In this episode of Hybrid Talk, we had a discussion with a young Russian researcher living in Germany to explore a surprisingly rich journey, from muscles to body politics, from quantum ideas to intellectual thinking, and from studying experiences in Russia to rebuilding one’s intellectual world abroad.
We begin with something simple and human: the motivations for working out every day. Why do muscles matter in Russia? What does “feeling safe” have to do with strength after the 1990s? And how do fitness culture, capitalism, and body politics shape how we understand freedom?
Our guest speaker explains why he named his podcast “Universal Wavefunction”, and how quantum ideas became a metaphor for thinking about uncertainty, world politics, and intellectual life beyond academia.
We also discuss:
* Why he left Moscow to restart his studies in Germany
* How Russian academia differs from the German system
* Why young scholars today feel the need to communicate ideas outside academia
This is a conversation about bodies and minds, power and knowledge, freedom and constraint, and what it means to build a life, physically and intellectually, in a world full of change and distractions
Timeline:
00:00-00:35 Preview clips
00:36- 01:02 Brief intro of the guest speaker
01:07- 07:53 Fitness, body politics, and sports as a body need
7:54 -14:12 Sports in Russia, China and US
14:13-15:42 Beauty Standards in China
15:44- 19:35 Getting muscles in Russia is a way of self-defense
19:36- 21:53 Chinese preferring to be intellectuals rather than being jacked
21:56- 24:27 Everyone needs to do some sports
24:28- 28:51 Diet, fitness, steroids and capitalism
28:52- 30:46 Sports and intellectual work
30:51- 42:12 Universal Wavefunction, quantum metaphor, motivation for making podcast, problems of academia
42:16- 49:20 Studying experiences in MGIMO University
49:21- 55:06 Unspoken rules, corrupted system in Russia, and silent dissents
For video, please click https://youtu.be/qmlXbJBlmus
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