The New Right’s Very Old Vision of Men
About this episode
Klein interviews journalist Helen Lewis about her reporting on the new right's vision of masculinity. Lewis argues today's right-wing gender politics — pronatalism, tradwife aesthetics, the fetishization of male physical dominance — is not new but a very old patriarchal script updated for the internet age. They discuss why young men are drifting right: economic precarity, the collapse of traditional pathways to status, and a left that often treats masculinity as a problem to be solved rather than a constituency to be courted. Lewis is skeptical of both progressive moralizing and conservative nostalgia; she argues liberals need a positive, attractive vision of modern masculinity instead of ceding the terrain. They also touch on J.D. Vance, pronatalist policy proposals, and the gender gap in recent elections.