(In bed with) the Russians

Yasha & Evgenia

THE NEFARIOUS RUSSIANS POD. We are from your future. www.nefariousrussians.com

  1. 15H AGO

    Chatting about movies, liberalism, and American collapse

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com Married with podcast, we catch up on some topics dear to our hearts. Among things discussed: Evgenia’s films, the ghettoization of feminist (and minority) filmmaking in a liberal society, Yorgos Lanthimos, Kathryn Bigelow, Sophia Coppola…Then we move on to discussing the saga of the Feiyue sneaker and how it illustrates the rise of China and American/European collapse and hubris. It all ties together. Trust us. Have a great week. Pray with us that Trump does not nuke the world. Praying is all we got left. 🙏

    1 min
  2. GETTING DRONED

    1D AGO

    GETTING DRONED

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com For this vamp valley stream, I had Peter Korotaev on to talk about drones and war. Drones, which I see as very much related to the internet, have made big leaps in battlefield adoption in the last few years: first in the Russian-Ukraine war and now in the Israeli-American war on Iran. The United States pioneered drone technology. In fact, as I mentioned on the stream, the same ARPA program that funded the internet was at the same time funding research into drone technology for use in the Vietnam War…a small helicopter operated by a remote control so big it barely fit on an Army jeep. But even though the U.S. security state has been pumping money into drone technology for more than half a century, it hadn’t explored the use of drone technology to its fullest potential yet. It’s been up to peripheral states like Ukraine and Iran (and also Israel) to take drone warfare to the next level. And what’s happening on the periphery of the empire is going to be coming home soon…there is no doubt about it. Drone tech is just too easy to use, too effective…like smartphones. It makes me think of Philip K. Dick’s wonderful novella, Second Variety, which is about autonomous robotic weapons that were designed to kill people…until they ran out of people and started fighting each other. I’m pretty sure Second Variety inspired Terminator, even though it was never credited. Anyway, Peter writes the great Events in Ukraine newsletter. I highly recommend reading his stuff. He’s a funny writer and covers the subject with the respect and black humor that it requires. See you next week! I’m doing these streams every week, broadcasting against Vampire Valley from within Vampire Valley. All live streams will be available to the public but most recorded streams will be available only to paying subscribers. Influencers are people. We need to eat, too. Reminder: If you donate $100 or more to my Vampire Valley doc, you will automatically get an annual sub. If you’re thinking of giving a larger tax-deductible donation, get in touch with us at vampires@yashalevine.com.

    3 min

  3. MAR 21

    The Politics of Ape and Machine w/Joe Costello

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com For this week’s vamp valley stream, I’m publishing a talk that Evgenia and I did with Joe Costello about his wonderful new book, The Politics of Ape and Machine. We’re in the middle of another industrial power grab. We talked to Joe to make sense of the situation. We talked about AI, the parasitic internet, industrialization’s destruction of democracy, the politics of technology, what it means to be monkeys who think they’re in control of the known universe… Joe thinks that the AI boom we’re in potentially offers a historic opportunity to transcend our entrenched, stagnant politics: the much-promised automation and the reality of computerized crapification of broad sectors of society and further centralized control will make mass reorganization of politics not just a possibility but a necessity — an opportunity that hasn’t been seen in many generations. Will people rise to the challenge? How would you bet? This talk took place on November 23, 2025 in Manhattan at the KGB Bar. This is the first time it is being published on this pacification tech we call the internet. For those who don’t know, Joe Costello has been on our podcast many times and I’ve republished his work before. He’s worked in politics all of his life and he’s one of the most clear thinkers and writers today on politics and on the meaning of democracy in our age of terminal industrialization. Buy his book! And check out his newsletter: Life In the 21st Century. —Yasha *** I’ll be doing these streams every Friday at noon NYC time, broadcasting against Vampire Valley from within Vampire Valley. All live streams will be available to the public but most recorded streams will be available only to paying subscribers. Influencers are people. We need to eat, too. Reminder: If you donate $100 or more to my Vampire Valley doc, you will automatically get an annual sub. If you’re thinking of giving a larger tax-deductible donation, get in touch with us at vampires@yashalevine.com.

    3 min

  4. MAR 14

    INFORMATION IS PACIFICATION W/DANIEL BESSNER

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com For this week’s vamp valley stream, I’m joined by Daniel Bessner to talk about how our politics are in the grips of a powerful decadent rationalist illusion: it’s the idea that information is power. But as Daniel points out, despite having all the information regular people have no effect on politics. We know everything, but can’t change anything. It is a longterm problem in nominally democratic US (and Europe) that has been massively exacerbated by internet technology. We’re wrapped up in the Spectacle, confusing the consumption of nonstop political content with politics. You could say that we’re whistleblowing on our own profession, trying to make people understand that information is not a magic spell — just knowing things about the world won’t miraculously lead to change. —Yasha Some essays that inform our conversation: * End of Mass Politics and Empire’s Critic and Democracy in Exile by Daniel Bessner * Gaza and the Death of “Information Is Power,” Information is not power, Influencerism is the highest form of capitalist realism by me.

    3 min

  5. MAR 6

    WE'RE ALL TRAPPED IN THE VAMPIRE CASTLE

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com For this week’s vamp valley stream, I talked to C. Derick Varn about the backstory of Mark Fisher’s controversial (at the time) and influential “Exiting the Vampire Castle” essay and why it still matters today. I wrote about Fisher’s essay last summer as part of my attempt to understand the way hyper-connected communication technology is affecting our world — and how structural forces built into internet technology have worked to pacify people and have foreclosed on the possibility of any sort of politics by turning everything into entertainment...a virtual cage match of endless culture wars where everyone is constantly pitted against each other in an endless fight that involves constantly evolving identity politics, fringe causes, peripheral issues, and perceived slights. Derick was one of the editors who worked with Mark Fisher to publish the essay in the now-defunct The North Star online magazine. He’s also a sharp critic of the influencer economy and the effect of technology on culture and politics. Check out Derick’s show on YouTube or the podcast version of the show. Thanks…and see you next week! Yasha *** I’ll be doing these streams every Friday at noon NYC time, broadcasting against the Vampire Castle from within the Vampire Castle. All live streams will be available to the public but some recorded streams will only available to paying subscribers. Influencers are people. We need to eat, too! Reminder: If you donate $100 or more to my Vampire Valley doc, you will automatically get an annual sub. If you’re thinking of giving a larger tax-deductible donation, get in touch with us at vampires@yashalevine.com

    3 min

  6. MAR 3

    Pistachio Wars and Doom and Gloom

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com Rowan and I were at UC Santa Barbara last month presenting Pistachio Wars. We had a wonderful Q&A after the screening, which you can see below. Subscribers can listen to it on our usual podcast feed and read a cleaned up transcript below. Thank you to Rich Farell and everyone at Carsey-Wolf Center for having us out and being such gracious hosts. Sorry for being such a doomer. But desperate times and all that… Of course watch Pistachio Wars if you haven’t already. —Yasha Rowan and I were at UC Santa Barbara last month presenting Pistachio Wars. We had a wonderful Q&A after the screening, which you can see below. Subscribers can listen to it on our usual podcast feed and read a cleaned up transcript below. Thank you to Rich Farell and everyone at Carsey-Wolf Center for having us out and being such gracious hosts. Sorry for being such a doomer. But desperate times and all that… Of course watch Pistachio Wars if you haven’t already. —Yasha RICH FARRELL: Okay. My name is Rich Farrell. I’m a graduate student in the Film and Media Studies Department, and I’m pleased to be joined by the filmmakers of Pistachio Wars, Yasha Levine and Rowan WERNHAM. So a round of applause for you. YASHA LEVINE: Thank you. RICH FARRELL: So I just wanted to start the Q&A with some background and beginnings. First to you, Yasha. At the beginning of the film, you say that the story started with a piece that you wrote, “A Journey Through Oligarch Valley,” in 2013, which was published in Not Safe for Work magazine online. Can you tell us a little bit about your background, how you came to work on that story, and then how you decided to adapt this into a documentary? YASHA LEVINE: Well, I’ll try to keep it brief. Thank you. Thank you everyone for coming. I had been out of the country and started my journalism career reporting out in Russia, and I kind of missed the whole real estate bubble, the speculative boom that happened here, and the collapse that happened in 2007, 2008. I had been abroad watching it from afar. And when I came back to America, I was really curious about what it was all about. So I moved to LA and I was casting about for the best example of a speculative city that embodied the speculative boom. I kind of toured California and chose Victorville -- a little suburb in the Mojave Desert, halfway between L.A. and Las Vegas -- because I really wanted to understand the kind of society, the kind of civilization that this boom created. Like what remained when Wall Street crashed and had to be bailed out…

    1 min

  7. FEB 28

    PLATFORMS WANT TO INGEST AND DESTROY

    For this anti-vamp stream from my newly established NY basement studio, I’m joined by Mike Pepi, author of Against Platforms. We talk about the failed utopian promises of the internet and how the tech platforms that now dominate our world are concentrators of power and destroyers of all other forms of organization that came before them. This monopolization/destruction isn’t an aberration or a corruption but is built into the very nature of this technology. Mike opens his book by talking about an Apple ad that came out a few years ago that illustrates this Borg-like monopolize/destroy drive. I’m embedding it below because Apple had scrubbed this ad from the internet, following a backlash. Compare this Apple ad… …to the Borg. Who is more honest? Help me make my Vampire Valley doc series. Give here. Or if you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation, write us at vampires@yashalevine.com. Buy Mike’s book today! Help me make my Vampire Valley doc series. Give here. Or if you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation, write us at vampires@yashalevine.com. If you give $100 or more, you will automatically get an annual sub! A two-for-one deal! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe

    1h 45m

  8. FEB 27

    Requiem for Nikolai Komyagin

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nefariousrussians.com Evgenia pays tribute to Nikolai Komyagin, the frontman of the Russian cult band Shortparis. He died recently — tragically and unexpectedly ay 39. As Evgenia explains, he was a true poet — and a total artist. With his music and videos, he did something that no one else had done yet. He captured on a pure emotional level the feeling of Russia with its failed utopian past and its violent present and all the ideals and the people that got ground up and spit in the two revolutions — the Bolshevik one and the Market Bolshevik one it had in less than a century. Ironically, the last big thing Shortparis made was the soundtrack to Limonov’s biopic, Limonov: The Ballad. —IBWR PS: Evgenia recently wrote about Limonov’s prophetic view of Russian politics. PPS: The song in the intro/outro is Apple Orchard (Яблонный сад).

    3 min
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4.7
out of 5
39 Ratings

About

THE NEFARIOUS RUSSIANS POD. We are from your future. www.nefariousrussians.com

Information

  • Creator
    Yasha & Evgenia
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    173
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Yasha Levine
  • Show Website
    (In bed with) the Russians

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