Show Notes : This week, Cameron dives into William T. Vollmann’s Europe Central and Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood . The uniting theme this week: reflection and memory. Both novels cast a long shadow over his life, so it’s time to untangle exactly why that is. Can Europe Central be cleanly read as a series of parables? Is it appropriate to turn Hitler into a sort-of fairy tale? Is it a red flag that Cameron has read Norwegian Wood six times? Tune in to find your answers. “Shostakovich in Love:...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Show Notes : This week, Cameron dives solo into two books: Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me by Teffi and In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien. He’ll pull apart their authors’ mutual love for taking a creative license to their own lives. Major themes: Emotional truth, social expectations, Vietnam The interview with Tim O’Brien I read from. The documentary on My Lai I mentioned. Seymour Hersh’s article on My Lai The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Pe...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 50 min
Show Notes : Pick up a copy of The Story of Sonechka here. This week, Cameron dives into Marina Tsvetaeva’s The Story of Sonechka , a recollection of her relationship with the actress Sonia Holliday in Moscow, 1919. The story — one of the clearest examples of queer literature we’ve had on the podcast — reflects not only Marina and Sonia themselves, but also questions on relationships, memory and how we understand each other. Joining him to talk about the novel is Inessa Fishbeyn and C. D. C. Ree...
Jun 06, 2025•2 hr 9 min
A quick look forward to our June episodes plus a little apology for the delayed episode this month. If you'd like to join our monthly book club, you can join our discord here . Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
May 31, 2025•5 min
Show Notes : This week, Cameron dives into Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhovych’s The Moscoviad , a picaresque-cum-magical realist novel following the poet Otto von F. as he spends one day trying to accomplish a few chores around Moscow: a visit to a meeting, a reunion with a sort-of girlfriend, and a gift for his friend’s children. This journey takes him to beer halls, into the sewers, into the attention of the KGB and beyond. Set in the very late Soviet Union, Andrukhovych tackles the place of c...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 22 min
Show Notes : This week, Cameron dives into the poetry of Vsevolod Nekrasov, joined by Bela Shayevich and Ainsley Morse who collected and translated works spanning much of his life in I Live I See: Selected Poems. Born in the USSR in 1934 and writing—mostly unofficially—through the end of his life in 2009 now in the Russian Federation, Vsevolod Nekrasov’s work is largely minimalist and deploys repetition like a musical motif. Some works span pages, while others are no more than a word reflecting ...
Apr 21, 2025•1 hr 44 min
Show Notes : This week, Cameron ascends into the towering heights of imperial politics in Yaroslav Barsukov’s Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov. The novel follows Shea Ashcroft, an imperial minister whose refusal to gas protesting citizenry has earned him a reassignment to a border region to oversee a fantastical military project. With no one truly on his side and managing strange technologies, Ashcrofts finds himself increasingly out of his depth. Sleeping Worlds Have No Memor...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Show Notes : This week, Cameron dives back into the work of Leo Tolstoy to talk about one of his later works, Hadji Murat . He’s joined by podcast returnee Dr. Tatyana Gershkovich, whose book Art in Doubt analyzes Tolstoy and Vladimir Nakokov’s approaches to skepticism, to talk about the work, Tolstoy’s work What is Art? , and discuss how his approaches to “true” and “untrue” art affect the novel. Gershkovich is the William S. Dietrich II Associate Professor of Russian Studies at Carnegie Mellon...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Pick up a copy of To Hell with Poets from the Tilted Axis Press website. Show Notes : This week, Cameron revisits Baqytgul Sarmekova’s To Hell With Poets with the help of the collection’s translator, Mirgul Kali. Together, they’ll dive back into how Sarmekova explores both Kazakh society and more universal themes through violence, disappointment and hope. Plus, learn a little more about Sarmekova herself as well as some of the peculiarities of translating from Kazakh into English. Mirgul Kali is...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Buy a copy of I Burned at the Feast here . Show Notes : This week, Cameron dives into the collection I Burned at the Feast: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky . You have almost certainly heard of virtuosic filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, but his father might be less familiar to you. Yet, you may still have heard his work — Tarkovsky the younger includes recordings of Arseny reading his own poetry in Mirror and Stalker. To get into the nitty-gritty of Arseny Tarkovsky’s ranging poetry about life, dea...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 36 min
Show Notes : This week, Cameron will dive into the novel Cecil the Lion Had to Die by Ukrainian historian, journalist, and novelist Olena Stiazhkina — a novel diving into the intricacies of family life and identity formation through the late Soviet Union, the chaotic years following, and into the early years of the war. He’s joined by Dominique Hoffman, who translated the novel, and has a great wealth of knowledge to share about the book, its characters, Olena herself and the context of its writ...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 38 min
Cameron pops in at the end of the month to talk about episodes you can expect in the coming months. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Jan 31, 2025•4 min
Pick up a copy of The Talnikov Family from Columbia University Press ! Show Notes : This week, Cameron gets into Avdotya Panaeva’s The Talnikov Family with its translator Fiona Bell. The novel, set in 1820s St. Petersburg, follows Natasha Talnikova’s life in an abusive household, setting readers into some of the lesser-read side of Imperial Russian life. Bell is a writer and scholar from St. Petersburg, Florida. She has published English-language translations of the Russian filmmaker Nataliya Me...
Jan 03, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Show Notes: Our Christmas gift to you is a non-clickbait title. Unusual for December, huh? TL;DR: Matt is going to be stepping back from the podcast for the time being. Cameron will be continuing to produce episodes going forward, shifting the focus toward interviewing translators and authors about their work. Will the boys ride again? It's an open question. Listen to the podcast for the full story. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands...
Dec 20, 2024•34 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into the short story “The Performance,” from Sergei Dovlatov’s book The Zone . Get ready to dive into the most underrepresented point-of-view in the Soviet camp system: the guards. Well, kind of. Get ready to get stagnant and talk a bit about the state of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, but mostly about a play in a prison camp where all the old Bolsheviks are played by prisoners. Ideological confusion abounds. Major themes: The real no-termers, dirty ...
Dec 06, 2024•52 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron get into their last Office Hours of the year, tackling the future of literature, whether or not Tolstoy is still relevant, which Russian literature icon would win in a rap battle and — most importantly — the tale of John Moritsugu, a man who tricked PBS into funding filth. God bless public broadcasting. Major themes: Raskolnikov the rap god, The future of art, Tricking PBS 05:41 - That publisher being Spuyten Duyvil, whose fantastic website you should vis...
Nov 22, 2024•55 min
Heads up: This episode will contain conversation about incest throughout. Take that into consideration as you head into it. Also sorry about the kitchen noises in the background of some portions. Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron learn about narrative-causes and narrative-effects in The UnSimple , a novella by Ukrainian writer Taras Prokhasko and translated by Uilliam Blacker. Set in the Carpathians through the first half of the 20th century, the story follows Anna, Franz, Anna, Sebastian...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dig into the short story collection To Hell WIth Poets , authored by Kazakh writer Baqytgul Sarmekova and translated by Mirgul Kali. The collection, published in English by Tilted Axis Press in 2024, explores rural-urban divides (with a focus on the dissatisfaction life doles out on both sides), troubled people, sexual exploitation, and the indulgence of nostalgia. Although the entire collection is worthwhile, they’ll be covering the stories “The Night th...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron host Office Hours, speaking about the wider state of reading as well as some non-Slavic lit they’ve been getting in to. Tune in to find their opinions about Lament for Julia by Susan Taubes and Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, whether or not literary analysis has any meaning at all, and whether we’re too concerned with what straight men are reading. Grab your extra credit and tune in! Major themes: A.I. bait, straight men and novels, TikTok killed the author-sta...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Sergei Eisenstein’s landmark film Strike! (1925) to get a better look into his foundational ideas around montage and film composition amidst a tragic tale of a failed strike. Yes, they will be talking about the cow scene for most of the episode. Not sure what we’re talking about? You’ll have to tune in to find out. Major themes: Cow slaughter, Influencing the audience, Everything is montage 01:30 - Mosfilm’s youtube channel actually does not hav...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Andriy Sodomora’s short story collection The Tears & Smiles of Things with the help of its translators Roman Ivashkiv and Sabrina Jaszi. The collection draws together Sodomora’s reflections on life, ancient texts, and the difficulties of translation. The book holds the subtitle “Stories, Sketches, Meditations.” It’s never easy to tell which is which — if indeed a clear delineation can be made at all — but Jaszi and Ivashkiv do their best to ...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron talk Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song , dropping the nuclear bomb (a timely conversation), and torturing your roommates by cooking cabbage. They’ll also be getting into a topic that everyone has been dying to know more about: Jordan Peterson Academy. Well…maybe not, no one has asked us about it, but Cameron is dying to know how they got his email. Get read to get real anti-intellectual and tune in! Major themes: Lackluster dystopias, Cabbage torture, Jordan Pete...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron are down with the sickness of Schulzomania, covering parts of the short story collection “The Street of Crocodiles” by Polish-Jewish literary superstar Bruno Schulz. They’ll be talking about “Visitation,” “Tailor’s Dummies,” and the eponymous “The Street of Crocodiles,” delving deep into Schulz’s surreal vision of his family and city. Order versus chaos, taking the formation of matter into our own hands, seductive tickling — we’ve got it all here! Get rea...
Sep 13, 2024•1 hr 16 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron chart new territory by covering the novella Devil's Yard by Yugoslav writer, poet, and diplomat (at varying times) Ivo Andrić. Covering a story within a story, they’ll have plenty to say about the construction of narrative, storytelling from the core and periphery of empire, and what’s up with everybody talking about eyes, huh? Grab your prison blanket, find a safe spot to sleep in the yard, and tune in! Major themes: Narrative confusion, Residue of truth...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Note: This episode originally aired in February 2024. Matt and Cameron are taking a much needed break this August and wanted to re-up some mid-series Life and Fate episodes they thought deserved more attention. Pick up a copy of The Czech Manuscripts here . Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron are joined by Professor David L. Cooper to talk about his new book The Czech Manuscripts: Forgery, Translation, and National Myth. In the book, Dr. Cooper takes a new look at the so-called Czech Manusc...
Aug 16, 2024•57 min
Note: This episode originally aired in January 2024. Matt and Cameron are taking a much needed break this August and wanted to re-up some mid-series Life and Fate episodes they thought deserved more attention. Pick up a copy of Ochre & Rust from Green Linden Press’ website. Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron tackle some of the work of Sergey Gandlevsky, translated by Philip J. Metres and collected in Ochre & Rust. Tune in to hear more about one of Russia’s most celebrated modern po...
Aug 09, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Note: This episode originally aired in April 2024. Matt and Cameron are taking a much needed break this August and wanted to re-up some mid-series Life and Fate episodes they thought deserved more attention. You can pick up a copy of Dr. Maya Vinokour’s book Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture here. Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron sit down with Dr. Maya Vinokour to talk about her book Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture and touch on Daniil Kharms’ s...
Aug 02, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Show Notes : They said it couldn’t be done; they said it was too much work; they say it was simply too much Grossman . (The ‘they’ here is Matt and Cameron, to be clear). This week, more than 7 months after starting their Life and Fate series, Matt and Cameron proved them (us) wrong by covering Chapters 49 through 61 of Part 3. It’s time to say goodbye to characters we’ve followed across nearly 900 pages (or around 1700 pages if you also read Stalingrad ), with many of them going out on notes bo...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr 10 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron stay in Stalingrad to the bitter end, covering Chapters 19 to 48 in Part 3 of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate . Stalin’s phone calls, the 6th Army’s surrender, and senseless kindness oh my! It’s all coming together. Get your horsemeat and get ready to tune in. Major themes: Unrewarded kindness, family ties, the State and the individual The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their wor...
Jun 28, 2024•1 hr 8 min
Show Notes : This week, Matt and Cameron dive into the 1924 film Aelita , directed by Yakov Protazanov, to learn more about very early Soviet sci-fi, New Economic Policy anxiety, and Martian socialist revolution. It’s the most fun you didn’t know you could have with a silent film. Get your plans for your rocket ship, write “Anta Odeli Uta” on your window, and tune in! Major themes: Is popular media art?, Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Missing Sugar, 12:51 - Cinema and Soviet Society: Fro...
Jun 14, 2024•1 hr 4 min
