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Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” reigns atop the Billboard charts. Four of this season’s top ten TV shows are Westerns or neo-Westerns. Gen Z is embracing line dancing, Shania Twain, and Coors beer. For years, country music and motifs were associated with an America that was fading away. Matthew and Julia discuss their surprising vogue. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/counterepod or counterpod.substack.com.

Karl Popper’s ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies’ (1945) defined the postwar consensus in favor of liberal democracy and ever expanding freedom. Today, that consensus has come to an end. Matthew and Julia talk to First Things editor R. R. Reno about what is arising in its place. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/counterepod or counterpod.substack.com.

Americans are turning against artificial intelligence, with data centers and Flock cameras in the crosshairs. Is AI just another technology? Or will it, as industry leaders predict, mean the end of democracy, of capitalism, even of humanity? Greg Conti joins Matthew and Julia. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/counterepod or counterpod.substack.com.

Affirmative Action and DEI are usually thought to benefit racial minorities. But what happens when these measures actually benefit a numerical majority? Matthew and Julia talk to Helen Andrews about how America’s changing racial demographics have altered the logic of its racial bargain. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/counterepod or counterpod.substack.com.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has been condemned by Elon Musk and others as woke. But politics aside, does it actually work as an action movie? Matthew and Julia have their doubts. For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/againstthepod or counterpod.substack.com.

Donald Trump rode a vibe shift back to the White House in 2025. Eighteen months later, the vibe has shifted back again. Matthew and Julia discuss why, and ask whether America is still moving right. Plus: A very important announcement. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.

“Disclosure Day,” Steven Spielberg’s film about the leaking of UFO files, is a hit. The Trump administration’s release of actual UFO files is not. Meanwhile, a Catholic exorcist has been fired for saying that UFOs are demonic. Matthew and Julia argue that rising interest in flying saucers says a great deal about the direction of our society. They also ask and answer the question of the moment: Are aliens Catholic? For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.

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

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

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

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

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

Louise Perry is one of the most perceptive observers of the trends that are transforming the West. Matthew and Julia talk to her about the migration boom, the fertility bust, and the quiet resurgence of religion—in society and her own life. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.

If Donald Trump is a dangerous and unpopular extremist, why hasn’t the Democratic Party’s opposition to him yielded a sustainable majority? Matthew and Julia talk to Alicia Nieves, a veteran of pro-immigrant activism and Democratic Party politics. Nieves argues that the party has lost touch with its working-class identity and that if present trends hold, it will cease to be competitive at the federal level. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.

The release of the Epstein files has been met by an outpouring of paranoid speculation—and a growing chorus of expressing justified skepticism. Matthew and Julia welcome the newcomers to the party and rebuke the holdouts. For more like this, become a member at patreon.com/againstthepod.