In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Lee Konstantinou about Tolkien's right-wing (or neo-reactionary) fans in Silicon Valley. Lee's essay Mythic Capital: How Tolkien is Whispering in the Ears of America's Most Powerful Men, is out now from Arc. Long-time listeners will know that this is our third time talking about this subject -- our first episode on the subject, from November 2022, can be found here, and our second, from July 2024 about then-VP nominee JD Vance, can be found here.

Lee Konstantinou is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland whose writing has been featured in Slate, Arc, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.

More Lee:

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Strangers in a Strange Land: Science-fictional Notes on the "Abundance" Agenda

Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction

Something is Broken In Our Science Fiction

Further reading/listening:

Tally (Spectre, 8/24) - Tolkien's Deplorable Cultus

Canavan (Dissent, 1/25) - Tolkien Against The Grain

Kakutani (NYT, 5/25) - Why Silicon Valley's Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits

Douthat (NYT, 6/25) (audio) - Peter Thiel and the Antichrist

Gellman (The Atlantic, 11/23) - Peter Thiel is Taking A Break From Democracy

Alexander (Substack, 5/25) - Moldbug Sold Out

Gabor (Phenomenal World, 2/25) - How To DOGE USAID

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