Know Your Enemy - One Podcast After Another (w/ Jesse Brenneman)

Matt and Sam are joined by KYE's intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman, to discuss the recent film, One Battle After Another.

Duration: 1h 4m
Broadcast on: 08 Dec 2025
Audio Format: other

Given the not-terribly-uplifting streak of episodes we've had lately, we thought it was time for a Know Your Enemy movie night, and 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, Nov 1, 2025

Armond White, "There Will Be Bloodlust in One Battle After Another," National Review, Sept 26, 2025

Richard Brody, "The Real Battle of 'One Battle After Another,'" New Yorker, Oct 7, 2025

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

All right, welcome listeners to episode 126 of Know Your Enemy. I'm Matt Sippen, your podcast co-host, and I'm here as always with my great friend, Sam of the Bell. Hey, Sam. I'm Matt. Well, this episode, I think it'd be fair to say, Sam, would you agree that over the past few weeks, past couple months, our episodes have been on the heavier side? Yeah. So we thought we'd do a movie episode, though I'm not sure of the film we selected. Is that much of a mood lightener? It's not exactly like transporting away from the kind of present realities of life. And that film is Paul Thomas Anderson's 2025 joint, one battle after another. I do think we talk about this in the episode, which, we should say right away, we did do with our usual Know Your Enemy movie correspondent, Jesse Brennan, our intrepid producer. But Jesse points out that usually when he comes on the show, it's to talk about one of the worst movies anybody's ever seen or conceived of. And in this case, I think we were all so relieved to get to talk about something that we all liked. That's rare on this podcast overall. Yeah. It's a fun movie, but I think as listeners, some of whom requested an episode about this movie will recognize right away, there's a lot in this movie to chew on for thinking about the left, thinking about the right, thinking about political violence, different forms of leftist organizing, different kinds of generations of reactionary politics and left politics. If you've seen this movie, you'll know that in some ways this is a perfect movie to talk about on Know Your Enemy. Yes. And we don't really need to say anything more because everything you need to know about this film we provide after the jump. So shall we get some housekeeping items? Yeah. As always, we're grateful to our partners at Descent. And we'll have more to say about this later, I'm sure. But one thing that happened because they sponsored the podcast is they were sued with us by the Young Americans for Freedom. Yes. And we're very pleased and proud to say that the lawsuit's over. Yes. We come out unscathed. Yes. And it's a huge relief. And we are glad, as we mentioned, on previous episodes, that we are not responsible for the financial destruction or dissent magazine because of their fateful choice to allow themselves with our podcast. Yes. That's right. Descent will continue to exist because they're not going to be sued into oblivion by the right. And so will this show? And so will this show. So one thing you can do to help us celebrate is subscribe to both. And if you subscribe to Know Your Enemy on our patreon at patreon.com/knowyourenemy for $10 a month or more, you get access to all our bonus episodes and a free digital subscription to Descent, and access to our Discord. For $5 a month, you get access to all of our bonus episodes, and there have been some great ones lately, and there'll be more to come. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, we especially want to thank our intrepid producer, Jesse Brennan, for editing this episode, but also for appearing on the third mic. And we want to thank Will Epstein for doing the music for the show. That's right. Shall we get to it? Yes. Let's. Here's the official Know Your Enemy conversation about one battle after another. Enjoy. Welcome to Know Your Enemy, Jesse Brennan. It's good to be back. Thanks for having me. Once a year, I get allowed out, and then we go, "Shoo! Shoo! Jesse! Go back!" Yes, we can't let you out of your cage too often, Jesse. Our listeners will just, you know, they'll only request movie episodes. Yeah, we don't want to spoil them. You know not to trust me as well. You know that I have an Iago-esque angling for the real power here. So I have to be kind of, you know, given enough freedom to stick around, but not enough to ultimately make my power play. As Toqua would say, free within a circle. It is genuinely so good to be back, although I do feel like I have to apologize to listeners up front because normally when you hear my voice, you're about to hear about the worst shit in the world in terms of right-wing movies and television and such. And sadly, I'd bring with me not today some schlock but an actually good piece of media. Cinema. It's right. This is a movie episode, and we will be discussing the 2025 film by Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another. This is Bob Ferguson. I was a part of the French 75 Steve Lockjaw just attacked me, and I cannot remember for the life of my only child the answer to your question. Maybe you should have studied the rebellion text a little harder. I need to find my daughter. Well then call us back when you have the time. And just so listeners aren't confused,

Transcription truncated.

Matt and Sam are joined by KYE's intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman, to discuss the recent film, One Battle After Another.