She's In Russia

The topic for this week is writer/journalist Masha Gessen’s 2016 book Where the Jews Aren't: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region (despite our nitpicking in the episode, we very much recommend reading this book). Via our discussion of Gessen’s text, Soviet Jews and Jewish identity, we try to connect and articulate a larger theme in Soviet/Russian history of absence and the unfinished, unreal, and failed positive projections that attempt to fill these absences.

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack

Changing up the format for this week, we decided to do a little check in with American politics, in case you need help keeping up. Plus some stories from Lily’s daily life in Russia. Smith presents the meat of the episode with several hand-selected moments from the absurd mayhem that is US politics this past week. Topics include Trump & 40,000 Boy Scouts, everyone and his brother crooning over “The Maverick” McCain (aka when you get sick, people forget all the bad things you did), how America is slapping Russia’s wrist this time, and of course the shenanigans of The Moochster-- we recorded this before his ousting.

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack

On this episode Lily tells Smith about the housing crisis in the Soviet Union and how Nikita Khrushchev sought to solve it, namely by building lots of prefabricated concrete apartment buildings all over the USSR, known collectively as Khrushchevki. The proposed demolition of many of these very buildings is the subject of an ongoing debate in Moscow today, with multiple generations of residents coming out to protest the destruction of their homes, and their impending relocation.

We talk about what these rather humble constructions have come to represent over half a century, the concept (and reality) of privacy in a socialist society, standardized interior decorating, and how to get a coffin down a narrow stairwell.

Balalaika by Alexei Arkhipovskiy

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack

On this episode Lily tells Smith about the housing crisis in the Soviet Union and how Nikita Khrushchev sought to solve it, namely by building lots of prefabricated concrete apartment buildings all over the USSR, known collectively as Khrushchevki. The proposed demolition of many of these very buildings is the subject of an ongoing debate in Moscow today, with multiple generations of residents coming out to protest the destruction of their homes, and their impending relocation.

We talk about what these rather humble constructions have come to represent over half a century, the concept (and reality) of privacy in a socialist society, standardized interior decorating, and how to get a coffin down a narrow stairwell.

Balalaika by Alexei Arkhipovskiy

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack

It truly feels like reality is trolling you when a central topic for debate in American politics and media involves a mediocre (at best) Russian-Azerbaijani pop star, his real-estate mogul father, a rando British publicist/ tabloid journalist, Miss Universe 2013, a medium-profile Moscow-based lawyer, the Russian Prosecutor General, and Trump’s eldest son's poorly thought-through email thread.

On this episode we revisit the topic of Russian government meddling in the 2016 elections, also known as the ‘Trump-Russia scandal’, and try to make sense of the developments from the past few weeks, which have proven to be more absurd than we previously imagined.

Mediocre musical stylings by EMIN

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack

It truly feels like reality is trolling you when a central topic for debate in American politics and media involves a mediocre (at best) Russian-Azerbaijani pop star, his real-estate mogul father, a rando British publicist/ tabloid journalist, Miss Universe 2013, a medium-profile Moscow-based lawyer, the Russian Prosecutor General, and Trump’s eldest son's poorly thought-through email thread.

On this episode we revisit the topic of Russian government meddling in the 2016 elections, also known as the ‘Trump-Russia scandal’, and try to make sense of the developments from the past few weeks, which have proven to be more absurd than we previously imagined.

Mediocre musical stylings by EMIN

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack

Pussy Riot was/is a mostly anonymous feminist activist/performance art group formed in Moscow in 2011, in a time when widespread protests (main protest slogan of the time=”For fair elections”) were unfolding across Russia. A notorious protest-performance in early 2012 got three of the members arrested. What ensued was a highly public trial, and, for two of the accused, a brutal sentencing that main painfully evident (to regular Russians and foreigners alike) some of the more frightening aspects of the bureaucratic, judicial and prison systems in place in modern day Russia. On this episode we take you through this darkly absurd story, try to get a better idea of the individual women involved, discuss what it all meant to various groups of people, and whether or not, at the end of the day, Pussy Riot is actually cool.

Pussy Riot was/is a mostly anonymous feminist activist/performance art group formed in Moscow in 2011, in a time when widespread protests (main protest slogan of the time=”For fair elections”) were unfolding across Russia. A notorious protest-performance in early 2012 got three of the members arrested. What ensued was a highly public trial, and, for two of the accused, a brutal sentencing that main painfully evident (to regular Russians and foreigners alike) some of the more frightening aspects of the bureaucratic, judicial and prison systems in place in modern day Russia. On this episode we take you through this darkly absurd story, try to get a better idea of the individual women involved, discuss what it all meant to various groups of people, and whether or not, at the end of the day, Pussy Riot is actually cool.

This week it’s story time. Lily talks about the stairwell in her new apartment and then reads a short story by Sergei Dovlatov called 'The Colonel Says I Love You', published in the New Yorker in 1986.

Between 2015 and 2017 Oliver Stone met and chatted with President Putin on film, the result of which is The Putin Interviews, a 4-part series that aired on Showtime (US) and Channel 1 (Russia) this month. Joined by Gracie, our first guest (!), we react to the spectacle of this production, discuss Stone’s interviewing skills, and the unfortunate charm of the Russian President.

Cover art by Sam Woo Staar

Theme music is "Shit Happens" by Tierra Whack