Red Scare Podcast

Episode: Nuzzi Salute
Date: November 21, 2025
Hosts: Anna Khachiyan & Dasha Nekrasova

Episode Overview

In this episode, Anna and Dasha dive into the whirlwind media and industry fallout following Dasha’s recent "cancellation"—her being dropped by her Hollywood agency after the Red Scare episode featuring controversial guest Nick Fuentes. The pair explore the mechanics of cancel culture, the parasocial drama driving it, the messy realities of “Hollywood shunning,” and the psychological profiles of both the canceled and cancelers. They pivot fluidly into breaking down the Olivia Nuzzi scandal—juxtaposing its old-fashioned, glamorous tabloid appeal with the manufactured nature of contemporary media drama. Throughout, Anna and Dasha analyze the gendered aspect of these dramas, the existential plight of actresses and writers in American culture, and the broader implications for creative autonomy and reputation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dasha's “Cancellation” Fallout (00:38 – 18:00)

• Dasha Recounts Her Hollywood Shunning:
  Dasha gives a firsthand account of her agency dropping her after the Nick Fuentes episode, underscoring her sense of being collateral damage in a conflict not truly about her.

  • “It felt like I was kind of collateral damage in a fight that wasn’t really about me.” – Dasha [05:46]

• Cancel Culture Mechanics:
  The hosts parse the ever-evolving definitions of cancel culture and its real-life career consequences.

  • “Everyone just has different, like, definitions of what cancel culture is. Like, depending usually on their personal experiences.” – Anna [02:02]

• The Villainy of Cancelers:
  The conversation turns to the character of the individual—as Anna recounts—a longtime obsessive critic, who instigated agency action against Dasha.

  • “The only solution he can come up with to, like, seek psychic relief is to, like, wage a jihad against you…” – Anna [24:03]

• Gender, Power, and Parasocial Resentment:
  Anna contextualizes the role of failed men attacking women’s limited success, the sadomasochistic undertones, and the futility of investing one's life in canceling others.

  “There’s this like negative, like inverted parasocial element where he has like a fixation obsession with you, but he’s also a man, not a woman. So it’s not straightforward jealousy. It’s also probably sexually tinged.” – Anna [23:05]

• Emotional Response and Narrative Control:
  Both hosts reflect on the impossibility of positively shaping the narrative or defending oneself with dignity amidst relentless public shaming.

  • “If I don’t say nothing, then the narrative is just, like… Isn’t she bad? Didn’t she do something bad?” – Dasha [109:05]

2. The Nick Fuentes Interview & Right-Wing Populism (12:56 – 18:00)

• Nuances of Platforming Fuentes:
  Dasha defends the interview, emphasizing the difference between discussion and endorsement, and critiques audience expectations for aggressive confrontation.

  • “We’ve had just as bad people on the podcast before. The difference is that he is by far the most famous, influential… I don’t think that it’s that scandalous or disqualifying.” – Dasha [12:59]

• Strategic Concerns for the Right:
  Anna notes her skepticism of Fuentes, arguing his role may be to splinter the right and aid Democratic success by being purposefully divisive.

  • “My issue with him historically was about the role he serves in the Zeitgeist… because I was worried that he was a guy who was basically driving a wedge in the right…” – Anna [13:43]

3. Cancel Culture, Moralizing, and Psychoanalysis (25:01 – 32:00)

• Critique of Cancel Logic:
  The hosts denounce cancelers as worse than the canceled, noting wasted energy and a fundamental moral error in fixating on others.

  • “You are a much worse piece of shit if you try to cancel somebody.” – Dasha [25:01]

• Agency, Powerlessness & Victimhood:
  Dasha is open about the sadness and betrayal felt with her agent, long a professional ally, dropping her to stave off bad PR.

  • “That was the most upsetting pain and betrayal. I had a very long relationship with my agent.” – Dasha [09:40]

4. Olivia Nuzzi, the "Crisis Actress" — Scandal Analysis (56:07 – 113:26)

• Who is Olivia Nuzzi?

  • Former New York Magazine journalist, now in the limelight due to alleged affairs with married, powerful men (notably RFK Jr.) and a high-profile memoir American Kanto.

• Old School Scandal, New School PR:
  Anna and Dasha dissect how Nuzzi’s drama is reminiscent of Old Hollywood/femme fatale mystique, but fundamentally self-manufactured.

  • “Whereas I think that your scandal is real, if unfortunate, I find that her scandal is somewhat fake and manufactured.” – Anna [56:36]

• Literary Style & Didion Comparisons:
  Nuzzi’s memoir is both admired and lampooned for its self-conscious Joan Didion imitation—stylized, metaphor-heavy, and overtly performative.

  • “She’s kind of going for Joan Didion, but ends up like… sounds more like Chris Krause and I Love Dick.” – Anna [67:31]

  “One of the reasons why Didion is so popular and I think, like, enduring in style… is because she has such an infectious way of writing… It’s very romantic, it’s very cool.” – Dasha [65:18]

• Psychoanalysis: Is Nuzzi BPD?

  • The hosts ultimately decide Nuzzi is not truly borderline, because she is high-functioning and doesn’t “crash out” like true BPDs.
    • “Real BPD… has this total death drive, self sabotaging mechanism in it where they like can't maintain…” – Anna [61:53]

• Power, Sex & Class Strategy:

  • They discuss the calculation and self-image behind the “seductress” type; it's rarely about sex, more about validation, access, and pragmatic advancement.
    • “There are just… very clear cut materialistic advantages to becoming entangled with men who are older and powerful.” – Anna [83:09]
  • “Having affairs with rich and powerful older men can be flattering, but it’s not necessarily primarily sexually flattering...” – Anna [80:15]

• Women as Performers; Writers as Actresses:
  Drawing on Joan Didion, they muse on how female writers, Nuzzi included, “inflict themselves on the world,” seeking recognition and mythos akin to actresses.

  • “I always thought it was interesting that Didion kind of even revealed this… a lot of female writers… use their writing in the way that an actress would use her craft.” – Anna [95:27]

• Critique of Nuzzi’s Ambivalence:
  The hosts call out Nuzzi’s pose of passivity, noting she indeed got what she wanted—scandal, status, and myth—even while playing the victim.

  • “My one criticism is that… she’s sort of playing dumb and pretending that she never wanted any of this… But she got what she wanted at the end of the day.” – Anna [99:18]

5. Literary and Cultural Analysis

• Cancel Culture As Neo-McCarthyism:

  • Drawing a parallel between the Red Scare’s history and Dasha’s experience of public shunning.
    • “Kind of the original cancel culture. Now I’m a victim. But it's way worse than McCarthyism.” – Dasha [106:44]

• Narcissism, Performance, and Social Envy:

  • Anna: “Narcissism is not a moral category, but a epistemological one, because people are, like, really envious of those…grandiose narcissists…”
    • [104:48]
  • Echo of Spinoza: “Blessed are the weak, who…think they’re good because they have no claws.” – Dasha paraphrasing [104:52]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Cancel Culture and Agency Betrayal:

  • “I think that's the real, that was the most upsetting pain and betrayal. Yeah. That I had a very long relationship with my agent.” – Dasha [09:40]

• On Old School Scandal in the Modern Age:

  • “The whole scandal… is attractive and appealing because it feels very old school. It feels like something out of the 60s or the 80s.” – Anna [62:49]

• On Didion and the Actress-Writer Dynamic:

  • “I didn’t want to be a writer. I wanted to be an actress. I didn’t realize then that it’s the same impulse…make believe, it’s performance…” – Joan Didion via Anna [94:32]

• On the Gender Politics of "Cancelers":

  • “You can’t even strike back. Because these perverts come in their pants if you talk about how they’re gross and wrong.” – Dasha [23:52]

• On the Real Meaning of “Nazi”:

  • “It’s a completely obsolete term that people wield to de-person their so-called opponents. It means nothing in this day and age other than ‘bad person I don’t like’…” – Anna [30:09]

• On the Futility of Controlling the Narrative:

  • “Even if it goes away. Which it will. It doesn’t really go away. And then it gets like. Kind of memory-holed and convoluted.” – Dasha [108:32]

• Psychoanalysis of Female Sex Scandal as Lifestyle:

  • “The fantasy is that then they’ll be catapulted into kind of like a glamorous life. But the truth is that doesn’t even happen to actresses. They have to take the initiative to advocate for themselves and inflict themselves on the world.” – Anna [97:57]

Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Description | |---|---| | 00:38 – 18:00 | Dasha’s “cancellation” fallout; industry mechanics, personal rift, canceler profiles. | | 12:56 – 18:00 | Nick Fuentes interview controversy; political strategy and audience expectations. | | 25:01 – 32:00 | Moral critique of cancel culture; gendered aspects of online feuds. | | 56:07 – 96:07 | Olivia Nuzzi scandal: memoir, public image, Joan Didion comparisons, psychoanalytic takes. | | 96:07 – 113:26 | Literary analysis, narcissism, self-invention, and final thoughts on reputational politics. |

Tone and Style

• Conversational, sardonic, alternating between sincere and deeply ironic.
• Intellectual references (Didion, Nietzsche, Spinoza), gossip, literary criticism.
• Confessional and defensive, especially on the topic of public shame and cancel culture.

Takeaways for New Listeners

• Dasha and Anna offer a simultaneously personal and theoretical take on the mechanics, incentives, and psychology of public scandal, focusing on women’s roles as performers in contemporary culture.
• The episode weaves together their own recent experiences with “cancellation,” the intricate details of the Nuzzi scandal, and reflections on power, gender, and narrative.
• Listeners get a crash course in both the emotional realities and greater cultural meanings behind tabloid feuds, cancel culture, and media mythmaking.

Note: All advertisements, intros, and outros have been omitted from this summary.