On Offense with Kris Goldsmith

Hate doesn’t stay on the margins. It shows up in city council meetings, school board races, local sheriff elections, and “community” groups that want to look normal while they build power.

In this episode, I’m joined by Phil Williams, chief investigative reporter at NewsChannel 5 Nashville and the writer behind Hate Comes to Main Street. Phil has documented how extremist networks embed themselves locally—how they recruit, intimidate, and normalize their presence in civic life—and what it takes to push back before they take over.

We talk about:

How hate groups move from online propaganda to real-world influence

Why local politics is where extremist movements test strategies first

How intimidation campaigns target journalists—and why sunlight still works

What you can do in your own town to go on offense

Read and subscribe to Phil’s work:
https://www.hatecomestomainstreet.com/

If you’re serious about acting locally:


Start or join an Antifascist Book Club: https://veteransfightingfascism.org


Access antifascist field manuals and organizing tools: https://taskforcebutler.org

Support this work: On Offense is my full-time focus. If this episode helped you understand how hate embeds locally—and how to push back—consider becoming a paid subscriber at https://weareonoffense.com.

No one’s coming to save your town. But you can defend it. Let’s go on offense.

Since Trump’s reelection, people have been desperate for an answer to the question: what do I do now?

In this episode of On Offense, I’m joined by Christopher Armitage, the writer behind Existentialist Republic, to lay out a practical blueprint for engaging local and state power—because it’s far more accessible than most people think.

We talk about how everyday people can:


Rally friendly local and state officials to take meaningful steps that blunt federal authoritarianism


Raise the cost of complicity by making governing uncomfortable for authoritarian collaborators

Move beyond outrage and build jurisdictional leverage through state legislatures, attorneys general, city councils, and mayors

Apply disciplined pressure with specific demands, meetings, and sustained follow-through

If you’re waiting on Washington to save you, you’re going to be waiting a long time. The fight is local—and you have more leverage than you realize.

Follow Christopher Armitage:
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/
https://buymeacoffee.com/theer

Organize locally:
Start an Antifascist Book Club: https://veteransfightingfascism.org
Access antifascist field manuals: https://taskforcebutler.org

P.S. This work—this podcast, this newsletter, this organizing—is now my full-time focus. I stepped into an unpaid role as President of VALOR Media Network, and On Offense is my primary source of income. If you believe in what I’m building, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Every dollar helps support my family and sustain this work.

Let’s go on offense.

In this episode of On Offense, Kristofer Goldsmith talks with investigative journalist Christopher Mathias, author of the new book To Catch a Fascist.

Mathias spent more than a decade at HuffPost documenting the American far right—from white supremacist rallies and fascist street gangs to the federal agents who enable them. In this conversation, Kris and Chris talk about infiltration, antifascist organizing, the state’s complicity in far-right violence, and how antifascists are building decentralized networks to stop it.

This episode includes a personal reflection from Kris on his own radicalization, his infiltrations of Patriot Front, and how To Catch a Fascist captures what motivates antifascists to go on offense—whether they’re organizing in the streets, gathering evidence, or unmasking fascists embedded in state power.

Buy the book: To Catch a Fascist by Christopher Mathias
Read Chris’s Guardian investigation: Antifa used to unmask neo-Nazis, now it’s exposing ICE: ‘Predators don’t get anonymity’
Follow Chris on Bluesky: letsgomathias.bsky.social

Take action:
Start an Antifascist Book Club
Explore antifascist field manuals and tools

Support the show: https://onoffense.substack.com

Tim Whitaker is the founder of The New Evangelicals — a platform created to help evangelicals hold onto their faith without being pulled into a theocratic political movement.

In this episode of On Offense, Kris Goldsmith shares his own journey from disillusionment with religion during the Iraq War to a deeper understanding of Christian nationalism as a rising authoritarian threat in America.

Together, Kris and Tim unpack the ideology, identity, and propaganda fueling the far-right’s Christian nationalist movement — and how we can fight back.

Follow Tim Whitaker:
👉 Substack
👉 Instagram
👉 YouTube

Support On Offense:
Subscribe, rate, and share the show. Every post, comment, and review helps build a stronger pro-democracy movement. weareonoffense.com

Get organized:
Download the Antifascist Book Club guides and take action locally at veteransfightingfascism.org

How far would you go to fight authoritarianism?

In this episode of On Offense, Kris Goldsmith speaks with Rachel Cohen—a Harvard Law grad who quit her Big Law job at Skadden and put her body on the line to confront ICE operations in Chicago and Minneapolis.

Rachel didn’t wait for mass arrests or national headlines—she got arrested before the raids began. She took action before things escalated. This episode is about what it means to face your fears, test your red lines, and move from resistance to intervention.

Kris opens with a deeply personal reflection on how—even in spaces where he was empowered to speak out—he still made compromises. He obeyed in advance. And he challenges listeners to ask: are you doing the same?

Guest links:
👉 Rachel Cohen on Substack
👉 Instagram: @Cohen.489
👉 TikTok: @Cohen.489

Get organized:
📚 Download the Antifascist Book Club Guides
💻 Learn more at Task Force Butler

Subscribe to On Offense on Substack, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Produced for the VALOR Media Network. Join the movement at weareonoffense.com