Laura Field is a writer and political theorist who specializes in far-right populist intellectualism in the US. She’s currently a Scholar in Residence at American University, a Senior Advisor for the Illiberalism Studies Program at GW, and a nonresident fellow with Brookings. Her new book is Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right. We bonded over some of the right’s wackier innovations, and differed over how far the left has also slid into illiberalism.
An auto-transcript is available above (just click “Transcript” while logged into Substack). For two clips of our convo — on the New Right’s “post-constitutional moment,” and the war on the civil service — head to our YouTube page.
Other topics: growing up in Alberta; losing a parent at a very young age; Plato an early inspiration; growing tired of the Straussians; the decline of religion under liberalism; Locke; Rousseau; Nietzsche; Fukuyama; the resurgence of the illiberal left and illiberal right; the Claremont Institute and Harry Jaffa; Jaffa’s extreme homophobia and hatred of divorce; Allan Bloom; Lincoln fulfilling the Founding; Hobbes; the role of virtue in a republic; Machiavelli; Michael Anton’s “Flight 93 Election”; John Eastman and “Stop the Steal”; Curtis Yarvin and The Cathedral; Adrian Vermeule’s Common Good Constitutionalism; Catholic conversion; Pope Leo; Obergefell, debating Harvey Mansfield over marriage; Woodrow Wilson’s expansion of the state; Thatcher and Reagan slimming it down; the pros and cons of technocratic experts; DOGE vs federal workers; “queer” curricula and the 1619 Project; edge-lords; Bronze Age Pervert and pagan masculinity; Fuentes and Carlson; and debating the dangers of wokeness.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Claire Berlinski on America’s retreat from global hegemony, Jason Willick on trade and conservatism, and Vivek Ramaswamy on the right’s future. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.
From a fan of last week’s pod with Arthur Brooks on happiness:
Well worth the whole 1.5 hour listen. Don’t get distracted by trying to eat one nugget in this huge box of chocolates unless you stop and save it to munch along later!
A new subscriber paid up because “I was dying to hear the rest of the Arthur Brooks episode”:
I HATE identity politics but I’m a mixed (1/2 black, 1/2 white) Gen Xer, lapsed Catholic, NYC feminist, and a (former) leftist who is questioning what I got wrong much of my life and/or how did the left get so insane the last 5-10 years.
One more on the Brooks pod:
This was among my favorite episodes this year. Thank you for the Dishcast and Happy New Year!
My sister raved as well! Another fave from 2025:
I listened to the Wesley Yang episode about 7-8 times. In general I love getting the Dish emails on a Friday evening (my time).
Another calls the Sebastian Junger pod on near-death experiences “one of the most brilliant episodes of yours I’ve yet heard”:
Sorry I can’t afford a sub — but believe me, that “hi, there!” at the beginning of each episode hits me right between the eyes, every time!
Another listener “just wants to add my voice to those who have thanked you for The Weekly Dish”:
I was a free subscriber for a while, but I finally gave in and became a paid subscriber a year or two ago, because I just needed to hear the *entire* podcast episodes.
I have enjoyed all the extra writing that came with the paid subscription, too — and while I almost never read the View From Your Window (because time is short, and I never even knew that there’d be an entire weekly post devoted to that feature before I subscribed!), I am very very glad that feature exists. On the rare occasion that I do have time to take a look at it, I am intrigued by all the detective-work of your other readers, and I am reminded of times when I have tried to track down similar things on the internet, using maps etc. — like when I try to figure out which local neighbourhoods that certain movie scenes were shot in!
A window view sent by another reader: “Falcon Heights, Minnesota, 10.33 pm”
Money is tight, so I won’t be upgrading my subscription, alas. But I thought you might want to know that yours is one of only *two* Substacks that I currently pay for (the other being an entertainment news outlet that is essential to my line of work). That’s how important your writing is to me. And not merely important: it is a pleasure to read, too. I look forward to it every Friday. That, and Bill Maher’s show — which makes the Fridays when you appear on his show all the better!
Looking forward to your religion book. But no rush. Take all the time you need.
From a subscriber who gave extra this year:
Thank you for making it easy to “upgrade” my subscription to $70 — still such a bargain. In this season of giving, receiving, and gratitude, I’m extremely grateful for an intellectual and spiritual connection that goes back nearly 40 years (!) to TNR, and all that I have gained by way of knowledge, insight, and (I hope) wisdom as a result.
Blessings of the season to you and yours, and all the best in 2026. Keep up the good work!
Another generous reader:
Happy New Year, and thank you for a great 2025! I gifted my brother and sister a 12-month subscription as a Christmas present.
I have three little kids (as I told my wife, I wipe four butts on an typical day), plus a busy job, so I have ~5 hours a week to spend how I want. I gladly spend two hours a week with you between the podcast, your articles, and your recommended articles. You both enlighten and challenge your readers.
Wishing you a healthy and happy 2026!
One more Dishhead for the week:
Thank you for the invitation to subscribe — I accept. I started reading you online (firewalls permitting) when the Daily Dish was really hard on the eyes — around the time of the opinion piece you wrote for the Sunday Times and republished on the Dish shortly after 9/11. As an ex-pat living north of London at the time, it spoke to me with a mixture of sympathy and reality. As the daughter of a POW held in Germany in WWII, your clear outspokenness about torture helped me know I was not the only American appalled by that.
Later, I was first “published” on the internet (on the white-background Dish) when you posted a clarification that I was uniquely qualified to submit, related to identifying the sex of a pig. When you shut down the Daily Dish in February 2015, I felt like I had lost all of my best friends. Later on, however, I realized that I too was suffering with the pace you were posting in your attempt to summarize The Internet for us every day.
When you reached back out to your mailing list in July 2020, an email once a week seemed about right. As a straight American woman about your age, but with a technological education and career, you’ve always made me think about things in a way I would not normally see them. As I approach retirement in the new year and expect to have a few more hours in each week, it’s time to go back and listen to some of those Dishcast episodes I’ve missed!
The greatest gift of my career has been my readership — and how we’ve lived much of the past quarter century together. I cannot tell you how privileged I feel to have you all. Chris too has been nurturing this community for the bulk of this time as well — which gives us a consistency rare in online restlessness — and I know he feels the same way.
Thanks so much to all the subscribers who increased their price for 2026. If you’re also interested in helping us keep pace with inflation, the full instructions are here.
See you next Friday, when the full Dish resumes.
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