Red Scare – “Jail Play” (December 9, 2025)
Hosts: Anna Khachiyan & Dasha Nekrasova
Overview
In this wide-ranging, candid episode, Anna and Dasha riff on the news that playwright Jeremy O. Harris has been arrested in Japan on drug charges, using his predicament to launch a punkish, darkly humorous meditation on cultural double standards, drug laws, the hubris of cosmopolitan creative elites, and the justice systems of various countries. The episode then flows into major digressions: the psychology of public figures under scrutiny, stories of immigration and welfare fraud (with a focus on the Somali community in Minnesota and Ilhan Omar), an extended critique of “quiet quitting” marriages via recent viral essays, and ever-present reflections on American decline and human alienation.
The pair’s signature irreverence and willfully transgressive humor are on full display as they pivot from sharp social and political observation to gleeful bad-taste jokes, all in a semi-drunken holiday haze.
Key Topics & Discussion Points
1. Happy Holidays, “Christian Nationalism,” and the Holidays as a Cultural Rorschach
- Opening banter (00:24–01:14): Anna and Dasha play with the tension between “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays,” both mocking and dissecting the culture war implications:
- “Yeah, that's what we're saying now in our Christian nationalist nation. But Happy Holidays is fine. Honestly, I never really felt… that Happy Holidays was so pointed.” (Dasha, 00:31)
- Both agree the “war on Christmas” rhetoric is overblown, and the phrase is more about “technicality… not like politically correct racism or cultural sensitivity.” (Anna, 00:54)
2. The Jeremy O. Harris Japanese Jail Saga
- Main Segment (02:11–16:56): The headlines about Harris getting arrested in Japan for MDMA possession become a vehicle for lampooning “Dimes Square” theater elite, drug laws abroad, and ideas of karmic justice.
- Details of Arrest: Harris was caught with 0.78 grams of MDMA—“a very small quantity… clearly meant for personal use, but maybe even residue.” (Anna, 02:25)
- Strict Japanese Drug Laws: Japan’s criminal justice severity (“You can’t even bring Adderall into Japan… I watched a Locked Up Abroad about a guy who went to jail in Japan and it's not, it's not like the Nordic model.” – Dasha, 03:21)
- Comparisons to Asian penal systems: Tangent into Chinese “death sentence with reprieve”—“Kind of interesting and kind of based.” (Anna, 04:54)
- Karmic Set-Up:
- Anna and Dasha recall that Harris had publicly piled onto Dasha when her own agency woes went public: “He, quote, tweeted it and said, ‘woke is back.’ And as you can imagine, I was already having a pretty stressful day…” (Dasha, 05:34)
- The irony that Harris ended up in jail the next day after virtue-signaling on social media is relished (“He like went directly to jail. And nobody noticed. He didn't say anything for three weeks. He pressed send, he got on a plane, and he went to jail.” – Anna, 06:14)
- Schadenfreude and Social Media Detox: “It's great for him to do like a little social media detox. Honestly, I'm jealous. Matt Gaetz probably is jealous too.” (Anna, 07:04)
- Reflection on Justice & Privilege: Despite the jokes, there’s a thread of seriousness about American creative class privilege abroad—“This is a guy… generally like, never had to confront the consequences of his actions…contrary to what he may think about himself… he is like a coddled and privileged affluent American who's been handed everything on a silver platter his whole life.” (Anna, 08:05)
3. Japan’s Justice System and Attitudes about Crime
- “Japan has also has kind of a peculiar justice system…they don’t prosecute crimes unless they're positive that they can convict… so they have a 99% conviction rate.” (Dasha, 12:31)
- Harris is unlikely to get the full 5–7 years—“chances are he'll spend a few months behind bars in Japan and then be released back into the US and banned from entering the country.” (Anna, 09:14)
- Reflection on the cultural arrogance of assuming “the rules don’t apply to you,” and the notion of privileged Americans coming up against serious foreign rules for the first time.
4. “Slave Play,” Theater Critique, and Cultural Clout
- The pair riff on Harris’s past theatrical work, criticizing his style as “over-explaining and didactic… he tells rather than shows.” (Dasha, 18:06)
- Extended theater talk: Dasha shares that other plays about racial and sexual dynamics have been much more sophisticated; Harris’ reputation, they argue, is buoyed more by controversy and connections than lasting substance (26:22–27:36).
5. Immigration, Welfare Fraud, and Ilhan Omar
- A major pivot (36:44–75:59): Anna and Dasha dissect recent news about “Somali welfare fraud” in Minnesota, and Donald Trump’s inflammatory holiday messaging about Somalians.
- On Refugee Resettlement & Cultural Fit: “Even my mom …recently apparently claimed she would vote for Trump if he deported all the Somali immigrants.” (Anna, 54:28)
- On Ilhan Omar:
- They lambast Omar’s New York Times op-ed for mixing “Muslim” and “Black” grievances, accusing her of “opportunistically” hitching her identity to various axes of American multicultural politics (76:01–76:49).
- “She sounds like the loser in this situation. It sounds like he’s gainfully employed enough to pay her a stipend and like, like, continue his life without… a litigious divorce.” (Dasha, 142:26—this was about the divorce essayist, but similar tone re Omar)
- “Why do these American boomers place such a premium on their personal happiness? It's so misguided. It's so godless." (Dasha, 130:37)
6. The Futility of Homeless Encampment Sweeps in NYC
- The hosts discuss new policies from incoming leaders (Mamdani), criticizing both “progressive” and “tough love” stances on homelessness:
- Sweeps are essentially cosmetic, not solutions: “They sweep these encampments periodically, and then leftists deny they exist, and then they're, like, back to square one.” (Anna, 90:04)
- “You need a permanent institutional system of, like, detainment centers and mental health facilities that keep these people under lock and key…” (Anna, 92:20)
- Reiterate the intractability of issues like chronic street homelessness: “There’s no wealthy civilized nation... that allows this to happen outside of America.” (Anna, 91:09)
- Joking solution: “Let’s send them to Japan. 7.78 grams of Molly and let the Japs take care of it.” (Dasha, 91:29)
7. Long Segment: “Quiet Quitting” Marriage, Divorce Culture—‘The Modern Love’ Industrial Complex
- Late in the episode, Anna and Dasha review two zeitgeist-y personal essays about women “quietly quitting” their marriages instead of divorcing outright (103:00–154:10).
- Summary and critique:
- These writers, “medicated boomers” in their 50s and 60s, are both lauded and ridiculed for publicly detailing the “soft” end of their marriages for cash, health insurance, or simple inertia.
- “It's always the male perspective that's missing; there's no parallel discourse of men talking about their version.” (Anna, 107:45)
- “There's dignity in just sticking it out.” (Dasha, 123:49)
- Skewering op-eds that reframe emptiness as empowerment: “It’s so godless. Every single person in that Cut article… doesn’t believe in anything. They're completely adrift.” (Dasha, 130:37)
- “The closest that you will ever get to happiness is by discarding your own personal needs in service of your spouse and family.” (Anna, 130:16)
- Eyes Wide Shut as Metaphor: Extended high praise for Kubrick’s film, which they see as a parable for female capriciousness and male passivity—“It’s a movie about… that life is mundane and people are delusional.” (Anna, 111:26)
- On Boomer Narcissism: “It's so twisted to make it into a workplace… Why relationships and marriages, like, often just don't work out and you have. You feel compelled to leave them for various reasons.” (Anna, 139:04)
- Noting the depressing “flat” and “lobotomized” affect of modern acceptance journalism about divorce.
8. Meta-Commentary on American Decline
- “Even in marriage you see the drop-off between generations.” (Dasha, 158:05)
- “Life is unhappy and pointless to some extent…At least if you're Christian, you understand it's not really about this life.” (Dasha, 153:45)
- “I don't think she's in it for the money. She's in it for the love of the game.” [on Ilhan Omar & politicians as performers] (Dasha, 77:08)
9. Humor, Melancholy, & Running Jokes
- Glib self-deprecation—Anna repeatedly jokes about being “an inch away from being street homeless” and finding homeless fashion “relatable.”
- Multiple riffs on the ALP nicotine pouch ad copy (“It's full and pouty, much like Jeremy O. Harris's lips. You just want to kiss them and say, it's gonna be okay, baby.” – Anna, 31:31)
- Running gags about Japanese jail, fusion of pop and high culture references; joking “solutions” to social collapse.
Notable Quotes & Timestamps
-
On the irony of Jeremy O. Harris’ arrest:
“He, quote, tweeted it and said, ‘woke is back.’... And the next day he went to jail.”
— Dasha, 05:34 -
On American privilege abroad:
“This is a guy who is totally unprepared… he is like a coddled and privileged affluent American who's been handed everything on a silver platter his whole life. No one's ever said no to him.”
— Anna, 08:05 -
On karmic justice:
“But I hope they keep him in there until he learns his lesson... I almost feel sorry… He’s generally never had to confront the consequences of his actions.”
— B & A, 08:00–08:50 -
On Somalis in America:
“You can't really blame Somali people for coming to this country. They're from a shithole and… pursuing their immediate interests… you have to blame the people that, like, enable them.”
— Anna, 53:32 -
On “quiet quitting” marriage:
“There's dignity in that.”
— Dasha, 123:49
“The closest you’ll ever get to happiness is by discarding your own personal needs and desires in service of your spouse and family.”
— Anna, 130:16 -
On confessional writers:
“If you're a writer, why don’t you write about anything else? Do you care about anything besides your immediate experience which you think is so novel and interesting?”
— Dasha, 127:56
Structuring of Segments & Timestamps
| Topic | Start | End | |------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-----------| | Holiday greetings and semantics, culture war riffing | 00:24 | 01:14 | | Jeremy O. Harris's jail play, punishment, and privilege | 02:11 | 16:56 | | Japanese (and Asian) justice systems | 03:21 | 13:01 | | Critique of Harris as “theatrical didact,” meaning of “Slave Play” | 18:06 | 28:47 | | Somali American community, Ilhan Omar, Trump’s rhetoric | 36:44 | 75:59 | | NYC Homeless Policy (Mamdani, Adams, encampment sweeps) | 83:23 | 102:46 | | Extended discussion of “grey divorce” and culture of marital disengagement | 103:00 | 154:10 | | Riffs on American decline/family breakdown | 157:43 | 160:55 | | Episode closeout, next-episode teases | 160:55 | End |
Tone & Style
The episode embodies Red Scare’s trademark mix of sardonic humor, half-drunk confessional, sharp cultural critique, and punk contrarianism. Anna and Dasha oscillate between deadpan seriousness and gleeful irreverence, subverting expectations at every turn. There’s an undercurrent of melancholy but also resilience and clear-eyed realism about the state of culture and personal relations.
For Listeners Who Haven’t Heard It
This episode is a quintessential Red Scare blend of topical gossip (the Harris arrest), philosophical musing, and sociopolitical heresy. Expect provocative hot takes on US hypocrisy abroad, the psychological fragility of cultural elites, institutional rot, and the emptiness of a post-religious, atomized America. The ultimate message: behind the headlines, we’re all just muddling through—and calling it art.
Memorable closing call-out:
“Jeremy O. Harris, when you get out of prison, come on Red Scare… Tell us about the little room. We'll listen… We'll give you 40 acres and an alp pouch. Be all good. Reparations.”
— Anna & Dasha, 160:17–160:44