The Takeaway

Putin’s war against Ukraine is changing the lives of Russians.

Russian authorities have arrested and detained thousands of Russians who have openly protested the invasion. And many Russian Americans and Russian Immigrants living in the U.S. stand in solidarity with Ukraine, and against Putin’s aggression.

Global sanctions and boycotts are a critical tool being used to pressure and isolate Putin. At the same time, this moment has proved precarious for some Russian businesses in the U.S. Vandals broke windows at the Russia House Restaurant in D.C. last week. The famous Russian Tea Room in New York sat almost empty this week, despite posting on their website that they stand with Ukraine. 

We speak with Anton Svyatsky, managing partner of Fragment Gallery, which works with marginalized artists in Russia and Eastern Europe to amplify their visibility and facilitate conversation with the West. And Ekaterina Pravilova, Professor of history at Princeton, specializing in 19th-century Imperial Russia and the Rosengarten Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University.

Europe is in the thick of a refugee crisis. Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, and more than a million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries — a number that will keep growing according to the United Nations refugee agency. 

The majority of these refugees are women and children; meanwhile, Ukrainian men have been stopped from crossing the border in order to be made available for military conscription.

For more on the gender politics in Ukraine, The Takeaway spoke with Amb. Melanne Verveer, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues under President Barack Obama.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, and more Ukrainians continue to be killed and displaced, it is difficult not to feel pessimistic about what could happen next in this war. With so many different angles to this story, we reached out to listeners to find out what’s keeping them up at night when they think about the war. We put their concerns and questions to Kristine Berzina, head of the geopolitics team for the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

How do non profit newsrooms thrive? Richard Kim, the new Editor-in-chief of TheCity.nyc joins us to discuss his new position, the world of nonprofit newsrooms and how they can compete with their big money counterparts.

On Tuesday night —  during his first State of the Union address — President Joe Biden talked about a return to normal. 

Under these new guidelines, most Americans in most of the country can now go mask free. And based on projections, more of the country will reach across that point across the next couple of weeks.Thanks to the progress we have made in the past year, Covid-19 no longer need control our lives.

But for millions of Americans that are immunocompromised, COVID-19 still does control their lives. With the U.S. dropping COVID measures like masking, some immunocompromised people are feeling abandoned or ignored, as the rest of the country moves on from the pandemic. 

We spoke with Dorry Segev, a professor of surgery and population health at NYU Langone, and Ed Yong, a staff writer at The Atlantic, about what this stage of the pandemic has meant for immunocompromised people.

At the top of the ballot, in the race for Governor, incumbent Governor Greg Abbott beat out his primary challengers — winning the Republican nomination for Governor to move forward in his bid for a third term in office. On the other side of the ticket — Beto O’Rourke, the El Paso native who ran for Senate against Ted Cruz four years ago — won over 90 percent of the vote for the Democratic party’s nomination for governor.

There were also some key races that will now head to runoffs. Incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton faces a runoff for the Republican nomination against Land Commissioner George P. Bush. And down in South Texas, progressive candidate Jessica Cisneros will face a runoff with incumbent U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat, for Texas’ 28th Congressional District.

As we look at the Texas primaries and what these returns may mean for the midterms in November — one key question remains, will this be the year that Texas goes blue? For a look at how Democrats in Texas fared, we spoke with Odus Evbagharu, Chair of the Harris County Democratic Party.

Throughout the month of March for Women’s History month, The Takeaway is joining forces with the Center for American Women and Politics to bring you stories of Women Leading Locally.

We spoke with Representative Anna Eskamani, Representative for the 47th District in Orlando, Florida about her family, what it's like to be a progressive in Florida, and how she is fighting to protect her constituents against conservative laws such as reproductive rights restrictions and Don’t Say Gay laws in Florida.  

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rocked the world last week. While the news media has largely  done its job in keeping up with the latest on the situation, there have been some misfires — especially by Western media. 

On Friday, CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata said about Ukraine:"This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen." In another clip from ITV News, correspondent Lucy Watson said, "Now the unthinkable has happened to them. This is not a developing third world nation. This is Europe."

For some, the comments from D’Agata and Watson raise questions about the double standard in how journalists cover conflict in different parts of the world.  Language like “civilized” and “third world nation” can further dehumanize non-white, non-European people living through war. 

For more on this, The Takeaway spoke with Sarah Ellison, media reporter at the Washington Post. 

Jason Katim’s new dramedy on Amazon Prime, As We See It, follows three 20-something roommates with Autism as they navigate life, love, and social cues. Katim’s commitment to authenticity extends beyond storytelling. Many of the actors, writers and crew members have Autism including three of the show’s lead actors, Rick Glassman, Albert Rutecki, and Sue Ann Pien. We speak with Rick, Albert, and Sue Ann about their experiences in front of the camera and beyond.

On Tuesday night, President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union before a crowd of Congressional lawmakers who were no longer required to wear masks and who showed a surprising amount of bipartisan applause to a number of issues he covered. 

In his remarks, the president highlighted the country’s role leading the Western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; outlined his plans to address inflation; and affirmed his continuing optimism in the American project. 

We dissected the issues he discussed and the biggest issues he left out in his speech with Pablo Manríquez, Capitol Hill correspondent for Latino Rebels and Michael Tomasky, editor for The New Republic.