An anti-fascist spy handed American officials evidence of murderous intent from a Nazi planning server — and they declined to act.
About the Guest
Christopher Mathias is a journalist covering the far right, formerly a senior reporter at HuffPost, with work appearing in The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, Zeteo, and WNYC. His reporting has helped unmask white supremacist cops, soldiers, teachers, and politicians, and he was a Deadline Awards finalist for feature writing. He is originally from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and lives in New York. His new book, To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right (Atria Books), is out now.
About the Episode
Days after Jonathan Rauch’s influential Atlantic essay announced he’d moved from fascism skeptic to fascism believer, Christopher Mathias joins the show to discuss his new book — a deeply reported investigation into the decentralized network of anti-fascist activists who infiltrate, monitor, and expose neo-Nazis and white supremacists operating in positions of power across America.
The conversation quickly moves beyond whether Trump is a fascist to the harder questions his book raises: Who gets to decide who is exposed? What rights to privacy do members of extremist groups retain? Is unmasking community self-defense or vigilantism? And does the same logic that justifies exposing a neo-Nazi EMT extend to the tens of thousands of ICE agents now conducting raids on American streets?
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:10 Meet Christopher Mathias
01:45 The Greenville Moment
02:40 Defining the F-Word
04:15 The Hard Question
05:55 The Worst of the Worst
08:15 Who Decides?
10:45 Antifascist Amnesty
12:30 The Equivalence Trap
14:05 From Neo-Nazis to ICE
17:15 Where Does It End?
19:40 “Just Following Orders”
21:30 The Battle Over Shame
23:15 The Spy Who Warned Charlottesville
26:00 Minneapolis as Model
28:45 The Underground War
30:30 Closing
Links & References
Mentioned in this episode:
Jonathan Rauch, “Yes, It’s Fascism” — The Atlantic (January 2026)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/
To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right by Christopher Mathias (Atria Books, February 2026)
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/To-Catch-a-Fascist/Christopher-Mathias/9781668034767
Christopher Mathias reporting archive
https://www.huffpost.com/author/christopher-mathias
Follow Christopher Mathias: @LetsGoMathias on BlueSky and X
About Keen On America
Keen On America is a daily podcast hosted by Andrew Keen, the Anglo-American writer and Silicon Valley insider named by GQ magazine as one of the world’s “100 Most Connected Men.” Every day, Andrew brings his sharp Transatlantic wit to the forces reshaping the United States — interviewing leading thinkers and writers about American history, politics, technology, culture, and business. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show’s founding on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Website: https://www.keenon.tv/
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YouTube: youtube.com/@KeenOnShow