Red Scare – “Nyetwork”
Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Anna Khachiyan & Dasha Nekrasova
Episode Focus: DNA ancestry, the limits of online identity, and a deep dive into media culture and industry via Network (1976), legacy vs. new media, identity politics, and the messy state of the American right.
Episode Overview
In “Nyetwork,” Anna and Dasha blend their signature irreverent banter and cultural analysis, jumping from tongue-in-cheek updates on their DNA results to a sprawling discussion of media, television, mergers, internet culture, and contemporary right-wing politics. Central to the episode is an extended review of the 1976 film Network, which prompts reflection on the trajectory of media outrage, the changing forces of consolidation (with nods to contemporary TikTok/Paramount mergers), and the uniquely American addiction to both grievance and performance.
Key Discussion Points and Timestamped Highlights
1. DNA Results & Ethnic Identities
(00:39–09:40)
- Anna and Dasha compare their latest 23andMe updates, joking about the arbitrary division of DNA categories:
- Anna: "I was very unsatisfied with my ancestry, with my DNA test because it said that I was basically like half Baltic and then half Eastern European and Russian… That's like so much of the world." [01:16]
- Dasha: "You'll never be more than either of your parents, but you'll be some mix of whatever." [04:48]
- Explore the complexities of “Russian-ness” and the porous boundaries of genetic identity.
- Jokes about longing for Ashkenazi Jewish heritage and the algorithmic randomness of ancestry updates.
- Anna: "I keep waiting for the ashkanaz to show up because… it just seems, like, likely that you would be, like, 1% or something." [03:55]
- Dasha: “Horse. Long time. I found the perfect sw–” [10:34]
- Reflections on regional identity (Baltic vs. Slavic vs. Russian) and a comical yearning for pagan-Baltic roots (“maybe I should look into my original faith…bought some beeswax candles…now I want to go to a swamp” [09:00]).
- Ethno-narcissism and performative identity quests: “Time to think about my new identity…” [10:29]
2. Legacy, Mergers & the State of Media
(10:47–15:18)
- Announce the episode will include a movie review of Network, connecting its themes to the present-day media landscape.
- Quick satirical remarks about Jews, Arabs, and shifting stereotypes of media control.
- Network as an incisive look at the origins of media-driven outrage:
- Dasha: “In Paddy Chayefsky's Jewish world, the media is run by Arabs.” [12:06]
- Anna: “It's quaint to watch because...now we have literally people…dying on live streams all the time.” [24:00]
- Remakes and reboots—a recurring motif: why do we keep recycling old IP?
- Anna: "Like, network could honestly be remade…You could tell kind of a similar but different story in the same universe." [15:18]
- Dasha: "Amadeus is one of those few movies that's like pretty much the platonic ideal of a movie. It's like remaking Barry Lyndon." [19:14]
- Comment on identity casting in Hollywood: “They should have made [Mozart] black, tbh.” [14:22]
3. Deep-Dive: Network (1976) – Parallels and Meta-commentary
(20:06–45:13)
- Extended analysis of Network, with both hosts highlighting its prescience on media outrage, spectacle, and the cynical cycles of news.
- Dasha: "It does have quite a bit of foreshadowing…how media functions in today's contemporary landscape." [20:22]
- Anna: “Everyone on X is basically like mad as hell.” [14:06]
- Faye Dunaway’s character as proto-girlboss/exploiter of rage, contrasted to contemporary social-media dynamics.
- Dasha (on Diana Christensen): "She's not fighting the system. She is the system. She's like an upstart faction within the system." [30:50]
- Anna: "What's his catchphrase? — 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore.'" [30:27]
- “It's a dark and cynical version of people, like, beating their pots and pans and clapping during COVID.” [30:30] – Dasha
- Reflections on gender inversion, the “great feminization,” and the way both legacy and new platforms foster outrage and nihilistic consumption.
- Discuss the Helen Andrews essay on feminization:
- Anna: “It’s useful in the same way that like talking about narcissism is useful. It’s like an imperfect umbrella catch all term…We’ve all noticed that there are more women in positions of power.” [38:32]
4. New Media Mergers, Barry Weiss, TikTok, and the “Control of the Narrative”
(72:28–83:12)
- The hosts provide a rundown on contemporary media mergers—Larry and David Ellison's Oracle-Skydance-Paramount-CBS deal, shifts in TikTok ownership, and the implications for information control.
- Dasha: “You're telling me now for the first time that Jews control the media. I'm so scared. Well, oh my God.” [72:54]
- Pointed speculation that these mergers aim to reassert pro-Israel sentiment in mainstream and social media:
- “Obviously the big concern here is that this merger will lead to like a media monopoly on pro-Israel sentiment.” [75:49]
- Skepticism about whether legacy media can claw back relevance in an age of decentralized, independent content:
- Anna: “I guess my big question is whether any kind of legacy media channel will be able to have any inroads against…young people on tiktok.” [80:34]
- Reflections on algorithmic outrage; the self-radicalizing, engagement-optimized ecosystem.
5. Algorithmic Outrage, Online Discourse & Abortion Memes
(83:12–91:01)
- Media influence is less about gun-barrel coercion, more about stochastic (distributed) incentives, social-emotional blackmail, and endless outrage loops.
- Dasha: “I'm gonna rebrand as like a libtard pro abortion activist and just wear an abortion is rad t-shirt. Like…getting a Pap smear is rad.” [84:39–85:54]
- Satirical feminist takes on medicalization (“Any medical procedure that you get is not rad by definition. It sucks.” [85:59]) and weaponized empathy.
6. The Young Republicans Telegram Leak & American Right’s Dysfunction
(99:40–127:46)
- Politico leak exposes the disarray amongst Young Republican groups (with speculation about Gavin Wax as the leaker), as well as the tendency for right-wing organizations to eat their own even when not externally pressured.
- Anna: “The big takeaway from the story…is that Republicans are like spineless and scheming who will throw their own kind under the bus when it's not even expected of them and no one's calling for it.” [102:15]
- Dasha: “Matt Walsh has been pretty good on this. …Many of the messages are being taken wildly out of context. …How have you not learned by now to take absolutely nothing from the leftist media at face value…” [104:26]
- Criticism of the right's failure to unify (“We’ll just lose instead, the left will keep up the united front…” [104:15]), contrasted with the left’s equally notorious purity testing.
- Secure messaging, backstabbing, leaking, and the collapse of IRL community—no trust is possible, everyone is just doing personal brand management in the void.
- Comedy about the “griperous and dysgenic” physicality of the Young Republican crowd (“They're all like…I have like Catholic pedophile face where it's like, the guy looks like a pedophile priest. Sure.” [118:33]).
- Satirical self-awareness (“If you’re not using hard R in your group chat, you may as well be a liberal…” [114:03]).
7. Ethnic Food, Nostalgia, and Liminal Belonging
(61:10–70:58)
- Evocative talk about Russian/Eastern European food stores in NYC, nostalgia for “ancestral foods,” musings on the dangers of deracination and longing for belonging.
- “It’s so easy. You take the F to West 4th and you’re there. But I was up in there buying food thinking…you literally cannot get fat if you eat ancestral foods. But that's so delusional, because you definitely can…” [66:13]
Memorable Quotes & Moments
- “No one really knows what Slavic is.” – Anna [02:32]
- “My strange, erotic journey. Okay, you guys, I am literally more Jewish.” – Dasha [04:35]
- “It’s like Mulholland Drive for Men, but like, ain’t nobody care about classical music in this day and age.” – Dasha [15:55]
- “You would think the original would be better. It’s worse.” – Dasha on Purple Noon vs. Talented Mr. Ripley [17:09]
- “It's all brandy. Mel.” – Dasha, referring to her internet shopping addiction [52:32]
- “Having a normie husband is a blessing.” – Anna [96:29]
- “The whole point of privacy…is that you're protected from public retribution.” – Anna [112:25]
- “I'm not really looking forward to conservatism being overtaken by like fat and dysgenic people, but that's kind of the way it's going.” – Dasha [119:32]
Timestamps for Important Segments
| Timestamp | Topic Overview | |------------|---------------------------------------------| | 00:39 | DNA results, identity, and ancestral mishaps| | 10:47 | Media, mergers, Jews & Arabs, Network intro| | 20:06 | Deep-dive: Network film summary | | 38:32 | Helen Andrews, feminization, workplace gender| | 72:28 | Media mergers, TikTok/Paramount/Oracle drama| | 83:12 | Social media outrage, abortion as meme | | 99:40 | Young Republicans Telegram leak, right-wing drama| | 112:25 | On privacy, leaks, and the meaninglessness of scandal | | 118:03 | Looks, griperism, political aesthetics | | 123:40 | Organizational malaise, trust issues, general cynicism|
Conclusion & Tone
“Nyetwork” is classic Red Scare: looping, discursive, funny, and world-weary, lampooning both boomer and zoomer anxieties while providing genuine big-picture critique. The episode offers both nostalgia and resignation—whether brooding about the loss of sophisticated screenwriting ("We don't have the skill level to make a movie like this" [73:20]), the flattening/dumbsizing of outrage and ideology via algorithm, or the endless personal and political grifting on the right. The conversation ends as it began: playful, sardonic, a little nihilistic, and ultimately seeking meaning (and belonging) in an increasingly frictionless and friction-filled world.
For Listeners Who Missed the Episode:
You can expect a winding but insightful drift from personal DNA woes to trenchant breakdowns of legacy media, new media, American cultural politics, and the role of rage, gender, and identity in the terminally online era—with more than a few spit-take worthy quips along the way.