Episodes
Sept. 30, 2024
Free Marc Fogel!
Guest: Ambassador Eric Rubin on the efforts to free Marc Fogel, an American serving 14 years in the Russian prison for possessing 17 g of medical marijuana.
Sept. 23, 2024
A New History of Northern Eurasia
Guests: Marina Mogilner and Ilya Gerasimov on their new textbook, A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 600–1700: From Russian to Global History published by Bloomsbury.
Sept. 9, 2024
The Sound of Socialism, Part 3
Guest: Andrea Bohlman on the curious history of the sound postcard in People's Republic of Poland.
Sept. 3, 2024
Women in Russian Politics
Guest: Valeria Umanets on women in municipal governance in the Soviet Union and under Putin.
Aug. 26, 2024
Illiberalism and Civil Society in Hungary
Guest: Daniel Mikecz on Civil Movements in an Illiberal Regime: Political Activism in Hungary published by Central European University Press.
Aug. 19, 2024
The Sound of Socialism, Part 2
Guest: Matthew Kendall on his article “Room for Noise in Soviet Sound Recording” in the Winter 2023 issue of the Slavic Review.
Aug. 12, 2024
The Sound of Socialism, Part 1
Guest: Gabrielle Cornish on the sound of Lenin's voice and other sounds of socialism.
Aug. 5, 2024
The Eastern International
Guest: Masha Kirasirova on The Eastern International: Arabs, Central Asians, and Jews in the Soviet Union's Anticolonial Empire published by Oxford University Press.
July 29, 2024
The Soviet Bid to Run the World
Guest: Sergey Radchenko on To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power published by Cambridge University Press.
July 1, 2024
The Rise and Fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin
Guests: Anna Arutunyan and Mark Galeotti on their new book Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the New Fight for the Future of Russia published by Penguin.
June 24, 2024
Russians in Latvia
Guest: Kevin Platt on Border Conditions: Russian-Speaking Latvians Between World Orders published by Cornell University Press.
June 17, 2024
Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip
Guest: Lisa Kirschenbaum on Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists: Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip published by Cambridge University Press.
June 10, 2024
Soviet Afghan War and Islam
Guest: Vassily Klimentov on A Slow Reckoning: The USSR, the Afghan Communists, and Islam published by Cornell University Press.
June 3, 2024
Populist Elitism in Russia and the US
Guest: Alexandar Mikhailovic on the unlikely convergence of the American and Russian far-right.
May 20, 2024
Soviet Industrial Ecology
Guest: Elena Kochetkova on wood, forests and industrial ecology in the Soviet Union.
May 13, 2024
Everyday War in Donbas
Guest: Greta Uehling on the ethics of care in Everyday War: The Conflict over Donbas, Ukraine published by Cornell University Press.
May 6, 2024
Sugarland
Guest: Artan Hoxha on his new book, Sugarland: The Transformation of the Countryside in Communist Albania published by Central European University Press.
April 29, 2024
Citizen Poet
Guest: Russian poet Dmitrii Bykov on the War in Ukraine, the role of art in politics, satire, his poisoning in 2019, protest, love and family.
April 22, 2024
Baku Oil and the Soviet State
Guest: Sara Brinegar on her book The Power and Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus: Periphery Unbound, 1920-29 published by Bloomsbury.
April 15, 2024
Gleaning for Communism
Guest: Xenia Cherkaev on her book Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice published by Cornell University Press.
April 8, 2024
The Tunguska Mystery
Guest: Andy Bruno on his new book Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and its Environmental Legacy published by Cambridge University Press.
April 1, 2024
Sesame Street in Russia
Guest: Natasha Lance Rogoff on making Sesame Street in Russia in the turbulent 1990s.
March 25, 2024
Soviet Investigation of Nazi War Crimes
Guest: Paula Chan on the Extraordinary State Commission and its investigations in the Nazi atrocities in the Soviet Union.