Red Scare (podcast)

Red Scare bills itself as a cultural commentary podcast hosted by "bohemian layabouts"[8] 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"[9][10] after an interview with an InfoWars reporter went viral in 2018. She emigrated to Las Vegas, Nevada, with her acrobat parents when she was four.[11] Khachiyan is a Moscow-born writer,[12] art critic[13][14] and daughter of Armenian mathematician Leonid Khachiyan.[15] She grew up in New Jersey.[7] The two met over Twitter,[7] and started the podcast in March 2018 after Nekrasova relocated to New York City from Los Angeles.

Early episodes were produced by Meg Murnane, who would also appear as the show's third co-host. She disappeared from the show in October 2018, and episodes have been self-produced since then. On December 5, 2018, Dasha and Anna officially announced that they had parted ways "amicably and mutually".

The show covers current topics in American culture and politics and is a critique of neoliberalism and feminism in a manner both comedic and serious in tone.[7] The hosts are heavily influenced by the work of Mark Fisher,[16] Slavoj Žižek[17] and Camille Paglia.[18][19] Recurring topics include Russiagate, the #MeToo movement,[12] woke consumerism and call-out culture, the death of Jeffrey Epstein and the Presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, who both supported in the 2020 Democratic primaries.[20]

Several writers, artists, social commentators and cultural figures from all sides of the political spectrum have appeared on Red Scare, including Elizabeth Bruenig, Angela Nagle, Juliana Huxtable, Ariana Reines, Tulsi Gabbard, Ross Douthat, Glenn Greenwald and Steve Bannon.[21]

Nekrasova and Khachiyan have hosted several episodes of the show live, most notably broadcasting on NPR at The Green Space at WNYC & WQXR, as well as interviewing social media influencer Caroline Calloway at the Bell House in Brooklyn.[22] Khachiyan has been interviewed by Bret Easton Ellis[23] and Eric Weinstein[24] on their respective podcasts.