The State Between Us

28. Class War and Counterinsurgency in Appalachia: The '84 Massey Coal Strike w/ Ashley Nguyen

The State Between Us — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:04:46 +0000

From 1984 to '85, both sides of the Tug Fork river on the West Virginia / Kentucky border were occupied by private security forces, green berets, mercenaries, and other muscle for the bosses to terrorize striking coal miners under the UMWA. Historian Ashley Nguyen joins TSBU to explain how the tactics of class warfare that beset the Massey strikers were part of the larger global counterinsurgency terror that defined American imperialism during the Cold War.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs for more episodes, exclusive content, and live events.
Bluesky: @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬
Instagram: thestatebetweenuspod
Email: thestatebetweenus@proton.me
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheStateBetweenUsPodArmed and ready on the picket... trench?

"A European hired as a security guard monitors video cameras used as part of a surveillance system at a coal mine in Sidney, Ky. " SoF 1986

"The more it hurt, the stronger I got...": Shot miner interviewed in Mine War on Blackberry Creek, 1986.

Soldier of Fortune (SoF), Sept. 1986.

*Ep includes an interview clip with Nomonde Ngubo of the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa, featured in the documentary Mine War on Blackberry Creek, 1986.

Reading:
Burton, Orisanmi. Tip of the spear : black radicalism, prison repression, and the long Attica revolt. UCP, Oakland, 2023.
Camp, Jordan T. Incarcerating the Crisis: Freedom Struggles and the Rise of the Neoliberal State. UCP, 2016.
Schrader, Stuart. Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing. UCP, 2019.

Cold open song: "The Black Eternal Night" by Widows of the Night. Subversives, Electric Fields, 2026.
Intro song: Title unknown, performer unknown. Clipped from Mine War on Blackberry Creek, 1986.
Outro song: "The Tale of the Dragon", unknown performer. > Linked here <

Also featuring music from koleso neštastia and pixabay.com

27. May Day, 1950: When the USSR Invaded Wisconsin w/ Nick Graf

The State Between Us — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:33:36 +0000

Researcher Nick Graf joins The State Between Us to talk about the strangest May Day celebration the Midwestern United States ever had. In 1950, the American Legion organized a "high-effort LARP", transforming the small town of Mosinee, Wisconsin into the avant-garde of the "United Soviet States of America", complete with borscht, detention camps, and mock executions on "Red Square".

*note: Nick points out that he said the editor's name was "Bill Schweinler" when in fact it was "Francis Schweinler".

Stay tuned to Nick's YT page to catch his coming documentary when it drops!

26. Lore Dump: Robert Welch, Revilo P. Oliver, and Willis Carto vs. Buckley's New Right

The State Between Us — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:34:51 +0000

As Tucker Carlson splits the Right into weirder and more racist directions, TSBU examines a precedent to this contemporary moment occurring in the 1950s and '60s. William F. Buckley and his National Review cultivated a complex... 'frenemyship'?... with the hyper-conspiratorial N.A.M.-leader Robert Welch and his John Birch Society and the cringe-inducing fascist nerd, the classicist Revilo P. Oliver. This web of allyship and conflict opened a space for a return of classic racist and antisemitic activism with the rise of Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby which directly created William Luther Pierce's infamous National Alliance, and the decades of neonazi horror that followed it.

Music:
Intro and Outro by the Chad Mitchell Trio
Also featuring music from koleso neštastia, pixabay.com, archive.org, and fesliyanstudios.com

25. Revenge of the WASP pt. 1: The Tucker Diaries

The State Between Us — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:03:24 +0000

25. Revenge of the WASP pt. 1: The Tucker Diaries
Fritz fears the rise of the post-Trump right, arguing that a fashy new take on the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant with some worrying and familiar characteristics is on the rise, and begins an investigation into the Revenge of the WASP with a look at Tucker Carlson, his notable rise on the MAGA right, his weirdo mystical racist beliefs, and how those beliefs tie him to a movement of WASP revanchists, including the Vice President, who suggest a very dark future on the horizon.

Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images retrieved from theguardian.com

Reading:
*Barkun, Michael. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. UNCP, Chapel Hill, 1996.
*Gross, Michael. Flight of the WASP: The Rise, Fall, and Future of America's Original Ruling Class. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2023.
*Schrag, Peter. The Decline of the WASP. Simon & Schuster, 1971.
*Zengerle, Jason. Hated By All The Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind. Crooked Media Reads, 2026.

Music by koleso neštastia and Ramona as well as from pixabay.com and fesliyanstudios.com

24. Bircherized Trad-Cath Fash-Fic: AA-1025 [trailer]

The State Between Us — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:40:38 +0000

[Trailer] Fritz analyzes a Trad-Cath classic, and is inspired to try his own hand at the genre. Written by a Carmelite nun in 1972, the novel AA-1025: The Memoirs of the Communist Infiltration into the Church, also known as The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle, pretends to be the diaries of a Soviet sleeper agent deep within the Catholic Hierarchy. The Agent, a mysterious orphan raised in Poland, hatches a plan to create a godless one world church: the ultimate goal of the Evil Empire! It's pretty whacky, folks.

Stick around for Fritz's own TradCathFashFicFanFic, AA-1312, at the end of the episode!

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Trailer music by Ramona

23. The News Rug II: The TFP's Favorite Marine and Iran Triggers the Dispensationalists

The State Between Us — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:13:31 +0000

In TSBU's second edition of the News Rug, Fritz rips up the carpet on two recent U.S. press stories to track the long history of bad trouble underneath them: [2] trad-cath marine John W. Ripley's posthumous medal of honor taking us back to a militant traddy cult from Brazil: the infamous Tradition, Family, and Property, and [2] the news that American soldiers are being told that the war in Iran is about to trigger the rapture, and the terrible fashy network behind it, the good ole Council for National Policy.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs for more episodes, exclusive content, and live events.

Reading:
◇ Celestini, Carmen. God, Country, and Christian Conservatives - The National Association of Manufacturers, the John Birch Society, and the Rise of the Christian Right. (Dissertation 2018, University of Waterloo)
◇ Hummel, Danielg G.. The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013.
◇ Kruse, Kevin M.. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. Princeton, 2016.
◇ Lernoux, Penny. People of God : the struggle for world Catholicism. Viking, 1989.
◇ Weinberg, Carl R.. Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism in America. Cornell, 2021.
◇ Wink, George. Brazil, Land of the Past: The Ideological Roots of the New Right. Bibliotopia, 2021.

Music by koleso neštastia, Ramona, pixabay.org, Louis Armstrong, and Jeff Mangum.

21. Smedley Butler and the Invention of America w/ Jonathan M. Katz

The State Between Us — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 11:03:58 +0000

Author and Journalist Jonathan M. Katz joins TSBU to turn the Smedley Dial up to 'Maximum Smedliness' by discussing Butler's formative role in the creation of the American Empire at the turn of the century, his transformation into an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist whistle-blower in the '20s and '30s, and the long shadow that Smedley casts over the USA and its subjects to this day.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs for more episodes, exclusive content, and live events. Bluesky: @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.
Instagram: thestatebetweenuspod
Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Get Jonathan M. Katz's Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire here!

Check out The Racket newsletter here!

Music by koleso neštastia and Ramona.

Smedley addresses the Bonus March. Credit: AP Images

Lon Chaney and his legendary impression of Smedley.

Smedley at the game.

20. The National Association of Manufacturers: Pullman Town, Festoons, and Corporatism

The State Between Us — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 11:37:30 +0000

Finally laying out the origins of the National Association of Manufacturers, TSBU looks at the tactics by Capital to shape the American political economy into a corporatist hell from George Pullman's dystopian town at the end of the 19th century, through the General Association of Manufacturer's open class warfare, to the bizarre religiously-tinged mass propaganda program of the NAM. Festoons abound!

Credit: Hagley Digital Archives digital.hagley.org/MSS_1411_0079_013_002

Satirical post in a 1935 newspaper

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Reading:
Schneirov, Richard. The Pullman Strike. Northern Illinois University. digital.lib.niu.edu/illinois/gildedage/pullman
Watts, Sarah Lyons. Order Against Chaos: Business Culture and Labor Ideology in America 1880-1915. Greenwood Press, 1991.
Artistic Decorations: Adornments of the Hall for the Manufacturers' Convention. In National Association of Manufacturers founding news article. Retrieved from Hagley Digital Archives. digital.hagley.org/MSS_1411_0079_013_002

Music:
Opening: "1" by koleso neštastia
Closing track: 240 by koleso neštastia
Features music by Ramona.
Other tracks from fesliyanstudios.com and pixabay.com
SFX from freesound.org

19. Western Goals pt. 2: John K. Singlaub and his Cubitmaxxing Contras - feat. Keith Allen Dennis

The State Between Us — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 11:54:58 +0000

Hooooo boy... Keith Allen Dennis drops by once more to help Fritz tell a darkly fantastical tale about a little weird looking dude who specialized in leaping out of planes to spread democracy via death squad, Major General John K. Singlaub, co-founder of the private intelligence clearinghouse and Contra fundraiser, Western Goals. From Operation Phoenix to Iran-Contra to the "renaissance" of the World Anti-Communist League, Singlaub wove weird webs of drugs, guns, and guerillas in his never-ending war against the Red Menace!

Singlaub (center) with Contras in Honduras, 1985. From Inside the League.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Reading:
Anderson, Scott and Jon Lee Anderson. Inside the League: The Shocking Exposé of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League. Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc., 1986.
Cockburn, Leslie. Out of Control: The Story of the Reagan Administration's Secret War in Nicaragua. Bloomsbury, 1987.
Parry, Robert. Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'. TMC, 1999.
Gelbspan, Ross. Break-Ins, Death Threats, and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central America Peace Movement. South End Press, 1991.
Seagraves, Sterling and Peggy. Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold. Verso, 2002.
Singlaub, John K.. Hazardous Duty: An American Soldier in the Twentieth Century. Summit Books, 1991.

Songs:

Rodríguez, Silvio. "Canción Urgente por Nicaragua," date not broadly documented, likely 1980s.
Minutemen. "Big Stick," from album Double Nickels on the Dime, 1984.
Other music from pixabay.com and fesliyanstudios.com.

Link to the Frontline documentary on the Moonies that Keith mentions.
Also check out "WACL VII: Eighties Part I w/John Brisson, Keith Allen Dennis, Moss Robeson, Don Diligent, & Recluse". Podcast. The Farm Mach II. 2022. Link here.

5. News Rug: Christ for Nations, the Klan, and the Freaky Faith behind the Minnesota Shooting [trailer]

The State Between Us — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:33:03 +0000

Fritz takes a peek under the disgusting rug of the news and finds a long historical chain of apocalyptic lunatics and klansmen crawling underneath the recent shooting in Minnesota of Democratic state representatives. We get to know William Brahnam, his KKKompanions, Gordon and Freda Lindsay, and many more strangebad folks!

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Trailer music by Ramona

8. Left Behind Fanzine Issue #1-of-1: Tim LaHaye, the CNP, and the New Right Rapture [trailer]

The State Between Us — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 11:54:51 +0000

For true fans of the over-a-decade-long Christian fiction series, Left Behind, and it's apocalypse addicted author, Tim LaHaye. Follow Timmy's political and cultural rise, evangelical influences, and the birth of the New Right's gray eminence, the Council for National Policy. Then, Fritz reviews Timothius' unfortunately impactful series of books and films. Also, some original Left Behind fan-fic from your host!

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Trailer music by Ramona

11. Mister: Unreadable Fash Fic from the Unbearable Alt-Right [trailer]

The State Between Us — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 11:26:12 +0000

Fritz digs even deeper into the cultural crater left by the Regnery family with the unending Fash Fic novel, Mister, written in 2009 by soon-to-be Alt-Right darling, the insufferable Alex Kurtagic. This 500-page self-published fashy rant is both pointless and terrible, and so is the perfect x-ray image of the 'New New Right' brain and its cringe-core obsessions.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Trailer music by Ramona

16. The Bread-winners: Red Scare Mid-life Crisis Fiction from the 19th Century [trailer]

The State Between Us — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:13:58 +0000

Fritz, following some leads in episode 15, picks up a novel written by turn-of-the-century Secretary of State, John Hay: The Bread-winners (1884). The book follows Arthur Farnham, military-industrial exemplar of the 'American Race', as he woos the ladies and puts down labor rebellions led by conspiring socialist agitators. It's not as gross as fash fic, but it ain't great...

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Outro music by Ramona

18. David Simon's 'The Plot Against America' w/ Bursts of The Final Straw [trailer]

The State Between Us — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 12:13:55 +0000

Bursts of The Final Straw joins Fritz to reflect on the HBO miniseries created by David Simon (Homicide, The Wire, etc.), The Plot Against America (2020), based closely on the novel of the same name by Phillip Roth in a counterfactual 1940s USA where the Nazi-loving aviator Charles Lindbergh becomes president. The series follows a middle-class Jewish family in Newark as they respond to the rising realities of American fascism, posing relevant questions on when to flee, when to stand your ground, and when to take the fight to the enemy, but offering no easy answers.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Trailer music by Ramona

17. Western Goals pt. 1: John Rees and Larry McDonald Scam Against Communism

The State Between Us — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 15:51:45 +0000

TSBU begins their study on the early-1980s information clearinghouse and private surveillance organization, Western Goals, focusing on two of its founders: the English scam-artist John Rees and martyred John Birch Society luminary, congressman Larry McDonald. The edgiest kids in the capitol, the threads of Western Goals weave their way from McCarthyists like Roy Cohn through Nazi intelligence agents around Gehlen to Cold War hawks and all the way up to present day American fascism under Trump.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Reading:
Dorfman, Zach. "The Congressman Who Created His Own Deep State. Really." Politico. 2018.
Gelbspan, Ross. Break-Ins, Death Threats and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central America Movement. South End Press, 1991.
Manzione, Elton. "The Private Spy Agency". The National Reporter. 1985.
Recluse. A Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: The Secret Origins of the Patriot Movement Part IV. VISUP blog. Link here. (Also check out "WACL VII: Eighties Part I w/John Brisson, Keith Allen Dennis, Moss Robeson, Don Diligent, & Recluse". Podcast. The Farm Mach II. 2022. Link here.)
Simpson, Christopher. Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.

This episode also used documents from the Larry McDonald archives from Emory University and the online Ernie Lazar FOIA collection of FBI files.

Music:
Slime - "Polizei SA SS", 1980.
CCCP Fedeli Alla Linea. "Spara Jurij", 1983.
Also featuring compositions by Koleso Nešťastia and Ramona
Other music from youtube.com, pixabay.com, and fesliyanmusic.com

15. The American Race, or, "What time is this?"

The State Between Us — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 09:04:37 +0000

TSBU breaks ground on its study of Americanism and American Fascism, and grips their stubborn roots in the 19th Century. From the Mexican-American war, through the 'Real' First Red Scare, to the creation of a Military/Industrial aristocracy, Fritz gets his timeline right by meandering around some books in front of a psychedelic camp fire. Features willful overproduction and special guests from the distant future of 2025!Photo by Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Reading:
Richard Slotkin. The fatal environment: the myth of the frontier in the age of industrialization, 1800-1890. Antheneum, 1985.
"". Gunfighter Nation: the myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America. Atheneum, 1992.
Tariq Kahn. The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression. Illinois, 2023.

Check out Burst's interview with Prof. Kahn on the Final Straw Radio!

Music:
"131", "But at the same time, I don't want to feel detached from the shithole. I don't want to be a tourist in my own ends. I don't want to feel completely separate from the struggles my friends ", and "I fucking hate when westerners go and watch us like in damn safari. Our depression is not for their privileged amusement" by Koleso Nešťastia. Check it out on bandcamp!
"Train Robbery" by Hayden Folker
"In Honor" by Fesliyan Studios
"Cannibal" by Ennio Morricone

Other music from pixabay.com
SFX from freesound.org

14. Lessons from the Modern School and Francisco Ferrer w/ Mark Bray

The State Between Us — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 11:10:41 +0000

Mark Bray, historian and author of Translating Anarchy (2013), Antifa (2017), and the Anarchist Inquisition (2022), joins Fritz to critically examine the life and death of Spanish educator, revolutionary, and provocateur Francisco Ferrer (1859-1909) as covered in Mark's book, Anarchist Education and the Modern School (2018). They discuss some possible lessons for the contemporary movement from this revolutionary period and reflect on its effects in history, from the good, to the bad, to even the proto-fascist. Finally, Mark shares his thoughts on today's rising red scare and the latest moves of the US administration.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬. Hit us up at thespacebetweenuspod@gmail.com!

Links to Mark's Books:
Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader - PM Press
Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook - AK Press
The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists, and Martyrs in Spain and France (1891–1909) - AK Press
Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street - Zero Books

Music:
Intro - Los Showmen, "Los Cuatros Muleros"
Midpoint - Skaparapid + Unknown performer, "Arroja La bomba"
Outro - Rolando Alarcon, "Ay Carmela"
Other music by pixabay.com
SFX by freesound.org

13. The China Lobby Invents the Right w/ Keith Allen Dennis

The State Between Us — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 10:13:32 +0000

Keith Allen Dennis rejoins The State Between Us to offer a one-stop-shop for all things China Lobby, the original network of right-wing power players, spies, and criminal capitalists who positioned the "loss" of China to communism at the center of the new red scare in the USA that bookended the entire 'Cold War'. From the Kuomintang to the National Alliance, the China Lobby connects the worst of the worst in Americanism, imperialism, and fascism.

Cool art from The Reporter, 1952.

Keith's pile o' references

References Mentioned (see above photo for more references):
Bellant, Russ. Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party. Boston: South End Press, 1991.
Lintner, Bertil. Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld in Asia. 2003.
Seagrave, Sterling. The Soong Dynasty. Harper & Row, 1985.
Recluse's VISUP blog on the ASC

Music:
Intro - "The Red Sun Must Illuminate Taiwan", performers unknown
Outro - "Joe McCarthy's Ghost", Minutemen. 1982.
"I Can't Have Your Love", Yao Li. 1930s.
"Holo Holo Kaa", Hal Aloma. 1940s.
"Careless Hands", Sammy Kaye. 1949.
"Tracy's Theme", Spencer Ross. 1959.
Also includes music from FesliyanStudios.com

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

12. The American Security Council: Bob-ing for Commies

The State Between Us — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:10:31 +0000

The forgotten story of American Industry's post-war espionage, propaganda, and policy outfit, the American Security Council. Launched by Robert E. Wood and Hitler-loving Chicago Tribune owner, Robert McCormick, in the mid-'50s, the ASC was built on the work of Nazi spies, staffed with Special Agents of the FBI, and funded by - and serving - the USA's most powerful firms. From the China Lobby, through WACL, to the Reagan administration and beyond, the American Security Council makes an ignominious addition to the terrible giants of The State Between Us.

Reading:
Ernie Lazar's FOIA boxes on The American Security Council available at archive.org
Turner, William. Power on the Right. 1971, Ramparts Press.

Also, check out Keith Allen Dennis' ASC work on The Farm Podcast here!

Music:
"240" by Koleso Nešťastia
"In Honor" from FesliyanStudios.com
"Running Night" from pixabay.com
Additional sounds from freesound.org
Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

10. Florida Man Fights Fascism: Gainesville vs. the Alt-Right, 2017 w/ Eli

The State Between Us — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 10:00:11 +0000

Fritz meets with labor organizer, Eli, to discuss the early career and connections of Alt-Right co-founder and Regnery Dynasty byproduct, Richard Spencer, and how Gainesville organized to de-platform Dicky and his fashy friends at the University of Florida in 2017, the first real test for Spencer's circle following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Photo by Brian Bianco from Getty Images published by NBC news.

Intro and outro music:
"Atados" by Gutless (Gainesville, FL. 2017.)

Additional music from pixabay.com

Intro clip from CBS News

Reading:
Bar-On, Tamir. Richard B. Spencer and the Alt Right. In, Key Thinkers of the Radical Right. Ed. Mark Sedgwick. Oxford, 2019.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

9. The Regnery Family's Century of Ruining Everything

The State Between Us — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 10:00:11 +0000

TSBU takes on the Regnery family tree, the branches of which take us to the America First Committee, the US Conservative Revolution, and the absurd but influential Alt-Right. The Regneries rubbed shoulders with the Who's Who of the 20th century's most important fascists, reactionaries, Yale spies, and NAM big shots since breaking rich in Kansas City, and didn't stop when they made it to DC.

Wilhelm and the kids. Billy Hank is top right.

Reading:
Bjerre-Poulsen, Niels. Right Face: Organizing the American Conservative Movement, 1945-65. Museum Tusculanum Press. Copenhagen, 2002.
Cole, Wayne S.. America First: The Battle Against Interventionism, 1940-1941. University of Wisconsin, 1953.
Tanenhaus, Sam. Buckley: The Life and Revolution that Changed America. Random House, 2025.
Walsh, David Austin. Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right. Yale, 2024.

Intro Music: Spike Jones, "Der Fuerher's Face". 1943.
Outro Music: Ramona, "Cello and Voice".
Other music from pixabay.org, chosic.com, fesliyanstudios.com, archive.org, and Ramona.

Like it? Share it! Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

7. Class Struggle and Mystics in the Middle Ages w/ Chase Padusniak

The State Between Us — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 10:00:10 +0000

Medievalist Chase Padusniak joins TSBU to help Fritz briefly extend his vacation from contemporary horrors with 14th-century ones, and narrate the chaotic struggles of class formation in Norwich and the Low Countries through the strange lens of medieval mysticism.

DMs take note! Lorestuff incoming...

Stay tuned for Chase's upcoming podcast, Death Is a Photograph, coming soon!
For Patrons, Chase will be joining us in the tavern this month to take your questions about all things medieval and mystical. Check out our Patreon page soon for times!

Anchorite digs.

Music: Dies Irae (Dance Remix) and Gregorian Chants (Remix) prod. by Ryz
SFX and add. music: freesound.org and pixabay.com

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6. Masaniello versus "the Greed of Others Since Eternity": The Revolt of Naples, 1647

The State Between Us — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 10:00:14 +0000

In 1647, the urban dispossessed of Naples erupted into a revolutionary class war against their gangster aristocracy. Lead by a 'barefoot Moses', the destitute Masaniello, the brief but impactful revolt led to over a week of chaos that turned power in the Renaissance metropolis on its head, marking "the first time that the proletariat of any European city seized power and governed alone".

Background music from pixabay.com and fesliyanstudios.com
Intro: Oro. Stop the War. 1977.
Outro: Donatella Viggiano. Napule Canta e More. 1979.
Also featuring piano compositions by Franz List, performer unknown.

Reading:
D'Alessio, Silvana. Masaniello: The Life and Afterlife of a Neapolitan Revolutionary. Amsterdam U.P., 2022 (Translation).
Linebaugh, Peter, and Marcus Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.
Monod, Paul. The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1588-1715. Yale U.P., 1999.

Sound effects from freesound.org

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

4. The British Fascisti w/ historian Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc

The State Between Us — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 10:00:07 +0000

Historian of Irish resistance Pádraig Ó Ruairc joins Fritz to discuss the rise of the British Fascisti (yes, that's what they called themselves), the first Fascist organization in the UK, their imperial and class origins, their freaky friends and their terrible role in the occupation of Ireland.

Get Burn Them Out!: A History of Fascism and the Far Right in Ireland from Bloomsbury press!

Music: Opener "Come Out Ye Black and Tans" attributed to Dominic Behan, performer unknown. retrieved from archive.org.
Closer: "God Bless England" performed by the Mary Wallopers.
also featuring music from fesliyanstudios.com

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

3. The Council for National Policy - but really The Origins of Americanism

The State Between Us — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 21:10:51 +0000

In an attempt to wrap his head around the ultra-influential Council for National Policy, the secretive beating heart of the American Right today, Fritz is compelled to just sum up the whole history of Americanism instead, the oft-neglected endemic form of fascism in the U. S. of A.. From the National Association of Manufacturers, through the American Legion, to the Evangelical Right, the story of the CNP isn't only Reaganism, Project 2025, the Rapture and death squads; it's the bleeding edge of American fascism itself!

Key Readings:
Anderson, Scott, and Jon Lee Anderson. Inside the League: The Shocking Exposé of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986.
Barkun, Michael. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. Revised edition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Bellant, Russ. Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party. Boston: South End Press, 1991.
Celestini, Carmen. God, Country, and Christian Conservatives - The National Association of Manufacturers, the John Birch Society, and the Rise of the Christian Right. (Dissertation 2018, University of Waterloo)
Eco, Umberto. 1995. “Ur-Fascism.” The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995.
Gray, Justin. The Inside Story of the Legion. New York: Boni & Gaer, 1948.

Music:
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - 'California Uber Alles'.
John Hartford - 'I'm Still Here'
Koleso Nešťastia - 361.1
All other music from pixabay.com, archive.org and fesliyanstudios.com
Sound effects from freesound.org

2. Organizing Serbia: Citizen Assemblies, State Repression, and the (sort of?) General Strike - interview w/ Laura

The State Between Us — Tue, 27 May 2025 10:00:11 +0000

TSBU meets Laura, citizen assembly member and activist, in Serbia to discuss the historical and current developments in the ongoing anti-government protest movement which began in November of last year and shows no sign of stopping. They talk to Fritz about the ins and outs of the self-organized Citizen Assemblies within which they participate, the limits and possibilities of horizontalist political organizing, police violence, electoral developments and what's changed in the people's self-image since the revolt began.

Laura's links for listeners:
Fifty days of detention: "Enemies of the state" from Novi Sad - Vreme
Statement and Summary of Wiretapping Scandal - My Voice My Choice (Instagram)
Academics for Students in Serbia - International solidarity hub (Instagram - includes links to petitions)

>Link to the drone footage mentioned in episode<

Opening theme: Uradi nešto ("Do something") by Azra (1980)
Closing theme: Svi u blokade ("Everyone to the Blockades") by MP (2025) - YouTube link
All other music from pixabay.com

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

1. Welcome to Hughson's Tavern: the Manhattan Conspiracy of 1741

The State Between Us — Tue, 20 May 2025 10:00:10 +0000

In 1741, the motley proletariat of New York conspired to burn their ruling class from their city, and it might have worked too! Refusing the relationships of exploitation and 'natural' hierarchies between them, John Hughson, John Gwin, Peg Kerry, 'Quack', and many others imagined a new world; but, the empire had its own ideas...

Reading: Linebaugh, Peter, and Marcus Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

The theme music for this episode was "Diaspora" by Gang Shot.
> Their YouTube channel <

All other music in this episode from pixabay.com and feslyianstudios.com except for:
"350" by Koleso Nešťastia available on bandcamp.com,
An Spailpín Fánach - Mundy and Kila,
The Mary Wallopers' "Beer and Tobacco" in this video,
and here's a performance of the 18th century 'slave song' from the episode.

Sound effects from freesound.org

Connect to The State Between Us at patreon.com/TheStateBetweenUs and on Bluesky @thestatebetweenus.bsky.social‬.

0. Workin' the Archives: a tutorial w/ Keith Allen Dennis

The State Between Us — Thu, 01 May 2025 10:00:10 +0000

Legend Keith Allen Dennis joins Fritz to inaugurate The State Between Us with step-by-step, easy-to-follow guide for retrieving primary source materials from U.S. archives. Whether you're in a totally different country, broke as a joke and doing it from home, or if you're lucky enough to be within spitting distance of a decent collection and have a little cash to throw around for the cause (or any mix thereof), Keith has you covered.

Warning! Keith ended up getting charged for the Portland request for that American Legion box. Do yourself a favor and specify that if an archive charges, they inform you before digitizing the boxes....

A note on the challenge issued at the end of the show: more information - as well as a submission location and guidelines - will be settled as we get a bit further down the road.

Music by Koleso Nešťastia at Bandcamp.

Clips from John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon's 1974 film, Dark Star.

Links discussed in the show:

Finding Aids and Request Forms for Hoover Institute Archives at Online Archive of California
(Using ATLAS/AEON system)

University of Oregon Special Collections Online Finding Aid

...

**Fritz does a quick request! (In pictures)**

Step 1: Locate a special collection

Step 2: Use the finding aid from the google link to locate a topic of interest. Note down the box #, folder #, and item title for use later when you make your request.
George Viereck and Hamfish? Yes, please!

Step 3: Scroll back up to the top of the page and select "Request Items"

Step 4: You will be asked to log-in to Aeon or register. Go ahead and do that. Don't be scared.

Step 5: After registering and logging-in, you will be taken to this page, where you can finally submit your request. Scroll on down until you find the item you're looking for and tick the box. I only chose one item because OAC only allows for one free folder per request. If you want more, you have to pay a fee...

Step 6: Continue scrolling past the enormous list of folders, trying not to get distracted by the dark possibilities of this fashy fool's private letters, and start filling in the fields as shown. Remember, a little sweetness goes a long way!

Step 7: Note the buttons for "Submit Request for Reading Room" (the default option) and "Request Digitization". Now since I'm both lazy and far away from the OAC, I want to change that to "Request Digitization", revealing a new set of fields. Fill those in the same way I did here.

Step 8: Click "Submit Request" at the bottom of the screen and it should take you here! That's it! Now just obsessively refresh your email for the next six-to-eight weeks until your folder arrives!

With any luck, we should be able to start assembling a TSBU archival list in the future, but for now, treasure your treasure, and thanks for listening to or watching episode zero!

luv,
The State Between Us