Introducing: OnlyFantasy, Co-Hosted by Leon Neyfakh

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fiasco – "Introducing: OnlyFantasy" (Pushkin Industries, Hosted by Leon Neyfakh)
Date: May 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special crossover episode features Leon Neyfakh, acclaimed for his narrative history podcasts, introducing his new documentary series, OnlyFantasy. Unlike his previous deep dives into political scandals, this series explores the rise and culture of OnlyFans—a platform that has redefined adult entertainment, human intimacy, and digital sex work. Leon offers a revealing preview, co-hosted with comedian and former OnlyFans creator Gracie Kanin, focusing in this episode on candid conversations with his younger sister, Annie, about her own experiences on the platform.

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Main Theme & Purpose

• To examine the social, economic, and emotional dimensions of OnlyFans.
• To illuminate how OnlyFans has reshaped adult content, sex work, and online relationships.
• To highlight the blurred boundaries between creator and consumer, fantasy and reality, as well as tech-driven transformations of intimacy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The OnlyFans Landscape

Leon Neyfakh introduces the OnlyFantasy series and shares his initial skepticism:

• OnlyFans began as a platform for people to sell private photos and videos.

• It rapidly became a cultural force, lowering the barrier for sex work and changing perceptions.

• The real commodity isn’t just images/videos—it’s attention, connection, and simulated intimacy.

  “Photos and videos are only the beginning. It turns out the main export on OnlyFans is attention. Subscribers are paying not just to look, but to feel.”
  — Leon Neyfakh [02:40]

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2. Annie’s Story: Entering OnlyFans

Annie, Leon’s sister, shares her perspective and experiences:

• Annie became familiar with OnlyFans after a roommate (“Blondie”) introduced her to the platform.

• What started as posting lingerie photos escalated to earning substantial money rapidly.

  “She was making, I think, 15k a month.”
  — Annie [06:15]

• Annie describes the appeal: easy money, an alternative to in-person sex work, and the thrill of quick success as a teenager.

  “In the early days, having to only show a couple of photos and then making 1,000 bucks was great. As an 18, 19 year old, I didn't know what to do with myself. I really thought I was hot shit.”
  — Annie [06:54]

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3. The Business of Digital Sex Work

Marketing and subscriber management:

• Success depends on savvy self-promotion across platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat).

• Cross-promotion between creators is common.

• The surge during the COVID-19 pandemic: massive subscriber growth, quick cash for creators.

• “Girlfriend experience” as a primary revenue driver.

  “A lot of people were just lonely and sad, so they really just genuinely wanted somebody to text them every day. Didn't even have to be, like, naked photos, just cute photos.”
  — Annie [11:36]

  “Girlfriend experience. If you paid for that, it’s like 72 hours of a fake girlfriend. She’ll call you, she’ll text you, she’ll FaceTime you...just as if you’re a boyfriend for like two days.”
  — Annie [12:46]

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4. The New Porn Economy

Shifting paradigms and unexpected demand:

• OnlyFans’ economic model: Creators keep 80% of earnings, OnlyFans takes 20%.

• The platform hosts over 4 million creators and 300 million users (2024 numbers).

• Unique selling point: Personal engagement—messages, custom content, attention.

• Even with free porn abundance, people pay for direct, personalized attention.

  “How did OnlyFans convince people to start paying for porn again? What was it offering that users couldn’t get for free somewhere else?”
  — Leon Nayfakh [09:47]

  “I promise you, your favorite porn star is not about to call your name and step on a corn dog for you. These OnlyFans girls are paid to acknowledge your existence.”
  — Annie [10:51]

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5. Psychological and Social Dimensions

Loneliness, digital connection, and the fantasy of intimacy:

• Many subscribers seek emotional connection, not just sexual gratification.

• The “girlfriend experience” and 1-on-1 DMs fuel the site’s economics.

• For creators, it often feels more like emotional labor or being a digital companion.

  “What Annie and her fellow OnlyFans creators were offering was a distinctly 21st-century rendition of a staple product from the annals of sex work—the girlfriend experience.”
  — Leon Neyfakh [12:32]

• Leon acknowledges his own parallel experience messaging strangers as a teen, tying in the universality of digital intimacy.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [02:40] Leon: “The main export on OnlyFans is attention. Subscribers are paying not just to look, but to feel.”
• [04:05] Annie: “I've had people from OnlyFans message you, so can't get more awkward than that.”
• [06:15] Annie (on roommate’s earnings): “She was making, I think, 15k a month.”
• [10:51] Annie: “These OnlyFans girls are paid to acknowledge your existence.”
• [11:36] Annie: “A lot of people were just lonely and sad...just genuinely wanted someone to text them every day.”
• [12:46] Annie: “'Girlfriend experience.' If you paid for that, it's like 72 hours of a fake girlfriend.”
• [12:32] Leon: “A distinctly 21st-century rendition of...the girlfriend experience.”

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Key Timestamps

• 02:00 – Leon introduces the series premise and personal investment.
• 04:11 – Annie’s background, family context, and entry into OnlyFans.
• 06:10 – Income details and early growth during the pandemic.
• 07:07 – Subscriber acquisition and cross-promotion strategies.
• 08:03 – Platform’s Covid-fueled explosion and societal commentary.
• 09:47 – Discussion of OnlyFans' economic revolution in porn.
• 10:51 – Annie shares unique subscriber requests and the platform’s selling point: personal attention.
• 11:36 – The emotional labor and appeal of digital companionship.
• 12:46 – Explanation of the “girlfriend experience.”

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Tone and Language

• Conversational, self-aware, often humorous but also sensitive to the complexities of sex work and digital relationships.
• Leon approaches the subject with initial skepticism, but openness to understanding.
• Annie’s tone is candid, pragmatic, and occasionally irreverent, reflecting generational differences between siblings.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• OnlyFantasy is not just about sex work, but about how technology is redefining intimacy, loneliness, and the economy of attention.
• OnlyFans’ true disruption is in making transactional intimacy accessible—and desirable—to millions, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, connection and commodification.

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Recommendation:
If you’re intrigued by the intersection of technology, culture, sex, and human connection, tune into OnlyFantasy for an honest, revealing exploration, accessible wherever you get your podcasts, or ad-free on Audible.

Transcript

[Annie]

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[Leon Nayfak]

Pushkin. Hey fiasco listeners, it's Leon Nayfak. I am here to tell you about my new show. It might not be exactly what you're used to from a guy best known for making history podcasts, but it is, in its own way, scandalous. The series is called Only Fantasy and it's all about the wide World of OnlyFans, the website that ushered in a revolution in online porn and has radically lowered the barrier to entry for sex work to the point where there are now more than 4 million people on the platform selling access to their private photos and videos. But as I learned during my reporting, photos and videos are only the beginning. It turns out the main export on OnlyFans is attention. Subscribers are paying not just to look, but to feel. They're on there to have conversations and crushes and semi imaginary relationships. This confused and surprised me. And to be honest, I was skeptical and more than a little judgmental. All of which led me down a year long reporting journey alongside my co host, comedian and OnlyFans creator, Gracie Kanin. Together, Gracie and I did some of the most shocking and personal interviews I've ever been a part of. And we ended up documenting what feels like a genuinely new and genuinely strange phenomenon that has without a doubt changed millions of lives in all kinds of unpredictable ways. Only Fantasy is a show about the changing nature of sex, work, adult entertainment, and human intimacy itself. You're about to hear a preview of the show and if you like what you hear, please go find Only Fantasy wherever you get your podcasts or you can binge all episodes now and ad free on audible. Enjoy. So I know we've like talked about this before, but obviously not in a whole lot of detail. So you should feel free to disclose as much or as little as you want. Obviously, yeah, I'm your brother. It could be awkward, but it doesn't have to be.

[Annie]

I don't think it's awkward. I've had people from OnlyFans message you so can't get more awkward than that.

[Leon Nayfak]

Dude, I cannot believe that I forgot that.

[Annie]

Yeah.

[Leon Nayfak]

My sister Annie just turned 24, which makes her almost 20 years younger than me. She was raised by a different mom in a different household, and she has led a very different life for me.

[Annie]

Mr. Harvard, Mr. I got a diploma. Can't relate. But it's okay.

[Leon Nayfak]

You're doing great. Over the years, I've mainly heard about Annie's adventures in phone calls like this one. She lives in Chicago and I live in New York and we talk fairly regularly, often on FaceTime while I'm walking my dog and she's at work. She's a bartender these days, so she's often telling me about her regulars and sending me photos of the cash she has stacked up at the end of a long night of tips. But there was a time, starting when she was around 19 years old, when Annie was telling me about a different kind of hustle.

[Annie]

Do you remember that one girl that I lived with? The blondie?

[Leon Nayfak]

No.

[Annie]

She was the OnlyFans creator.

[Leon Nayfak]

She was the first girl you met who was on there?

[Annie]

Yeah, because she was the one who before was like, since you won't do escorting with me, would you do OnlyFans with me?

[Leon Nayfak]

Oh, God, yeah. Okay, I remember.

[Annie]

Yeah, now you're remembering.

[Leon Nayfak]

At the time, all I knew about OnlyFans was that it was a website where regular people, like my little Sister apparently could make money selling naked pictures of themselves. Knowing that annie was on OnlyFans made me apprehensive, to say the least. But Annie assured me that it was a safe alternative to real life sex work and that her friend the blondie was showing her the ropes and keeping her out of trouble.

[Annie]

She would be like, oh, yeah, so you could post like lingerie photos, this and that, and then if people like what they see, they'll message you and then you can send them an album that. The only way to unlock it is they have to pay a certain amount. They don't know what's on it. It could be bullshit photos, old photos, but they have to pay to unlock it, and that money is instantly in your account once they've done it.

[Leon Nayfak]

And so how much was your friend making?

[Annie]

She was making, I think, 15k a month.

[Leon Nayfak]

15k a month? Mm. That's a lot of money.

[Annie]

Yeah.

[Leon Nayfak]

What I remember Annie emphasizing to me back when she first started OnlyFans was that it was as much a marketing job as anything. She wasn't an influencer by any means, but she did have a couple hundred followers across her Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, where she would post free pictures intended to lure in new subscribers. Each account was under the same pseudonym annie used on OnlyFans, so people who found her and liked what they saw could then sign up for a few bucks a month to see her more exclusive content.

[Annie]

In the early days, having to only show a couple of photos and then making 1,000 bucks was great. As a. As a 18, 19 year old, I didn't know what to do with myself. I really thought I was hot shit.

[Leon Nayfak]

Annie and her roommate Blondie would cross promote each other on their pages in order to bring in new subscribers. And within a month, Annie said she had a hundred paying customers, which sometimes made it hard to keep up with her DMs.

[Annie]

It was very hard being like, oh my God, Jake. Oh, fuck. This isn't Jake. Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back. Oh my God. Fuck. Gotta scroll up and see whose name this is.

[Leon Nayfak]

Annie told me that during her best month ever, she brought in $18,000. By that point, it was the COVID pandemic and OnlyFans had exploded in popularity, thanks to subscribers who were looking to escape isolation. The thing we're all doing to keep ourselves safe can have an adverse health outcome, which is loneliness and loneliness talking

[Annie]

so much about all the physical illnesses. But I think a lot of people are worried about their mental health right now. Social interaction now is going to be three challenging, creative, and important more than

[Leon Nayfak]

ever before in April of 2020 alone. So the month after lockdown started, OnlyFans reported a 75% jump in new subscriber signups. But the growth wasn't just on the subscriber side. There was also a slew of new creators on the site. Anyone stuck at home and unable to work their regular job could now make content with minimal overhead and earn cash fast. This OnlyFans income is very real and it's very quick.

[Annie]

That first night, I made about like $1,300, and I'm like, this is insane.

[Leon Nayfak]

Pretty soon, OnlyFans wasn't just a dirty little secret. It was a cultural phenomenon. According to a piece in buzzfeed, selling yourself online is the hot new trend. Quote, everybody is making porn at home now. OnlyFans reports that seven or eight thousand new women sign up every day. Our daughters are selling themselves for food and rent, and BuzzFeed is telling us it's cool. The thing is, it kind of was cool. Even Beyonce, one of the most famous people in the world, felt moved to name drop OnlyFans in a song. Hips TikTok when I dance on that demon time she might start her Only fans, Big B and Michael B. Jordan went on Jimmy Kimmel and joked that he was making an Only Fans page for his mustache.

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[Annie]

Why not?

[Leon Nayfak]

Eating fruit, all types of crazy stuff. It's going to get wild.

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It's going to get.

[Leon Nayfak]

Part of. What was amazing about OnlyFans explosive growth was that for more than 20 years, the world of adult entertainment had been starved by the abundance of free online porn.

[Podcast Sponsor 3]

With free porn available on the Internet, is this the porn apocalypse? How do you compete with free?

[Leon Nayfak]

The situation was akin to that of the music industry after Napster. Stolen content was everywhere and consumer expectations had shifted to the point where the idea of paying to look at porn seemed utterly irrational. And then came OnlyFans. At the time of this recording, the platform hosts more than 4 million creators, mostly women and 300 million users, mostly men. The pay structure is creators keep 80% of what they make, and OnlyFans takes a 20% cut. In 2024, the company took in a $1.4 billion profit. How did OnlyFans convince people to start paying for porn again? What was it offering that users couldn't get for free somewhere else? When I first got curious about this and asked Annie about it, she offered an explanation involving a guy who once paid her 800 bucks to make a video of herself wearing a pair of shoes that he had bought her and smushing a bunch of corn dogs with the high heels.

[Annie]

I promise you, your favorite porn star is not about to call your name and step on a corn dog for you. So, like, yes, you can watch porn, but those porn stars that you watch will never know your name, will never speak to you. These OnlyFans girls are paid to acknowledge your existence.

[Leon Nayfak]

I had always pictured OnlyFans as a one way street. A place to publish exclusive content that your most motivated fans could pay to look at. End of story. Annie told me that I'd been missing the point. Most of the money people made on OnlyFans, she said, came from more than just being looked at. It came from maintaining quasi personal relationships with subscribers over weeks or months or even longer.

[Annie]

A lot of the people were just lonely and sad, so they really just genuinely wanted somebody to text them every day. Text them good morning in the morning, good night at night, send them a couple photos. Didn't even have to be like naked photos, just cute photos. Some were literally like me in an oversized hoodie in front of the mirror.

[Leon Nayfak]

But not all of them. Annie, you showed me. I remember it. I remember you showed me a couple pretty racy things you posted.

[Annie]

Not all of them, but there were a lot of the times they want you in a hoodie, wanted you in a hoodie, wanted you in a messy bun. They wanted you to not look like they were paying for you, basically.

[Leon Nayfak]

Right. What I realized talking to annie was that OnlyFans wasn't a porn site. It was more like a directory of people who, for a price, would participate in an extended fantasy in which the two of you were in a relationship. According to a study that looked at the transaction histories of more than a million OnlyFans subscribers, messaging drives almost 70% of revenue on the platform. What Annie and her fellow OnlyFans creators were offering was a distinctly 21st century rendition of a staple product from the annals of sex work, the girlfriend experience.

[Annie]

Girlfriend experience. If you paid for that, it's like 72 hours of a fake girlfriend. So she'll call you, she'll text you, she'll FaceTime you, she'll send you photos. She'll basically talk to you as if you're a boyfriend for like 2 days.

[Leon Nayfak]

But not meet up in person?

[Annie]

Nope. All over the phone.

[Leon Nayfak]

I know I sound skeptical here, and I was. But then I remembered something I myself had once enjoyed. The digital girlfriend experience. When I was a teenager, chatting voraciously with someone I'd never met. On AOL Instant Messenger. Her name was Jessica. A friend of mine from summer camp gave me her screen name and encouraged encouraged me to send her a message. That's it for this preview of Only Fantasy. Find the show wherever you get your podcasts or if you want to binge the whole series now ad free, go

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[Leon Nayfak]

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[Leon Nayfak]

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[Annie]

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