“Americans and Europeans were guided through the new century by a tale about ‘the end of history,’ by what I will call the politics of inevitability, a sense that the future is just more of the present, that the laws of progress are known, that there are no alternatives, and therefore nothing really to be done,” writes the Yale historian Timothy Snyder in hi ... Show More
Today
Trump’s Head-on-a-Pike Foreign Policy
Two sitting heads of state, eight weeks apart. On Saturday, February 28, the United States and Israel launched a massive military assault on Iran that resulted in the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with much of his senior command. This came less than two months after the ... Show More
1h 10m
Feb 25
Trump’s Fantasy State of the Union
President Trump’s approval ratings on the economy, immigration and trade are deep in the red. But in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, he decided to tell the American people: You don’t know what you’re talking about. “Today our border is secure, our spirit is restored, ... Show More
46m 43s
Mar 2022
Democracy in Crisis: Putin’s Assault (with Anne Applebaum & Michael McFaul)
Over the course of this season of the podcast, Hillary has been examining the challenges our democracy faces. Today, she looks abroad to Russia’s brutal, unprovoked attack on Ukraine, and considers what led to this moment and what’s at stake in this war–for Ukraine, Russia, the U ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2022
How autocrats manipulate history, with Katie Stallard
As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, the way the Russian regime is attempting to retell its own history is crucial to Vladimir Putin’s hold on power at home. Katie Stallard talks to Emily Tamkin about how authoritarian regimes manipulate history, what the parallels are between R ... Show More
26m 12s
Mar 2022
Reporting Russia’s war in Ukraine
The intensive media coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has rallied global public opinion behind Ukraine, while also resulting in accusations of Western bias.
In London, the New Statesman’s editor-in-chief, Jason Cowley, joins Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington, DC, t ... Show More
35m 52s
Feb 2022
Does Russia still intend to invade Ukraine?
While the US and UK predicts that an invasion of Ukraine is imminent, the recent intensification of Western military aid to Ukraine has raised the stakes for Russia. Emily Tamkin and Katie Stallard in Washington, DC, are joined by Ido Vock in Berlin to discuss the latest flurry o ... Show More
27m 48s
May 2024
Putin talks peace as he’s hit by more missiles
Day 814.Today, we discuss whether more Ukrainian strikes in Crimea and Russia have pushed Putin to start talking about negotiations, and hear of another senior Russian military official sacked, in what is starting to look like a purge of the top echelons of Russia’s defence estab ... Show More
50m 30s
Aug 2022
How Russia sees itself, with Orlando Figes
As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, the historian Orlando Figes’s latest book considers how Russia and its rulers see the country.
He speaks to Alix Kroeger about why his book is called The Story of Russia, rather than The History of Russia, what drives Vladimir Putin and the l ... Show More
23m 58s