PODCAST

Social Studies

Leighton Woodhouse

Conversations about politics, media, social theory and other topics. leightonwoodhouse.substack.com

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

48:23

Minneapocalypse

Social Studies ·

2026/01/15

I join my cohost Lee Fang for a podcast discussion around the violent confrontations in Minnesota and what it might mean for America. In short order, we discuss ethnic scapegoating, whether the federal government is truly focused on taxpayer fraud, and why this Trump presidency is fundamentally different from the first administration. Will there be an offramp to the crackdown? And we end with a discussion of Christian ethics and René Girard. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this

0:15

Former CIA Analyst Barry Eisler on Fiction Writing,...

Social Studies ·

2025/07/31

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit leightonwoodhouse.substack.comBarry Eisler, before becoming a best-selling novelist, worked in covert operations for the CIA. He joins Le Pod to discuss his career, the real-world inspirations for his work, and explains why fiction writing is more important than ever to understand the morally murky world of power politics and U.S. foreign policy. Eisler is on Substack and you can bu…

66:12

The Machine

Social Studies ·

2025/07/02

Last weekend at the Wagon Box campout in Wyoming, I had the honor of interviewing one of the writers I most admire: Paul Kingsnorth, author of The Wake, Beast, and Alexandria. Kingsnorth writes about human existence under “The Machine,” by which he means the increasingly AI-controlled technological habitat that envelopes us at nearly every second of our lives, stripping us of our autonomy and humanity.The video and audio are a bit rough, so here’s a transcript of the discussion. (The transcript

74:52

Live with Jake Klein, an Advocate for Free Speech,...

Social Studies ·

2025/04/24

Our guest today is Jake Klein, a libertarian activist and author who has written about the dangers of identity politics and tribalism.Klein, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household and is now atheist, talks about his path in life. We talk about the unproductive nature of many pro-Palestinian activists on the far left, the hypocrisy of many supposed “heterodox thinkers” and why we have come to reject any kind of racial or ethnic category. We also chat about the downfall of the Foundation

61:56

Our First Live Pod

Social Studies ·

2025/04/17

Yesterday, Lee and I tried out Substack’s new livestreaming feature to record Le Pod. We like it; it was fun. About 300 of you joined, which was great for a first attempt with almost no promotion behind it. We’re going to start doing this every Wednesday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. If you can’t join us live, we’ll put out the non-live version each Thursday.We spent pretty much the whole episode discussing the biggest question for our country right now: Are we in a pre-authoritarian moment right now — or have

95:28

Jared Klickstein on addiction, intervention and recovery

Social Studies ·

2022/10/18

This episode actually just started off as an interview for the purposes of my reporting on drugs and homelessness. In fact, I wasn't really planning on doing more episodes of this podcast at all. But the conversation I had with recovering addict Jared Klickstein was so fascinating, and I learned so much, that with his permission, I decided to share it. I hope you find it as intriguing and eye-opening as I did.You can follow Jared, by the way, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MetaGrift. Thanks to

47:29

Suzy Weiss on Youth Gender Transition and Other Stuff

Social Studies ·

2022/05/26

Suzy Weiss has fast become one of my favorite reporters. Her latest story, on her sister Bari’s Substack, about a baseless #MeToo accusation that got totally out of control, is a doozy. So is her recent reporting on trans swimmer Lea Thomas and on youth gender transition.I had a fun chat with Suzy about each of those stories on my podcast. Hope you’ll give it a listen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

82:00

Free Ranging with Ethan Strauss

Social Studies ·

2022/04/18

Ethan Strauss, who substacks at House of Strauss, is the author of The Victory Machine, a book about the Golden State Warriors. We talked a little bit about professional sports in this episode — specifically, about the wokeness of the NBA — but mostly we just yakked about whatever came up, which included Elon Musk and Twitter, cancel culture, Tucker Carlson, Black Lives Matter, and the Group Chat.You can read Ethan’s post on the Group Chat here: This is a public episode. If you would like to

49:48

Climate Activist Zion Lights on Nuclear Power

Social Studies ·

2022/04/13

Zion Lights was a spokesperson for the radical climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion until she realized that it wasn’t enough just to make people panic about the end of the world — you also had to point them to solutions. To the extent that there is a “solution” to climate change, it’s nuclear energy. And yet it’s verboten in some parts of the environmental movement to talk about it.We’re not just in a climate crisis; we’re also in an energy emergency. It’s more important than ever to

56:20

Emmet Penney on the Energy Crisis and the Coming...

Social Studies ·

2022/03/30

We’re currently teetering on the edge of a world historical mass global famine. The United Nations Security Council has acknowledged as much, as have political leaders in France and the US.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a key factor in the looming catastrophe, but there are other contributors, as well. Those include surging natural gas prices driven by years of misplaced faith in the promise of renewable energy technologies, global supply chain disruptions, and drought in the American West.I spoke

61:03

Who Are the Russians? Razib Khan on the Ancient...

Social Studies ·

2022/03/15

The Russian invasion of Ukraine feels a bit like something out of another century. It’s not just that it’s a land war in Europe, reminiscent of the mechanized industrial era. It’s that Russia’s casus belli is the opposite of strategic; Putin’s war aims seem mythical and weirdly ancient. Beneath the proximate causes, such as NATO expansion (if you’re even willing to believe that’s anything more than an excuse), lies a vision of Russia as a fallen and now resurgent imperial power, and Ukraine as a

67:13

Me on Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

Social Studies ·

2022/01/06

Happy New Year!Last month, my friend Razib Khan had me on his podcast, Unsupervised Learning. I highly recommend subscribing to it. It was a great conversation as it always is with Razib, so I thought I’d share it here.Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leightonwoodhouse.substack.com

54:54

Catherine Liu on the Professional Managerial Class

Social Studies ·

2021/11/16

This week I have Catherine Liu on the podcast, Professor of Film & Media Studies at UC Irvine and author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class. We had a great conversation about the PMC. Hope you enjoy it and learn a thing or two.—LW This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leightonwoodhouse.substack.com

69:04

Why Mike Cernovich Hates Trump

Social Studies ·

2021/11/10

I met Mike Cernovich a few years ago when I was making a documentary based on Angela Nagle’s book, Kill All Normies. Back then I had the same impression of him that you likely did, and that you probably still do: I thought he was a Trump-loving, men’s rights-touting, right wing troll.But after chatting with him, I liked him anyway. Mike was thoughtful, honest, candid, reasonable, self-disparaging, and fair-minded. I’d read the New Yorker profile of him. I’d seen the tweets and heard the slander. I’d

133:31

Wayne Hsiung, Shant Mesrobian and Me on Wokeness as...

Social Studies ·

2021/11/08

A little while back I had this conversation with my old podcast partner Shant Mesrobian when we were both guests on my friend Wayne Hsiung’s podcast, The Green Pill. I think the discussion was really fun and interesting so I wanted to share it here.Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.—LW This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leightonwoodhouse.substack.com

58:40

Alex Gutentag on school closures, masking and vaccine...

Social Studies ·

2021/10/25

Last week I interviewed Alex Gutentag, a former Oakland public school teacher and, in my opinion, one of the best writers on Covid-19 around. Like me, Alex comes from a leftist background rooted in the labor movement, and, like me, she’s become highly skeptical of much of what has become conventional wisdom on the left. In her case, the source of her skepticism is what she believes to be a massive overreaction to Covid, which has come at the cost of our civil liberties and from which some of the

82:23

Kmele Foster, Anna Khachiyan and Lee Fang on vaccine...

Social Studies ·

2021/09/20

This week on the podcast, I had Kmele Foster from The Fifth Column, Anna Khachiyan from Red Scare, and The Intercept’s Lee Fang on to talk about vaccine mandates and what they may or may not suggest about the future of our civilization.If you’re enjoying the pod, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! I’m told it actually makes a difference.—LW This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

50:57

White Coat Waste Project's Justin Goodman on animal...

Social Studies ·

2021/09/01

Justin Goodman, my guest on this episode of the Kerfuffle podcast, is Vice President of the White Coat Waste Project, a group that opposes taxpayer-funded scientific experimentation on animals.I’ve been a huge admirer of Justin and White Coat Waste for a long time, for reasons we get into in this episode. Our discussion is about animal rights, an issue I care about more deeply than just about any other. But we get into other subjects as well, which recent circumstances have made relevant to

57:00

Pulmonologist Katie Hisert on vaccine hesitancy,...

Social Studies ·

2021/08/31

My podcast guest this week is a lung doctor and a medical research scientist whom I’ve known since we were both little kids. Katie Hisert, MD, PhD, has an even wider scope than most experts on how microbes like SARS-CoV-2 virus operate, having observed them both from the hospital bedside and in the laboratory.Media reports on Covid-19 have become so politicized that I’ve found it nearly impossible to find reliable answers to basic questions about transmissibility, what’s known and unknown about the

58:44

Matt Taibbi on Covid and the Media

Social Studies ·

2021/08/17

This is an unlocked paid subscribers-only post.On the podcast this week I have Matt Taibbi, legendary reporter and author of the outstanding book (among many) Hate, Inc., which is about a lot of the media-related issues I touch on in this Substack.This episode was exclusive to paid subscribers for about a week, and is now unlocked for everyone.—LW This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

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Social Studies

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