For KYE's first ever live show, Matt and Sam were joined by Mike Duncan, host of the Revolutions and History of Rome podcasts, to discuss how the right (and left) talk about American decline.
Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.
Last month, on May 14th, we were joined by nearly 800 listeners in New York City for the first ever Know Your Enemy live show, "Decline and Fall." The event was a fundraiser for Dissent, so we called in the big guns, our great friend Mike Duncan, to join us on stage. Many KYE listeners will be familiar with Mike, the brilliant and prolific host of the Revolutions and, especially relevant for the purposes of this conversation, History of Rome podcasts. We discuss how the right talks about decline, their hilariously ignorant invocations of Rome, our very symptomatic obsession with political decline and dissolution, the power of nostalgia and declension narrative—and then answer audience questions!
Thank you again to everyone who joined us in person, to Mike Duncan, to Patrick Iber and Rosalie Ryan and everyone at Dissent, to our intrepid producer Jesse Brenneman (who was able to fly in from Montana to join us), to listeners near and far who so generously continue to support Know Your Enemy!
Donate to Dissent here.
Photo credit: Jack Califano
Sources:
For quotes from conservatives about Rome's decline: Reagan, Nixon, Buchanan, Vance
Mike Duncan, The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic (2017)
James J. Walsh, The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries (1907)
Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962)
Kate Wagner, "Fear of a Breakdown," Late Review, May 11, 2026.
D.W. Winnicott, "Fear of a Breakdown," Intl. Review of Psychoanalysis, (1974)