A giant red star stolen by helicopter in Sofia. A tree blooming wildly before it dies. The voices of those left adrift after an empire collapses.

In this episode, Samara explores what happens when systems — political, cultural, even symbolic — reach their breaking point. We’ll look at the absurd and tragic ways they unravel, how myths lose their power, and what emerges in the cracks.

Along the way:

• The stolen star of Sofia
• Solitaire Townsend – We’re Living Through a Death Flowering
• Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time (NYT Review)– the human stories and fragments after the Sovietcollapse
• Jared Diamond’s Collapse (Guardian Review) & Upheaval (Guardian Review) – why some societies adapt while others fail
• 
  

Is the system breaking down — or just blooming too hardbefore it falls? And when it does, what will we choose to plant in its place?