Podcast appearances and mentions of Keith Gessen

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Keith Gessen

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Best podcasts about Keith Gessen

Latest podcast episodes about Keith Gessen

Russian Roulette
Keith Gessen and Bryn Rosenfeld on How We Should Interpret Russian Public Opinion Data About the War in Ukraine

Russian Roulette

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2025 56:55


Maria spoke with journalist Keith Gessen and scholar Bryn Rosenfeld about their work trying to make sense of Russian public opinion towards the war in Ukraine, and what it means for our understanding of Russian society today.

Eminent Americans
All That Glitters Is Not Gould

Eminent Americans

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2024 56:49


Reading List* The Lure of Divorce, by Emily Gould* Goulded Cages, by Phoebe Maltz Bovy* The Sad Young Literary Man Is Now a Middle-Aged Dad, by Elizabeth Weil* Can polyamory save this marriage? by Phoebe Maltz BovyMy guest on today's episode, which is part of my ongoing double secret probationary special series on the state of the discourse late winter/early spring 2024, is New York born, Toronto-based writer Phoebe Maltz Bovy.I reached out to Phoebe after reading her short post on Substack about the recent big, long, splashy essay by Emily Gould about Gould's descent into bipolar-induced mania, her separation from her husband (writer Keith Gessen), their eventual hard-won reconciliation, and the complex ways in which her feminist analyses of the problems in their marriage were much less useful and clarifying than they initially seemed.Phoebe writes:Gould … steeps herself in the men-are-bastards literature of the past years/decades, and concludes, “This was not quite the way I felt.”I cannot emphasize enough, having read many such items for researching-straight-women purposes, what a tremendous break this is from business as usual. Because if you're a 40ish straight or straightish woman, you're meant to feel one thing.Gould tries to funnel her angst-and-then-some into the expected feminist narrative, but is stymied by her realizations that she's done a lot of bad things, and that her husband, too, is a person. She looks at the facts on the ground and isn't able to blame the patriarchy for her own messy blend of mental illness and bad choices.Phoebe and I talk about Gould and Gessen, the unglamorous realities of the writing life, how much cultural capital is worth compared to actual capital, and Phoebe's review of the recent polyamory memoir by Molly Roden Winter.Phoebe Maltz Bovy is the author of The Perils of “Privilege” (2017). She is a senior editor at the Canadian Jewish News, a co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast, author of the Substack newsletter Close-reading the Reruns, columnist for the Globe and Mail, and writer for various other publications of note.Eminent Americans is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Eminent Americans at danieloppenheimer.substack.com/subscribe

The New Yorker: Politics and More
Does Diplomacy Have a Chance of Ending War in Ukraine?

The New Yorker: Politics and More

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2023 33:36


It's been eighteen months since Russia invaded Ukraine. In that time, Russia has annexed four Ukrainian territories; the mercenary Wagner Group staged a coup against Putin, and then its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a mysterious plane explosion; Ukraine mounted a successful counter-offensive, and then a less successful one, which is currently ongoing. All the while, the U.S. has engaged in what seems like a proxy war with Russia, imposing extensive sanctions and providing thirty billion dollars in weapons, training, and intelligence to Ukraine. Some foreign-policy experts are questioning this strategy.  Keith Gessen, a contributing writer at The New Yorker, has been covering the war in Ukraine since its beginning. This week, he published a piece titled “The Case for Negotiating with Russia,” about the analysts who are pushing for diplomacy over warfare. He joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the state of the conflict, and why it's the U.S. that could ultimately decide how it ends.

The Russians
Immigrant Parenting w/Keith Gessen

The Russians

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2023 114:49


Evgenia and I have Keith Gessen on to talk about Raising Raffi, his new book about being a dad and raising his son as a “Russian” in America. We discuss fatherhood, identity, Soviet immigrant literature, the war in Ukraine, Russiagate. We also make tentative plans to start an OnlyFans. In short, a wide ranging conversation.—Yasha Want to know more? Check out previous episodes of The Russians. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yasha.substack.com/subscribe

Reach Out and Read
Adventures in Fatherhood: Raising Raffi

Reach Out and Read

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2022 34:24


Parenting is often tough. While our society has better normalized talking about the highs, lows, and the in-betweens of raising children, there's still a lot that's hard to say publicly. Keith Gessen, author of the new book Raising Raffi, takes on these challenges, asks the many unvoiced questions, and does so as someone not heard as frequently in the parenting book space: the perspective of a father.

The Mother Wit Podcast
A NYC home birth story (told by the parent and her midwife)

The Mother Wit Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2022 48:02 Transcription Available


I think the title says it all but you will have to listen to get all the details. The biggest take away is the connection that you can literally hear and feel between these two women. Forming these real connections is one of the gifts that midwives give to our clients but it takes two and the people who choose home birth are open to and actively giving back to their midwives too. Im not trying to change anyones mind about where the right place to give birth is. The right place is exactly where you want it to be, where you feel safest. But I do hope that this episode will help to answer questions that listeners may have about home birth and dispel some myths and at a minimum, help people understand why some choose home birth and help newly pregnant people better understand all of their options.GuestsDori Scallet is a home birth mama x2, partner to Joe, a therapist and social worker (a former performer like so many of my midwife and therapist friends). She works with individuals and couples and works with people who have experienced trauma.Martine is a midwife in NYC. She attended Home births for 17 years! She is adjunct faculty at NYU and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for the advancement of Haitian Midwives (FAHM).ResourcesThe business of being born (Documentary by Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein)Maternidad la Luz (A famous- in the midwife world- birthing center in El Paso, Texas)Preparing for Home (New Yorker) A homebirth story by Keith Gessen, a home birth father (About Martine!)Support the show

Penguin Audio
Audiolibro: "La vida secreta de las abejas", de Sue Monk Kidd

Penguin Audio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2022 4:13


Esta es una muestra de "Abejas grises". La versión completa tiene una duración total de 11 h 3 min. Encuentra este audiolibro completo en https://bit.ly/abejasgrises_AudiolibroNarrado por: Eugenio BaronaEn Malaia Starogradovka, un pueblo de apenas tres calles en la zona gris de Ucrania, la tierra de nadie disputada en 2014 entre las fuerzas ucranianas y los separatistas prorrusos, solo quedan dos residentes: Serguéi Sergueich, inspector de seguridad retirado convertido en apicultor, y Pashka Jmelenko, amigo y rival suyo desde sus días de escuela. Sin electricidad, con poca comida y con la constante amenaza de los bombardeos, el único placer que le queda a Sergueich son sus abejas, adormiladas por el invierno. Con la llegada de la primavera, tendrá que alejarlas de la zona gris para que puedan recolectar su polen en paz, una misión que lo llevará a conocer a combatientes y civiles de ambos lados de la línea de batalla. Su bondad y su impecable brújula moral irán desarmando a todos los que se crucen en su camino, convirtiendo la salvación de sus abejas en una metáfora sobre la vida en tiempos de guerra. La crítica ha dicho...«Aunque se basa en la cruda realidad de la guerra, Abejas grises se lee por momentos como una fábula. [...] Se enfrenta a un conflicto de gran complejidad moral con delicadeza y cierta ambivalencia. Al leerlo, uno se siente transportado a un tiempo de una inocencia mayor».Keith Gessen, The New Yorker «Un libro cálido y sorprendentemente divertido del mejor novelista vivo de Ucrania».Charlie Connelly, New European «Un Bulgákov contemporáneo. [...] Un Murakami ucraniano».The Guardian «La mirada ingenua de Serguéi permite que Kurkov llegue al corazón de un país desconcertado por la crisis y la guerra, en el que todavía quedan trazos de bondad».Uilleam Blacker, The Times Literary Supplement «Recuerda a Beckett y Pinter, con destellos de Kafka».Strong Words («20 mejores libros del año») «Kurkov en estado puro, con su talento de narrador que sabe emocionar, sorprender y situarse a la altura del ser humano».La Croix «Una especie de Kurt Vonnegut ucraniano».Ian Sansom, Spectator «Un Kafka postsoviético».Daily Telegraph «Extraña y cautivadora. [...] Con una prosa sobria, el novelista más famoso de Ucrania examina sin piedad las confusiones inhumanas de nuestros tiempos y el anhelo del hombre común y afectuoso por hallar la racionalidad del mundo natural».John Thornhill, Financial Times Sobre El jardinero de Ochákov:«Divertida, nostálgica, soviética, postsoviética y honda. [...] Lo que alberga sobre todo es la potencia de una voz. Y diversión».Berna González Harbour, Babelia Sobre Muerte con pingüino:«Todo un clásico del humor negro y la novela criminal».J. C. Galindo, El País© 2022, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S. A. U.#penguinaudio #audiolibro #audiolibros #Kurkov #AndreiKurkov Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thresholds
Keith Gessen

Thresholds

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2022 49:13


Jordan talks with Keith Gessen about his new memoir of fatherhood, Raising Raffi: The First Five Years, and the challenges -- and wonders -- of being a parent and a writer, and what he thinks Raffi will think of the book when he's older. MENTIONED:  Raising America by Ann Hulbert "Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City" by Nikole Hannah-Jones Emily Oster, economics professor and parenting advisor The Kazdin Method Keith Gessen is a founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books. He is the editor of three nonfiction books and the translator or co-translator, from Russian, of a collection of short stories, a book of poems, and a work of oral history. He is also the author of two novels, “All the Sad Young Literary Men” and "A Terrible Country," as well as a book of essays, "Raising Raffi."  Gessen was born in Moscow and grew up outside of Boston. He graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in History and Literature in 1998, and subsequently received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Syracuse University. In 2014-2015 he was a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tell Me About Your Father
Keith Gessen's Battle Hymn of the Bear Dad

Tell Me About Your Father

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2022 57:46


On this week's episode of Tell Me About Your Father, we speak with author Keith Gessen about his new memoir “Raising Raffi,” a collection of essays on the first five years of fatherhood to his first-born son, Raffi, now 7. Gessen, the author of the novels “All The Sad Young Literary Men,” and “A Terrible Country,” is a founding editor of n+1 magazine and regular contributor to The New Yorker, and the husband of the writer Emily Gould. Listen as he tells us about being raised by a Russian father who isn't a hugger, learning to reckon with being a dad who sometimes yells, and defining what it means to be a second-generation “Bear Dad.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tell-me-about-your-father/support

New Dad
New Dad Season 2 Episode 6: The Keith Gessen Interview

New Dad

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2022 79:45


In today's episode of New Dad we speak with Keith Gessen about his newest book Raising Raffi. Keith was raised in Russia, has written for the New Yorker and Atlantic, teaches at Columbia University's prestigious graduate school of journalism, and most importantly is the father of two wonderful boys. In today's interview we talk a lot about his book Raising Raffi and why I felt it resonated with me and explore what it means to be today's New Dad. Keith is exceptionally intelligent and well spoken in one of New Dad's best episodes yet.

New Books Network
Keith Gessen, "Raising Raffi: The First Five Years" (Viking, 2022)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2022 55:41


"I was not prepared to be a father--this much I knew." Keith Gessen was nearing forty and hadn't given much thought to the idea of being a father. He assumed he would have kids, but couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a parent, or what kind of parent he would be. Then, one Tuesday night in early June, the distant idea of fatherhood came careening into view: Raffi was born, a child as real and complex and demanding of his parents' energy as he was singularly magical. Fatherhood is another country: a place where the old concerns are swept away, where the ordering of time is reconstituted, where days unfold according to a child's needs. Whatever rulebooks once existed for this sort of thing seem irrelevant or outdated. Overnight, Gessen's perception of his neighborhood changes: suddenly there are flocks of other parents and babies, playgrounds, and schools that span entire blocks. Raffi is enchanting, as well as terrifying, and like all parents, Gessen wants to do what is best for his child. But he has no idea what that is. Written over the first five years of Raffi's life, Raising Raffi (Viking, 2022) examines the profound, overwhelming, often maddening experience of being a dad. Gessen traces how the practical decisions one must make each day intersect with some of the weightiest concerns of our age: What does it mean to choose a school in a segregated city? How do you instill in your child a sense of his heritage without passing on that history's darker sides? Is parental anger normal, possibly useful, or is it inevitably authoritarian and destructive? How do you get your kid to play sports? And what do you do, in a pandemic, when the whole world seems to fall apart? By turns hilarious and poignant, Raising Raffi is a story of what it means to invent the world anew. Marshall Poe is the founder and editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Literature
Keith Gessen, "Raising Raffi: The First Five Years" (Viking, 2022)

New Books in Literature

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2022 55:41


"I was not prepared to be a father--this much I knew." Keith Gessen was nearing forty and hadn't given much thought to the idea of being a father. He assumed he would have kids, but couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a parent, or what kind of parent he would be. Then, one Tuesday night in early June, the distant idea of fatherhood came careening into view: Raffi was born, a child as real and complex and demanding of his parents' energy as he was singularly magical. Fatherhood is another country: a place where the old concerns are swept away, where the ordering of time is reconstituted, where days unfold according to a child's needs. Whatever rulebooks once existed for this sort of thing seem irrelevant or outdated. Overnight, Gessen's perception of his neighborhood changes: suddenly there are flocks of other parents and babies, playgrounds, and schools that span entire blocks. Raffi is enchanting, as well as terrifying, and like all parents, Gessen wants to do what is best for his child. But he has no idea what that is. Written over the first five years of Raffi's life, Raising Raffi (Viking, 2022) examines the profound, overwhelming, often maddening experience of being a dad. Gessen traces how the practical decisions one must make each day intersect with some of the weightiest concerns of our age: What does it mean to choose a school in a segregated city? How do you instill in your child a sense of his heritage without passing on that history's darker sides? Is parental anger normal, possibly useful, or is it inevitably authoritarian and destructive? How do you get your kid to play sports? And what do you do, in a pandemic, when the whole world seems to fall apart? By turns hilarious and poignant, Raising Raffi is a story of what it means to invent the world anew. Marshall Poe is the founder and editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

The Kicker
Elena Kostyuchenko: 'The Russian secret services somehow knew'

The Kicker

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2022 44:50


Elena Kostyuchenko reported atrocities as they unfolded inside Ukraine until Russian censors forced Novaya Gazeta—her employer and Russia's oldest independent newspaper—to halt publication. How did Kostyuchenko gain access to the country her homeland was invading? What did she see there? And how does she view Russia's future? On this week's Kicker, guest host Keith Gessen, who is a professor at the J-School and a founding editor of n+1 and contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books, welcomes Kostyuchenko to the latest in his Delacorte Lecture series.

Reading Envy
Reading Envy 244: 2nd Quarter - Russian Non-Fiction

Reading Envy

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2022


Lauren W. will be co-hosting this non-fiction quarter of Reading Envy Russia. We share books we have already read and freely recommend, and also chat about the piles and shelves of books we are considering. Let us know your recommendations and where you hope to start in the comments, or join the conversation in Goodreads.Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 244: 2nd Quarter - Russian Non-Fiction Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify Or listen through Google Podcasts Books we can recommend: Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi by TeffiSecondhand Timeby Svetlana AlexievichThe Unwomanly Face of Warby Svetlana AlexievichLast Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Pevear & VolokhonskyZinky Boysby Svetlana AlexievichVoices of Chernobyl (also titled Chernobyl Prayer) by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Keith GessenOther Russias by Victoria Lomasko, translated by Thomas CampbellThe Future is History by Masha Gessen Never Rememberby Masha Gessen, photography by Misha FriedmanWhere the Jews Aren't by Masha Gessen Pushkin's Children by Tatyana Tolstaya The Slynx by Tatyana TolstayaImperium by Ryszard Kapucinski, translated by Klara GlowczewskaA Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy by Deborah McDonald and Jeremy DronfieldPutin Country by Anne GarrelsLetters: Summer 1926 by Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Rainer Maria Rilke Sovietistan by Erika Fatland The Commissar Vanishes by David King Gulag by Anne Applebaum The Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum The Magical Chorus by Solomon Volkov, translated by Antonina Bouis  Shostaskovich and Stalin by Solomon Volkov The Tiger by John Vaillant Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan Slaght How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut Please to the Table by Anya von Bremzen Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen Books we are considering: All Lara's Wars by Wojchiech Jagielski, translated by Antonia Lloyd-JonesGulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Eric Ericson (there is a unabridged 1800+ pg, and an author approved abridged version, 400-some pages) Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg, translated by Paul Stevenson, Max Hayward Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov, translated by John GladRiot Days by Maria AlyokhinaSpeak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov The Life Written by Himself by Avvakum Petrov My Childhood by Maxim Gorky Teffi: A Life of Letters and Laughter by Edythe Haber Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, tr. Max Hayward The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin Putin's Russia: life in a failing democracy by Anna Politkovskaya ; translated by Arch Tait. A Russian diary: a journalist's final account of life, corruption, and death in Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya Notes on Russian Literature by F.M. DostoevskyThe Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece by Kevin Birmingham The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin BirminghamLess than One: Selected Essays by Joseph Brodsky Tolstoy Together by Yiyun Li The Border by Erika Fatland Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson Red Plenty by Francis Spufford Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder The Last Empire: Final Days of the Soviet Union by Serhii PlokhyThe Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii PlokhyChernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii PlokhyNuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii PlokhyMan with the Poison Gun: a Cold War Spy Story by Serhii PlokhyBabi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov, tr. David Floyd Manual for Survival: An Environmental History of the Chernobyl Disaster by Kate Brown Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate BrownA Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland by Kate BrownOctober: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Mieville Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev Across the Ussuri Kray by Vladimir Arsenyev, translated by Slaght An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army by Vasily GrossmanThe Road by Vasily GrossmanStalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and Depraved of Chernobyl by Markiyan Kamysh Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia by David Greene Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond by Olia HerculesRed Sands by Caroline EdenBlack Sea by Caroline Eden Tasting Georgia by Carla Capalbo  Other mentions:PEN list of writers against PutinNew Yorker article about Gessen siblings Thanksgivukkah 2013  League of Kitchens - Uzbek lessonLeague of Kitchens - Russian lessonMasha Gessen on Ezra Klein podcast, March 2022Related episodes:Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella) Episode 084 - A Worthy Tangent with Bryan Alexander Episode 138 - Shared Landscape with Lauren Weinhold Episode 237 - Reading Goals 2022Episode 243 - Russian Novel Speed Date Stalk us online:Reading Envy Readers on Goodreads (home of Reading Envy Russia)Lauren at GoodreadsLauren is @end.notes on InstagramJenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. You can see the full collection for Reading Envy Russia 2022 on Bookshop.org.

spotify history children art man future books war russia ukraine reading heart russian speak writer lies table league memories rain voices memory loves mastering vladimir putin wars fiction tiger letters midnight stitcher google podcasts new yorker google play literature laughter moscow border manual soviet union quarter siege sinner chernobyl biography masterpiece joseph stalin symphony stalking novels tame tunein nonfiction goodreads owls bookshop lenin leo tolstoy whirlwind kitchens imperium black sea james joyce rasputin iron curtain cuban missile crisis gulag stalk russian revolution rainer maria rilke dostoevsky leningrad ezra klein red army david king depraved vladimir nabokov anne applebaum timothy snyder pushkin decadent feedburner kate brown david greene aleksandr solzhenitsyn uzbek masha gessen gulag archipelago russian literature hope against hope boris pasternak thomas campbell david remnick readability reading goals peter pomerantsev new russia soviet empire serhii plokhy china mieville francis spufford yiyun li chernobyl disaster svetlana alexievich john vaillant gessen joseph brodsky olia hercules bryan alexander nothing is true vasily grossman my childhood marina tsvetaeva keith gessen nuclear catastrophe red sands erika fatland maxim gorky paul stevenson anna politkovskaya antonia lloyd jones eric ericson bloodlands europe between hitler kevin birmingham david floyd litsy red plenty thanksgivukkah caroline eden maria alyokhina great soviet anne garrels american plutonium disasters nuclear folly a history riot days october the story lyudmila trut soviet heartland reading envy no place from ethnic borderland reading envy podcast
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
U.N.: Over 10 million Ukrainians displaced

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2022 42:14 Very Popular


Tonight on the Last Word: Russia blames Ukraine for the oil depot blast in Belgorod. Also, the U.S. recovers 93% of jobs lost since the pandemic began. Plus, Michele B. Goodwin and Glenn Kirschner discuss the impact of the Justice Thomas text scandal on SCOTUS politicization. And a federal judge blocks a restrictive Florida voting law. Ali Arouzi, Keith Gessen, Amb. Michael Mcfaul, Heather Long and Rep. Colin Allred also join Jonathan Capehart.

Reading Envy
Reading Envy 243: Russian Novel Speed Date

Reading Envy

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2022


It's been a while since I've done a speed dating bonus episode, and this one is all about Russian novels for the Reading Envy Russia novel quarter. I discuss books I tried, what I think of them, and books I read previously. We might be moving on to non-fiction officially, but that doesn't mean we have to leave Russian literature behind forever. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 243: Russian Novel Speed Date Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify Or listen through Google Podcasts Books discussed:An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov, translated by Bryan KaretnykThe Sentence by Louise ErdrichFirst Love by Ivan Turgenev, translated by Richard FreebornEugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, translated by Leo TolstoyOblomov by Ivan Goncherov, translated by Stephen PearlLolita by Vladimir NabokovZuleikha by Guzel Yakhina, translated by Lisa C. HaydenThe Time of Women by Elena Chizhova, translated by Simon Patterson and Nina ChordasUntraceable by Sergei Lebedev, translated by Antonina W. BouisOblivion by Sergei Lebedev, translated by Antonina W. BouisBrisbane by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated by Marian SchwartzLaurus by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated by Lisa C. HaydenAnna K.: A Love Story by Jenny LeeAnna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance GarrettThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by David McDuffThe Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa VolokhonskyA Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony MarraThe Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony MarraCity of Thieves by David BenioffA Gentleman in Moscow by Amor TowlesThe Bookworm by Mitch SilverA Terrible Country by Keith GessenFardwor, Russia! by Oleg Kashin, translated by Will EvansRelated episodes:  Episode 228 - Full of Secrets with Audrey Episode 135 - Speed Dating 2018, Round 5Episode 113 - Speed Dating 2018, round 1Episode 117 - Speed Dating 2018, round 2Episode 120 - Summer Reading; Speed Dating 2018, round 3   Episode 128 - Poetry and Whale Guts (Bonus episode; Speed Dating 2018, round 4)Episode 063 - Desolation Road (book speed dating and books on grief)Episode 059 - Are you Inspired Yet? bonus book speed datingEpisode 047 - Sex with Elvis: Bonus Book Speed Dating EpisodeEpisode 035 - Speed Dating Books   Stalk us online:Jenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Book Spider
S3 Ep13: On Keith Gessen's A Terrible Country

Book Spider

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2021 63:18


In this episodes, Hans, Chris, and I discuss Keith Gessen's A Terrible Country, which is a novel that explores corruption in modern day Russia. Check it out.

Kanal Schnellroda
»Gessen, Hoewer und Ulitzkaja« Kositza, Dagen und Kaiser im Literarischen Trio

Kanal Schnellroda

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2021 55:50


Bei Antaios bestellen: Keith Gessen, John Hoewer Ljudmila Ulitzkaka Zum ganzen Video Das Literaturtrio »Aufgeblättert. Zugeschlagen – mit Rechten lesen« ging – nach langer Pause – auf dem Tag der offenen Tür in Schnellroda (24. Juli 2021) endlich wieder über die Bühne. Ellen Kositza und Susanne Dagen hatten Benedikt Kaiser zu Gast. @kanalschnellroda

Quergelesen | Inforadio
Literarisch reisen nach Simbabwe, Russland und Island

Quergelesen | Inforadio

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2021 23:36


Die Isländerin Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir erzählt von Emanzipation in einer männerdominierten Inselgesellschaft. Keith Gessen geht in "Ein schreckliches Land" nach Russland, ins Land seiner Vorfahren. Und: Tsitsi Dangarembga aus Simbabwe erhält den Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels. Von Nadine Kreuzahler

Büchermarkt - Deutschlandfunk
Keith Gessen: "Ein schreckliches Land" - Ein Amerikaner entdeckt seine Wurzeln in Moskau

Büchermarkt - Deutschlandfunk

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2021 19:48


Der junge New Yorker Andrew Kaplan verbringt ein Jahr bei seiner Großmutter in Moskau. In einem fremden Land kommt er nach Hause. Er staunt. Und er lernt. Keith Gessens Roman "Ein schreckliches Land" zeigt manchmal klischeehaft ein dennoch facettenreiches Russland. Von Uli Hufen www.deutschlandfunk.de, Büchermarkt Hören bis: 19.01.2038 04:14 Direkter Link zur Audiodatei

Cover Story
N+1: "Like Partisan Review, but Not Dead"

Cover Story

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 63:36


In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like Partisan Review, but not dead” (Keith Gessen, co-founder). Mark was born in Moscow and left Russia for Atlanta at the age of six. He graduated from Columbia in 2008. Before joining n + 1, he was an assistant editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an editor at Overlook Press and a senior editor at Melville House. Agata Popeda is a Polish-American journalist. Interested in everything, with a particular weakness for literature and foreign relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Brian Lehrer Show
The Fight over East River Park

The Brian Lehrer Show

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 28:00


Everybody agrees it's only a matter of time before lower Manhattan floods from rising sea levels or another superstorm, but when it comes to figuring out how to protect the area, there is much less consensus. Keith Gessen, professor at Columbia School of Journalism, founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to New York Magazine, talks about the fight over the future of East River Park, and why it's a predictor for climate adaptation battles to come. 

New Books in Journalism
N+1: "Like Partisan Review, but Not Dead"

New Books in Journalism

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 63:36


In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like The Partisan Review, but not dead” (Keith Gessen, co-founder). Mark was born in Moscow and left Russia for Atlanta at the age of six. He graduated from Columbia in 2008. Before joining n + 1, he was an assistant editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an editor at Overlook Press and a senior editor at Melville House. Agata Popeda is a Polish-American journalist. Interested in everything, with a particular weakness for literature and foreign relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/journalism

New Books in Literature
N+1: "Like Paris Review, but Not Dead"

New Books in Literature

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 63:36


In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like The Paris Review, but not dead” (Keith Gessen, co-founder). Mark was born in Moscow and left Russia for Atlanta at the age of six. He graduated from Columbia in 2008. Before joining n + 1, he used to work as an assistant editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Agata Popeda is a Polish-American journalist. Interested in everything, with a particular weakness for literature and foreign relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

New Books in American Studies
N+1: "Like Paris Review, but Not Dead"

New Books in American Studies

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 63:36


In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like The Paris Review, but not dead” (Keith Gessen, co-founder). Mark was born in Moscow and left Russia for Atlanta at the age of six. He graduated from Columbia in 2008. Before joining n + 1, he used to work as an assistant editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Agata Popeda is a Polish-American journalist. Interested in everything, with a particular weakness for literature and foreign relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

New Books Network
N+1: "Like Paris Review, but Not Dead"

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 63:36


In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like The Paris Review, but not dead” (Keith Gessen, co-founder). Mark was born in Moscow and left Russia for Atlanta at the age of six. He graduated from Columbia in 2008. Before joining n + 1, he used to work as an assistant editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Agata Popeda is a Polish-American journalist. Interested in everything, with a particular weakness for literature and foreign relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

New Books in Literary Studies
N+1: "Like Paris Review, but Not Dead"

New Books in Literary Studies

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2021 63:36


In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like The Paris Review, but not dead” (Keith Gessen, co-founder). Mark was born in Moscow and left Russia for Atlanta at the age of six. He graduated from Columbia in 2008. Before joining n + 1, he used to work as an assistant editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Agata Popeda is a Polish-American journalist. Interested in everything, with a particular weakness for literature and foreign relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

92Y's Read By
Read By: Valzhyna Mort

92Y's Read By

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2021 19:23


Valzhyna Mort on her selection: On April 26th, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl. I am reading from Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Keith Gessen. Voices from Chernobyl is the first book to present personal accounts of what happened to the people of Belarus, and the fear, anger and uncertainty that they still live with. Voices from Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexievich, trans. Keith Gessen  Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0

MPR News with Kerri Miller
Can the U.S. get its relationship with Russia right?

MPR News with Kerri Miller

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2021 44:25


President Joe Biden is sharply reversing course on Russia. Last week, in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, the president declared that Trump-era “America First” diplomacy is over, and he renewed calls to restore relationships with key allies.  “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident,” Biden said. “We have to defend it.” But one of the trickiest relationships for the new administration to navigate might be with a non-ally: Russia. U.S. leaders have historically struggled to understand Russia’s complexities. And after four years in which the president fought with his own intelligence service over the best way to handle Russian President Vladimir Putin, a fresh start is needed. Where should America go from here? Tuesday, MPR News host Kerri Miller asked two experts how the U.S. might try to get Russia right. Guests: Molly McKew is a foreign policy and strategy consultant. Keith Gessen is a Russian-born American novelist and an assistant professor of journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS

We've Got Next
Back to School

We've Got Next

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2020 31:37


As schools across the country head back to school (virtually or physically), Julian briefly explains the drama around going back to school. Then, Julian talks to New Yorker columnist Keith Gessen about this complex issue in New York City and his experience teaching his pre-school aged son during remote learning. Go rate, like, and subscribe!

The Politics of Everything
The Chaos of Reopening Schools

The Politics of Everything

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2020 33:25


Teachers feel frustrated and afraid. Parents are overburdened. Guidance from officials has been scant. For the schools preparing to welcome students back next month, nothing about the planning process has been easy. On Episode 14 of The Politics of Everything, the writer Keith Gessen joins hosts Alex Pareene and Laura Marsh to talk about why the city’s fight to safely return kids to public schools has been so difficult.  Later in the episode, J.C. Pan, a staff writer at The New Republic, explains what makes the current downturn a “shesession,” and how efforts to alleviate its effects on women must take more than gender into consideration.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Red Scare
A Very Amber Christmas w/ Amber A'Lee Frost

Red Scare

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2019 96:16


Amber A'Lee Frost returns to chat with the ladies about Allegra Hobbs' musings on the writer as influencer, Keith Gessen's insights on disciplining your kids, and her own theory that skincare is a science not a luxury.  Read Hobbs' piece here. Read Amber's article here. Read Gessen's essay here.

LIC Reading Series
PANEL DISCUSSION: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Keith Gessen

LIC Reading Series

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2019 51:21


December 11, 2018 at the LIC Reading Series at LIC Bar in Queens, NY Panel discussion from our event on December 11, 2018, featuring Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (FRIDAY BLACK), Hannah Lillith Assadi (SONORA), and Keith Gessen (A TERRIBLE COUNTRY). Find more details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/213310262886900/ About our readers: NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH has an MFA from Syracuse University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including Esquire, Guernica, Printer’s Row, and the Breakwater Review, where ZZ Packer awarded him the Breakwater Review Fiction Prize. He was selected by Colson Whitehead for the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.” He lives in Syracuse. FRIDAY BLACK is his first book.   HANNAH LILLITH ASSADI was raised in Arizona and now lives in Brooklyn. She received her MFA in fiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts. Her first novel SONORA (Soho 2017) received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. In 2018, she was named a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her second novel THE STARS ARE NOT YET BELLS is forthcoming from Riverhead.   KEITH GESSEN was born in Moscow and grew up outside of Boston. He is a founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to the London Review of Books and the New Yorker. He has translated Svetlana Alexievich and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya from Russian and is the author of the novels All the Sad Young Literary Men and A Terrible Country. - - - This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Thank you to our local sponsors: LIC Bar, Astoria Bookshop, Sweetleaf Coffee, Gantry Bar LIC, and LIC Corner Cafe. Learn more at licreadingseries.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LIC Reading Series
READINGS: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Keith Gessen

LIC Reading Series

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 36:54


December 11, 2018 at the LIC Reading Series at LIC Bar in Queens, NY Readings from our event on December 11, 2018, featuring Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (FRIDAY BLACK), Hannah Lillith Assadi (SONORA), and Keith Gessen (A TERRIBLE COUNTRY). Find more details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/213310262886900/ About our readers: NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH has an MFA from Syracuse University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including Esquire, Guernica, Printer’s Row, and the Breakwater Review, where ZZ Packer awarded him the Breakwater Review Fiction Prize. He was selected by Colson Whitehead for the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.” He lives in Syracuse. FRIDAY BLACK is his first book.   HANNAH LILLITH ASSADI was raised in Arizona and now lives in Brooklyn. She received her MFA in fiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts. Her first novel SONORA (Soho 2017) received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. In 2018, she was named a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her second novel THE STARS ARE NOT YET BELLS is forthcoming from Riverhead.   KEITH GESSEN was born in Moscow and grew up outside of Boston. He is a founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to the London Review of Books and the New Yorker. He has translated Svetlana Alexievich and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya from Russian and is the author of the novels All the Sad Young Literary Men and A Terrible Country. - - - This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Thank you to our local sponsors: LIC Bar, Astoria Bookshop, Sweetleaf Coffee, Gantry Bar LIC, and LIC Corner Cafe. Learn more at licreadingseries.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shipping & Handling
Episode 62: Cool For The Summer

Shipping & Handling

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2019 60:45


In this episode Bridget & Jen discuss what the F happens in publishing during the summer (spoiler alert: the same thing that happens every other time of the year, except it’s warmer), answer reader questions, and talk about HBO’s Chernobyl! Fun times!  Thanks to Annaka, who donated this week!  Discussed in this episode:  Ellen Goodlett - Rise Megan Bannen - The Bird & The Blade Alan Higginbotham - Midnight In Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster Svetlana Alexeivich - Voices From Chernobyl, translated by Keith Gessen

London Review Bookshop Podcasts
A Terrible Country: Keith Gessen and Vadim Nikitin

London Review Bookshop Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2019 58:36


Novelist, journalist and translator Keith Gessen will be at the shop to read from and talk about his latest novel A Terrible Country, published by Fitzcarraldo, which investigates Russia’s past and present through the eyes of a Russian-American who moves from New York to Moscow to care for his elderly grandmother. Man Booker Prize winner George Saunders describes A Terrible Country as ‘A cause for celebration: big-hearted, witty, warm, compulsively readable, earnest, funny, full of that kind of joyful sadness I associate with Russia’. Gessen was in conversation with Vadim Nikitin, Murmansk-born investigator of financial crime in what was once the USSR. Both Gessen and Nikitin are regular contributors to the LRB. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

But That's Another Story
Keith Gessen

But That's Another Story

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2019 22:06


Writer Keith Gessen on Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift, Russian literature, and figuring out which stories to tell. To learn more about the books we discussed in this episode, check out All the Sad Young Literary Menand A Terrible Countryby Keith Gessen, War and Peaceby Leo Tolstoy, Infinite Jestby David Foster Wallace, and Humboldt's Giftby Saul Bellow. You can find transcripts of this episode and past ones on LitHub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New Yorker: Politics and More
Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen Debate Russian and American Politics

The New Yorker: Politics and More

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2019 18:51


Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen have, taken together, written more than a dozen books and a thousand articles. Keith Gessen is a founder of n+1, an influential literary journal; Masha has written for major newspapers and journals as well as, since 2014, The New Yorker. Their parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in its latter days. Keith has spent most of his life in America, but Masha, who is older, returned to Russia as an adult and worked there as a reporter. In a conversation at the 2018 New Yorker Festival, the siblings discussed their different perspectives on the U.S.-Russia relationship. All through the Mueller investigation, Masha warned people not to expect a smoking gun to prove collusion between Putin and Trump, and then, somehow, this fierce critic of Putin was branded an apologist for his regime. Masha’s most recent book is “The Future Is History”; Keith’s is a novel, called “A Terrible Country.”

The New Yorker Radio Hour
Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen Debate Russian and American Politics

The New Yorker Radio Hour

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2019 19:23


Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen have, taken together, written more than a dozen books and a thousand articles. Keith Gessen is a founder of n+1, an influential literary journal; Masha has written for major newspapers and journals as well as, since 2014, The New Yorker. Their parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in its latter days. Keith has spent most of his life in America, but Masha, who is older, returned to Russia as an adult and worked there as a reporter. In a conversation at the 2018 New Yorker Festival, the siblings discussed their different perspectives on the U.S.-Russia relationship. All through the Mueller investigation, Masha warned people not to expect a smoking gun to prove collusion between Putin and Trump, and then, somehow, this fierce critic of Putin was branded an apologist for his regime. Masha’s most recent book is “The Future Is History”; Keith’s is a novel, called “A Terrible Country.”

Monocle 24: The Monocle Weekly
YolanDa Brown, Keith Gessen and Todd McLellan

Monocle 24: The Monocle Weekly

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2019 60:00


Saxophonist YolanDa Brown discusses her career and a new award to help young musicians. We also hear from author and journalist Keith Gessen about living in and writing about Russia and speak with photographer Todd McLellan about his book, ‘Things Come Apart 2.0’.

Free Library Podcast
Sigrid Nunez | The Friend: A Novel with Keith Gessen | A Terrible Country: A Novel

Free Library Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2019 57:37


Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend, ''a penetrating, moving meditation on loss, comfort, memory'' (NPR) in which a woman is forced to adopt her deceased best friend's Great Dane. The recipient of a Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize in Literature, and a Whiting Award, Nunez is also the author of Salvation City, The Last of Her Kind, A Feather on the Breath of God, and Sempre Susan, a memoir about her friend and mentor Susan Sontag. A founding editor of the popular online magazine n+1, Russian-born polymath Keith Gessen is the author of the novel All the Sad Young Literary Men and the editor of three nonfiction books. A journalism professor at Columbia University, he has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, and The Atlantic. Gessen's new novel tells the story of a New York émigré's return to Putin's Moscow to take care of his sick grandmother. ''[T]his earnest and wistful but serious book gets good, and then it gets very good... [and] is a gift for those who wish to receive it'' (The New York Times). (recorded 2/26/2019)

Dan & Eric Read The New Yorker So You Don't Have To

Eric talks to New Yorker contributor Keith Gessen about his long history of writing for the magazine; the founding of N+1; what Keith learned about fiction writing from fellow New Yorker contributors George Saunders and Rebecca Curtis; and much much more!

New Books in Literature
Keith Gessen, “A Terrible Country” (Viking, 2018)

New Books in Literature

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2018 47:41


The only job Andrei Kaplan has been able to find since completing his doctorate, is teaching an online, poorly-paid course. So, he agrees to fly to Moscow when his brother promises him a round-trip ticket, hockey games, and his old bedroom with free WiFi in exchange for taking care of their aging grandmother. Andrei imagines the scholarly article he’ll write based on his grandmother’s stories of Soviet intrigue. He imagines himself protesting the Putin regime in the morning, playing hockey in the afternoon, and keeping his grandmother company in the evening. But his Russian is rusty, finding a place to play hockey is difficult, and the grandmother has dementia. As Keith Gessen explains in his wonderful novel A Terrible Country (Viking, 2018), Russia turns out to be something different than he expected. Keith Gessen is the founding editor of the literary journal n+1 and author of All the Sad Young Literary Men. He is also the editor of three nonfiction books and the translator, from Russian, of a collection of short stories, a book of poems, and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s oral history, Voices from Chernobyl. A contributor to The New Yorker and The London Review of Books, Gessen teaches journalism at Columbia and lives in New York with his wife and sons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books Network
Keith Gessen, “A Terrible Country” (Viking, 2018)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2018 47:41


The only job Andrei Kaplan has been able to find since completing his doctorate, is teaching an online, poorly-paid course. So, he agrees to fly to Moscow when his brother promises him a round-trip ticket, hockey games, and his old bedroom with free WiFi in exchange for taking care of their aging grandmother. Andrei imagines the scholarly article he’ll write based on his grandmother’s stories of Soviet intrigue. He imagines himself protesting the Putin regime in the morning, playing hockey in the afternoon, and keeping his grandmother company in the evening. But his Russian is rusty, finding a place to play hockey is difficult, and the grandmother has dementia. As Keith Gessen explains in his wonderful novel A Terrible Country (Viking, 2018), Russia turns out to be something different than he expected. Keith Gessen is the founding editor of the literary journal n+1 and author of All the Sad Young Literary Men. He is also the editor of three nonfiction books and the translator, from Russian, of a collection of short stories, a book of poems, and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s oral history, Voices from Chernobyl. A contributor to The New Yorker and The London Review of Books, Gessen teaches journalism at Columbia and lives in New York with his wife and sons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine
A TERRIBLE COUNTRY by Keith Gessen, read by Ari Fliakos

Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2018 4:57


This darkly funny novel of contemporary Russian life is both charming and depressing. Russian-born American grad student Andrei returns “home” to take care of his grandmother. Baba Seva steals the show in Ari Fliakos’s heartbreaking and hilarious performance of this frail and feisty elderly woman. Fliakos is a perfect choice in the casting of A TERRIBLE COUNTRY. Author Gessen worked as a journalist on politics and Russian life, but in his second novel turns observations into fiction. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter on our website. On today’s episode are Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine editor & founder Robin Whitten. Support for Behind the Mic comes from Grammy Award-winning publisher Hachette Audio, home to works by James Patterson, JK Rowling, Joel Osteen, David Sedaris, David Baldacci, Elin Hilderbrand, Michael Connelly, and many more bestselling audiobooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Russia Guy
E62: Alina Polyakova on Life as a D.C. Think Tanker

The Russia Guy

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2018 53:34


Today's guest is Alina Polyakova, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, an adjunct professor of European studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a specialist in far-right populism and nationalism, and Russian foreign policy.Alina and Kevin discussed who's to blame for Donald Trump's election, how you take a sociology doctorate and become a Washington think tank expert, and what life is like in the hustle and bustle of the American capital. She explained why she didn't really like Keith Gessen's “The Quiet Americans” piece in The New York Times Magazine this May, and talked about Washington's lack of strategic thinking, when it comes to Russia.Follow Alina on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/apolyakovaAnd follow her work at the Brookings Institution here:https://www.brookings.edu/experts/alina-polyakova/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtMSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

She's In Russia
63: Terrible

She's In Russia

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2018 65:14


We give our very in depth and diverging two cents on Keith Gessen's new novel A Terrible Country. There are spoilers, be warned. SPOILERS: 50:16 - 55:01 and 56:49 - 58:47 Support us plz: patreon.com/shesinrussia

The Secret Library Podcast
#111 :: Trusting Your Process | Keith Gessen

The Secret Library Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2018 40:58


Sometimes the line between memoir and novel is thinner than others. Keith Gessen came on the show this week to discuss his latest novel, A Terrible Country. Drawing on his own experience caring for his grandmother in Russia after graduating from college, Keith originally set out to write a much bigger book than the one he ended up with. He had fantasies of covering aspects of Russian culture in between the narrative sections, and coming up with – essentially – the Russian equivalent of A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. He won a fellowship to work out of the New York Public Library and had access to every book in the system and wrote with this vision of a large book in mind for the year he was in residence there. And then he sat down and read the result and was horrified to find that it bored him. In our conversation, we discuss how he pared it down into the final manuscript and the things that scared him along the way to a final novel. Keith is very open about his experience in a way that will make everyone listening remember that, even though you write a novel by yourself, you aren't alone in how scary it can feel to do it. This will be a great comfort if you feel any doubt about reaching the end. Let Keith be the voice from the light at the end of the tunnel. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean's Russia Blog
Russia’s A Terrible Country

Sean's Russia Blog

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2018 59:29


Guest: Keith Gessen on America's Russia Hands and his novel A Terrible Country published by Viking. [spp-player] The post Russia's A Terrible Country appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

Sean's Russia Blog
Russia’s A Terrible Country

Sean's Russia Blog

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2018 59:29


Guest: Keith Gessen on America's Russia Hands and his novel A Terrible Country published by Viking. [spp-player] The post Russia’s A Terrible Country appeared first on SRB Podcast.

The Russia Guy
E44: Keith Gessen on The Quiet Americans

The Russia Guy

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2018 50:16


Kevin's guest today is Keith Gessen, a novelist, journalist, literary translator, and assistant professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Gessen has written about Russia for The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine, where he recently published a fascinating story, titled “The Quiet Americans Behind the U.S.-Russia Imbroglio,” where he examines the historical and philosophical landscape of today's Russia expertise in the United States. So what are you going to learn about on today's episode of the podcast? This interview is devoted to Keith's “Quiet Americans” story in The New York Times Magazine. Here's a list of the questions, preceded by the times in the episode that they appear: (2:50) Why write this story now? How did it come together? (8:45) Did anything about this story surprise you? (13:14) What do you say to critics who accuse you of speaking only to “like-minded” Russia hands? (15:34) Do Russia domestic politics matter here? Did you leave them out of your story intentionally? Do you think they're not important to understanding what shapes and divides America's “Russia hands? (22:05) How did NATO expansion become a litmus test for American Russia experts? (29:53) What's the influence of the U.S. news media on America's Russia hands? (35:23) How should the U.S. media improve its Russia coverage? (36:48) Is this mainstream aware that it's living in an echo chamber? (38:55) Why is realism so unpopular in American thinking about Russia? (43:28) You've written about the Russia experts, but what about the Russia grifters?Read “The Quiet Americans Behind the U.S.-Russia Imbroglio”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/magazine/the-quiet-americans-behind-the-us-russia-imbroglio.htmlFollow Keith Gessen on Twitter at @KeithGessenhttps://twitter.com/keithgessenPre-order his new book, “A Terrible Country: A Novel” (available July 10, 2018)https://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Country-Novel-Keith-Gessen/dp/0735221316If you enjoy this podcast, consider pledging a little dough to help with sound recording, editing, and hosting costs:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker
Keith Gessen Reads "How Did We Come to Know You?"

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 10, 2018 44:09


Keith Gessen reads his story “How Did We Come to Know You?,” from the April 16, 2018, issue of the magazine. Gessen’s first novel, “All the Sad Young Literary Men,” came out in 2008. His second novel, “A Terrible Country,” from which this story was adapted, will be published in July. Gessen is also a translator and a journalist, who has contributed many nonfiction pieces to The New Yorker.

Sean's Russia Blog
Western Journalism and the Ukraine Crisis

Sean's Russia Blog

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2016 53:23


Guest: Keith Gessen on western reporting on the Ukraine crisis. The post Western Journalism and the Ukraine Crisis appeared first on SRB Podcast.

ukraine ukraine crisis keith gessen western journalism srb podcast
Titlepage.TV: Video Podcast
Episode 2: You Always Remember the First Time with Sloane Crosley, Keith Gessen, Julie Klam and Ceridwen Dovey

Titlepage.TV: Video Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2015 45:29


Episode 2: Our Titlepage reads: You Always Remember Your First Time and features Sloane Crosley, Keith Gessen, Julie Klam and Ceridwen Dovey.

Longform
Episode 143: Masha Gessen

Longform

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2015 71:49


Masha Gessen has written for The New York Times, The London Review of Books, Vanity Fair, and others. Her book about Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy, came out in April. “The moment she said it, it was obvious that I'd been created to write this story. I'd covered both wars in Chechnya. I'd covered a lot of terrorism. I'd studied terrorism. And I'd been a Russian-speaking immigrant in Boston, which actually is the most important qualification for writing this book. It didn't give me special knowledge, but it gave me a lot of questions that I knew to ask that other people wouldn't.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and Casper, for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @mashagessen Gessen on Longform [1:00] The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy (Riverhead Books • 2015) [34:00] Longform Podcast #30: Keith Gessen [48:00] Blood Matters (Harcourt • 2008) [50:00] Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (Riverhead Books • 2014) [50:00] The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (Riverhead Books • 2012) [50:00] Dead Again (Verso • 1997)

Longform
Episode 134: Dayna Tortorici

Longform

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2015 53:36


Dayna Tortorici is the editor of n+1. “You can't fetishize conflict so much. Because conflict does generate a lot of good work, but it also inhibits a lot of good work. I think people do their best work when they feel good. Or at least don't feel like shit. ... So I've tried to create a culture of mutual encouragement. Especially when you're not paying anybody, that's all you can really offer.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Wealthfront for sponsoring this week's show. Show Notes: @dtortorici nplusonemag.com [2:00] Longform Podcast #30: Keith Gessen [19:00] "Hands Up: A Roundtable on Police Brutality" (Cosme Del-Rosario Bell, Elias Rodriques, Doreen St. Felix, Dayna Tortorici • n+1 • Nov 2014) [19:00] No Regrets [25:00] "Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America" [39:00] What Was the Hipster? [51:00] Subscribe to n+1

Foreign Affairs Unedited
Foreign Affairs Focus on Books: Keith Gessen on Russia's Soviet Legacy

Foreign Affairs Unedited

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2014 14:08


"All countries struggle to square their histories with their self-images," writes Keith Gessen in the July/August 2014 issue of Foreign Affairs, "but over the past two decades, Russia has found the history of the Soviet era especially vexing and difficult to accommodate." Justin Vogt, deputy managing editor of Foreign Affairs, sat down with Gessen, co-editor of n+1, to discuss how Russia is grappling with its Soviet legacy today. Original video interview published on July 1, 2014.  www.ForeignAffairs.com

Longform
Episode 30: Keith Gessen

Longform

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2013 47:28


Keith Gessen, founding editor of n+1 and contributor to The New Yorker. Show notes: Gessen's Personal Archive Gessen's n+1 archive Gessen's New Yorker archive [5:15] Money (n+1 • Mar 2006) [6:15] Ugly Duckling Presse [13:15] "Stuck" (New Yorker • Aug 2010) [sub req'd] [20:30] n+1 Digital Issue 1: Negation [22:30] McSweeny's [34:00] "The Intellectual Situation" (n+1 • Nov 2012) [35:00] Indecision (Benjamin Kunkel • Random House • 2005) [35:15] The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach • Hachette • 2011) [43:00] "Nowheresville" (New Yorker • Apr 2011) [sub req'd] [43:15] "Polar Express" (New Yorker • 2012) [sub req'd] [45:30] All the Sad Young Literary Men (Viking Penguin • 2008)

Bookworm
Keith Gessen

Bookworm

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2008 30:00


All the Sad Young Literary Men (Viking)Keith Gessen, one of the founding editors of the hip, intellectual journal n+1, has written his first novel. It's about the struggles of young people to break into the world of their aspirations, in this case, the literary intelligentsia of New York City...

new york city viking keith gessen sad young literary men
Titlepage.TV: Audio Podcast
Episode 2: You Always Remember the First Time with Sloane Crosley, Keith Gessen, Julie Klam and Ceridwen Dovey

Titlepage.TV: Audio Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2008 45:29


Episode 2: Our Titlepage reads: You Always Remember Your First Time and features Sloane Crosley, Keith Gessen, Julie Klam and Ceridwen Dovey.