Russian Elections (hour 1); Pentagon Papers (hour 2)
Host Alex S. Jones discusses Russian and American media coverage of the 1996 Russian elections with Peter Ford, Catherine Fitzpatrick, Ellen Mickiewicz, and Masha Gessen and journalistic courage on the...
View ArticleMasha Gessen on Vladimir Putin, 'The Man Without a Face'
Vladimir Putin has been called the accidental president. Putin, Russia's current prime minister, is in the midst of campaigning for his third presidential term, but his name was hardly known until...
View ArticleThe Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
Moscow-based journalist Masha Gessen talks about how Vladimir Putin, a low-level KGB operative, ascended to the Russian presidency. She argues that Mr. Putin has destroyed years of progress and made...
View ArticleMasha Gessen on the Release of Pussy Riot Members
Journalist Masha Gessen looks at Pussy Riot's arrest and the recent release of two members of the band. She also discusses Vladimir Putin as a leader, gay rights in Russia, and the lead up to the...
View ArticleHow To Get Your Mind Around Pussy Riot; Jason Isbell Plays Live; David Fricke...
In this episode: From Russia With Soundcheck continues with a look at the political Russian performance art collective Pussy Riot: While the members of Pussy Riot were serving their sentence in a labor...
View ArticleHow to Get Your Mind Around Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot is not a punk band. It's an anonymous collective of Russian political dissidents, open to all women, who don neon balaclavas and stage a variety of provocative public stunts that highlight...
View ArticleHow 30 Greenpeace Protesters Got in the Way of Putin’s Dream of a Russian...
Masha Gessen reviews the case of the Arctic 30, a group of Greenpeace activists arrested (video below) and jailed by Russian president Vladimir Putin and charged with piracy. Gessen explains that it’s...
View ArticleMasha Gessen: Russia Today Is a 'Totalitarian State'
Yesterday, tens of thousands of protesters marched in Moscow to honor deceased politician Boris Nemtsov, who was fatally shot on Friday.Nemtsov, the nation's former deputy prime minister, was an...
View ArticleWhat Nemtsov's Murder Means For Russia
The Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was murdered last week in plain view of the Kremlin. Masha Gessen, the journalist, activist and author of The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of...
View ArticleThe Brothers Behind the Boston Marathon Bomb
Masha Gessen, journalist, activist and author of The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy (Riverhead Books, 2015), talks about what she discovered about the Tsarnaev brothers.
View ArticleThe Leaders Speak
Masha Gessen, journalist and author of The Brothers and The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (Riverhead Books, 2015); Rami Khouri, senior public policy fellow at the Issam Fares...
View ArticleDNC Hack Raises Questions of Trump-Putin Connection
Cybersecurity experts have concluded that two Russian agencies are behind the theft and leak of embarrassing Democratic National Committee emails that created a political firestorm at the party’s...
View ArticleDebunking That Trump-Putin Thing
Political A-listers and celebrities met in Philadelphia this week to rally behind Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. But the event was nearly overshadowed by the...
View ArticleNormalizing the Trump Presidency
Hua Hsu, a contributing writer for newyorker.com and The New Yorker, an associate professor of English at Vassar College and former fellow at the New America Foundation, and the author of A Floating...
View ArticleMasha Gessen on the "Impulse to Normalize"
The journalist Masha Gessen recently wrote a piece called "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" in the New York Review of Books. Rule #1 is: "Believe the Autocrat. He means what he says." But when a leader...
View ArticleThe Antigay Movement Growing Abroad
Journalist Masha Gessen joins us to discuss her recent piece for Harper's called, “Family Values: Mapping the Spread of Antigay Ideology,” which looks at the spread of the antigay movement in Russia...
View ArticleBrian Lehrer Live: Investigating the White House; Running for Office 101; A...
WNYC's Brian Lehrer joined us in The Greene Space for live broadcast of his Peabody Award-winning radio show. Check out conversation highlights below, or watch the entire show on-demand. What’s Next...
View ArticleMasha Gessen On Russia's Return To Totalitarianism, Armistead Maupin Finds...
Masha Gessen explores how totalitarianism returned to Russia. Armistead Maupin discusses his new memoir Logical Family. Ned Colletti explains what it takes to run a professional baseball team. Russell...
View ArticleMasha Gessen On Russia's Return To Totalitarianism
Award-winning journalist and author Masha Gessen joins us to discuss her latest book, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. She follows the lives of four people born during the...
View ArticleThe Trouble With Defining "Terrorism"
After the shooting in Las Vegas last week, old debates have gained new purchase: is this the time to talk about gun violence? Why are the vast majority of mass homicides committed by white men? And...
View ArticleMasha Gessen on Outrage Fatigue in Trump's America
In the days after Trump's election, journalist Masha Gessen penned a viral piece in the New York Review of Books called “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” — a sort of cautionary guide for panicked...
View Article‘The Future Is History' in Russia
Masha Gessen, staff writer at The New Yorker, visiting professor at Amherst College, winner of the 2017 National Book Award, and author of The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia...
View ArticleWho Will Be Russia's Next President? (Probably Putin)
Masha Gessen, author of several books on Russia, including The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (Riverhead Books, 2017), previews the Russian presidential election, as well as...
View ArticleMasha Gessen on How Putin is Erasing Russia's Gulag History
Russian-American journalist and author Masha Gessen discusses her latest book Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia. Gessen explains how Putin’s totalitarian state is...
View ArticleTrump, Inc. Live
He's the president, yet we're still trying to answer basic questions about how his business works: What deals are happening and who are they happening with? Are the president and his family keeping...
View ArticleOpen Borders: An Answer to Chain-Link Fences?
Jacob Soboroff, MSNBC correspondent, talks about his reporting from the border and the latest on the Trump administration's policies on immigration. Then, Masha Gessen, staff writer at the New Yorker,...
View ArticleMasha Gessen Curates Festival Albertine, Making Art About Climate Change
Renowned Russian-American journalist and author Masha Gessen joins us to discuss curating this year's Festival Albertine. The fifth annual installment of the festival will bring together thinkers,...
View ArticleThe 65 Million Stories We Choose Not to Tell
All this week, we’ve been waiting. Waiting for some thoroughly redacted filing from the special counsel. Waiting for clarity on the state of international trade. Waiting for a funeral service to begin....
View ArticleYovanovich is an 'Uppity Woman Who Needs to Get out of the Way'
Where are we on impeachment today?Public Hearings, Day 2. Ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies. Democrats say they plan to use the testimony about her ousting -- including...
View ArticleMasha Gessen, 'Surviving Autocracy'
Masha Gessen, columnist at The New Yorker and National Book Award winning author, discusses their latest book, Surviving Autocracy.
View ArticleWhat The Press Have And Should Have Learned From The Trump Era
Donald Trump is largely responsible for cramming the last five years of news coverage with innumerable lies, conspiracy theories, scapegoats, racist dog whistles, and reality-shattering accusations....
View ArticleHow Russians See Putin's War in Ukraine
Masha Gessen, The New Yorker staff writer and the author of Surviving Autocracy (Riverhead Books, 2020), talks about their latest reporting on how Russians are reacting to Putin's war in Ukraine.
View ArticleUpdates on Russia's Partial Withdrawal in Ukraine
More than six months into Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces have reclaimed large swaths of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Masha Gessen, New Yorker staff writer...
View Article'The Politics of Memory' in Europe
Masha Gessen, The New Yorker staff writer and the author of many books including Surviving Autocracy (Riverhead Books, 2020) reports after a trip to Germany on how the memory of the Holocaust...
View ArticleMasha Gessen on the Utility of Historical Comparisons
This week at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, proceedings began in South Africa's case that Israel is committing genocide in their war against Hamas, which Israel denies. Writer Masha...
View ArticleNavalny, Putin, Russia and Ukraine
Russian opposition leader, anti-corruption activist and political prisoner Alexei Navalny has died. Masha Gessen, The New Yorker staff writer and the author of Surviving Autocracy (Riverhead Books,...
View Article
