logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2023
42m 56s

Ukraine: Under the Counter

Wnyc Studios
About this episode

In the weeks following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a young doctor in Germany sees that abortion pills are urgently needed in Ukraine. And she wants to help. But getting the drugs into the country means going through Poland, which has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. So, she gets creative. What unfolds is a high-stakes, covert-operation run by a group of strangers. With everyone deciding: who to trust? In collaboration with NPR’s Rough Translation (https://zpr.io/9UpCwb2Smjzw), we find out what happened. Part 1 of 2 episodes.Special thanks to Wojciech Oleksiak, Katy Lee, Maria Hlazunova, Valeria Fokina, Sara Furxhi, Noel King, Robert Krulwich and Sana Krasikov, and our homies over at Rough Translation. Thanks also to Micah Loewinger and Laura Griffin. Illustrations came from Oksana Drachkovska. 

And thank you to the many sources and experts we interviewed who asked to remain anonymous.

Episode Credits:Guest hosted by - Gregory Warner and Molly WebsterReported by - Katz LaszloProduced by - Daniel Girma and Tessa PaoliMixer - Gilly Moonwith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Marisa Robertson-Textorand Edited by - Brenna Farrell

CITATIONS:

Videos

Podcasts

Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.

Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

 

Up next
Aug 22
The Medical Matchmaking Machine
As he finished his medical school exam, David Fajgenbaum felt off. He walked down to the ER and checked himself in. Soon he was in the ICU with multiple organ failure. The only drug for his condition didn’t work. He had months to live, if that. If he was going to survive, he was ... Show More
1h 1m
Aug 15
Weighing Good Intentions
In an episode first released in 2010, then-producer Lulu Miller drives to Michigan to track down the endangered Kirtland’s warbler. Efforts to protect the bird have lead to the killing of cowbirds (a species that commandeers warbler nests), and a prescribed burn aimed at creating ... Show More
25m 29s
Aug 8
The Menopause Mystery
Until recently, scientists assumed humans were the only species in which females went through menopause, and lived a substantial part of their lives after they were no longer able to reproduce. And they had no idea why that happens, and why evolution wouldn’t push females to keep ... Show More
38m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2022
Voice notes from Ukraine
Before the war, Vladimir was a film producer and Yuriy was a journalist. Daria works in marketing, Andrii is a musician, and Anna is a human resources manager for an IT company. This week we asked five Ukrainians to send us some voice messages, documenting their thoughts and feel ... Show More
11m 43s
Jun 2024
Ukraine's children: Growing up under fire
The Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 changed the lives of students, shop keepers and nurses who unexpectedly found themselves fighting for their country. It has also transformed childhood, with many young people seeing fathers, brothers and sisters head to the front ... Show More
28m 8s
Nov 2022
Ukraine : notre reporter raconte les traumatismes d’une guerre qui s’enlise
Le 11 novembre, la ville de Kherson, dans le sud de l'Ukraine, est libérée après 8 mois d’occupation russe. C’est une étape importante dans le conflit ukrainien, car Kherson était jusqu’ici la seule grande ville ukrainienne prise par la Russie. Mais la paix est loin d’être acquis ... Show More
23m 56s
Apr 2021
Presenting: Stolen
This week, we’re sharing a Spotify Exclusive from another Gimlet podcast, Stolen: The Search for Jermain. In 2018, a young Indigenous mother named Jermain Charlo left a bar in Missoula, Montana, and was never seen again. After two years and thousands of hours of investigative wor ... Show More
54m 20s
Feb 2023
Ukraine one year on, with filmmaker Nadia Parfan
This week marks a year since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In this episode, Lilah speaks with Ukrainian director Nadia Parfan, whose documentary short 'I did not want to make a war film' is a first-person essay about how life has changed. Nadia was in Egypt when the wa ... Show More
19m 30s
Jun 2024
Why give a damn about the European elections?
They’re the second biggest elections on Earth. For the next four days, 373 million people are eligible to take part in the vote for the European Parliament. And yet in most EU countries, the prevailing mood is… ‘meh’.    This week, we take on the challenge of convincing you that ... Show More
36m 4s
Jun 2024
The most confusing elections of all time?
The far-right surged but the centre held; somehow the two are true at once. Nearly 100 members of the new European Parliament have yet to tell us which political family they’ll be joining. And as for who’s actually going to be running the EU’s institutions for the next five years ... Show More
45m 55s
Feb 2024
Lo scontro tra Zelesnkyj e il capo dell’esercito ucraino. Per l’Europa il sesso senza consenso non è reato.
Il presidente ucraino Vlodymyr Zelesnkyj ha deciso di rimuovere dal suo incarico il generale Valerij Zaluzhny, comandante in capo delle forze armate. Il 6 febbraio il Consiglio dell’Unione europea ha approvato il testo definitivo della direttiva per contrastare la violenza di gen ... Show More
22m 12s
Jul 2021
Europe’s next illiberal democracy?
Slovenia, aka Katy's favourite country, is increasingly drawing comparisons with Hungary and Poland when it comes to the state of its democracy. Can this worrying direction of travel be reversed? This week we ring up our favourite Sloveniologist Aljaž Pengov Bitenc to find out. W ... Show More
34m 53s
Mar 2024
Russia uses deadly new ‘glide bombs’ to target civilians & Putin's war on nature
Day 761. Today, we bring you the latest news from Ukraine and we speak to Dr Sasha Dovzhyk about the concept of ecocide and the harm done to Ukraine’s environment during the full scale invasion. Contributors:David Knowles (Head of Audio Development). @djknowles22 on X.Dominic Nic ... Show More
37m 27s