Listen Now: OnlyFantasy
5/21/20267 min
Is what’s happening on OnlyFans real? Or is it only a fantasy?
In this provocative investigation into OnlyFans—the adult platform where subscribers around the world spent more than $7 billion in 2024—journalist Leon Neyfakh teams up with comedian and OnlyFans creator Gracie Canaan for a one-of-a-kind exploration into the current state of human connection. Throughout, they discover that the site originally built for spicy adult content has quietly and surprisingly become something more complicated— an emotional marketplace where desire, performance, care, fantasy, and vulnerability seemingly blur together.
As Neyfakh and Canaan navigate timely questions about autonomy, performance, and profit, a question emerges: is connection mediated by a screen still authentic? To find the answer, they meet creators building lucrative businesses, subscribers who believe they’ve found something real, professional “chatters” who are paid to simulate affection, and pioneers who have helped engineer intimacy at scale.
Captivating and tender, OnlyFantasy is ultimately about the cost of loneliness, the seductive power of desire, and how the rules of human intimacy are being rewritten online.
Listen to OnlyFantasy wherever you get your podcasts. Or binge all episodes of OnlyFantasy ad-free right now on Audible. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible App or on Apple Podcasts.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLeon Neyfakh0:00
I'm Leon Neyfakh, best known as the co-creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco. I'm a 41-year-old writer, podcaster, and dad. I had, of course, heard of OnlyFans, but always with a distant and quiet skepticism, a silent judgment, you could say. Who was actually using this platform? So when I found out that my own sister had started an OnlyFans account, my journalistic curiosity got the best of me. And to my surprise, it led me down a year-long reporting journey. Luckily, I found the perfect co-pilot for this wild ride.
Gracie Canaan0:33
Hi. I'm Gracie Kanan, OnlyFans creator and comedian. Not Leon's sister, I might add. Let's just say I had a different POV on OnlyFans and why people use it. Our podcast, Only Fantasy, is a show about the changing nature of adult content, sex work, and human intimacy itself.
Leon Neyfakh0:51
We're about to play a clip from Only Fantasy. You can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts, and Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Only Fantasy ad-free right now. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible app or on Apple Podcasts.
Gracie Canaan1:06
[car engine] Oh, it's definitely that house.
Leon Neyfakh1:09
Yeah.
Gracie Canaan1:09
Which is funny 'cause it's like all the houses around it are just regular ranch homes.
Leon Neyfakh1:13
Last summer, our team flew out to Los Angeles, the home of the adult entertainment industry.
Gracie Canaan1:19
Look at th- Whoa.
Leon Neyfakh1:20
It's all black.
Gracie Canaan1:21
That is not discreet. And in this moment, we were pulling up to a huge house in the middle of an unassuming neighborhood in the Valley. To anyone not in the know,