Antifascist Dad Podcast

Happy Solstice, Holiday, Christmas, Deep Winter, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa to you all. A familiar short story today, this time ending in revolution—not sentimentality.

H.C. Andersen : The Little Match Girl (Hersholt translation)

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TikTok and YouTube: @antifascistdad 

You can still pre-order my book and as a gift, and let them know in a card!

In Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, we move from the critique of debate and “critical thinking” into the deeper question: what actually radicalizes us?

Sarah talks about the moments that changed her politics—teaching in prisons, supporting a student after sexual violence—and why no amount of abstract knowledge could have done the same work. I share how parenting an autistic kid has transformed my sense of who the world is designed for, and what it means to resist capitalist norms around productivity, learning, and success.

Also: why televised debates and “reasoning as warfare” formats (ahem, Jubilee) are great entertainment but terrible tools for social change, how the marketplace-of-ideas myth functions as liberal ideology, and why protest rarely changes governments or “the public” directly, but can permanently change the protesters themselves.

For Lubrano, good politics looks a lot like good friendship: long-term, non-transactional, joyful where possible. She offers advice to a hypothetical 15-year-old on how to enter political life without burning out: learn to be a good friend, find a broken part of the world you care about, and commit to fixing it together.

I close with an in-person story about meeting my previous guest, Sarah Rose Kaplan, and watching her improv a small act of mutual aid with three hungry kids in a Toronto restaurant—a live illustration of Lubrano’s thesis that new social experiences can change lives.

Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge, and works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (Bloomsbury).

– Website: https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com
– Substack: https://sarahsteinlubrano.substack.com
– X (Twitter): https://x.com/SSteinLubrano
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahsteinlubrano/
– Sense and Solidarity Initiative: https://senseandsolidarity.org
– Sense & Solidarity podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/2dcKkTCJNZM2j2CLKJZS3W

Buy Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds
– Publisher (Bloomsbury – main hub):
https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/

– Support the pod on Patreon!
– Preorder: Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (out April 26, 2026). 
– TikTok: @AntiFascistDad
– If you have an antifascism story to share—especially about relationships, generations, or parenting—leave me a voice message on Signal at username: antifascistdad71.

I asked communist philosopher and jazz drummer Richard Gilman-Opalsky a deceptively simple question: What do we actually mean when we say “love”? 

Richard’s "Communism of Love," insists that love is an active, non-exchange relation that contradicts the logic of capitalism. You can’t measure or spreadsheet it, or cost it out.

Unfortunately, this fact can also curdle into an excuse for sidelining and ignoring the vast amount of unpaid, often gendered, domestic labor—the "secret workshop" described by feminist marxists—where the concept of love is abused and "weaponized" to justify working for free, claiming that love is its own reward.

We talk about how real caregiving love requires parents to actively participate in their children's becoming—what they are not yet. That means getting over the anxiety of control and the tendency to treat children as emotional/financial investments. Parenting, like revolutionary politics and improvisational jazz, requires a constant, collective improvisation and a love for possibilities over rigid predetermined structures.

In “Fascist, Squish, and Antifascist News of the Week” I focus on Ontario Premier Doug Ford responding to reporting about a Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer supplying ICE.

Part Two is up now on Patreon, where Richard and I go deeper into improvisation, music, and why fascist control hates the freedom required for human flourishing.

Richard Gilman-Opalsky at UIS 

Support the show and hear Part Two on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/antifascistdadpodcast

Canadian Defence Review. “Roman Shimonov: 2025 Defence Executive of the Year.” Canadian Defence Review, 2025.
https://canadiandefencereview.com/roman-shimonov-2025-defence-executive-of-the-year/

Canadian Press. “ICE Ordering Fleet of 20 Armoured Vehicles from Canadian Firm.” CityNews Halifax, December 2, 2025.
https://halifax.citynews.ca/2025/12/02/ice-ordering-fleet-of-20-armoured-vehicles-from-canadian-firm/

Canadian Press. “ICE Says Armoured Vehicles Ordered from Roshel Produced in U.S.” CityNews Toronto, December 4, 2025.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/12/04/ice-says-armoured-vehicles-ordered-from-roshel-produced-in-u-s/

Canadian Press. “Sale of Canadian Armoured Vehicles to ICE Agency ‘Deeply Troubling’: Kwan.” CityNews Toronto, December 3, 2025.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/12/03/sale-of-canadian-armoured-vehicles-to-ice-agency-deeply-troubling-kwan/

CPAC. “NDP MP Jenny Kwan Discusses Arms Exports Bill (C-233).” Headline Politics, September 19, 2025.
https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/ndp-mp-jenny-kwan-discusses-arms-exports-bill--september-19-2025?id=755fc44b-a0b7-4bb1-b972-855c673ec354

Duggan, Kyle. “Anita Anand Won’t Say Whether Canada Would Block Export of Armoured Vehicles for Use by ICE.” The Globe and Mail, December 2025.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-anita-anand-block-export-armoured-vehicles-ice/

Ford Motor Company. “Ford Pro Upfitter Program.” Ford Canada.
https://www.fordpro.ca/en-ca/upfit/pro-upfitter/

Ford Motor Company. “Qualified Vehicle Modifier (QVM) Program Overview.” Ford Pro.
https://www.fordpro.com/en-us/upfit/qualified-vehicle-modifiers/

Gilmore, Rachel. “A Canadian Company Is Supplying Armoured Cars to ICE.” The Tyee, December 4, 2025.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/12/04/Canadian-Company-Armoured-Cars-ICE/

Global Affairs Canada. “Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada 2023.” Government of Canada.
https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/controls-controles/military-militaires/index.aspx?lang=eng

Global Affairs Canada. “Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada 2024.” Government of Canada.
https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/controls-controles/military-militaires/index.aspx?lang=eng

Global News. “Ford Welcomes ICE Plan to Order Ontario Armoured Vehicles.” Global News, December 3, 2025.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11558322/doug-ford-ontario-armoured-vehicles-ice/

Global News. “ICE Taps Canadian Firm for 20 Armoured Vehicles Despite Trump Trade War.” Global News, December 2, 2025.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11556588/us-ice-canada-roshel-armoured-vehicles/

Independent, The. “Canadians Call for Halt to ICE Armoured Vehicle Sale After Roshel News.” The Independent, December 2025.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-ice-vehicle-sales-trump-carney-b2878330.html

Leadnow. “Stop the Contract: No Canadian Weapons to ICE.” Leadnow Petition, December 2025.
https://leadnow.ca/stop-the-contract-roshel-ice/

Patterson, Brent. “Ontario-Based Company to Sell Armoured Vehicles to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Peace Brigades International–Canada, December 3, 2025.
https://pbicanada.org/2025/12/03/ontario-based-company-to-sell-armoured-vehicles-to-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-ice/

Patterson, Brent. “Questions and Concerns About the Pending Export of Canadian-Made Armoured Vehicles to the Israel Police.” Peace Brigades International–Canada, April 17, 2025.
https://pbicanada.org/2025/04/17/questions-the-pending-export-of-canadian-made-armoured-vehicles-to-the-israel-police/

Read, Justin Ling. “Canada Sold $18.9 Million of Military Goods to Israel Despite ‘Pause’.” The Maple, 2025.
https://www.readthemaple.com/canada-sold-18-9-million-of-military-goods-to-israel-despite-pause/

YouTube. “Anita Anand on Roshel–ICE Contract (Scrum Clip).” December 3, 2025.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ce7gk6LDLqA

Yahoo News Canada. “Canadian Firm Roshel to Provide ICE with Armoured Vehicles.” Yahoo News Canada, December 3, 2025.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/business-matters-canadian-firm-roshel-171906482.html

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@antifascistdad
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@antifascistdad
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewremski
Preorder the book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times: https://northatlanticbooks.com

In part two, Sara and I open with the question Matt Walsh can’t stop weaponizing: “What is a woman?” Sara walks me through her one-woman show that answers Walsh by shifting the frame to a deceptively simple word—“chair.” Through a live game with the audience, she demonstrates how even basic terms are messy, negotiated, and context-bound, and how fascist language games depend on pretending that words like “woman” have timeless, universal meanings.

We dig into why bad-faith questions are a form of bullying, what it means to feel the ground of language fall away under your feet, and how that eerie feeling can also open up freedom and solidarity. We talk about affect as antifascist strategy—why Sara cultivates a calm, philosophical delivery online, how it relates to depression, privilege, and safety, and how it offers a model of trans dignity that refuses both panic and “debate me, bro” energy.

I end with a reflection on coming to understand gender performativity as a cis guy.

Links from Sara:
https://equalitytexas.org/give/501c3/
https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/lastreetcare
https://www.instagram.com/sararosecaplan

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski 
YouTube: Antifascist Dad on YouTube 
TikTok: @antifascistdad

Support the project/instant access to Pt 2.
Patreon: patreon.com/AntifascistDadPodcast 

Preorder the book that this podcast is building toward:
Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times.

If this episode helped you think or talk differently about fascism and gender, you can:
• follow the show in your podcast app
• leave a rating or short review
• share this episode with a friend, comrade, or family member who’s struggling to talk about trans issues and fascism

What if the entire “marketplace of ideas” story about how people change their minds is mostly wrong? In this episode, I talk with political theorist and organizer Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano about why debate, podcasts, and “critical thinking” rarely shift anyone’s core political commitments.

Sarah and I dig into her book Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds, the limits of political education, the classed nature of “critical thinking,” cognitive dissonance and cult dynamics, and why good politics begins with friendships, cooperative projects, and building a different world together.

Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano is a political theorist and organizer with a background in feminist mutual aid, local grassroots work, and teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from Oxford and a master’s degree from Cambridge. Sarah works with the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. Her first book is Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds (Bloomsbury).

Website: https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com

Substack  https://sarahsteinlubrano.substack.com 

X (Twitter): https://x.com/SSteinLubrano 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahsteinlubrano/ 

Sense and Solidarity Initiative: https://senseandsolidarity.org 

Sense & Solidarity podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2dcKkTCJNZM2j2CLKJZS3W 

Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/dont-talk-about-politics-9781399413923/ (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Mentioned in this episode
– Olivia Nuzzi, American Canto
– Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (audio excerpt)
– Leon Festinger, When Prophecy Fails and the origins of cognitive dissonance theory
– Thomas Kelly’s archival critique of Festinger’s study (discussed further on Conspirituality)
– System justification theory
– Aristotle on friendship and the “friend of virtue”
– The Dig podcast (as a political education project)
– The School of Life

– Please leave a rating and review so more people can find the show!
– Preorder my book Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times (out April 26, 2026)
– Become a supporter on Patreon.
– If you have an antifascism story to share – especially about relationships, generations, or parenting – leave me a voice message on Signal at username: antifascistdad71.

Donald Trump casually embraces the word “fascist” in front of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and doesn't bat an eye when Mamdani accuses him of funding genocide. This smug absorption of rhetorical confrontation is something we need to think about.  

On the same day Mamdani brought socialism discourse to the Oval Office, the Democratic leadership voted in favour of House Resolution 58, “Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism,” which features Jordan Peterson’s favorite “100 million deaths” talking point from the dodgy stats of 1997's Black Book of Communism.

But guess what? this same week, the province of Kerala, which has be led by democratically-elected communist parties since 1957, declared that it had eradicated extreme poverty for 64K households through an intensive micro-plan program involving helping folks making like than $3/day get good documents, ration cards, travel allowances, health care, house repairs, and palliative nursing. 

And: I'm joined today by trans philosopher and performer Sara Rose Caplan. We explore why trans people drive fascists bananas; fascism as a fear response to freedom and uncertainty; C.T. Nguyen’s idea of “games as existential balm”; the Cassandra feeling of warning about fascism while no one listens; philosophy as “thinking in slow motion”; and why you can’t win arguments with bad-faith actors like Matt Walsh. Part 2 is available now on Patreon.

Sara Rose Caplan is a trans woman, performer, and educator originally from Houston, Texas. She studied philosophy in undergrad before spending a decade in LA as an improv comedian. This fall, she started working on a MA in philosophy at Cal State LA under the mentorship of trans philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher, though she has sadly had to put her studies on hold as she and her wife, also trans, have decided to leave the United States for safer, hopefully less christofascist shores up North.

Sources:

Text - H.Con.Res.58 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Denouncing the horrors of socialism. 

The Right Can’t Figure Out What to Do With Zohran Mamdani  

Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post 

The Black Book of Communism Is a Shoddy Work of History 

How Kerala eliminated extreme poverty | Brookings

Kerala becomes the first state to eradicate extreme poverty | Peoples Democracy

Links from Sara:
https://equalitytexas.org/give/501c3/
https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/lastreetcare
https://www.instagram.com/sararosecaplan

Bluesky: @matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski 
YouTube: Antifascist Dad on YouTube 
TikTok: @antifascistdad

Support the project/instant access to Pt 2.
Patreon: patreon.com/AntifascistDadPodcast 

Preorder the book that this podcast is building toward:
Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times.

If this episode helped you think or talk differently about fascism and gender, you can:
• follow the show in your podcast app
• leave a rating or short review
• share this episode with a friend, comrade, or family member who’s struggling to talk about trans issues and fascism

In Part 2, David and I go deeper into the contradictions, tensions, and possibilities of the Catholic Church at this political moment. We discuss ideological purity, coalition building, critiques of capitalism, the role of synodality, and how leftists and religious radicals can meet each other in common struggle.

What are the spiritual and emotional dimensions of direct action? What gives people courage to resist? The effort to bring communion to detainees is not a stunt but a deeply rooted pastoral act grounded in human rights, sacramental practice, and a public demonstration of both humility and defiance.

What happens when people of very different beliefs show up at the same protest? What does collaboration look like when disagreements run deep? What happens if coalitions fracture? The right is always ready to fill the vacuum when the left stumbles backwards.

Finally: a diary entry on post (?) religious antifascist parenting.

David's excellent podcast on Liberation Theology

I posted a short reflection to TikTok last week, and it landed harder than I expected. It’s about the emotional double-life I believe many of us are living: one foot in the adult world of political vigilance and despair, and one foot in the child-world of curiosity, play, and care.

Today I’m expanding that theme and pairing it with another challenge: how suspicion-driven Left analysis shapes our emotional availability, our social trust, and our parenting. How do we balance vigilance with openness? How do we keep our melancholy from becoming our children’s inheritance? And how do we stop feeling like orphans in a world where radical elders have been scattered, suppressed, or lost?

I’d love to hear your experience with this:

Preorder link for Antifascist Dad (North Atlantic Books, April 2026)

Just a coupla antifascist Canadian dads having a chat about stuff. 

In this special crossover episode, I join Cory Johnston of the Skeptical Leftist podcast for a  conversation about cult dynamics, fascism, antifascist parenting, masculinity, and how to support kids with empathy in a collapsing world.

We talk about parenting in a political emergency, how to avoid overwhelming kids with adult anxieties, and how to build trust-based conversations about power, policing, misinformation, and existential fear. We get into masculinity, emotional repression, the unpaid labor of women, the politics of care, and how becoming a co-parent radicalized me more deeply than any book ever could.

We also spend time on atheist/religious alliances, liberation theology, body-image capitalism, surviving neoliberal time-pressure, and how to nurture political imagination without drowning in guilt or fatalism.

Our interview on YouTube.

Cory's Linktree.

My book to preorder.

In Part 2 of my conversation with Cy Canterel, we keep digging into how people form identity, belief, and belonging inside the swirl of irony, nihilism, and digital performance that defines so much of contemporary life.

We explore the psychology of online radicalization—what actually pulls people toward fascist aesthetics, what ambivalence can teach us about resistance, and how the very same infrastructures that feed alienation can also host creativity, solidarity, and care.

Also: more on the Graham Platner story as a living case study in fluid online identity: how meaning shifts, how people change, and how communities can choose to interrupt cycles of rage instead of reproducing them.

And an epilogue on taking the 13 year-old to the Toronto Anticapitalist Book Fair in the old Tranzac Club, where I used to hang out more than 30 years ago.

Cy's Website

Cy's Substack: Abstract Machines