Become a Patron!

Episodes

Gogol’s Town of N
April 16, 2021

Gogol’s Town of N

Guest: Anne Lounsbery on Life Is Elsewhere: Symbolic Geography in the Russian Provinces, 1800–1917 published by Cornell University Press.

Listen to the Episode
Trash in (post-)Communist Eastern Europe
April 9, 2021

Trash in (post-)Communist Eastern Europe

Guests: Elana Resnick and Viktor Pal on waste, recycling, reuse, and race in (post-)Communist Eastern Europe.

Listen to the Episode
Navalny and Next
March 27, 2021

Navalny and Next

Guests: Ilya Budraitskis, Svetlana Erpyleva, and Greg Yudin on Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition, and the prospects of political pluralism in Russian society.

Listen to the Episode
Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the USSR
March 19, 2021

Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the USSR

Guest: Karl Qualls on Stalin’s Niños: Educating Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the Soviet Union, 1937-51 published by the University of Toronto Press.

Listen to the Episode
Zoos and Animals in Eastern Europe and Russia
March 13, 2021

Zoos and Animals in Eastern Europe and Russia

Guests: Tracy McDonald and Marianna Szczygielska on zoos, non-humans, and Animal Studies in Eastern Europe and Russia

Listen to the Episode
Welcome to Chechnya
March 5, 2021

Welcome to Chechnya

Guest: David France on his film Welcome To Chechnya.

Listen to the Episode
Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine
Feb. 26, 2021

Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine

Guests: Valerie Kivelson and Christine Worobec on witches, magic, spells in their new sourcebook Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000–1900 published by Cornell University Press.

Listen to the Episode
From Soso to Stalin
Feb. 12, 2021

From Soso to Stalin

Guest: Ronald Suny on Stalin: Passage to Revolution published by Princeton University Press.

Listen to the Episode
Watering the Soviet Lands
Feb. 5, 2021

Watering the Soviet Lands

Guests: Maya Peterson and Christopher Ward on water and the environment in the Soviet Union.

Listen to the Episode
The Texel Uprising
Jan. 29, 2021

The Texel Uprising

Guest: Eric Lee on Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler’s Revenge – April-May 1945 published by Greenhill Books.

Listen to the Episode
REEES Faculty Spotlight: James Pickett
Jan. 21, 2021

REEES Faculty Spotlight: James Pickett

Faculty Spotlight on the University of Pittsburgh’s historian of Russia and Central Asia--James Pickett.

Listen to the Episode
REEES Faculty Spotlight: Iknur Lider
Jan. 21, 2021

REEES Faculty Spotlight: Iknur Lider

Faculty Spotlight on the University of Pittsburgh's Turkish instructor Iknur Lider.

Listen to the Episode
The Soviet-Third World Cultural Nexus
Jan. 15, 2021

The Soviet-Third World Cultural Nexus

Guest: Rossen Djagalov on From Internationalism to Postcolonialism: Literature and Cinema between the Second and the Third Worlds published by McGill-Queen's University Press.

Listen to the Episode
Dmytro Dontsov and Ukrainian Nationalism
Jan. 8, 2021

Dmytro Dontsov and Ukrainian Nationalism

Guest: Trevor Erlacher on Ukrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes: An Intellectual Biography of Dmytro Dontsov published by Harvard University Press.

Listen to the Episode
Belarus Protests in Pittsburgh
Jan. 4, 2021

Belarus Protests in Pittsburgh

I attended a Belarus solidarity rally in Pittsburgh. Here's what some of the protesters told me.

Listen to the Episode
Russian Other, American Other
Dec. 18, 2020

Russian Other, American Other

Guests: Dina Fainberg and Victoria Zhuravleva on the history of Russian and American mutual perceptions.

Listen to the Episode
Putin Kitsch in America
Dec. 11, 2020

Putin Kitsch in America

Guest: Alison Rowley on Putin Kitsch in America published by McGill-Queen's University Press.

Listen to the Episode
The Wired Cold War
Dec. 4, 2020

The Wired Cold War

Guests: Ekaterina Babintseva and Slava Gerovitch on cybernetics in the United States and Soviet Union.

Listen to the Episode
Grand Duke Alexis Visits America
Nov. 20, 2020

Grand Duke Alexis Visits America

Guest: Lee Farrow on Alexis in America: A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1871-72 published by Louisiana State University Press.

Listen to the Episode
Black Radicalism and the USSR
Nov. 13, 2020

Black Radicalism and the USSR

Guests: Meredith Roman and Minkah Makalani on Black radicalism, the Comintern, and Soviet antiracism.

Listen to the Episode
American Tourism to the USSR
Nov. 9, 2020

American Tourism to the USSR

Guest: Andrew Jacobs on American tourism to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Listen to the Episode
Pogroms and Race Riots
Oct. 30, 2020

Pogroms and Race Riots

Guests: Steven Zipperstein and Michael Pfeifer on anti-Jewish and anti-Black violence in Russia and the United States.

Listen to the Episode
From Aliaska to Alaska
Oct. 23, 2020

From Aliaska to Alaska

Guests: Bathsheba Demuth and Ilya Vinkoveysky on Russian and American colonialism and the environment in Alaska.

Listen to the Episode
American Famine Relief to Soviet Russia
Oct. 16, 2020

American Famine Relief to Soviet Russia

Guest: Douglas Smith on The Russian Job: The Forgotten Story of How America Saved the Soviet Union from Ruin published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Listen to the Episode