Red Scare hosts Khachiyan (left) and Nekrasova (right)
Red Scare bills itself as a cultural commentary podcast hosted by "bohemian layabouts"[15] Dasha Nekrasova and Anna Khachiyan, and is recorded from their homes in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Nekrasova is a Belarus-born actress, who became known as "Sailor Socialism"[16][17] after an interview with an InfoWars reporter went viral in 2018. She immigrated to Las Vegas, Nevada, with her acrobat parents when she was four.[18] Khachiyan is a Moscow-born writer,[19]art critic[20][21] and daughter of Armenian mathematician Leonid Khachiyan.[22] She was raised in New Jersey.[14] The two women met on Twitter, and started the podcast in March 2018 after Nekrasova relocated to New York City from Los Angeles.[14]
Early episodes were produced by Meg Murnane, who also appeared as the show's third co-host. She made her last appearance on the show in October 2018, and episodes have been self-produced since then. On an episode released on December 5, 2018, Nekrasova and Khachiyan announced that they had parted ways with Murnane "amicably and mutually".[23]
An episode of Red Scare is typically between 50 and 90 minutes long. The show's theme song is "All the Things She Said", the 2002 single by Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. Free episodes of the show are available via podcast hosting services such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribers who contribute at least $5 per month via Patreon gain access to additional premium bonus episodes. As of June 2024, the show has generated over $50,000 per month from over 12,000 subscribers.[33]
Episode guide
As of December 20, 2024, 402 episodes of Red Scare have been released.[1][33][34] The show's most frequent guest is photographer Dan Allegretto at eight appearances, followed by Amber A'Lee Frost of Chapo Trap House at seven appearances, and writer Patrik Sandberg and Glenn Greenwald at five appearances each.
2018 episodes
No.
Title
Guest(s)
Original air date
Notes
1
"InfoWhores"
—
March 29, 2018 (March 29, 2018)
—
2
"No Man's Land"
—
April 5, 2018 (April 5, 2018)
—
3
"Whore School!"
—
April 12, 2018 (April 12, 2018)
Cum Town's Adam Friedland has a cameo near the end of the episode
The hosts have been called "provocateurs", with a New York Times op-ed dismissing Red Scare as a "louche hipster podcast" for its "contempt for social liberalism" and a desire to "épater la bourgeoisie".[8] Both hosts supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primaries,[35] but later became disillusioned with both the political establishment and millennial leftist figures (such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) for "ostensibly prioritizing identity politics over class".[36][37] Nekrasova, a practicing Catholic who has expressed sedevacantist views,[38] has been credited for trending Catholicism in certain demographics of millennials and zoomers.[39][40]
In a 2022 Vanity Fair article, conservative filmmaker Amanda Milius described Red Scare's laissez-faire attitude as a "premier example" of the "live-and-let-live place" occupied by the "new right", and reported that Khachiyan had met with billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel and U.S. Senate candidateBlake Masters.[9] Nekrasova and Khachiyan have repeatedly denied receiving any funding from Thiel.[41]
In 2021, Sydney Sweeney confirmed that Red Scare was the inspiration for the characters she and Brittany O'Grady played in the HBO satirical drama series The White Lotus, created by Mike White. White instructed Sweeney to listen to the podcast and base her performance on the hosts' specific vocal intonations.[42][43] The Charli XCX song "Mean Girls", on her 2024 album Brat, was inspired by Nekrasova,[44][45] with the singer telling Rolling Stone: “I wouldn’t say I’m deeply invested in edgelord culture, but have I scanned the texts? Sure.”[46] In the pilot episode of the FX show English Teacher, Brian Jordan Alvarez's ex-boyfriend (played by Jordan Firstman) describes himself as "basically a conservative at this point", before saying "I don't even know what I am anymore. I listen to Red Scare."[47][48]
