Red Scare – Holiday Loveline 2025 (December 22, 2025)

Overview

In this festive, freewheeling edition of the Red Scare podcast, hosts Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova settle in for a "Loveline"-style advice special, taking listener calls ranging from breakups, libido, dating anxieties, and holiday existentialism to the pitfalls of clip-farming and video podcasting. The duo fields questions with a blend of deadpan sarcasm, hard-won cynicism, candid personal stories, and the customary Red Scare irreverence.

Main Themes

• The Changing Media Landscape: The challenges and resistance to “pivot to video” and content clipping in the podcast world
• Sex, Relationships, and Emotional Baggage: The messy realities of love, lust, codependency, and moving on
• Gender, Hormones, and Identity: Physical and psychological shifts in young adulthood and among trans listeners
• Habits, Self-Improvement, and Resignation: New Year’s resolutions and the paradoxes of personal growth
• Millennial Malaise and Humor: Coping with life’s disappointments and awkwardness through sly, sardonic humor

Episode Highlights & Key Segments

Festive Tech Troubles and Podcasting Meta (00:24–04:21)

• Opening discussion about video recording difficulties, computer settings, and clip-farming ambitions
• Dasha expresses anxiety about the pressure to produce snackable content:
  “I feel like I’ll never have the stamina to be a real streamer…just to keep up with the attention economy. People want short form video content.” (02:13, Dasha)
• Anna reflects on Red Scare’s appeal:
  “Part of our cult appeal is that we’ve historically been defiant and contrarian…and haven’t, like, gone the route which everyone else did, which is pivot to video. That’ll save us in the end.” (02:39, Anna)

Q&A: Sex, Love, and Dating Struggles

How to Move on After Mind-Blowing Sex with a "Loser" (05:04–08:21)

• Caller feels she’ll never find sexual chemistry again post-breakup.
• Anna:
  “You gotta kiss some frogs before you find your prince.” (06:27)
• Dasha introduces “alpha-widowed” from the manosphere (06:33).
• Anna and Dasha warn: great sex can be a mirage, often tied to psychological dynamics and losers making up for shortcomings elsewhere.
  “Whatever you think is good sex, there’s probably better sex on the horizon—don’t sell yourself short and don’t rule it out.” (07:41, Anna)

Worried Boyfriend Still Loves His Ex (09:40–13:32)

• Caller worried new boyfriend is overly complimentary of his ex.
• Anna hypothesizes:
  “If somebody is being overly nice and deferential about their ex, it could just be that they’re compensating and trying to be polite...because they don’t want to trash their ex to their new girlfriend or boyfriend.” (11:02, Anna)
• Ultimately both caution that details matter; intuition is key.

Trans Caller, Hormones, and Lost Libido (13:47–19:41)

• 24-year-old discusses loss of sex drive after 5 years on estrogen.
• Anna:
  “Obviously, when you tamper with your God-given natural hormonal constitution, it will create horrible first, second, and third order effects…the known side effects of transitioning.” (16:01)
• The hosts, through irreverent banter, suggest practical and spiritual reframing, jests about “being a young guy who wears women’s clothing sometimes and isn’t on hormones.”
• Dasha:
  “Maybe God's taken your sex drive away to free you from the wages of sin. Silver lining.” (17:59)

The Red Scare Christmas Potpourri & Lifestyle Riffs

Weed Stories and The Mess of Modesty (20:19–23:12)

• Anna and Dasha recount edible mishaps and cannabis preferences.
• Commentary on modern women’s fashion:
  “They’ve stopped completely tailoring clothing…but sew like underpants into everything mini-skirt.” (22:38, Anna)

Married and Crushing on Teen Diving Instructor (23:26–28:30)

• Caller, 29, married, develops a crush on her 16-year-old instructor.
• Anna and Dasha gently—but pointedly—advise to leave it as a crush, predicting displaced maternal instincts or marriage ennui.
• “What are you gonna do? You can blow up your marriage…Not worth it and probably a bad idea.” (24:38, Anna & Dasha)

Friendship Boundaries and Romantic Red Flags

Boyfriend Makes Fat Jokes with a Skinnier Female Friend (28:57–34:03)

• Caller upset by her boyfriend’s Instagram banter with another woman.
• Dasha:
  “Men and women can be friends, but not with anyone thinner than your girlfriend. That’s the rules—I don’t make them.” (31:48)
• Anna:
  “There is. It’s called breaking up with him so he can go be with the girl he really wants to be with.” (30:59)
• Anecdotes about handling public, flirty social media behavior.

Substance Use & Youthful Experimentation

Should I Get Sober at 19? (34:28–38:30)

• Young caller asking if he should address his drug use now or later.
• Anna:
  “My only advice to him is that he should just hoard as much money as possible…while he has…and invest it well.” (36:33)
• Dasha:
  “19’s so young. You can…you’re going to have your whole, whole life to get sober.” (38:22)

European Gay Dating & International Malaise (39:12–44:04)

• American gay man in Estonia can’t connect locally; is jet-setting sustainable?
• Anna:
  “You have to let the data do the talking. Are you finding love connections?” (40:55)
• Dasha suggests following his attractions, but finding a “home base” may help.

Notable Quotes & Moments

“Clip Farming” and Podcasting Angst

• “We’re clip farming.” (00:40, Dasha)
• “How are we supposed to talk really quick? That’s so annoying.” (07:09, Anna)

Dark Red Scare Humor

• “This is what getting molested by Epstein must have felt like. And then you try to re-enter normal life and it’s all over.” (03:35, Anna)
• “You’re never gonna win as a woman. See that? May as well die. You should kill—That’s my advice. You should all kill yourself.” (50:34, Anna)

New Year’s Resolutions & Running on Fumes

• Anna:
  “I would like to stop saying ‘like’ so much and literally and just like, stupid filler words and just speak directly and effectively and not be like… and literally.” (74:29)
• Dasha:
  “I’d like to get pregnant…Lock in, taper off benzos once and for all.” (73:26)

Practical Red Scare Wisdom

On Ghosting (91:21–95:34)

• Dasha:
  “Ghosting is the correct and merciful thing to do at the outset of any…It’s humane courtship.” (91:56)
• Anna:
  “Yeah, ghosting rules…You should ghost people all the time.” (92:07)
• Both agree that lengthy explanations are unnecessary; let things die quietly.

On Being Direct and 'Low Maintenance'

• “I’m gonna stop being so, like, doing the female thing of…qualifying in an email or something where you’re being too, like, ‘if possible’ or blah, blah, just ask, like, being more direct.” (74:49, Dasha)

Listener Calls – Quickfire Advice Highlights

• Trans Listener: Accepting effects of hormonal therapy, embrace unique identity (“God’s muse or eunuch for the kingdom of heaven”—17:34).
• Crush on Teen Instructor: Don’t blow up your life or marriage; desire likely symptomatic of other needs (25:08).
• Angry Boyfriend: Red flags outweigh financial support and sex appeal; consider moving on (88:09–90:21).
• Orphaned Libido: “May as well, right?”—keep using Grindr if that’s what you want (62:06).
• Love Language Overkill: Don’t grout his bathroom—create healthy boundaries, acts of service shouldn’t mean servitude (64:32–65:09).
• Monkey Obsession: Follow your calling—if your boyfriend doesn’t want to join your orangutan mission, go alone! (78:43).
• Will It Be Okay in the End?: “Yeah, playa. For sure…Even if it’s not okay, then it’s not the end.”* (96:46)*

Notable Timestamps

• 00:24–04:21: Podcasting logistics and philosophy
• 05:04–08:21: Moving on from sexual chemistry with the wrong guy
• 13:47–19:41: Trans listener, hormones, and lost libido
• 23:26–28:30: Married woman’s crush on her 16-year-old diving instructor
• 28:57–34:03: Boyfriend’s “thin friend” jokes—internet boundaries
• 34:28–38:30: Young caller questioning if he should get sober
• 39:12–44:04: Gay dating difficulties in the Baltic states
• 62:41–65:09: Listener does grout for prospective boyfriend—simping misfire
• 74:29–75:09: New Year’s resolutions—directness and filler words
• 91:21–95:34: The mercy of ghosting

Episode Close

Anna and Dasha wrap up by reaffirming their faith that everything, in some sense, will eventually be okay—and if not, perhaps that’s not the end. Wishing listeners a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a touch of amor fati, they sign off in typically wry, self-aware style.

“I can't wait to, like, ghost all my friends and family for the holidays and be like, well, we determined it was okay on the podcast.” (94:42, Anna)

Overall Tone

Irreverent, sardonic, vulnerable, and darkly comic—with sharp insights woven through flippant asides, self-deprecation, and the studied refusal to take themselves (or “the discourse”) too seriously. For Red Scare fans, it’s quintessential holiday comfort food: honest, messy, and strenuously unserious about everything except the essential.