Know Your Enemy: One Podcast After Another

Know Your Enemy: One Podcast After Another

Matt and Sam are joined by Know Your Enemy’s intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman, to discuss the recent film One Battle After Another.

Know Your Enemy is a podcast about the American right co-hosted by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell. Read more about it here. You can subscribe to, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, and receive bonus content by supporting the podcast on Patreon.

Given the not-terribly-uplifting streak of episodes we’ve had lately, we thought it was time for a Know Your Enemy movie night. We were joined by the podcast’s intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman, for a conversation about Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2025 film, One Battle After Another. Its tagline—“When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own”—suggests why all three of us absolutely loved it. We discuss: the film’s relationship to the contemporary United States, and what it might reveal about our political situation; how it portrays both the left and the right; the family drama at the heart of the film, and the connection between origin and identity, personally and politically; the way Ronald Reagan haunts a surprising number of its scenes; and more!

Spoiler alert: we offer a quick plot summary for those who haven’t (yet!) seen One Battle After Another, but that does mean certain surprises will be spoiled for you.

Sources:

Sam Adler-Bell, The Fantasy of Assassination Culture, New York Magazine (2025)

Armond White, There Will Be Bloodlust in One Battle After Another, National Review (2025)

Richard Brody, The Real Battle of “One Battle After Another,” New Yorker (2025)