OUR RATING:
Two extremely online New Yorkers psychoanalyze contemporary culture through a haze of cigarette smoke and Eastern European fatalism. If that’s the sort of podcast you’re looking for, then you’re in luck! Red Scare will become your new obsession. Hosted by Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova, this podcast has somehow managed to carve out a niche that exists at the exact intersection of art criticism, political commentary, and whatever the opposite of self-help is. Maybe just self-awareness taken to its logical, devastating conclusion.
Thus goes this podcast: two friends talk about whatever’s caught their attention that week, which could range from the latest political scandal to whether or not being hot is a moral virtue. What makes it work is the peculiar chemistry shared by the hosts, that is to say, Anna brings the theoretical frameworks and references that make you feel like you’re auditing a graduate seminar you definitely didn’t sign up for, while Dasha contributes a certain downtown-bohemian energy that oscillates between insightful and deliberately provocative. Together, they’ve created something that feels less like a podcast and more like the cool kids finally letting you eavesdrop on the world’s most interesting argument at a party you weren’t cool enough to be invited to.
The cultural commentary on Red Scare operates at a level of irony that would make a postmodern theorist weep with joy, or confusion, it’s honestly hard to tell. The ladies will spend twenty minutes discussing the semiotics of a celebrity’s Instagram post with the same intensity others reserve for matters of international diplomacy. Whether you’ll find yourself caring deeply about their take on whether or not some starlet’s choice of handbag represents the decline of Western civilization is, well, I’ll leave that decision up to you, but yes, it’s absurd, and yes, it’s also brilliant in that way that makes you question whether you’re in on the joke or the butt of it.
Red Scares coupe de grâce is its gleeful rejection of practically every sacred cow in contemporary discourse. The show has been called “dirtbag left,” “anti-woke,” and various other labels that the hosts would probably roll their eyes at while secretly appreciating the attention. They’ll critique both liberal pieties and conservative talking points with equal venom, leaving listeners in a state of ideological whiplash that’s either refreshing or exhausting depending on your tolerance for contrarianism.
The guest episodes are where things get particularly interesting, as Anna and Dasha have an uncanny ability to draw out surprisingly candid conversations from writers, artists, and various downtown intellectuals. These episodes often feel like you’ve stumbled into a salon from a bygone era, except everyone’s talking about OnlyFans instead of the Paris Commune. The hosts ask the kinds of questions that most interviewers are too polite or too afraid to ask, which results in conversations that are at times uncomfortable to witness, but kind of awesome too.
One of the show’s most polarizing aspects is its aesthetic philosophy, which could be summarized as “pro-anorexia but make it Continental philosophy.” The hosts have been criticized for their commentary on bodies, beauty standards, and femininity, with some finding their takes actively harmful. They occupy this strange space where they’ll critique conventional beauty standards while simultaneously reinforcing them, all while insisting that caring about any of this is bourgeois. It’s the kind of intellectual pretzel that only makes sense if you’ve either read too much Camille Paglia or not enough.
The podcast has cultivated a devoted following that’s equally enthusiastic and slightly embarrassed to admit they listen. Red Scare fans exist in a perpetual state of half-ironic devotion, never quite sure if they’re supposed to take the show seriously or if treating it seriously is the cringeiest thing you could possibly do. The subreddit alone is a anthropological goldmine of people trying to decode whether a particular comment was sincere or seven layers deep in irony. It’s exhausting, it’s entertaining, and it’s probably not great for anyone’s mental health, but you can’t look away.
Red Scare is less a podcast and more a cultural phenomenon that says something about where we are as a society, though what exactly it says is up for debate, and Anna and Dasha would probably argue about it for forty-five minutes before getting distracted by something else entirely. Is it smart? Sometimes. Is it funny? Often. Is it good for you? Probably not, but neither is most of what passes for entertainment these days. If you can handle having your assumptions challenged by two women who seem to delight in being deliberately difficult, you might just find yourself hooked. Just don’t expect it to make you a better person, if anything, it might make you worse, but at least you’ll be more interesting at dinner parties.
Where to listen to Red Scare
Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro
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