • (00:34:08) - Why I Studied Philosophy
  • (00:39:19) - Matt Walsh on Philosophy
]]> full 16 1 false Donald Trump casually embraces the word “fascist” in front of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and doesn't bat an eye when Mamdani accuses him of funding genocide. This smug absorption of rhetorical confrontation is something we need to think about.  

On the same day Mamdani brought socialism discourse to the Oval Office, the Democratic leadership voted in favour of House Resolution 58, “Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism,” which features Jordan Peterson’s favorite “100 million deaths” talking point from the dodgy stats of 1997's Black Book of Communism.

But guess what? this same week, the province of Kerala, which has be led by democratically-elected communist parties since 1957, declared that it had eradicated extreme poverty for 64K households through an intensive micro-plan program involving helping folks making like than $3/day get good documents, ration cards, travel allowances, health care, house repairs, and palliative nursing. 

And: I'm joined today by trans philosopher and performer Sara Rose Caplan. We explore why trans people drive fascists bananas; fascism as a fear response to freedom and uncertainty; C.T. Nguyen’s idea of “games as existential balm”; the Cassandra feeling of warning about fascism while no one listens; philosophy as “thinking in slow motion”; and why you can’t win arguments with bad-faith actors like Matt Walsh. Part 2 is available now on Patreon.

Sara Rose Caplan is a trans woman, performer, and educator originally from Houston, Texas. She studied philosophy in undergrad before spending a decade in LA as an improv comedian. This fall, she started working on a MA in philosophy at Cal State LA under the mentorship of trans philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher, though she has sadly had to put her studies on hold as she and her wife, also trans, have decided to leave the United States for safer, hopefully less christofascist shores up North.

Sources:

Text - H.Con.Res.58 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Denouncing the horrors of socialism. 

The Right Can’t Figure Out What to Do With Zohran Mamdani  

Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post 

The Black Book of Communism Is a Shoddy Work of History 

How Kerala eliminated extreme poverty | Brookings

Kerala becomes the first state to eradicate extreme poverty | Peoples Democracy



Links from Sara:
https://equalitytexas.org/give/501c3/
https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/lastreetcare
https://www.instagram.com/sararosecaplan

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski 
YouTube: Antifascist Dad on YouTube 
TikTok: @antifascistdad

Support the project/instant access to Pt 2.
Patreon: patreon.com/AntifascistDadPodcast 

Preorder the book that this podcast is building toward:
Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times.

If this episode helped you think or talk differently about fascism and gender, you can:
• follow the show in your podcast app
• leave a rating or short review
• share this episode with a friend, comrade, or family member who’s struggling to talk about trans issues and fascism

]]> 00:44:52 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 7.1 Antifascist Father w/ David Inczauskis, S.J. Pt 2]]> Sun, 30 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2215953 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-71-antifascist-father-w-david-inczauskis-sj-pt-2 In Part 2, David and I go deeper into the contradictions, tensions, and possibilities of the Catholic Church at this political moment. We discuss ideological purity, coalition building, critiques of capitalism, the role of synodality, and how leftists and religious radicals can meet each other in common struggle.

What are the spiritual and emotional dimensions of direct action? What gives people courage to resist? The effort to bring communion to detainees is not a stunt but a deeply rooted pastoral act grounded in human rights, sacramental practice, and a public demonstration of both humility and defiance.

What happens when people of very different beliefs show up at the same protest? What does collaboration look like when disagreements run deep? What happens if coalitions fracture? The right is always ready to fill the vacuum when the left stumbles backwards.

Finally: a diary entry on post (?) religious antifascist parenting.

David's excellent podcast on Liberation Theology

Chapters

  • (00:00:08) - Anti-Fascist Father
  • (00:04:02) - The Mass Against ICE Detention
  • (00:13:25) - Lazarus and Violence in the Catholic Church
  • (00:26:12) - The issues of labor and social justice
  • (00:27:01) - A More Joyful Side to Political Action
  • (00:31:53) - Pope Francis on Fighting for Christ
  • (00:32:39) - The Value of Religion for Our Kids
]]> full 15 1 false In Part 2, David and I go deeper into the contradictions, tensions, and possibilities of the Catholic Church at this political moment. We discuss ideological purity, coalition building, critiques of capitalism, the role of synodality, and how leftists and religious radicals can meet each other in common struggle.

What are the spiritual and emotional dimensions of direct action? What gives people courage to resist? The effort to bring communion to detainees is not a stunt but a deeply rooted pastoral act grounded in human rights, sacramental practice, and a public demonstration of both humility and defiance.

What happens when people of very different beliefs show up at the same protest? What does collaboration look like when disagreements run deep? What happens if coalitions fracture? The right is always ready to fill the vacuum when the left stumbles backwards.

Finally: a diary entry on post (?) religious antifascist parenting.

David's excellent podcast on Liberation Theology

]]> 00:40:35 <![CDATA[8: Antifascist Parenting: Depression/Hope-Whiplash]]> Wed, 26 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2237085 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/8-antifascist-parenting-depressionhope-whiplash I posted a short reflection to TikTok last week, and it landed harder than I expected. It’s about the emotional double-life I believe many of us are living: one foot in the adult world of political vigilance and despair, and one foot in the child-world of curiosity, play, and care.

Today I’m expanding that theme and pairing it with another challenge: how suspicion-driven Left analysis shapes our emotional availability, our social trust, and our parenting. How do we balance vigilance with openness? How do we keep our melancholy from becoming our children’s inheritance? And how do we stop feeling like orphans in a world where radical elders have been scattered, suppressed, or lost?

I’d love to hear your experience with this:

  • Best way: send me a voice memo on Signal @antifascistdad.71. Try to keep messages under 2 minutes!
  • You can also DM me on Bluesky and Instagram, or join me on Patreon @antifascistdadpodcast where my DMs are open.
  • I’m also on TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.

Preorder link for Antifascist Dad (North Atlantic Books, April 2026)

]]> full 14 1 false I posted a short reflection to TikTok last week, and it landed harder than I expected. It’s about the emotional double-life I believe many of us are living: one foot in the adult world of political vigilance and despair, and one foot in the child-world of curiosity, play, and care.

Today I’m expanding that theme and pairing it with another challenge: how suspicion-driven Left analysis shapes our emotional availability, our social trust, and our parenting. How do we balance vigilance with openness? How do we keep our melancholy from becoming our children’s inheritance? And how do we stop feeling like orphans in a world where radical elders have been scattered, suppressed, or lost?

I’d love to hear your experience with this:

  • Best way: send me a voice memo on Signal @antifascistdad.71. Try to keep messages under 2 minutes!
  • You can also DM me on Bluesky and Instagram, or join me on Patreon @antifascistdadpodcast where my DMs are open.
  • I’m also on TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.

Preorder link for Antifascist Dad (North Atlantic Books, April 2026)

]]> 00:30:14 <![CDATA[SPECIAL EPISODE: Matthew Interviewed by Cory Johnston at Skeptical Leftist]]> Mon, 24 Nov 2025 14:27:55 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2242394 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/special-episode-matthew-interviewed-by-cory-johnston-at-skeptical-leftist Just a coupla antifascist Canadian dads having a chat about stuff. 

In this special crossover episode, I join Cory Johnston of the Skeptical Leftist podcast for a  conversation about cult dynamics, fascism, antifascist parenting, masculinity, and how to support kids with empathy in a collapsing world.

We talk about parenting in a political emergency, how to avoid overwhelming kids with adult anxieties, and how to build trust-based conversations about power, policing, misinformation, and existential fear. We get into masculinity, emotional repression, the unpaid labor of women, the politics of care, and how becoming a co-parent radicalized me more deeply than any book ever could.

We also spend time on atheist/religious alliances, liberation theology, body-image capitalism, surviving neoliberal time-pressure, and how to nurture political imagination without drowning in guilt or fatalism.

Our interview on YouTube.

Cory's Linktree.

My book to preorder.

Chapters

  • (00:00:07) - The Skeptical Leftist Podcast
  • (00:01:07) - Matthew's Short Bio Rant
  • (00:05:03) - On Parenting and the Left
  • (00:10:13) - What is Anti-Fascism?
  • (00:24:37) - Anti-Fascism & Conspirituality
  • (00:29:59) - Democracy on Liberation theology
  • (00:41:39) - On Becoming a Parent
  • (00:49:04) - What Is Healthy Masculinity?
  • (00:59:59) - How Do You Raise Your Kids With Empathetic Awareness?
  • (01:08:51) - Emotional maturity and the police
  • (01:19:45) - White Privilege and the Problem of Personal Responsibility
  • (01:25:32) - Time Management
  • (01:33:17) - Where Can People Find Antifascist Dad?
]]> full 13 1 false Just a coupla antifascist Canadian dads having a chat about stuff. 

In this special crossover episode, I join Cory Johnston of the Skeptical Leftist podcast for a  conversation about cult dynamics, fascism, antifascist parenting, masculinity, and how to support kids with empathy in a collapsing world.

We talk about parenting in a political emergency, how to avoid overwhelming kids with adult anxieties, and how to build trust-based conversations about power, policing, misinformation, and existential fear. We get into masculinity, emotional repression, the unpaid labor of women, the politics of care, and how becoming a co-parent radicalized me more deeply than any book ever could.

We also spend time on atheist/religious alliances, liberation theology, body-image capitalism, surviving neoliberal time-pressure, and how to nurture political imagination without drowning in guilt or fatalism.

Our interview on YouTube.

Cory's Linktree.

My book to preorder.

]]> 01:34:39 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 6.1 A Dare Wrapped in a Joke Wrapped in a Void w/ Cy Canterel Pt 2]]> Sat, 22 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2214179 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-61-a-dare-wrapped-in-a-joke-wrapped-in-a-void-w-cy-canterel-pt-2 In Part 2 of my conversation with Cy Canterel, we keep digging into how people form identity, belief, and belonging inside the swirl of irony, nihilism, and digital performance that defines so much of contemporary life.

We explore the psychology of online radicalization—what actually pulls people toward fascist aesthetics, what ambivalence can teach us about resistance, and how the very same infrastructures that feed alienation can also host creativity, solidarity, and care.

Also: more on the Graham Platner story as a living case study in fluid online identity: how meaning shifts, how people change, and how communities can choose to interrupt cycles of rage instead of reproducing them.

And an epilogue on taking the 13 year-old to the Toronto Anticapitalist Book Fair in the old Tranzac Club, where I used to hang out more than 30 years ago.

Cy's Website

Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines

Chapters

  • (00:00:07) - A Dare Wrapped In a Joke Wrapped in a Void
  • (00:02:49) - The Psychology of Extremist Identity
  • (00:05:30) - Noxious Views in the Online Culture
  • (00:08:30) - Can You Change Your Own Mind?
  • (00:09:57) - The Narrative of Who Is Graham Platner
  • (00:12:53) - Do Narratives Promote or Decrease Ambiguity?
  • (00:22:40) - The Problem With The Revolutionary Imagination
  • (00:25:16) - Cy Cantarel on Being Nihilistic at 14
  • (00:29:43) - Anti-capitalist book fair at the Tranzac Club
]]> full 12 1 false In Part 2 of my conversation with Cy Canterel, we keep digging into how people form identity, belief, and belonging inside the swirl of irony, nihilism, and digital performance that defines so much of contemporary life.

We explore the psychology of online radicalization—what actually pulls people toward fascist aesthetics, what ambivalence can teach us about resistance, and how the very same infrastructures that feed alienation can also host creativity, solidarity, and care.

Also: more on the Graham Platner story as a living case study in fluid online identity: how meaning shifts, how people change, and how communities can choose to interrupt cycles of rage instead of reproducing them.

And an epilogue on taking the 13 year-old to the Toronto Anticapitalist Book Fair in the old Tranzac Club, where I used to hang out more than 30 years ago.

Cy's Website

Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines

]]> 00:36:56 <![CDATA[7. Antifascist Father w/ David Inczauskis, S.J.]]> Wed, 19 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2213919 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/7-antifascist-father-w-david-inczauskis-sj I sit down with Jesuit priest and liberation theologian Father David Inczauskis, S.J., who has been helping lead faith-based protests at Chicago’s Broadview ICE Detention Center. We get into the lived meaning of community life, the risks and necessities of nonviolent resistance, and why liberation theology is suddenly back at the center of the global Catholic conversation.

Before we talk, I take about ten minutes to get clear — personally and ideologically — about my own evolving relationship to Catholicism, anticapitalism, and antifascist organizing. If you’ve ever struggled with the contradictions of religious institutions while still feeling pulled toward their radical roots, this may resonate.

We also close with Fascist Dad of the Week, featuring the tragic anti-heroism of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose devotion to a decrepit sex criminal seems to grow deeper with every press conference.

David's excellent podcast on Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology Primer on Conspirituality

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@antifascistdad
TikTok: @antifascistdad
Instagram: @matthew_remski
Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social

Join the community and get all Part 2 episodes + extras on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times
North Atlantic Books · Coming April 26, 2026

 

 

just say the word.

Chapters

  • (00:00:45) - Intro
  • (00:11:48) - Inczauskis on Faith and the Left
  • (00:13:47) - Mass and the Future of Nonviolence
  • (00:15:29) - Jesuits Bring Communion to Immigrant Detainees
  • (00:18:12) - Liberation Theology
  • (00:23:26) - Jesuits live a community life
  • (00:28:56) - An Objective Assessment of the Catholic Church
  • (00:40:09) - Catholic Church Attempt to Bring Communion to Detainees
  • (00:47:29) - Karoline Leavitt Lying About Trump's Relationship With Jeffrey
]]> full 11 1 false I sit down with Jesuit priest and liberation theologian Father David Inczauskis, S.J., who has been helping lead faith-based protests at Chicago’s Broadview ICE Detention Center. We get into the lived meaning of community life, the risks and necessities of nonviolent resistance, and why liberation theology is suddenly back at the center of the global Catholic conversation.

Before we talk, I take about ten minutes to get clear — personally and ideologically — about my own evolving relationship to Catholicism, anticapitalism, and antifascist organizing. If you’ve ever struggled with the contradictions of religious institutions while still feeling pulled toward their radical roots, this may resonate.

We also close with Fascist Dad of the Week, featuring the tragic anti-heroism of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose devotion to a decrepit sex criminal seems to grow deeper with every press conference.

David's excellent podcast on Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology Primer on Conspirituality

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@antifascistdad
TikTok: @antifascistdad
Instagram: @matthew_remski
Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social

Join the community and get all Part 2 episodes + extras on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times
North Atlantic Books · Coming April 26, 2026

 

 

just say the word.

]]> 00:49:46 <![CDATA[6. A Dare Wrapped in a Joke Wrapped in a Void w/ Cy Canterel]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2200126 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/6-a-dare-wrapped-in-a-joke-wrapped-in-a-void-w-cy-canterel I sit down with feral scholar and TikTok analyst Cy Canterel to explore one of the strangest and most opaque zones of contemporary politics: the swirling online subcultures where memes, irony, nihilism, and fragmented identity collide with rising fascism.

Cy brings a rare combination of systemic thinking, psychological insight, and lived experience as an autistic researcher who understands outsider culture from the inside. Together we trace how today’s meme-driven environments blur the lines between subculture and politics, and why attempts to “decode” online radicalization so often miss the mark. What looks like political ideology is often a shared subcultural language. What looks like a manifesto might actually be a dare, a joke, or an attempt to create meaning in the void.

We talk about the very ambiguous case of Tyler Robinson, alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, and why the bullet-casing engravings left behind point less toward a stable ideology and more toward the chaotic, dare-based dynamics of online subcultures. We also begin unpacking the emerging story of Graham Platner, and why he has become a Rorschach test for liberal and left anxieties.

Cy argues that online extremism is not distortion of human nature, but a predictable outcome of alienation, platform incentives, and a society that doesn’t give people — especially young men — stable roles, narratives, or futures. But she also insists the internet itself isn’t broken. The tools could be used for creativity, care, and community; they’ve simply been captured by the wrong incentives.

If you’re a parent, educator, caregiver, or anyone trying to understand what’s happening to young people online — and what can actually intervene in these dynamics — Cy’s insights are super helpful.

Cy's Website

Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines

• Subscribe on Patreon for Part 2 and full archive access:
https://www.patreon.com/antifascistadpodcast

• Preorder Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (April 26, 2026)

• Follow me on Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
• Follow me on Instagram: @matthew_remski
• Follow on YouTube & TikTok: @antifascistdad

• Rate & Review — it helps this project reach more people!

• Share this episode with educators, caregivers, or anyone trying to understand online radicalization.

 

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - A Dare Wrapped in a Joke: The Memosphere
  • (00:02:50) - Zoran Mandani Wins
  • (00:11:17) - Cy Canterel on the Internet and Political Radicalization
  • (00:18:35) - Autism and Internet Studies
  • (00:24:14) - What Looks Like Politics Is Often a Subculture
  • (00:35:29) - The Confused Politics of Far-Right Groups
  • (00:40:37) - What do men become vulnerable to in isolation, particularly on the Internet
  • (00:45:50) - Fascist Dad of the Week
]]> full 10 1 false I sit down with feral scholar and TikTok analyst Cy Canterel to explore one of the strangest and most opaque zones of contemporary politics: the swirling online subcultures where memes, irony, nihilism, and fragmented identity collide with rising fascism.

Cy brings a rare combination of systemic thinking, psychological insight, and lived experience as an autistic researcher who understands outsider culture from the inside. Together we trace how today’s meme-driven environments blur the lines between subculture and politics, and why attempts to “decode” online radicalization so often miss the mark. What looks like political ideology is often a shared subcultural language. What looks like a manifesto might actually be a dare, a joke, or an attempt to create meaning in the void.

We talk about the very ambiguous case of Tyler Robinson, alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, and why the bullet-casing engravings left behind point less toward a stable ideology and more toward the chaotic, dare-based dynamics of online subcultures. We also begin unpacking the emerging story of Graham Platner, and why he has become a Rorschach test for liberal and left anxieties.

Cy argues that online extremism is not distortion of human nature, but a predictable outcome of alienation, platform incentives, and a society that doesn’t give people — especially young men — stable roles, narratives, or futures. But she also insists the internet itself isn’t broken. The tools could be used for creativity, care, and community; they’ve simply been captured by the wrong incentives.

If you’re a parent, educator, caregiver, or anyone trying to understand what’s happening to young people online — and what can actually intervene in these dynamics — Cy’s insights are super helpful.

Cy's Website

Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines

• Subscribe on Patreon for Part 2 and full archive access:
https://www.patreon.com/antifascistadpodcast

• Preorder Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (April 26, 2026)

• Follow me on Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
• Follow me on Instagram: @matthew_remski
• Follow on YouTube & TikTok: @antifascistdad

• Rate & Review — it helps this project reach more people!

• Share this episode with educators, caregivers, or anyone trying to understand online radicalization.

 

]]> 00:47:09 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 4.1 Courage in Resistance w/ Ben Case Pt 2]]> Sat, 08 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2176172 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-41-courage-in-resistance-w-ben-case-pt-2 In Part 2 of our conversation, Ben Case and I move from frameworks to consequences. We revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a concrete case of “little” versus “big” violence, asking what deterrence, backlash, and dignity look like when an act becomes a meme and a cautionary tale at the same time.

Ben draws on his Muay Thai career to talk about fight training as a metaphor for political life: how normalizing adrenaline and pain helps you keep your head during arrests, how to tell hurt from injury, and why the ability to read an adversary in real time matters as much as strategy documents. We sit with responsibility: what communities owe each other when actions bring heat, how mutual aid and legal defense slot into any honest conversation about risk, and why some moments demand acting without guarantees simply to preserve human dignity.

In the closing segment, I unpack the Graham Platner morality play: a black box for the contemplation of masculinity, recklessness, red flags, trauma, accountability, marks of Cain, internet vs. public identities, and the status of trust in the spectacle.

Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public.

Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs.

TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.

Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026.

 

Notes:

Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case 

Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence 

Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case) 

Venezuela Military Personnel 

'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News

The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC

Hegseth orders that all defense personnel review his speech to top military brass on fitness, standards | CNN Politics

Pete Hegseth | Signal, Tattoos, Harvey Milk, Secretary Defense, Military Career, & Facts | Britannica

Sullivan man launches campaign for U.S. Senate | PenBay Pilot

The Political Awakening of the Oyster Farmer Taking on Susan Collins | The New Republic

Who is Graham Platner and why is he everywhere right now? | Maine Public

Can a Maine Oyster Farmer Defeat a Five-Term Republican Senator?

Chapters

  • (00:00:10) - Courage in Resistance
  • (00:02:12) - Anti-Fascism, Part 2
  • (00:06:53) - Richard Spencer Gets Punched
  • (00:08:24) - Punishing Richard Spencer: The Consequences
  • (00:14:48) - The Most Important Things That Ben Learned From Sport Fighting
  • (00:16:53) - Fighting in the Ring
  • (00:20:14) - Protesters Disrupt ICE Agents
  • (00:22:56) - Fighting Sports for antifascist activists
  • (00:28:13) - On human dignity
  • (00:28:42) - The Culture of Contempt
  • (00:33:18) - Meet the Maine Democrat Running for Congress on a Left Wing
  • (00:44:19) - The Platner Spectacle
  • (00:46:21) - The Social Brain
]]> full 9 1 false In Part 2 of our conversation, Ben Case and I move from frameworks to consequences. We revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a concrete case of “little” versus “big” violence, asking what deterrence, backlash, and dignity look like when an act becomes a meme and a cautionary tale at the same time.

Ben draws on his Muay Thai career to talk about fight training as a metaphor for political life: how normalizing adrenaline and pain helps you keep your head during arrests, how to tell hurt from injury, and why the ability to read an adversary in real time matters as much as strategy documents. We sit with responsibility: what communities owe each other when actions bring heat, how mutual aid and legal defense slot into any honest conversation about risk, and why some moments demand acting without guarantees simply to preserve human dignity.

In the closing segment, I unpack the Graham Platner morality play: a black box for the contemplation of masculinity, recklessness, red flags, trauma, accountability, marks of Cain, internet vs. public identities, and the status of trust in the spectacle.

Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public.

Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs.

TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.

Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026.

 

Notes:

Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case 

Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence 

Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case) 

Venezuela Military Personnel 

'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News

The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC

Hegseth orders that all defense personnel review his speech to top military brass on fitness, standards | CNN Politics

Pete Hegseth | Signal, Tattoos, Harvey Milk, Secretary Defense, Military Career, & Facts | Britannica

Sullivan man launches campaign for U.S. Senate | PenBay Pilot

The Political Awakening of the Oyster Farmer Taking on Susan Collins | The New Republic

Who is Graham Platner and why is he everywhere right now? | Maine Public

Can a Maine Oyster Farmer Defeat a Five-Term Republican Senator?

Maine Senate candidate promoted violent political action in since-deleted online posts - POLITICO

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner covers up controversial tattoo: What to know

Graham Platner—and His Mom—Try to Move Past Tattoo Scandal at a Maine Town Hall | Vanity Fair

]]> 00:50:18 <![CDATA[5. Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway | A Review]]> Wed, 05 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2174589 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/5-notes-on-being-a-man-by-scott-galloway-a-review Note: This review is also available on YouTube.

How many wellness brofluencer podcasters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three: one to film it, one to sell the “ancestral light protocol,” and one to warn bulbs are “seed oils for your eyes.”

In this longer solo episode I dig into Scott Galloway’s Notes on Being a Man (Simon & Schuster, published Nov 5). Galloway is everywhere—NYU Stern prof, serial entrepreneur, and podcast mainstay—and his new book will land loudly with U.S. liberals searching for ways to “win back men” from Trumpism. I read the book closely—praise where it’s due, pushback where it matters—and make the case that while Galloway offers genuine, sometimes moving reflections on love, fatherhood, and responsibility, his framework ultimately shores up the liberal-capitalist status quo that keeps feeding the conditions in which authoritarianism grows.

Across the hour, I map Galloway’s 44 “notes” into five big buckets—reframing masculinity, capitalist pep talk, productivity metaphors, pro-family traditionalism, and the kinder-gentler counterweight to manosphere alpha tropes—and test how each plays in the current political economy.

I highlight where the book’s affective power (memoir + confessional humility) outpaces its thin endnotes and limited policy imagination; where “protect, provide, procreate” functions as a sticky brand more than a credible gender theory; and where straw-man takes (on “toxic masculinity,” college, participation trophies) obscure structural realities.

I also dig into the contradictions: the book’s bootstrap sermons versus its tender late-chapter wisdom on loyalty and unconditional love; the patriotic gloss versus the missing history; and how a spirituality of private consolation can soothe readers without moving them toward material change. If you’re a parent, teacher, organizer—or just a listener trying to make sense of “men’s crisis” content without getting pulled rightward—this breakdown offers context, citations to chase, and a rubric for reading similar books with both empathy and rigor.

Find me on YouTube and TikTok as @antfascistdad. Part 2's and extras on Patreon.

 

Note:

Brief: Galloway and the Mooch: The Lost Boys of Capitalism (Pt 1)

 

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Anti-Fascist Dad Podcast
  • (00:01:01) - Scott Galloway's Notes On Being A Man Review
  • (00:06:53) - Notes on Being Scott Galloway
  • (00:08:32) - Galloway's Insecure Thoughts
  • (00:16:37) - Notes on Being a Man Review
  • (00:27:29) - Galloway's Race and Justice Ideas
  • (00:29:01) - Guru Galloway
  • (00:32:13) - Protect, Provide, Procreate
  • (00:38:59) - Masculinity
  • (00:44:39) - Our Kids Don't Need College
  • (00:50:42) - The Problem With Meritocracy
  • (00:56:07) - Sexual
  • (00:59:39) - Galloway's Bootstraps
  • (01:09:13) - Elder Wisdom?
]]> full 8 1 false Note: This review is also available on YouTube.

How many wellness brofluencer podcasters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three: one to film it, one to sell the “ancestral light protocol,” and one to warn bulbs are “seed oils for your eyes.”

In this longer solo episode I dig into Scott Galloway’s Notes on Being a Man (Simon & Schuster, published Nov 5). Galloway is everywhere—NYU Stern prof, serial entrepreneur, and podcast mainstay—and his new book will land loudly with U.S. liberals searching for ways to “win back men” from Trumpism. I read the book closely—praise where it’s due, pushback where it matters—and make the case that while Galloway offers genuine, sometimes moving reflections on love, fatherhood, and responsibility, his framework ultimately shores up the liberal-capitalist status quo that keeps feeding the conditions in which authoritarianism grows.

Across the hour, I map Galloway’s 44 “notes” into five big buckets—reframing masculinity, capitalist pep talk, productivity metaphors, pro-family traditionalism, and the kinder-gentler counterweight to manosphere alpha tropes—and test how each plays in the current political economy.

I highlight where the book’s affective power (memoir + confessional humility) outpaces its thin endnotes and limited policy imagination; where “protect, provide, procreate” functions as a sticky brand more than a credible gender theory; and where straw-man takes (on “toxic masculinity,” college, participation trophies) obscure structural realities.

I also dig into the contradictions: the book’s bootstrap sermons versus its tender late-chapter wisdom on loyalty and unconditional love; the patriotic gloss versus the missing history; and how a spirituality of private consolation can soothe readers without moving them toward material change. If you’re a parent, teacher, organizer—or just a listener trying to make sense of “men’s crisis” content without getting pulled rightward—this breakdown offers context, citations to chase, and a rubric for reading similar books with both empathy and rigor.

Find me on YouTube and TikTok as @antfascistdad. Part 2's and extras on Patreon.

 

Note:

Brief: Galloway and the Mooch: The Lost Boys of Capitalism (Pt 1)

 

]]> 01:18:02 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 3.1 You Can’t Exile Antifascism w/ Mark Bray — Pt 2]]> Sun, 02 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2176182 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-31-you-cant-exile-antifascism-w-mark-bray-pt-2 Hello everyone! Part 2 opens with reflections on Mark’s balance between public scholarship and private parenting, then moves into his distinction between liberal history and fascist propaganda—the moment when sourcing gives way to myth. We discuss how protest slogans can be misread yet remain essential to antifascist diversity and vitality, and end with Mark’s hope for new generations unburdened by despair but grounded in struggle, truth, and imagination.


Notes

Bray, Mark. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2017.

Bray, Mark, and Robert H. Haworth, eds. Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. Translated by Mark Bray and Joseph McCabe. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019

Meet the Portland protest frog that started a movement - YouTube 

‘I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,’ says Portland ICE protest frog that got pepper sprayed by federal agents - oregonlive.com

ICE Agents Shoot Pepper Spray into Protester's Frog Costume Air Vent  

Antifa expert at Rutgers University flees US amid death threats

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US | WIRED

Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats

Rutgers Expert on Antifa Flees to Spain After Death Threats - The New York Times

Antifa Expert to Flee with Family to Spain Following Death Threats | Democracy Now!

Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House 

 

You can pre-order Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books | April 26 2026)

Chapters

  • (00:00:10) - Why You Can't Exile Anti-Fascism
  • (00:01:46) - American politics of individualism
  • (00:03:58) - How Fascism Became Explicit in Education
  • (00:13:53) - Anti-Fascist Protest and Direct Action
  • (00:22:41) - How to Build a More Radical Movement
  • (00:25:16) - What Makes You Hopeful For Your Kids?
  • (00:35:20) - The Kids of Anti-Fascism
]]> full 7 1 false Hello everyone! Part 2 opens with reflections on Mark’s balance between public scholarship and private parenting, then moves into his distinction between liberal history and fascist propaganda—the moment when sourcing gives way to myth. We discuss how protest slogans can be misread yet remain essential to antifascist diversity and vitality, and end with Mark’s hope for new generations unburdened by despair but grounded in struggle, truth, and imagination.


Notes

Bray, Mark. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2017.

Bray, Mark, and Robert H. Haworth, eds. Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. Translated by Mark Bray and Joseph McCabe. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019

Meet the Portland protest frog that started a movement - YouTube 

‘I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,’ says Portland ICE protest frog that got pepper sprayed by federal agents - oregonlive.com

ICE Agents Shoot Pepper Spray into Protester's Frog Costume Air Vent  

Antifa expert at Rutgers University flees US amid death threats

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US | WIRED

Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats

Rutgers Expert on Antifa Flees to Spain After Death Threats - The New York Times

Antifa Expert to Flee with Family to Spain Following Death Threats | Democracy Now!

Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House 

 

You can pre-order Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books | April 26 2026)

]]> 00:36:45 <![CDATA[4. Courage in Resistance w/ Ben Case]]> Wed, 29 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2173436 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/4-courage-in-resistance-w-ben-case Antifascist courage is a choreography of mutual aid, preparation, and care. In this episode I talk with scholar-organizer and retired Muay Thai fighter Ben Case, author of Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (2022), about how “physical courage” develops across a spectrum of practices — from speaking up for a co-worker and signing a union card to holding a picket line and putting your body between ICE and your neighbor.

We dig into the realities of “big” vs. “little” violence, the strategic and moral limits of “respectable” protest narratives, and why bodies, training, and solidarity matter when the state blurs dissent with “disorder.” Ben lays out how fight-sport training can normalize adrenaline, prevent panic, and sharpen on-the-spot judgment; why movements we label “nonviolent” often include non-armed force; and how a range of tactics actually functions together on the ground. We also revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a case study in consequence, deterrence, and dignity — and what it does (and doesn’t) tell us about backlash and movement strategy.

Ben Case is an antifascist organizer and researcher whose work interrogates how punditry and policy launder certain protest tactics as “legible” while criminalizing others. He’s a retired pro Muay Thai fighter, a coach/official, and the author of Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence. His scholarship and fieldwork examine how non-armed force (property damage, de-arrests, sabotage) gets mislabeled or erased — with real consequences for movements and public understanding.

Part 2 now on Patreon: the second half of my conversation with Ben — plus a segment on the Graham Platner morality play (PTSD, internet alienation, a Nazi tattoo, accountability, and the anxieties of masculinity). Will remain paywalled for 2–3 weeks. Join at @antifascistdadpodcast to hear it now.

Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public.

Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs.

TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.

Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026.

 

Notes:

Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case 

Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence 

Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case) 

Venezuela Military Personnel 

'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News

The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC

Hegset...

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Anti-Fascism Dad: Ben Case
  • (00:02:53) - Fascist Squish and Antifascist News of the Week
  • (00:12:45) - Ben Case on Non-Violence
  • (00:19:00) - What Does It Mean to Be Physically Brave?
  • (00:22:30) - Physical Training for Protestors
  • (00:27:32) - Warm Hand Lock
  • (00:29:46) - On The Perfect Protest
  • (00:34:37) - The Difference Between Little Violence and Big Violence
  • (00:39:52) - Black Bloc Protester Punch Richard Spencer in the Face
  • (00:47:01) - Punishing Richard Spencer: Should You Be Punished?
  • (00:49:46) - Fascist Dad of the Week
]]> full 6 1 false Antifascist courage is a choreography of mutual aid, preparation, and care. In this episode I talk with scholar-organizer and retired Muay Thai fighter Ben Case, author of Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (2022), about how “physical courage” develops across a spectrum of practices — from speaking up for a co-worker and signing a union card to holding a picket line and putting your body between ICE and your neighbor.

We dig into the realities of “big” vs. “little” violence, the strategic and moral limits of “respectable” protest narratives, and why bodies, training, and solidarity matter when the state blurs dissent with “disorder.” Ben lays out how fight-sport training can normalize adrenaline, prevent panic, and sharpen on-the-spot judgment; why movements we label “nonviolent” often include non-armed force; and how a range of tactics actually functions together on the ground. We also revisit the 2017 Richard Spencer punch as a case study in consequence, deterrence, and dignity — and what it does (and doesn’t) tell us about backlash and movement strategy.

Ben Case is an antifascist organizer and researcher whose work interrogates how punditry and policy launder certain protest tactics as “legible” while criminalizing others. He’s a retired pro Muay Thai fighter, a coach/official, and the author of Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence. His scholarship and fieldwork examine how non-armed force (property damage, de-arrests, sabotage) gets mislabeled or erased — with real consequences for movements and public understanding.

Part 2 now on Patreon: the second half of my conversation with Ben — plus a segment on the Graham Platner morality play (PTSD, internet alienation, a Nazi tattoo, accountability, and the anxieties of masculinity). Will remain paywalled for 2–3 weeks. Join at @antifascistdadpodcast to hear it now.

Subscribe on YouTube at @antifascistdad for weekly mini-essays and the Basics series; the first Basics installment is now public.

Join the Patreon for Part 2s, early access, and paywalled bonus briefs.

TikTok and YouTube @antifascistdad.

Pre-order the book that this project supports — Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books) — pub date April 26, 2026.

 

Notes:

Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) w/ Ben Case 

Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence 

Magic Numbers Are No Shortcut to Strategy (New article from Ben Case) 

Venezuela Military Personnel 

'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest - ABC News

The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance | ICNC

Hegseth orders that all defense personnel review his speech to top military brass on fitness, standards | CNN Politics

Pete Hegseth | Signal, Tattoos, Harvey Milk, Secretary Defense, Military Career, & Facts | Britannica

Sullivan man launches campaign for U.S. Senate | PenBay Pilot

The Political Awakening of the Oyster Farmer Taking on Susan Collins | The New Republic

Who is Graham Platner and why is he everywhere right now? | Maine Public

Can a Maine Oyster Farmer Defeat a Five-Term Republican Senator?

Maine Senate candidate promoted violent political action in since-deleted online posts - POLITICO

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner covers up controversial tattoo: What to know

Graham Platner—and His Mom—Try to Move Past Tattoo Scandal at a Maine Town Hall | Vanity Fair

]]> 00:51:32 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 2.1 Gaza Encampment w/ Sara Rasikh Fox Pt.2]]> Sun, 26 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2161683 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/unlock-21-gaza-encampment-w-sara-rasikh-fox-pt2 Part 2 with Sara Rasik opens with my reflections on Part 1 (how UofT organizers timed the encampment to convocation, why student testimony was patronized as a “mental-health” issue) and on how movement memory travels from 1980s anti-apartheid organizing to Gen Z. Then Sara and I work through the hard stuff: “students should be studying,” “supporting terrorism,” safety claims, the meaning of “from the river to the sea,” movement discipline, gatekeeping and rules, and what was built even after tents came down. We end on globalize the intifada as a transnational language forliberation—and a closing story about the Macklemore “Hind’s Hall” moment with my kids.

Guest
Sara Rasikh — organizer/spokesperson, UofT Occupy for Palestine; PhD student (UofT).


• Follow: YouTube/TikTok @antifascistdad 
• Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Content notes
State violence, encampments, doxxing, police, genocide/famine, antisemitism/anti-Palestinian racism (discussion), explicit lyric quoted (“FTP”) in Macklemore section.

References

  • UofT encampment—injunction & dismantling (July 2–3, 2024): University’s official notice and Reuters same-day coverage confirm the court order to clear by 6:00 p.m., July 3 and the camp’s removal. Office of the President

  • Campus encampment wave scale (May 2024): AP reported rapid spread across Europe and the U.S.; The Chronicle’s tracker packages recap scope and arrests through 2024–25. AP News

  • Greta Thunberg—deportation & Athens remarks (Oct 6, 2025): On-the-ground AP and Reuters pieces (plus AP video) document the deportations and her statement at Athens airport. AP News

  • Hannibal Directive on Oct 7, 2023: Haaretz investigation (with summary reporting by Al Jazeera) details the order’s use on Oct 7.

Chapters

  • (00:00:08) - Interview
  • (00:01:46) - Anti-Israel protesters at U of T
  • (00:08:10) - Issues of movement discipline
  • (00:15:26) - To Globalize the Intifada
  • (00:18:25) - What Would You Say to a 14-Year-Old Student?
  • (00:19:42) - Macklemore's 'Thank You' For Supporting Palestine
]]> false Part 2 with Sara Rasik opens with my reflections on Part 1 (how UofT organizers timed the encampment to convocation, why student testimony was patronized as a “mental-health” issue) and on how movement memory travels from 1980s anti-apartheid organizing to Gen Z. Then Sara and I work through the hard stuff: “students should be studying,” “supporting terrorism,” safety claims, the meaning of “from the river to the sea,” movement discipline, gatekeeping and rules, and what was built even after tents came down. We end on globalize the intifada as a transnational language forliberation—and a closing story about the Macklemore “Hind’s Hall” moment with my kids.

Guest
Sara Rasikh — organizer/spokesperson, UofT Occupy for Palestine; PhD student (UofT).


• Follow: YouTube/TikTok @antifascistdad 
• Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Content notes
State violence, encampments, doxxing, police, genocide/famine, antisemitism/anti-Palestinian racism (discussion), explicit lyric quoted (“FTP”) in Macklemore section.

References

  • UofT encampment—injunction & dismantling (July 2–3, 2024): University’s official notice and Reuters same-day coverage confirm the court order to clear by 6:00 p.m., July 3 and the camp’s removal. Office of the President

  • Campus encampment wave scale (May 2024): AP reported rapid spread across Europe and the U.S.; The Chronicle’s tracker packages recap scope and arrests through 2024–25. AP News

  • Greta Thunberg—deportation & Athens remarks (Oct 6, 2025): On-the-ground AP and Reuters pieces (plus AP video) document the deportations and her statement at Athens airport. AP News

  • Hannibal Directive on Oct 7, 2023: Haaretz investigation (with summary reporting by Al Jazeera) details the order’s use on Oct 7. Haaretz

  • “Imperial boomerang” (Césaire): Primary text from Monthly Review Press / NYU Press (JSTOR book page) for Discourse on Colonialism. Monthly Review

  • UK role in F-35 supply chain (~15% workshare): UK government and BAE sources (plus NAO summary) reaffirm ~15% UK content on every F-35. National Audit Office (NAO)

  • Palestine Action—RAF plane damage & subsequent arrests after proscription (2025): Timeline covered by AP and Reuters from June–Oct 2025, including charges over RAF Brize Norton and mass arrests for “support for a proscribed organisation.” AP News

  • Canada—status of arms export permits to Israel & contested “freeze”: Reuters on the March 2024 freeze on new permits; full NGO report (Arms Embargo Now, July 29, 2025) with shipment/bullets figures; Canadian government response; additional Reuters context on lawsuits and supplier overviews. Reuters 

 

]]> 00:25:33 <![CDATA[3. You Can't Exile Antifascism w/ Mark Bray]]> Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2168066 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/3-you-cant-exile-antifascism-w-mark-bray Mark Bray, historian of antifascism is now in exile, thanks to the backlash over Charlie Kirk’s murder and the Trump administration's accelerating attempts to label antifascists as terrorists. Bray, his partner and their two young children fled the US after the local Turning Point USA chapter posted a petition to have him fired from Rutgers, where he teaches. Altogether, these attacks prompted a flood of death threats.

But no one can exile the work. Mark joins me to ground antifascism in history, movement strategy, and parenting. We unpack how education becomes propaganda when sourcing and truth-testing are abandoned; and how movements need a diversity of rhetoric—from accessible to militant.

Also: navigating slogans like Abolish ICE, ACAB, and Globalize the Intifada, and the Glastonbury “Death to the IDF” chant. We compare liberal/centrist antifascism with mass, working-class antifascism, and manage to end on hope: making space for young people’s bold experiments even when veteran organizers feel the weight of years.

Also: news from the Portland Frog detachment!

The full second half—movement discipline, courts vs. power, deeper dive on slogans, and my reflection on Mark’s “technique vs. content” distinction—is live now for supporters: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast.

Pre-order the book that powers this podcast: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (pub date April 26, 2026)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

 

Notes

Bray, Mark. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2017.

Bray, Mark, and Robert H. Haworth, eds. Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. Translated by Mark Bray and Joseph McCabe. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019

Meet the Portland protest frog that started a movement - YouTube 

‘I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,’ says Portland ICE protest frog that got pepper sprayed by federal agents - oregonlive.com

ICE Agents Shoot Pepper Spray into Protester's Frog Costume Air Vent  

Antifa expert at Rutgers University flees US amid death threats

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US | WIRED

Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - How many Turning Point USA members does it take to send a historian
  • (00:00:27) - Anti-Fascist Dad Podcast: Mark Bray in Exile
  • (00:06:51) - Fascist Squish
  • (00:13:10) - Antifa vs Anti-Fascists: Part 2
  • (00:18:12) - Mark Bray: Anti-Fascist Dad
  • (00:20:40) - In the Elevator With Anti-Fascists
  • (00:23:11) - Making Anti-Fascism Legible to Young People
  • (00:27:49) - What Are the Early Messages Students Get About Fascism?
  • (00:38:59) - Fooled by Fascism: Seth Todd
]]> full 4 1 false Mark Bray, historian of antifascism is now in exile, thanks to the backlash over Charlie Kirk’s murder and the Trump administration's accelerating attempts to label antifascists as terrorists. Bray, his partner and their two young children fled the US after the local Turning Point USA chapter posted a petition to have him fired from Rutgers, where he teaches. Altogether, these attacks prompted a flood of death threats.

But no one can exile the work. Mark joins me to ground antifascism in history, movement strategy, and parenting. We unpack how education becomes propaganda when sourcing and truth-testing are abandoned; and how movements need a diversity of rhetoric—from accessible to militant.

Also: navigating slogans like Abolish ICE, ACAB, and Globalize the Intifada, and the Glastonbury “Death to the IDF” chant. We compare liberal/centrist antifascism with mass, working-class antifascism, and manage to end on hope: making space for young people’s bold experiments even when veteran organizers feel the weight of years.

Also: news from the Portland Frog detachment!

The full second half—movement discipline, courts vs. power, deeper dive on slogans, and my reflection on Mark’s “technique vs. content” distinction—is live now for supporters: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast.

Pre-order the book that powers this podcast: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (pub date April 26, 2026)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

 

Notes

Bray, Mark. Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2017.

Bray, Mark, and Robert H. Haworth, eds. Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. Translated by Mark Bray and Joseph McCabe. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019

Meet the Portland protest frog that started a movement - YouTube 

‘I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,’ says Portland ICE protest frog that got pepper sprayed by federal agents - oregonlive.com

ICE Agents Shoot Pepper Spray into Protester's Frog Costume Air Vent  

Antifa expert at Rutgers University flees US amid death threats

He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US | WIRED

Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats

Rutgers Expert on Antifa Flees to Spain After Death Threats - The New York Times

Antifa Expert to Flee with Family to Spain Following Death Threats | Democracy Now!

Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House 

 

Socials:

  • Bluesky: under my name — Matthew Remski

  • Instagram: @matthew_remski

  • YouTube: @antifascistdad

  • TikTok: @antifascistdad (3–4 mini-essays/week)

 

Theme music by https://www.kalliemarie.com/.

]]> 00:41:12 <![CDATA[UNLOCK 1.1 Yallidarity w/ Nathan Evans Fox Pt.2]]> Sat, 18 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2161676 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/11-yallidarity-w-nathan-evans-fox-pt2 Summary
Unlocking Part 2 for y'all. Opening with a reflection on Part 1 (kinship, food, music, “yallidarity”) and then Nathan and I go verse-by-verse through “Hillbilly Hymn.” We talk housework and masculinity, charismatic church roots, incarnation vs. redemptive suffering, why “resurrection > crucifixion” reframes violence, and how meanness and generosity can spring from the same muscle when you’re just trying to get by. I close with a personal meditation on intergenerational trauma, my mother, and why toughness without resentment can still be a form of love.

Guest
Nathan Evans Fox — songwriter, record Heirloom (May release). 

Where to follow / support
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast
• Follow: YouTube/TikTok @antifascistdad • IG @Matthew_Remski
• Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Content notes
Religious themes; family trauma; addiction; war; grief; light profanity.

Chapters

  • (00:00:08) - Part II
  • (00:01:04) - Kinship Appalachia
  • (00:07:33) - Heirloom
  • (00:14:10) - "White Nationalism" Review
  • (00:14:38) - "One Voice" on 'Thank You'
  • (00:18:19) - "Oh My..."
  • (00:21:05) - Nathan Harris on "Being Mean"
  • (00:26:02) - Antifascist Dad: Remembering My
  • (00:28:49) - In the Elevator With My Mother
]]> crucifixion” reframes violence, and how meanness and generosity can spring from the same muscle when you’re just trying to get by. I close with a personal meditation on intergenerational trauma, my mother, and why toughness without resentment can still be a form of love. Guest Nathan Evans Fox — songwriter, record Heirloom (May release).  Where to follow / support • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast • Follow: YouTube/TikTok @antifascistdad • IG @Matthew_Remski • Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/ Content notes Religious themes; family trauma; addiction; war; grief; light profanity.]]> full 3 1 false Summary
Unlocking Part 2 for y'all. Opening with a reflection on Part 1 (kinship, food, music, “yallidarity”) and then Nathan and I go verse-by-verse through “Hillbilly Hymn.” We talk housework and masculinity, charismatic church roots, incarnation vs. redemptive suffering, why “resurrection > crucifixion” reframes violence, and how meanness and generosity can spring from the same muscle when you’re just trying to get by. I close with a personal meditation on intergenerational trauma, my mother, and why toughness without resentment can still be a form of love.

Guest
Nathan Evans Fox — songwriter, record Heirloom (May release). 

Where to follow / support
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast
• Follow: YouTube/TikTok @antifascistdad • IG @Matthew_Remski
• Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Content notes
Religious themes; family trauma; addiction; war; grief; light profanity.

]]> crucifixion” reframes violence, and how meanness and generosity can spring from the same muscle when you’re just trying to get by. I close with a personal meditation on intergenerational trauma, my mother, and why toughness without resentment can still be a form of love. Guest Nathan Evans Fox — songwriter, record Heirloom (May release).  Where to follow / support • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/AntifascistDadPodcast • Follow: YouTube/TikTok @antifascistdad • IG @Matthew_Remski • Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/ Content notes Religious themes; family trauma; addiction; war; grief; light profanity.]]> 00:38:36 <![CDATA[2. Gaza Encampment w/ Sara Rasikh]]> Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2161580 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/2-gaza-encampment-w-sarah-rasikh UofT encampment organizer Sara Rasikh joins me to walk through the inside story of “Occupy for Palestine”—from the first tents at King’s College Circle (May 2, 2024) to the court-ordered dismantling (July 3). We talk logistics, negotiation, care work, spiritual life in the camp, and the personal risks for student spokespeople. I set the scene with “Fascist / Squish / Antifascist” news on Greta Thunberg’s deportation and how liberal institutions police dissent—then close with a “fashy dad” segment on UK PM Keir Starmer and the criminalization of Palestine Action supporters. If you’ve wondered what encampments actually do—politically, ethically, and communally—this is your primer.

Guest
Sara Rasikh (PhD student, University of Toronto). MA in Social Justice Education; HBA in Ethics, Society & Law and in Critical Studies in Equity & Solidarity (UofT).

Listen & Support
• Watch/subscribe: YouTube @antifascistdad
• TikTok: @antifascistdad
• IG: @matthew_Remski
• Part 2 is up now on Patreon: @antifascistdadpodcast (temporarily paywalled)
• Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Content notes
State violence; detention; doxxing; police actions; genocide; fasting/starvation; prison abuse (discussion).

References

  • UofT encampment—injunction & dismantling (July 2–3, 2024): University’s official notice and Reuters same-day coverage confirm the court order to clear by 6:00 p.m., July 3 and the camp’s removal. Office of the President

  • Campus encampment wave scale (May 2024): AP reported rapid spread across Europe and the U.S.; The Chronicle’s tracker packages recap scope and arrests through 2024–25. AP News

  • Greta Thunberg—deportation & Athens remarks (Oct 6, 2025): On-the-ground AP and Reuters pieces (plus AP video) document the deportations and her statement at Athens airport. AP News

  • Hannibal Directive on Oct 7, 2023: Haaretz investigation (with summary reporting by Al Jazeera) details the order’s use on Oct 7.

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Anti-Fascist Dad Podcast: The Encampment for Palestine
  • (00:04:03) - Fascists Squish and Anti Fascist News of the Week
  • (00:08:38) - Why I Write About The Israel War
  • (00:14:56) - Oveoccupy for Palestine: Our demands
  • (00:19:35) - The U of T Student Camping
  • (00:29:19) - Speakers at the Palestine encampment
  • (00:33:32) - Was Your Family Concerned About Your Safety?
  • (00:35:34) - Various spiritual practices offered at the Gaza encampment
  • (00:38:03) - Food at the Occupy encampment
  • (00:40:10) - FASHY DAD: Keir Starmer
  • (00:43:00) - The Fight for the Right to Protest
]]> full 2 1 false UofT encampment organizer Sara Rasikh joins me to walk through the inside story of “Occupy for Palestine”—from the first tents at King’s College Circle (May 2, 2024) to the court-ordered dismantling (July 3). We talk logistics, negotiation, care work, spiritual life in the camp, and the personal risks for student spokespeople. I set the scene with “Fascist / Squish / Antifascist” news on Greta Thunberg’s deportation and how liberal institutions police dissent—then close with a “fashy dad” segment on UK PM Keir Starmer and the criminalization of Palestine Action supporters. If you’ve wondered what encampments actually do—politically, ethically, and communally—this is your primer.

Guest
Sara Rasikh (PhD student, University of Toronto). MA in Social Justice Education; HBA in Ethics, Society & Law and in Critical Studies in Equity & Solidarity (UofT).

Listen & Support
• Watch/subscribe: YouTube @antifascistdad
• TikTok: @antifascistdad
• IG: @matthew_Remski
• Part 2 is up now on Patreon: @antifascistdadpodcast (temporarily paywalled)
• Pre-order the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, Apr 2026): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Content notes
State violence; detention; doxxing; police actions; genocide; fasting/starvation; prison abuse (discussion).

References

  • UofT encampment—injunction & dismantling (July 2–3, 2024): University’s official notice and Reuters same-day coverage confirm the court order to clear by 6:00 p.m., July 3 and the camp’s removal. Office of the President

  • Campus encampment wave scale (May 2024): AP reported rapid spread across Europe and the U.S.; The Chronicle’s tracker packages recap scope and arrests through 2024–25. AP News

  • Greta Thunberg—deportation & Athens remarks (Oct 6, 2025): On-the-ground AP and Reuters pieces (plus AP video) document the deportations and her statement at Athens airport. AP News

  • Hannibal Directive on Oct 7, 2023: Haaretz investigation (with summary reporting by Al Jazeera) details the order’s use on Oct 7. Haaretz

  • “Imperial boomerang” (Césaire): Primary text from Monthly Review Press / NYU Press (JSTOR book page) for Discourse on Colonialism. Monthly Review

  • UK role in F-35 supply chain (~15% workshare): UK government and BAE sources (plus NAO summary) reaffirm ~15% UK content on every F-35. National Audit Office (NAO)

  • Palestine Action—RAF plane damage & subsequent arrests after proscription (2025): Timeline covered by AP and Reuters from June–Oct 2025, including charges over RAF Brize Norton and mass arrests for “support for a proscribed organisation.” AP News

  • Canada—status of arms export permits to Israel & contested “freeze”: Reuters on the March 2024 freeze on new permits; full NGO report (Arms Embargo Now, July 29, 2025) with shipment/bullets figures; Canadian government response; additional Reuters context on lawsuits and supplier overviews. Reuters 

 

]]> 00:44:40 <![CDATA[1. Yallidarity w/ Nathan Evans Fox]]> Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 Matthew Remski https://permalink.castos.com/podcast/66761/episode/2154710 https://antifascist-dad-podcast.castos.com/episodes/1-yallidarity-w-nathan-evans-fox Welcome to the inaugural episode of Antifascist Dad Podcast! Matthew Remski sits down with songwriter Nathan Evans Fox to talk about kinship, Appalachia, and the viral hymn that’s resonating across communities. Nathan shares the roots of his concept of yallidarity—solidarity rooted in labor, joy, food, music, and taking care of one another.

They discuss the myths and realities of Appalachia, the erasure of labor history, and the dangers of “bootstrap” individualism. Nathan tells about his upbringing in fringe charismatic churches, the connections between charismatic Christianity and Trump-style politics, and how faith traditions can nurture resilience—or be co-opted by empire.

Above all, they dig into Nathan’s viral Hillbilly Hymn: why the cops disappear when Jesus returns, why kinship always beats bootstraps, and how to imagine abolitionist futures that don’t erase culture but reorient it toward joy, justice, and care.

Nathan also opens up about generational trauma, his upcoming album Heirloom, and what it means to write a song that takes 35 years to arrive. For young antifascist songwriters, he offers hard-won advice about rooting your creativity in community, accountability, and justice.

Everything Nathan Evans Fox.

Part 2 of this discussion with Nathan up now on Patreon.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

 

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

 

Show Notes:

Gaza Sumud flotilla: How Israel breaks international maritime law | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Gaza-bound flotilla rejects Israeli claims of Hamas funding | Euronews

Contact Restored with Global Sumud Flotilla after Israeli Interference - Palestine Chronicle

Chapters

  • (00:00:00) - Anti-Fascist Dad Podcast
  • (00:02:05) - Antifascist Dad: New Podcast, New Project
  • (00:05:22) - Anti-Fascism in Focus: The Global Summud Flotilla
  • (00:09:49) - Interview: Nathan Evans Fox
  • (00:14:45) - What is "Yallidarity"?
  • (00:15:39) - How the Problem of Appalachia Gets Described
  • (00:20:31) - Coming Out: Songs About My Religious Background
  • (00:26:11) - Trump and Charismatic Christianity
  • (00:30:40) - "Why Doesn't Jesus Make You Prove Anything?"
  • (00:32:36) - Big Trucks And The Masculinity Tip
  • (00:35:29) - Beans and Honey Buns
  • (00:36:35) - Jesus Coming Back: Is he a Vegetarian?
  • (00:37:52) - "All the Guns Are For Shooting Clays"
  • (00:41:15) - Fascist Dad of the Week
]]> full 1 1 false Welcome to the inaugural episode of Antifascist Dad Podcast! Matthew Remski sits down with songwriter Nathan Evans Fox to talk about kinship, Appalachia, and the viral hymn that’s resonating across communities. Nathan shares the roots of his concept of yallidarity—solidarity rooted in labor, joy, food, music, and taking care of one another.

They discuss the myths and realities of Appalachia, the erasure of labor history, and the dangers of “bootstrap” individualism. Nathan tells about his upbringing in fringe charismatic churches, the connections between charismatic Christianity and Trump-style politics, and how faith traditions can nurture resilience—or be co-opted by empire.

Above all, they dig into Nathan’s viral Hillbilly Hymn: why the cops disappear when Jesus returns, why kinship always beats bootstraps, and how to imagine abolitionist futures that don’t erase culture but reorient it toward joy, justice, and care.

Nathan also opens up about generational trauma, his upcoming album Heirloom, and what it means to write a song that takes 35 years to arrive. For young antifascist songwriters, he offers hard-won advice about rooting your creativity in community, accountability, and justice.

Everything Nathan Evans Fox.

Part 2 of this discussion with Nathan up now on Patreon.

All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (North Atlantic Books, April 2026).
Preorder: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807656/antifascist-dad-by-matthew-remski/

Instagram: @matthew_remski

TikTok: @antifascistdad

 

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social (Bluesky Social)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AntifascistDad 

 

Show Notes:

Gaza Sumud flotilla: How Israel breaks international maritime law | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Gaza-bound flotilla rejects Israeli claims of Hamas funding | Euronews

Contact Restored with Global Sumud Flotilla after Israeli Interference - Palestine Chronicle

The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee

 

]]> 00:43:54