(Not the news source.)Joining us is Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog and Podcast, at seansrussiablog.org. He has a PhD in Russian History from UCLA.Sean helps us dive into the nitty gritty about what's actually going on with Russia today. We ask:-Who's in charge? How does Russia's leadership work?-Why is United Russia so popular?-What's the economy really look like?-How corrupt is Russia?-How do Russians feel about the world?-What's the plan in Ukraine? How's it going?-What about the Syria intervention?-Did Russia manipulate US elections?-Why is Russia picking a fight with NATO?-What common narratives about Russia just don't make sense?Enjoy!

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Russia is a scary place--and very misunderstood. We decided it deserves 4 whole episodes unto itself. We'll be teaming up with 4 big-wigs that know their stuff about Russia to help you dive deep and understand Russia a whole lot better.

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Or, "How'd punching Nazis work out last time?"People in the United States are starting to talk about using political violence in response to perceived dangerous political extremism and violent rhetoric. We look through history to see how the use of violence had worked or not worked to suppress unwelcome political ideologies.We look purely at the results and consequences of the violence, rather than discussing the morality or ethics of it.

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If we want to learn a little bit more about Trump's path to the Presidency, we can look to recent history. It's not actually totally unprecedented. Spain, going through its own very tough economic times, has vaulted the populist-left Podemos to the fore, out of nowhere at all. Podemos is a bunch of political outsiders with a Marxist approach to campaigning--and they adopted this style very deliberately. They have a lot to teach us about what might become the new politics of the 21st century.We're joined by author, campaign adviser, and VisualPolitik director Fonseca Porras to learn more about Podemos and discuss the parallels with Trump in this particularly exciting episode!

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There's a play called Sir Thomas More that is _not_ Shakespeare... but scholars have agreed that its most awe-inspiring monologue was indeed written by Shakespeare himself. In Sir Ian McKellen's words: "you'll know when you hear it."Xander delivers a special episode today: he reads the famous monologue from the play, on refugees. He does it first in modern English so you can understand it well, and then follows up with the Original Pronunciation, which was the English used in Shakespeare's time. the OP dramatically improves the rhyme and rhythm of the reading.In this monologue, More appeals to angry Englishmen about their treatment of immigrants. Normally I would summarize it, but I would do it no justice--this simply has to be heard.Sir Ian McKellen also delivers this monologue in a 2013 performance and totally kills it. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjEAeOshUGQ Link to your youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_MfONE3jNBTMY8xo78k0_AVideo of the 2 dudes who...

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People of another religion are showing up, and not all of them are friendly--some are even kinda terrorists. The economic situation is pretty tough

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Politics: but we don't do the thinking for you.

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But seriously, why on earth do we have the Electoral College? Something about having to travel in carriages? It's a question a lot of people are asking after an election with a pretty big gap between the popular vote and the outcome. So why on earth does it exist? What's the point? Is it fulfilling its purpose? What alternatives are there, and how would we get to them?Learn all this and more, including why you don't kill your admirals, on today's episode!

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"I'm gonna drain the swamp."Love him or hate him, Donald Trump's rise and agenda are a political revolution. But revolutions are hard, even after you win. Most have failed miserably. What will it take for Trump to fulfill his vision, rather than fall apart?

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English King Richard III was a bad bad dude, right? If you're a fan of Shakespeare, you know this is true.But what if there's more to the story? We subbed in for the English Renaissance History podcast a ways back and asked that question. Today we take a look at a guy that's gotten no love of history.

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