We check in about what’s been happening in and to Russia since the “special military operation” started in Ukraine. Why most of Lily’s Russian friends are leaving or thinking about leaving, peoples’ fears about the current situation and future of being in Russia, and the humanitarian effects of mass sanctions and corporate virtue signaling against Russia. Links we referenced: https://musatkin.com/iran-sanctions/ https://journal.tinkoff.ru/news/brands-left-russia/ Past eps we mentioned: Maslenits...
Mar 06, 2022•1 hr 43 min
SIR has reunited once again to revisit the latest saga in the conflict with Ukraine, partially so that Lily’s brain doesn’t explode trying to explain to people separately or so she doesn’t start writing things on the internet she will likely regret later. First we get into some historical context to this latest wave of the crisis/conflict/war in Ukraine (which we remind, started in 2014). Also, we talk about how the mostly always ignored regular people from Donbass(aka self-declared Lugansk and ...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Are riots good? Are protests good? Plus Lily gives the etymology of the word pogrom.
May 31, 2020•50 min
Family history and Ukraine's war-time propaganda machine in Lugansk.
May 24, 2020•54 min
Lily gets updates on coronavirus in Russia from America and tells the story of Telegram's failed blockchain platform.
May 18, 2020•54 min
Petersburg doesn’t care about corona, Russian medicine, Soviet nostalgia and Ivan Chai.
Apr 26, 2020•1 hr 1 min
Russian Orthodox Easter greetings and cake, Lily registers her new car.
Apr 19, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Lily's finally reading Ferrante. Also a small COVID-19 in Russia update. And a tour of an abandoned experimental soviet neighborhood built in the late 1920s (Кондратьевский Жилмассив//Kondratyevsky Residential Area?)
Apr 12, 2020•1 hr 5 min
In these times of troubles, SIR is back to update you on Russia’s response to COVID-19.
Apr 05, 2020•1 hr 14 min
Undefined Hiatus by Olivia Capozzalo and Smith Freeman
Jun 12, 2019•14 min
Lily went to see an artistic evening with animator Yuri Norstein, best known for his movies Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales.
May 29, 2019•48 min
Lily returns to St. Petersburg. We talk about Soviet interior design, the Mongol Yoke and ordering Kosher on Aeroflot.
May 23, 2019•45 min
We tell the tale of the legendary 10th St. baths in New York. Also known as The Shvitz or the Russian and Turkish Baths or simply The Baths, the place has been co-owned by two Soviet immigrants since 1995, bringing its own particular breed of bath-spa culture to its devoted clientele.
May 15, 2019•41 min
We watched Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Meeting Gorbachev. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev wast the last general secretary and only president of the Soviet Union. He's known for supporting nuclear disarmament, causing mass chaos and having a birthmark on his balding head.
May 08, 2019•59 min
FALSE CLAIM: SIR is run by Putin trolls FACT: SIR is run by two brilliant lady humans who are here to dispel myths about Russia Russian Embassy's report The Russiagate Hysteria: a Case of Severe Russophobia: https://washington.mid.ru/en/press-centre/news/russian_embassy_special_report/
Apr 30, 2019•44 min
We talked to Ukrainian-born, London-based chef and cookbook author Olia Hercules about some of her delicious family recipes, summer kitchens, Georgian food you only get in Georgia and dishes from her childhood in Cyprus. Check out Olia's cookbooks: https://oliahercules.com/books/ Follow Olia: https://www.instagram.com/oliahercules/?hl=en Episode photo from Olia's cookbook Mamushka, taken by Kris Kirkham
Apr 26, 2019•58 min
Special guest and dear friend Polya once sailed across the North Atlantic ocean on a viking-style ship. Now's she's written a book about it based on her notes and drawings from the onboard. We talk about the voyage, how the crew slept, ate, socialized and went to the bathroom on an open wooden ship at sea. Plus a bit about sex ed and drug prevention in Russian schools. *11 days left* to pre-order Polya's book by contributing: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/how-i-sailed-a-viking-ship-across-t...
Apr 16, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Dissecting Rachel Maddow's screen vom and crimes against journalism. Related episodes: Troll Factory indictment https://soundcloud.com/shes-in-russia/37-indict-me Annexation of Crimea https://soundcloud.com/shes-in-russia/episode-11-crimea-it-existed-before-2014 2018 elections https://soundcloud.com/shes-in-russia/39-maybe-putin-wont-be-president-anymore * Support SIR: https://www.patreon.com/shesinrussia Shop for new Russian fashion: https://www.depop.com/fortochka/
Apr 09, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Lily went to the great medieval city of Vyborg and gawked at abandoned buildings and Finnish tourists. * Support SIR: https://www.patreon.com/shesinrussia Shop for new Russian fashion: https://www.depop.com/fortochka/
Apr 02, 2019•35 min
Why the right loves Solzhenitsyn and his Gulag writings. Anna Akhmatova's everyday life of squalor, drama and paranoia during the Terror. * Support SIR: https://www.patreon.com/shesinrussia Shop for new Russian fashion: https://www.depop.com/fortochka/ Watch ContraPoints: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNvsIonJdJ5E4EXMa65VYpA
Mar 26, 2019•1 hr 15 min
Yulia Voznesenskaia was part of the Leningrad dissident women's movement that formed in the 1970s. Later, as an emigre in Germany, she wrote the Women's Decameron — the story of ten women quarantined in a Soviet maternity ward for ten days, telling each other tales. * Support SIR: https://www.patreon.com/shesinrussia Shop new Russian fashion: https://www.depop.com/fortochka/
Mar 19, 2019•49 min
What happened to all the death-commemorating and erotic traditions of everyone's favorite bliny-consuming, effigy-burning holiday, Maslenitsa? Here's the history of the week-long, slavic-pagan-christian, pre-Lenten celebration, plus several bliny recipes from a real Russian.
Mar 12, 2019•57 min
Popularly referred to as the puppet master and the shadowy man, Vladislav Surkov is back on the public stage with a manifesto on what he happily refers to as Putin's Russia. We break down the ideas he introduces in his latest article and trace how the man himself, specifically in the West, came to be known as the mastermind behind modern Russian politics.
Mar 05, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Icicles falling from buildings kill people in Russia every year, but this winter, walking outside in St. Petersburg is even scarier than usual. buy russian fashion: https://www.depop.com/fortochka/
Feb 26, 2019•30 min
SIR is joined by Crocodile Gena, Cheburashka, Vinni Pukh and Hedgehog in the Fog to discuss myths, techniques, legendary figures and beloved classics of Soviet animation. Watch all the cartoons we reference (plus ones we don't reference): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLFDtUKjvwX2P50tlMeyrtyx7KHPevbFW
Feb 19, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Founder of London supper club KinoVino Alissa Timoshkina talks about why Russian-Soviet cuisine is so hard to define, plus shares memories of her childhood kitchen in Siberia and beautiful, mouth-watering descriptions of some favorite foods. Pre-order Alissa's cookbook Salt and Time — Recipes from a Russian kitchen: https://amzn.to/2DBnR34 Alissa is on Instagram @borsch_and_no_tears
Feb 12, 2019•46 min
We talk with Yulia Gorbunova, a researcher in the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, and author of a recently published report on domestic violence in Russia and the state's response to it. report in english: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/russia1018_web3.pdf report in russian: https://www.hrw.org/ru/report/2018/10/25/323648 resources for survivors of domestic violence in Russia: http://anna-center.ru/index.php/ru/ https://nasiliu.net/ https://www.faceboo...
Feb 05, 2019•55 min
The history of collective dining and the soviet cafeteria — utopias of factory kitchens and kitchen-less apartments, the science of soviet food consumption and where the design of the stolovaya as we know it actually came from. If you missed Fortochka, our Russian fashion pop-up at the beginning of December, you are in luck. We are selling off the remaining inventory, follow our ig: https://www.instagram.com/fortochka_/.
Jan 29, 2019•50 min
Why BuzzFeed news and Rachel Maddow suck and a little update on Russian president Putin and Belarusian president Lukashenko's holiday meetups.
Jan 22, 2019•36 min
Maybe the only critical analysis of the new movie Donbass (Dir. Sergei Loznitsa) that you're gonna get, folks (in English, at least). This non-documentary, allegedly based on real events and YouTube videos, is set in the eastern regions of Ukraine (collectively referred to as Donbass) — which are currently fighting a war with the western regions of Ukraine (collectively referred to as Ukraine). This movie was in part funded by the Ukrainian government. Separately, here's a short, independently m...
Jan 15, 2019•54 min
