Half the Answer #36: Charlie Kirk and the Roots of the Far Right

Caitlin M. Green, Trent R. Nelson, Matthew McManus Oct 1, 2025

Trent and Caitlin talk with political science professor Matt McManus about far-right thinkers and their journey through the past two decades. He regales the HTA audience with nuggets of wisdom from Charlie Kirk's books and other pieces of right-wing political theory he has reviewed.

Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and elsewhere via its RSS feed.

Resources:

Matt's book: https://www.routledge.com/The-Political-Theory-of-Liberal-Socialism/McManus/p/book/9781032647234?srsltid=AfmBOorDA_LDtzo9xkaeEYkvNV-ZW95DeZZ_aOw4GF_kRVQM4sozwd5p

Matt's work with Liberal Currents: https://www.liberalcurrents.com/author/mattmcmanus/

Matt's work with Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/author/matt-mcmanus

Matt on Unlearning Economics Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgefM1AipFs

Published in: Half the Answer, Podcast

Authors

Caitlin Green is a linguist specializing in Discourse Studies and Pragmatics. She lives in California with her husband, two daughters, and a very small black cat.

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Trent R. Nelson is a poet, historian, and philosopher, as well as a political and socioeconomic analyst. He is the managing editor for MWF Springfield and a contributing editor with Liberal Currents.

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Matt McManus is the author of "The Rise of Postmodern Conservatism," amongst other books, and he is an assistant professor in the Political Science department at Spelman College.

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