Podcasts about Lithuanian

The White House says Trump will decide whether to attack Iran within two weeks because there is a "substantial chance of negotiations". Also: why killing a Lithuanian bear outraged hunters, and the search to name storms.

This is an insight from our previous conversation on growth hacking and building Revolut customer acquisition early on:You can grow fast without budget by trading value with the right partners.Putting your product where people already are makes them more likely to try it.Local, targeted efforts work better than big, generic marketing.It's more important to get people using your product than just seeing it.Andrius Biceika is a non-executive director at Revolut. He was one of the early employees and has held many leadership roles at Revolut. Prior to that he did stints at such well known Lithuanian companies as Citybee and Transfergo.Listen to the full conversation with Andrius here on Episode 120:Link to SpotifyLink to Apple Podcastshttps://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/episodes/120-andrius-biceika==If you liked this episode or simply want to support the work we do, buy us a coffee or two, or a hundred, with just a few clicks at: https://buymeacoffee.com/pursuitofscrappinessFind all episodes on >  https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTAConnect with us on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/===============Support the show

jQuery(document).ready(function(){ cab.clickify(); }); Original Podcast with clickable words https://tinyurl.com/23pytd8x Contact: irishlingos@gmail.com Increase in the teaching of Irish in second-level schools in the north. Ardú ar mhúineadh na Gaeilge i scoileanna dara leibhéal ó thuaidh. Irish is being taught in the first three years in 42% of second-level schools in the North, a significant increase from 35% in 2023, according to new research conducted by Queen's University Belfast for the British Council. Tá an Ghaeilge á múineadh sna chéad trí bliana i 42 faoin gcéad de scoileanna dara leibhéal sa Tuaisceart, ar ardú suntsasach é sin ó 35 faoin gcéad in 2023, de réir taighde nua a rinne Ollscoil na Banríona i mBéal Feirste i gcomhair an British Council. As with the A-level years, and with the exception of English, research shows that Irish is the second most studied language after Spanish. Mar leis na blianta A-leibhéal, agus diomaite den Bhéarla, léiríonn an taighde go bhfuil an Ghaeilge ar an dara teanga is mó a ndéantar staidéar uirthi i ndiaidh na Spáinnise. For the first time ever, Spanish is also the most widely taught language in the first three years. Den chéad uair riamh, is í an Spáinnis an teanga is mó a mhúintear sna chéad trí bliana freisin. Spanish is taught in the first three years in 84.8% of second-level schools in the North, compared to 81% of schools where French is taught. Múintear Spáinnis sna chéad trí bliana in 84.8 faoin gcéad de scoileanna dara leibhéal an Tuaiscirt, i gcomparáid leis an 81 faoin gcéad de scoileanna ina múintear Fraincis. French was taught in 90% of schools in 2023. Bhí Fraincis á múineadh i 90 faoin gcéad de scoileanna in 2023. There has also been a significant decline in the teaching of German in second- level schools. Tá meath suntasach tagtha ar mhúineadh na Gearmáinise i scoileanna dara leibhéal chomh maith. That language was being taught in the first three years in 638 schools in 2024, compared to 1,390 schools in 2002. Bhí an teanga sin á múineadh sna chéad trí bliana i 638 scoil in 2024, i gcomórtas le 1,390 scoil in 2002. The research also states that approximately 30 other languages are spoken at home by second-level students in the North, including Arabic, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese and Romanian. Deirtear sa taighde freisin go bhfuil tuairim is 30 teanga eile á labhairt sa bhaile ag daltaí dara leibhéal sa Tuaisceart, lena n-áirítear Araibis, Bulgáiris, Liotuáinis, Mandairínis, Polainnis, Portaingéilis agus Rómáinis. 70.5% of schools are giving these students the opportunity to take exams in their home language. Tá 70.5 faoin gcéad de scoileanna ag tabhairt deis do na daltaí sin scrúduithe a dhéanamh ina dteanga baile. RTÉ News and Current Affairs Nuacht agus Cúrsaí Reatha RTÉ

“As part of the EBU International Audio Storytelling Festival, I organised a communal drone performance using skudučiai. Skudučiai (usually plural) are traditional Lithuanian folk instruments, simple wooden pipes, each producing […]

The final showdown. The only thing which stands between Lithuania and an Olympic medal? The Unified Team – the team representing former Soviet countries and, for Lithuanians, their former occupiers. Will the Lithuanian basketball team be able to beat the Unified Team with the world watching? And can they triumph in tie-dye?The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story which brings together basketball, the US rock band The Grateful Dead, and the fall of the Soviet Union. Bill passed away in 2024, not long after recording the series, and his family have given permission for its release following his death. Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe. All told in mini seasons and one-off documentary episodes. #AmazingSportStoriesAmazing Sport Stories: Bill Walton's The Grateful Team is a Bespoken Media production for the BBC World Service.

From its inception at a drunken party seventeen years ago, the second-hand clothing app Vinted is now worth over £4 billion. Nearly sunk by one bad business decision, how did the company reinvent itself and the way we shop today?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestoryGuest: Sarah Ditum, Contributor, The Times.Host: Manveen Rana.Producer: Olivia Case.Further reading: Antiques boom as the Vinted generation catch the bugClips: Slush / YouTube, sTARTUPDAy / YouTube.Photo: The Sunday Times.Get in touch: thestory@thetimes.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode, I take a look at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook versions of my anthologies at my Payhip store: JUNE25 The coupon code is valid through June 17, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates   Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 252 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is May 23rd, 2025, and today we are looking at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. We missed doing an episode last week for the simple reason that the day before I wanted to record, we had a bad thunderstorm that knocked down large portions of my fence, so my recording time was instead spent on emergency fence repair. However, the situation is under control, so hopefully we'll be back to weekly episodes for the immediate future. And now before we get to our main topics, let's have Coupon of the Week and then a progress update on my current writing projects.   So first up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook version of all my short story anthologies at my Payhip store and that is JUNE25. As always, the coupon code and links will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through June the 17th, 2025, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered.   And now an update on my current writing projects. Ghost in the Corruption is finished. It is publishing right now. In fact, I paused the publishing process to record this and so by the time this episode goes live, hopefully Ghost in the Corruption should be available at all ebook stores. My next main project now that Ghost in the Corruption is done will be Shield of Power and as of this recording I am 15,000 words into it. My secondary projects will be Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest and I'm 97,000 words into that, so hopefully that will come out very shortly after Shield of Power and I'll also be starting Ghost in the Siege, the final book in the Ghost Armor series as another secondary project and I'm currently zero words into that. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects.   In audiobook news, Ghost in the Assembly (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now out and should be available at all the usual audiobook stores so you can listen to that if you are traveling for the summer. Recording of Shield of Battle (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) is underway soon. I believe he's starting it this week, so hopefully we will have another audiobook in the Shield War series for you before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects.   00:02:17 Main Topic: Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup   And now let's move on, without any further ado, to our main topic. Summer is almost upon us, which means it's time for my Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup. As usual, the movies and streaming shows are listed in order for my least favorite to my most favorite. The grades are based upon my own thoughts and opinions and are therefore wholly subjective. With all of that said, let's get to the movies and our first entry is MacGruber, which came out in 2010 and in all honesty, this might be objectively the worst movie I have ever seen. The Saturday Night Live MacGruber sketches are a parody of the old MacGyver action show from the ‘80s. And so the movie is essentially the sketch stretched out to make a parody of an ‘80s action movie. It is aggressively dumb and crude. Its only redeeming feature is that the movie knows it's quite stupid and so leans into the stupidity hard. I'll say this in its favor, MacGruber has no pretensions that is a good movie and does not take itself seriously and then runs away hard with that fact. For that he gets a plus, but nothing else. Overall grade: F+   Next up is Down Periscope, which came out in 1996. Now the fundamental question of any movie is the one Russell Crowe shouted at the audience in Gladiator: “Are you not entertained?” Sadly, I was not entertained with Down Periscope. This wanted to be a parody of Cold War era submarine thrillers like The Hunt for Red October, I say wanted because it didn't really succeed. Kelsey Grammer plays Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge, an unorthodox US Navy officer who wants command of his own nuclear sub, but he's alienated a few admirals, which is not traditionally a path to career advancement in the military. Dodge gets his chance in a Navy wargame where he has to command a diesel sub against nuclear subs. Sometimes parodies are so good that they become an example of the thing they are parodying (Hot Fuzz and Star Trek: Lower Decks are excellent examples of this phenomenon). The trouble is that the movie takes itself too seriously and just isn't all that funny. A few funny bits, true, but not enough of them. In the end, this was dumb funny but didn't resonate with me the way other dumb funny movies like Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder did. Overall grade: D   Next up is Deadpool and Wolverine, which came out in 2024. Unlike Down Periscope, I was entertained with this movie, though both movies reside on the dumb funny spectrum. Deadpool and Wolverine is basically one long meta in-joke/love letter for the last 30 years of superhero movies. If you've seen enough of those movies, you'll find those movies funny, if occasionally rather tasteless. If you haven't seen enough of those movies, Deadpool and Wolverine will just be incomprehensible. The plot is that Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool gets pulled into some Marvel style multiverse nonsense. To save his universe from destruction, he needs to recruit a Wolverine since in his universe, Wolverine died heroically.   In the process, Deadpool stumbles across the worst Wolverine in the multiverse. Together they have to overcome their mutual dislike and attempt to save Deadpool's universe from destruction at the hands of a rogue branch of the Time Variance Authority. This means the movie can bring in a lot of cameos from past Marvel films. Hugh Jackman's performance really carries the movie on its back. Like I said, this movie is essentially one very long Marvel in-joke. I thought it was funny. I definitely think it can't stand on its own without having seen a sufficient number of the other Marvel movies. Overall grade: C   Our next movie is the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which came out in 2024. This is very loosely (with an emphasis on “very”) based on Operation Postmaster during World War II, when British Special Forces seized some Italian ships that had been supplying parts for German U-boats. It was entertaining to watch but it couldn't quite make up its mind tonally if it was a war thriller or a heist movie about Western desperados recruited into a crew. It kind of tried to do both at the same time, which killed the momentum. Like, the first parts of the movie where the protagonists take out a Nazi patrol boat and then free a prisoner from a base were good thriller stuff, but then the plot fused with the heist stuff and really slowed down through the middle forty percent or so. It was also oddly stylized with a lot of spaghetti western-style music that seemed out of place and some stuff just didn't make sense, like at the end after pulling off the mission, the protagonists were all arrested. That just seems bizarre since if anything, Winston Churchill and a lot of the British wartime leadership were enthusiastic about special operations and probably had too much confidence in the effectiveness of covert operations. So I did enjoy watching this, but I can see why it didn't make a lot of money at the box office. Overall Grade: C   Next up is The Gorge, which came out in 2025. This was a peculiar mix of science fiction, romance, and horror. For the romance part, perhaps shooting zombies together is a good idea for a first date. Before I dig into the movie, a brief rant. In one scene, a character is using a chainsaw with no protective gear whatsoever and she's not fighting zombies or anything in a situation where she has to pick up a chainsaw without preparing first. She's trimming branches to pass time. If you're using a chainsaw, at a minimum you want protective eyewear and headphones. Ideally you'd want chainsaw pants as well to reduce the chance of serious injury if you slip and swing the saw into your leg. Since I became a homeowner, I've used a chainsaw a number of times and believe me, you definitely want good eye and ear protection. This has been your public safety announcement for this movie review.   Anyway, loner former sniper Levi is approached by a high ranking intelligence officer giving him a mysterious job. He needs to guard a tower overlooking a mysterious mist-filled gorge for one year. On the other side of the gorge is another tower, guarded by an elite Lithuanian sniper named Drasa. Like Levi, Drasa has a fair bit of emotional damage and they're officially forbidden to communicate. However, they're both lonely and they soon start communicating over the gorge using telescopes and whiteboard messages. Eventually Levi gets emotionally close enough to Drasa to rig a zipline to cross the gorge and speak with her in person.   Unfortunately, it turns out the gorge is full of twisted creatures that storm out and attack and the job of the two snipers is to keep them contained. If Levi and Drasa want to save their lives, they'll need to unravel the dark secret within the gorge. This movie was interesting and I enjoyed watching it, but it falls apart if you think about it too much (or at all). Like the chainsaw thing I ranted about above. The entire movie runs on that sort of logic. That said, I appreciate how the filmmakers were trying something new instead of something like Deadpool and Wolverine. Additionally, this was an Apple+ movie and it's interesting how Apple's approach to streaming is to just make a whole bunch of random stuff that's totally distinct, from Ted Lasso to Mythic Quest to Severance to The Gorge. It's like, “we have more money than most countries, so we're going to make Ted Lasso because we feel like it.” Then again, Apple+ is apparently losing a billion dollars every year, so maybe they'll eventually change their minds about that approach. Overall Grade: B-   Next up is Click, which came out in 2006. Cross It's a Wonderful Life with A Christmas Carol and the comedic style of Adam Sandler and you end up with Click. Basically Sandler plays Michael Newman, a workaholic architect with a demanding boss and increasingly strained relationship with his wife and children due to his workload. In a fit of exasperation with his situation, he goes to Bed Bath and Beyond, where he encounters an eccentric employee named Morty (played entertainingly by Christopher Walken). Morty gives him a remote control that lets him fast forward through time, which Michael then uses to skip the boring and tedious parts of his life, but he overuses the remote and goes too far into the future and sees the disastrous results of his current life choices. Definitely a story used in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life but effectively told and I was entertained (rather on the crude side, though). Overall Grade: B- Next up is Mr. Deeds, which came out in 2002. This was actually one of Adam Sandler's better movies, in my opinion. It was a remake of the ‘30s movie Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. In this new version, Sandler plays Longfellow Deeds, a popular pizzeria owner in a small New Hampshire town. Unbeknownst to Deeds, his uncle is the owner of a major media mega corporation and when he dies, Deeds is his legal heir. When the company's CEO and chief lawyer arrive at the pizzeria to inform him of this fact, Deeds goes to New York and soon finds himself involved in the CEO's sinister machinations. Yet he happens to rescue an attractive woman from a mugger, but there is more to her than meets the eye. The movie was funny and not as crude, well, not quite as crude as some of Sandler's other stuff. It had good story structure and several great lines, my favorite of which was “he was weak and cowardly and wore far too much cologne.”   Sandler's movies, in a strange way, are often very medieval. Like various medieval fables had a savvy peasant outwitting pompous lords, greedy merchants, and corrupt clergymen. The best Adam Sandler protagonist tends to be a good natured everyman who defeats the modern equivalent of medieval authority figures- evil CEOs, arrogant star athletes, sinister bureaucrats and so forth. Overall Grade: B     Next up is House of David, which came out in 2025 and this is basically the story of King David from the Bible told in the format of an epic fantasy TV series. Like if someone wanted to do an epic fantasy series about Conan the Barbarian, it could follow the same stylistic format as this show. And of course Conan and David followed a similar path from adventurer to king. Anyway, if one were to pick a part of the Bible from which to make a movie or TV series, the story of David would be an excellent choice because David's life was so dramatic that it would hardly require any embellishments in the adaptation. The story is in the Books of First and Second Samuel. King Saul is ruling over the Israelites around 1000 BC or so, but has grown arrogant. Consequently, God instructs the prophet Samuel to inform Saul that the kingdom will be taken away from him and given to another. God then dispatches Samuel to anoint David as the new king of Israel. David is a humble shepherd but then enters Saul's service and undertakes feats of daring, starting with defeating the giant Goliath and leading Saul's troops to victory and battle against Israel's numerous enemies. (The Iron Age Middle East was even less peaceful than it is now.) Eventually, Saul's paranoia and madness gets the best of him and he turns on David, who flees into exile. After Saul and his sons are killed in battle with the Philistines. David returns and becomes the acknowledged king after a short civil war with Saul's surviving sons and followers.   If Saul's fatal flaw was his arrogance of pride, David's seems to have been women. While the story of David and Bathsheba is well known, David nonetheless had eight wives (most of them at the same time) and an unknown but undoubtedly large number of concubines. Naturally David's children from his various wives and concubines did not get along and David was almost deposed due to the conflicts between his children. Unlike Saul and later David's son Solomon, David was willing to repent when a prophet of God informed him of wrongdoing and to be fair to David, monogamy was generally not practiced among Early Iron Age Middle Eastern monarchies and dynastic struggles between brothers from different mothers to seize their father's kingdoms were quite common, but enough historical digression.   Back to the show, which covered David's life up to the death of Goliath. I thought it was quite well done. Good performances, good cinematography, excellent battles, good set design and costuming, and a strong soundtrack. All the actors were good, but I really think the standout performances were Stephen Lang as Samuel, Ali Sulaman is King Saul, Ayelet Zurer as Saul's wife Queen Ahinoam, and Davood Ghadami as David's jerkish (but exasperated and well-intentioned) eldest brother Eliab. Martyn Ford just looks extremely formidable as Goliath. You definitely believe no one in their right mind want to fight this guy.   Making fiction of any kind based on sacred religious texts is often tricky because no matter what you do, someone's going to get mad at you. The show has an extensive disclaimer at the beginning of each episode saying that it is fiction inspired by the Bible. That said, House of David doesn't really alter or deviate from the Biblical account, though it expands upon some things for the sake of storytelling. Queen Ahinoam is only mentioned once in the Bible as the wife of Saul, but she has an expanded role in the show and is shown as the one who essentially introduces Saul to the Witch of Endor. Goliath also gets backstory as one of the “Anakim,” a race of giants that lived in Canaan in ancient times, which is something that is only mentioned in passing in the Old Testament. Overall, I enjoyed the show and I hope it gets a second season.   What's interesting, from a larger perspective, is to see how the wheel of history keeps turning. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Biblical epics were a major film genre. The 10 Commandments and Ben Hur with Charlton Heston are probably the ones best remembered today. Eventually, the genre just sort of ran out of gas, much the way superhero movies were in vogue for about 20 years and began running out of steam around 2023 or so. Like, I enjoyed Thunderbolts (which we're going to talk about in a little bit), but it's not going to make a billion dollars the way Marvel stuff often did in the 2010s. The wheel just keeps turning and perhaps has come back around to the popularity of Biblical epics once more. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Chef, which came out in 2014. I actually saw this back in 2021, but I watched it again recently to refresh my memory and here are my thoughts. I quite liked it. It's about a chef named Carl Casper, who's increasingly unhappy with his work after he gets fired over a Twitter war with a writer who criticized his cooking. Carl is out of options and so he starts a food truck and has to both rediscover his love of cooking and reconnect with his ex-wife and 10-year-old son. In Storytelling: How to Write a Novel (my book about writing), I talked about different kinds of conflict. Carl's conflict is an excellent example of an entirely internal conflict. The critic is an external enemy, but he's basically the inciting incident.   Carl's real enemy is his own internal conflict about art versus commerce and a strained relationship with his son. I recommend the movie. It was rated R for bad language, but there's no nudity or explicit sexual content and honestly, if you've ever worked in a restaurant kitchen or a warehouse, you've heard much worse in terms of language. The movie also has an extremely valuable lesson: stay off social media when you're angry. Overall Grade: A     Next up is Thunderbolts, which came out in 2025 and I thought this was pretty good, both very dark and yet with quite a lot of humor to balance the darkness. Former assassin Yelena Belova has been working as a mercenary for the sinister director of the CIA, Valentina de Fontaine (now there's a villain name if there ever was one). Yelena has grown disillusioned with her life and career and is suffering from increasing depression since she never really dealt with the death of her sister. Valentina promises her one last job, only for Yelena to realize that Valentina decided to dispose of all her freelance contractors at once, which includes US Agent and Ghost (previously seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Antman and the Wasp). In the process of escaping Valentina's trap, Yelena stumbles across a mysterious man who identifies himself as Bob, who has no memory of how he got there, but shows increasingly unusual abilities. Yelena wants to deal with Valentina's betrayal, but it turns out one of Valentina's science projects has gotten out of control and is threatening the world. The movie was well constructed enough that it didn't rely too heavily on previous Marvel continuity. It was there, but you probably wouldn't be lost without it. It almost feels like Marvel looked at the stuff they did the last couple of years and said, okay, a lot of this didn't work, but makes great raw material for new things. It helped that the central conflict was in the end, very human and about the characters, not stopping a generic villain from getting a generic doomsday device. Overall Grade: A   Next up is The Hound of the Baskervilles, which came out in 1988. This is a movie length episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes television series, which had Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. The plot deals with Sir Henry Baskerville, the American heir to an English manor set in the Windswept moors of Dartmoor. Apparently there's an ancestral curse laid over the Baskerville estate that manifests in the form of a spectral hound. Local rumors hold that the previous holder of the manor, Sir Charles Baskerville, was killed by the ghostly hound and many of the local people fear it. The local physician, Dr. Mortimer, is so worried about the hound that he comes to Sherlock Holmes for help. Holmes, of course, is skeptical of any supernatural explanation and soon becomes worried that an extremely subtle and sinister murderer is stalking Sir Henry.   Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes is, in my opinion, the best portrayal of the character and Edward Hardwicke's version of Watson is a calm, reliable man of action who sensibly takes a very large revolver with him when going into danger. Definitely worth watching, Overall grade: A   Next up is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which came out in 2024. The 2020s have been a downer of a decade in many ways, but on the plus side, between Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog, people have finally figured out how to make good video game movies, so we've got that going for us. Sonic 3 was an excellent kids movie, as were the first two in the trilogy. In this one Sonic is living with Knuckles and Tails under the care of their human friends Tom and Maddy, but then a dark secret emerges. The government has been keeping a Superpowered hedgehog named Shadow in stasis and Shadow has broken out. It's up to Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to save the day.   Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik is in a funk after his defeat at Sonic's hands in the last movie, but then his long lost grandfather, Gerald Robotnik returns seeking the younger Dr. Robotnik's help in his own sinister plans. Keanu Reeves was great as Shadow (think John Wick if he was a superpowered space hedgehog in a kid's movie). Jim Carrey famously said he would retire from acting unless a golden script came along and apparently that golden script was playing Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his evil grandfather Gerald. To be fair, both the Robotniks were hilarious.   It is amusing that Sonic only exists because in the 1990s, Sega wanted a flagship video game character that won't get them sued by either Nintendo or Disney. It is also amusing that the overall message of the Sonic movies seems to be not to trust the government. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Paddington in Peru, which came out in 2024. This is also an excellent kids' movie. In this installment, Paddington has settled into London with the Brown family and officially become a UK citizen. However, he receives a letter from Peru that his Aunt Lucy has mysteriously disappeared into the jungle. Distraught, Paddington and the Browns set off for Peru at once. Adventures ensue involving mysterious lost treasure, a crazy boat captain, and an order of singing nuns who might not quite be what they appear. Anyway, it's a good kids' movie. I think Paddington 2 was only slightly better because Hugh Grant as the chief villain, crazy actor Phoenix Buchanan, was one of those lightning in the bottle things like Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Overall Grade: A   Now for the two best things I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. The first of them is Andor Season Two, which came out in 2025. Star Wars kind of has an age range the way Marvel stuff does now. What do I mean by that? In the Marvel comics and some of the TV series like Jessica Jones, they get into some really dark and heavy stuff, very mature themes. The MCU movies can have some darkness to them, but not as much because they're aiming at sort of escapist adventures for the general audience. Then there are kid shows like Spidey and Friends that a relative of mine just loved when he was three. You wouldn't at all feel comfortable showing a 3-year-old Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Spidey and Friends is just fine.   Star Wars now kind of has that age range to its stuff and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you want to see a dark meditation upon human nature. Sometimes you need something kid friendly to occupy the kids you're babysitting and sometimes you just want to relax and watch Mando and Baby Yoda mow down some space pirates or something. All that said, Andor Season Two is some of the darkest and the best stuff that Star Wars has ever done. It successfully shifts genres from Escapist Pulp Space Fantasy to a gritty Political/Espionage Thriller. We in the audience know that the emperor is a Sith Lord who can use Evil Space Magic and wants to make himself immortal, but that fact is totally irrelevant to the characters. Even though some of the characters are high ranking in their respective organizations, this is essentially a “ground's eye” view of the Rebellion and life under the Empire.   In some ways, this is like Star Wars' version of Wolf Hall (which we're going to talk about shortly), in that we know how it ends already, but the dramatic tension comes from the harrowing emotional journey the characters undertake on the way to their inevitable destinations. Cassian Andor is now working for the nascent Rebellion under the direction of ruthless spymaster Luthen Rael. Mon Mothma is in the Imperial Senate, covertly funneling money to the Rebellion and realizing just how much the Rebellion will require of her before the end. Syril Karn, the ineffective corporate cop from Season One, has fallen in love with the ruthless secret police supervisor Dedra Meero, but he's unaware that Director Krennic has ordered Meero to manufacture a false flag incident on the planet Gorman so the planet can be strip-mined for resources to build the Death Star and Dedra has decided to use Syril to help accomplish it. All the actors do amazing jobs with their roles. Seriously, this series as actors really should get at least one Emmy. Speaking of Director Krennic, Ben Mendelson returns as Orson Krennic, who is one of my favorite least favorite characters, if you get my drift. Krennic is the oily, treacherous middle manager we've all had to deal with or work for at some point in our lives, and Mendelson plays him excellently. He's a great villain, the sort who is ruthless to his underlings and thinks he can manipulate his superiors right up until Darth Vader starts telekinetically choking him. By contrast, the villain Major Partagaz (played by Anton Lesser) is the middle manager we wish we all had - stern but entirely fair, reasonable, and prizes efficiency and good work while despising office drama. Unfortunately, he works for the Empire's secret police, so all those good qualities are in the service of evil and therefore come to naught. Finally, Episode Eight is one of the most astonishing episodes of TV I've ever seen. It successfully captures the horror of an episode of mass violence and simultaneously has several character arcs reach their tumultuous climax and manages to be shockingly graphic without showing in a lot of actual blood. Andor was originally supposed to be five seasons, but then Peak Streaming collapsed, and so the remaining four seasons were compressed down to one. I think that was actually to the show's benefit because it generates some amazing tension and there's not a wasted moment. Overall Grade: A+   Now for the second of my two favorite things I saw, and that would be Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, which came out in 2024, but I actually saw it in 2025. This is a dramatization of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, who is King Henry VIII's chief lieutenant during the key years of the English Reformation. The first series came out in 2015, but the nine year gap between this and between the second series and the first series actually works quite well since Thomas Cromwell looks like he ages nine years in a single year (which may be what actually happened given how stressful working for someone like Henry VIII must have been). Anyway, in The Mirror and the Light, Cromwell has successfully arranged the downfall and execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry's previous queen. Though Cromwell is haunted by his actions, Henry still needs a queen to give him a male heir, so he marries Jane Seymour. Cromwell must navigate the deadly politics of the Tudor Court while trying to push his Protestant views of religion, serve his capricious master Henry, fend off rivals for the King's favor, and keep his own head attached to his shoulders in the process. Since Cromwell's mental state is deteriorating due to guilt over Anne's death and the downfall of his former master Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's a fickle and dangerous master at the best of times, this is an enterprise that is doomed to fail. Of course, if you're at all familiar with the history of Henry's reign and the English reformation, you know that Cromwell's story does not have a happy ending. Rather, Wolf Hall is a tragedy about a talented man who didn't walk away from his power until it was too late and he was trapped. Anyway, in my opinion, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light was just excellent. All the performances were superb. Mark Rylance is great as Cromwell and has some excellent “WTF/I'm SO screwed” expressions as Cromwell's situation grows worse and worse. Bernard Hill played the Duke of Norfolk in the first series, but sadly died before Series Two, so Timothy Spall steps in and he does an excellent job of channeling Hill's portrayal of the Duke as an ambitious, crude-humored thug.   Damien Lewis is amazing as Henry VIII and his performance captures Henry's mixture of charisma, extreme vindictiveness, and astonishing self-absorption. The real Henry was known for being extremely charming even to the end of his life, but the charm was mixed with a volcanic temper that worsened as Henry aged and may have been exacerbated by a severe head injury. Lewis's performance can shift from that charm to the deadly fury in a heartbeat. The show rather cleverly portrays Henry's growing obesity and deteriorating health by having Lewis wear a lot of big puffy coats and limp with an impressively regal walking stick.   Overall, I would say this and Andor were the best thing I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. I wouldn't say that Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is an accurate historical reputation. In real life, Cromwell was rather more thuggish and grasping (though far more competent than his rivals and his master) and of necessity the plot simplifies historical events, but it's just a superb historical drama. Overall Grade: A+ As a final note, I should say that of all the 2024 and 2025 movies mentioned here, the only one that actually saw in the theater was Thunderbolts, and I hadn't actually planned to see it in theaters, but a family member unexpectedly bought tickets for it, so I went along. Which I suppose is the movie industry's biggest problem right now. The home viewing experience is often vastly superior to going to the theater. The theater has the big screen and snacks, but at home you can have a pretty nice setup and you can pause whatever you want, go to the bathroom, and you can get snacks for much more cheaply. That's just much more comfortable than the movie theater.   Additionally, going to the theater has the same serious problem as booking a flight in that you're an enclosed space with complete strangers for several hours, which means you're potentially in a trust fall with idiots. All it takes is one person behaving badly or trying to bring their fake service dog to ruin or even cancel a flight, and the theater experience has much of the same problem, especially since the standards for acceptable public behavior have dropped so much from a combination of widespread smartphone adoption and COVID. The difference between the movie industry and the airline industry is that if you absolutely have to get from New York to Los Angeles in a single day, you have no choice but to book a flight and hope for the best. But if you want to see a movie and are willing to exercise some patience, you just have to wait a few months for it to turn up on streaming. I'm not sure how the movie industry can battle that, but sadly, it is much easier to identify problems than to solve them.   So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe, stay healthy, and see you all next week.

The Lithuanian men's basketball team are making a splash at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. But they're about to face two of their biggest challenges…The Unified Team is made up of athletes representing the former Soviet republics. For newly independent Lithuania, could this be a moment to prove themselves on the world stage?And as if that isn't enough, the US Dream Team is made up of some of the best players in the world, including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. Will Lithuania stand a chance?The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story which brings together basketball, the US rock band The Grateful Dead, and the fall of the Soviet Union. Bill passed away in 2024, not long after recording the series, and his family have given permission for its release following his death. Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe. All told in mini seasons and one-off documentary episodes. #AmazingSportStories Amazing Sport Stories: Bill Walton's The Grateful Team is a Bespoken Media production for the BBC World Service.

BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale speaks to Dovilė Šakalienė, Lithuania's Defence Minister.The Baltic nation, along with its neighbours Latvia and Estonia, share a border with Russia, and have nervously watched the invasion of Ukraine, fearing they could be next.All three countries have had turbulent relationships with their much larger neighbour, Russia. They were annexed by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and were subject to decades of rule from Moscow up until the end of the Cold War.In 2004, Lithuania joined both the European Union and NATO, and just over a decade later, adopted the Euro as its currency. But despite looking westwards, the country has always kept one eye on developments over its eastern border in Russia.Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 set off alarm bells in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, and when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia began in 2022, Lithuania and its neighbours began fearing - and preparing - for the worst.The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on BBC Sounds, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.Presenter: Jonathan Beale Producer: Ben Cooper Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Some people move house for the location, some people move for the fireplaces: for Ula Maria, it was a neglected, overgrown garden in South London that confirmed her future home. The Lithuanian garden designer is arguably the most celebrated of her generation: Ula became the youngest person to ever win Best In Show at Chelsea in 2024 - and only the third woman to take the prize in the Flower Show's century-long history.But behind the scenes of a skyrocketing career, Ula was navigating considerable personal struggle and loss - and, all the while, she was building her own garden from that overgrown plot. It's here that we speak to her about all of it: her achievements, her designs, her life, and what it's actually like to be in the middle of a Monty Don media storm. Find out more about Ula's work on her website, ulamaria.com, and her instagram, @ulamariastudio. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We've also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my website and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠.Use code WWGSUMMER at⁠ ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025. It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

Welcome to the Pursuit of Scrappiness Tech Brief. A monthly discussion on topics we find relevant to highlight, discuss and share with you to help you become a scrappier and better version of yourself. On this episode we talk about:

Basketball, the Cold War, and rock band The Grateful Dead collide in this incredible true story. Presented by the late NBA star Bill Walton. Episodes weekly from 19 May. What do basketball, rock music, and tie-dye t-shirts have in common? And what about Mickey Hart, Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis, and the US Dream Team? Well, they are all subject of the brand new season of Amazing Sport Stories: Bill Walton's The Grateful Team. It's Moscow, 1989, and Lithuanian basketball star Sarunas Marciulionis is walking nervously through the airport. If all goes to plan, a new life awaits playing basketball for the NBA in the US. But first, he must cross the Iron Curtain. Sarunas doesn't yet know the incredible journey he is about to go on. One which will involve political upheaval, the Olympic games, the US rock band The Grateful Dead - and, of course, tie-dye. The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story. Bill passed away in 2024, not long after recording the series, and his family have given permission for its release following his death. Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe. All told in mini seasons and one-off documentary episodes. #AmazingSportStories

Bill Walton tells the story of Sarunas Marciulionis' journey from the USSR to the NBA. Along the way, there's also a Grateful Dead concert…It's Moscow, 1989, and Lithuanian basketball star Sarunas Marciulionis is walking nervously through the airport. If all goes to plan, a new life awaits playing basketball for the NBA in the US. But first, he must cross the Iron Curtain.Sarunas doesn't yet know the incredible journey he is about to go on. One which will involve political upheaval, the Olympic games, the US rock band The Grateful Dead - and, of course, tie-dye. The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story. Bill passed away in 2024, not long after recording the series, and his family have given permission for its release following his death. Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe. All told in mini seasons and one-off documentary episodes. #AmazingSportStoriesAmazing Sport Stories: Bill Walton's The Grateful Team is a Bespoken Media production for the BBC World Service.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. This is the story of Hai, a Vietnamese immigrant to America where he lives in the town of East Gladness, Connecticut where, at the most difficult moment of his life he's befriended by Grazina, an 82 year old Lithuanian widow. They become each other's support person, an unlikely pairing but each of them living lives so far away from the promised American Dream. It's a masterly portrait of life for the underdog, from a world that the author clearly knows well. His previous book, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was widely applauded and positively reviewed. The Warrior by Christopher Clarey. The subject of this book is Rafa Nadal, with a terrific and very familiar image of him on the cover. The author wrote a previous book called The Master, about Roger Federer, and has covered tennis for many years, having unprecedented access to these top players. It covers Rafa's life from the time he first held a racquet, all the way through to his decision to retire and everything that happened in between. Perfect for followers of tennis, and fans of Nadal. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gabrielius Landsbergis served as Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2020 until November 2024. Interestingly, 20 years ago, I also interviewed his grandfather, Vytautas Landsbergis. But we live in a very different world now – one in which the Baltic countries, including Lithuania, have closed their airspace to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who felt compelled to visit Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. So, what does Mr. Landsbergis think about such a visit? What does Russian aggression against Ukraine mean for Lithuania? How worried is he that Lithuania could become the target of a Russian attack? And would Lithuanians fight if they were attacked by Russia? Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. Tai-Ex opening The Tai-Ex opened up 81-points this morning from Friday's close, at 20,996 on turnover of 4.6-billion N-T. The market gained ground last Friday as it moved closer the challenging at 21,000-point mark. The rise after after the U-S Federal Reserve left its main interest rate unchanged overnight and as investors were pinning their hopes (把希望寄托在…上) on weekend trade talks between China and the U-S. Tsai talks Taiwan and Lithuania standing united in defending democracy Former President Tsai Ing-wen is expressed here gratitude to Lithuania over its support for Taiwan - saying that both countries are united as partners (合作夥伴) in defending democracy. Tsai arrived in Lithuania on Saturday and what is her first visit to the Baltic state Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, Tsai said while she was Taiwan's president she received visits from many Lithuanian friends in Taiwan … …. and believes that Taiwan and Lithuania share similar fates as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries. Tsai will head to Denmark next to attend to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. Taipei's Yongkang Street pedestrianized on weekends through June 10 A trial pedestrian zone has been launched in Taipei's Yongkang Street this past weekend. The trial will run on weekends through June 10 and sees the popular road closed to most vehicles. The Taipei City Government says the aim (目的) is to promote a more pedestrian-friendly environment. The campaign limits vehicle access from 2 to 8PM on Saturdays and Sundays and covers approximately 250 meters of Yongkang Street, and includes nearby alleys around the popular tourist destination. Hamas to Release US Hostage Hamas says the last living American hostage in Gaza will be released as part of efforts to establish a ceasefire, reopen crossings into the Israeli-blockaded territory and resume aid delivery. Two Hamas officials tell The Associated Press they expect the release of Edan Alexander in the next 48 hours. U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is confirming in a message to the AP that Hamas has agreed to release Alexander as a good will gesture toward Trump. The announcement of the first hostage release since Israel shattered (擊毀) a ceasefire in March comes shortly before Trump visits the Middle East this week. Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States. Iran US in 4th Round of Nuclear Program Negotiations Iran and US conclude a fourth round of negotiations (談判) over Tehran's nuclear program in Oman AP correspondent Donna Warder reports Pope Leo Calls for Ceasefires and Peace Pope Leo XIV has called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza with the release of hostages and delivery of humanitarian aid. In his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff, Leo said, “Never again war!” from St. Peter's Basilica to an estimated 100,000 people below. Recalling the end of World War II 80 years ago, Leo quoted Pope Francis in denouncing the number of conflicts ravaging (摧殘) the globe today, saying it was a “third world war in pieces.” The 69-year-old Chicago-born missionary was elected 267th pope on Thursday. He has a busy week of audiences before his formal installation Mass Sunday. That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _____. －－－－以下訊息由 SoundOn 動態廣告贊助商提供－－－－ 早餐是補充蛋白質的黃金期，吃錯食物小心可能吃進精緻澱粉、加工品、油脂、熱量…等隱形負擔早餐補充蛋白質，首選統一陽光，嚴選非基改黃豆、植物性大豆蛋白、零膽固醇，營養少負擔！ https://sofm.pse.is/7krrp4 -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

Basketball, the Cold War, and rock band The Grateful Dead collide in this incredible true story. Presented by the late NBA star Bill Walton. Coming soon on 19 May.What do basketball, rock music, and tie-dye t-shirts have in common? And what about Mickey Hart, Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis, and the US Dream Team? Well, they are all subject of the brand new season of Amazing Sport Stories: Bill Walton's The Grateful Team.It's Moscow, 1989, and Lithuanian basketball star Sarunas Marciulionis is walking nervously through the airport. If all goes to plan, a new life awaits playing basketball for the NBA in the US. But first, he must cross the Iron Curtain. Sarunas doesn't yet know the incredible journey he is about to go on. One which will involve political upheaval, the Olympic games, the US rock band The Grateful Dead - and, of course, tie-dye. The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story. Bill passed away in 2024, not long after recording the series, and his family have given permission for its release following his death. Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe. All told in mini seasons and one-off documentary episodes. #AmazingSportStories

Divine Intervention: Meet England's Multicultural Teenage Football SensationUncover the extraordinary rise of Divine Tayon Mahogany Mukasa, the London-born Manchester City prodigy with Ugandan and Lithuanian roots taking European football by storm! We delve into his academy dominance, international exploits for England, breathtaking midfield skills, and the intense transfer buzz surrounding this future superstar.Divine Mukasa, Manchester City, England U18, football prodigy, youth academy.

Donatas Genys didn't set out to launch Lithuania's first keeved cider. But after trips to England and Normandy, years of experimentation, and the planting of over 6,000 cider apple trees, that's exactly what he's doing. At Sodo Sidriné, located just a few kilometers from the city of Kaunus, Donatas is into a whole new era for cider Lithuania's cider revival Donatas Genys Cider Culture and Baltic Roots Lithuania has deep agricultural roots, but apple trees which at many of the homes are desired more for eating or making apple wine while vodka and beer under Soviet rule flourished. Note: Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990, becoming the first Soviet republic to do so, an act made possible in part by the loosening of Soviet control under Gorbachev's Perestroika reforms. Donatas is using both local varieties like Auksis and imported cider apples such as Yarlington Mill, Harry Masters Jersey, and Marie Ménard. His orchard-first philosophy ensures every cider is estate grown and rooted in place. Keeving in Lithuania The hallmark of Sodo Sidrine's offerings is a naturally keeved cider. Donatas showcased his keeved cider at CiderCon 2025 and received a lot of praise from attendees, including this Cider Chat Producer Ria Windcaller. Genys admits it's the most labor-intensive process, but also the most rewarding. This method yields a semi-dry cider with natural sweetness and long-lasting complexity, a rarity in a country where most consumers only know industrial cider. A New Era for Lithuanian Cider With a production facility nearly complete, Genys is preparing to scale up. His vision includes: Sodo Cider Stainless steel fermentation A small tasting room with potential for expansion Fruit wines and hopped ciders to appeal to a wider audience Apple brandy aged in sherry casks for future release Inside Sodo Sidrine Despite legal gray areas (there's no craft cider license in Lithuania), Donatas is pushing forward — blending tradition, research, and experimentation with quiet determination. He expects his licensing process to be completed by the summer of 2025. Stay tuned! Contact info for Sodo Sidriné Website: https://sodosidrine.lt/ Mentions in this Cider Chat Totally Cider Tour_UK Edition Bent Ladder | Doylestown Ohio – Events Locust Grove Brewing – Mother's Day Brunch – Live Music, Food Truck 11-2pm

On this episode of The ROMANce Podcast, Emmy Award winners Kenzie & Roman celebrate their two year wedding anniversary...while Kenzie makes it clear they've actually been together for six years! They also celebrate Kenzie's 30th birthday even tho she's having a really hard time with that age! And finally, they share stories from their amazing weekend getaway to Mexico...including how Kenzie got in a fight with a Lithuanian woman at the airport!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ukrainians have resisted Russia's aggression for years. Since the full-scale invasion of their country in 2022, Ukrainian women in particular have taken on important roles on the frontlines, in civil society, and at home. Gražina Bielousova's research examines how Ukrainian leftist feminists advocate for their causes at home and abroad, facing distinct challenges as they attempt to defend their country. The Ukrainian case is also distinct from Latvia and Lithuania, whose organizing takes on different shapes for the same cause. Bielousova joins Ben Gardner-Gill to explain these interactions and discuss the ongoing process of decolonization in Baltic Studies.Transcript Ben Gardner-Gill: Hello, and welcome to Baltic Ways. I'm your co-host, Ben Gardner-Gill. Today we're talking with Gražina Belousova. Gražina is a feminist scholar of race, religion, and gender in post-Soviet Europe. She earned her PhD from Duke University in 2022. Currently, she is a postdoctoral scholar at Vilnius University's Institute of International Relations and Political Science and a researcher at Vytautas Magnus University.Her current research project focuses on leftist feminisms in East Europe in light of Russia's war against Ukraine, which will culminate in her first book, What's Left of Feminism in East Europe.Gražina, welcome to Baltic Ways.Gražina Belousova: Thank you so much for having me, Ben.BGG: So let's kick off by just hearing a little bit more about your background. I know you finished your PhD pretty recently. Could you tell us a little bit more about how you got into academia, sort of your research interests, and what you're working on at the moment?GB: Right. Yes, I just defended my PhD in 2022. It's hard to believe that it's been nearly three years now. In my PhD, I focused on historical matters. My PhD was in religion and cultural anthropology. And one of the things that I found missing when I was trying to theorize the part of the world that I call home and that most of the world calls Eastern Europe—I realized that I was lacking a solid theory that would bridge economics, anthropology, and religious studies.I wanted to understand how religious difference, especially perceived religious difference, played a role in creating the space that we call Eastern Europe today. And that took me to 18th and 19th century travel writings by Western travelers, oftentimes who were on an official mission, to the edges or to the depths of the Russian Empire.So I've read a lot of ambassadors' letters. I've read a lot of dispatches from St. Petersburg and Moscow, trying to understand how Westerners thought about that religious difference and how that thinking structured their understanding of what this place was and why it was different. What I tried to argue is actually that perceived religious difference was at the root of thinking of Eastern Europe as something different.Now, when I chose to embark on that topic, I had to put another topic aside, which was the question of very contemporary matters, the question of leftist political thought and feminism. At that point, it felt to me more pertinent to write the kind of theory that I felt was missing. When I was given the opportunity to pursue a postdoctoral position at Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, I pitched this idea to them.And we very quickly pulled together the application. And the next thing I knew, I was embarking on a project on leftist feminisms in Eastern Europe in light of the war in Ukraine. So, the path was windy, but here I am today, knees and elbows deep, in the project on leftist feminism.BGG: Wonderful. I mean, a windy path is going to be familiar to so many people listening.So, no surprise and no surprise as well that the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has really impacted your work and your life as it has for many of us. So tell us a little bit more about that.Over the last three years, we've been watching and seeing the horrors in Ukraine. From your perspective, from your academic work, what are some of the main things that you're looking at?GB: One of the things that I'm particularly interested in is the way that groups that are on the edges of society, on the margins of society, such as leftists, such as feminists, and especially leftist feminists—when the two come together and try to articulate their social and political vision and explain to themselves and to their fellow compatriots and oftentimes foreign donors, in my case, also Western leftist feminists, their relevance, how they're trying to articulate their position.War has a penchant for heightening nationalist tendencies. And this is not some kind of particular Eastern European pathology. War anywhere is going to produce these results. That is normal. People defend themselves and articulate themselves on the basis on which they're being attacked, on the basis on which they're being bombed.So this is what we are seeing in Ukraine. Leftism in Eastern Europe, because of the Soviet past, is often associated with Soviet nostalgia. Feminism, on the other hand, is oftentimes seen as something antithetical to national identity, something that is imported from the West, and something that either has no relevance or can be dangerous, especially when questions of national unity, questions of national defense come about.That is one of the reasons why I embarked on this journey, and this is one of the reasons why Ukraine had to be part of this picture. Because while the other countries that I'm looking at—Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Moldova—experience the threat of invasion, Ukraine is under attack.And one of the things that I'm finding is that Ukrainian leftist feminists are incredibly resourceful and incredibly gifted at articulating their relevance.One of the things that I'm going to say that stems from that understanding of leftist feminism that's erroneous, but that's pervasive, is that Ukrainian leftist feminists do not debate the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state. What is in question is the way things are happening under the conditions of war.The questions of most vulnerable people—so questions of what happens with people with disabilities, questions of what happens to single mothers, questions of what happens to the elderly people who are maybe unable to evacuate, questions of what happens to the working class people—all of these things are at the forefront of their minds. They're trying to be the advocates of their pleas to the larger society, while at the same time trying to articulate Ukraine's right to self-defense to Western leftist feminists.BGG: So they have both this tension, maybe tension is the wrong word, tell me if it isn't, but they have this tension internally where they're trying to advocate for what they see as justice or what is right with a domestic audience who, understandably, may be more frequently focused on what's happening at the front lines.And then there's also this international question, the foreign audience for these Ukrainian leftist feminists, who have a very different perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. And I specifically use that verbiage instead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine because they're going to think about it very differently.So let's split those out a little bit, and I want to start with the domestic. You talked about the advocacy of these leftist feminists for the most marginalized groups in society, for those who are most vulnerable.In your view, where have they been most successful, perhaps? Where have they seen actual progress happen from their advocacy?GB: One of the things that immediately comes to mind, and many of my interlocutors were directly involved with, is the nurses' movement–the unionization and self-organization of the nurses.There is a movement called Be Like Nina, referring to one of the nurses seen as a pioneer of resisting exploitation. And, of course, under the conditions of war, the labor of nurses is incredibly valuable and needed, but not always appropriately compensated. This is what we can call essential labor, especially when we talk about the front lines, where people are wounded.Many of them are wounded very badly on a daily basis. However, there are other things that are happening in the background as well. While a lot of the resources are pulled to the front, there are people who are experiencing regular daily struggles with their health. And the nurses are being stretched very thin.And this was something that was really amazing to me. This was really one of the very few instances where I saw academics who are leftist feminists actually touching the ground with their ideas: where they got involved with helping the nurses organize, but not taking the center stage, where they acted as support, as a resource, but not overtaking the movement, rather creating the conditions under which nurses themselves could articulate what it was that they needed, what their goals were.And that was incredibly impressive to me because healthcare is severely underfunded across the whole region, and to achieve such tangible goals as wage increases and regulations that empower nurses to do their job was truly impressive. With every conversation with a woman—because I specifically talk only to women—I just felt sheer amazement, because this is so contrary to so many imaginations of what civil society, self-organization, or networks are like in Eastern Europe.This is so contrary to what some have called ‘uncivil' society. What is happening is really self-organization and civil society at its best, organized by women who are oftentimes stretched very thin, not just at work, but also at home, women whose husbands are potentially on the front lines.So to me, I really cannot think of anything else that, in terms of real life impact and in terms of transforming people's lives, has been grander (I'm going to go for that word) than this.BGG: That's remarkable, and thank you for bringing that. I had very little idea of this progress and this happening.So you use the term civil society, which I think is quite apt, and Western conceptions of civil society in the region that we call Eastern Europe can be highly misguided. Let's just put it like that. I think back to a webinar that the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) hosted on Ukrainian civil society, democratization, responses to the war, and we have this comparative Ukrainian and Baltic perspective, where we looked at how Ukrainian civil society was responding.We looked at how Baltic civil society was responding, and you're doing something similar in your research here. You're looking at Latvia and Lithuania as two of the other case studies, in addition to Poland, Moldova, and, of course, Ukraine. One thing that I think we can all observe just from watching the news, let alone being in the countries as well, is that civil society across the region has had this really robust response in the last few years.So could you speak a little bit more to that in the comparative cases outside of Ukraine that you're looking at in your research, especially Latvia and Lithuania?GB: For sure. I think that in order to theorize civil society and the region in general, we need better theory than has been used often to talk about civil society at large.Here, for example, I'm thinking about Emily Channel Justice and her work and the way that she articulates the notion of self-organization. The way that she thinks about Ukraine, especially in the context of Maidan. The way that it left a self-organization, but that can be applied also to any form of civil society, regardless of ideology, is really a network of decentralized, self-organized people's groups.If you were to look for some kind of central organizing pattern, or some kind of centralized way of doing things, most likely you're not going to find it because it's based on personal network, connections, and localized issues. And I think that's definitely something that I'm seeing in Ukraine.One of the things that I'm seeing in Lithuania and Latvia is that it's going to differ slightly because there are going to be more central organizing figures. If we talk about organizing support for Ukraine, one of the things that we're going to see is that people are going to point to nationwide initiatives.Right now in Lithuania, there is an initiative called Radarum, which is a play on words, on radar and on darom, which is a Lithuanian word for let's do it. And it's a nationwide initiative to collect funds to purchase drones and anti-drone equipment for Ukraine. And there are particular faces that we associate with this initiative.National television is running ads for it. So there's a little bit more of a centralized sense to it. But once again, I would say that this is the mainstream way of organizing civil society, which, of course, with Westernization, has taken on some of the patterns that are similar to the West.If we look towards the left, we're going to see very much that it is self-organized, small groups of people who take different initiatives, such as raising funds for medical care, such as raising funds for queer people in Ukraine. So the more mainstream we go, the more patterns that are akin to those that we see in the West we're going to see.That is also going to be true in Latvia. The further left we go, the more organic, grassroots, self-organized cells of people we're going to find who participate in smaller, less visible initiatives. So that's probably the best way that I can explain the difference.BGG: Got it. We see this distinction of centralization and decentralization.One could consider these different types of movements organic in their own ways, but different in different ways. When one thinks of leftist organizing, which has a long and rich history, organic is sort of one of the key words.It's perpetual, and these society-wide initiatives, like what's currently going on in Lithuania, that we've seen across other countries over the last few years, are maybe a little bit less frequent and less common. So there's an important distinction there.So I want to pivot to the international dimension of how the Ukrainian leftist feminists are talking, especially with Western counterparts. And by Western, we mean Western Europe. We mean American and Canadian. We mean Western, as in not Eastern Europe. So could you talk a little bit about the challenges they're facing there?I think I alluded to it earlier. You alluded to it earlier, but could you dive a little bit more into that discourse, that dialogue between the Ukrainians and their counterparts?GB: This is the main point of contention. What does it mean to be leftist? How much does local experience shape being leftist?What is the relationship of the left to the national question? And I think this is where we are seeing the real tension. Underlying this tension, of course, is the question of Russia. Let me try to unpack this. And I'm going to start from the other end than I listed, which is with the question of Russia.Eastern European in general, and Ukrainian in particular, leftist feminists have a very different understanding as to what Russia is in terms of geopolitics than the Western counterparts are going to have. This stems from very different histories. Western leftism—especially the new wave of leftism that arose in the sixties and the seventies—in many ways has redefined itself not just through the questions of class, which I would argue were lost to some extent. They lost their centrality.And they redefined themselves through the anti-colonial, anti-racist struggle. And that struggle was particularly important because after the fall of the formal colonial system, the colonial patterns of economic exploitation, of social exploitation, of brain drain still very much persisted. And naming that and defining themselves against Western neoimperialism or neocolonialism in the Global South was one of the most defining features of the Left, both in the Global South and in the West. Now, Russia at that time had positioned itself as the ally of the colonized countries. And some of it was pure show, and some of it was actual money, resources, and help that were sent, for example, to Angola. And that made a real difference. Whether that was genuine concern for the colonized people or whether that was an ideological tool is a matter of debate.Whatever it was, it had a profound impact on the way that Western leftists relate to Russia. They continue to see Russia out of that tradition, in many ways, as an ally against Western capitalism and imperialism. Their empire, against which they define themselves, continues to be in the West, and oftentimes is seen as centered on the United States.The empire against which we define ourselves in Eastern Europe is Russia, because Russia was the colonizing power in a very real sense in the region. It was our empire that subjugated us. It was the colonial power that engaged in just about every single practice in which any colonial power engages in the region.For us, if we think outside of ourselves, Russia continues to be the colonial power in the way that it relates to Central Asia, in the way that it relates to the indigenous people of Siberia, in the way that it continues to conduct business. So both the left in the West and the left in the East continue to define themselves against the empire, but disagree on who the empire is.The fundamental difference is the question of Russia. Because of the way that Western leftists, and particularly Western leftist feminists, have been taught to see the world, the way that they have been habituated to see the world, they're unable to see Russia as an aggressor. They're unable to change their narrative about how NATO might act.And of course, the criticisms of continued Western abuses of power, especially when they center on the United States—such as Afghanistan or such as Iraq, but also here in the European context, intra-European context, Serbia is another context in which that comes up—are highly debatable questions, but they're seen a certain way. They're understood in a certain way by Western leftists. And because of Russia's criticism of the West, Western leftists see it as a natural ally, or at least as an equally guilty party.BGG: That's a really great explanation. I think the way that you've laid that out makes a lot of sense.It also harkens back to where I want to bring this, which is the debate that has been going on in Baltic studies and other academic fields, especially those focusing on the region, about thinking about Baltic history in particular as a colonial history and thinking about what it means to decolonize Baltic studies as a field, to decolonize our academic thinking. There have been a lot of discussions.I know that we were in the same room at the AABS panel at Yale last year on that fantastic panel about decolonization. Where do you think this leads with regard to your research specifically? There's already this trend in this field. I get the sense that you are an advocate and moving forward in land seeking for the field as a whole to move in that direction.What do you think the next steps are? What paths do you think could be taken? What do people need to be thinking about that they may not already be thinking about?GB: Well, I think for me, the key question when we are talking about Baltic studies and decolonization is what is it that we talk about when we talk about decolonizing Baltic studies or Baltic countries?Because I think sometimes we're talking about four different things. We are talking about the question of colonialism and coloniality. That's one. We are talking about imperialism, Russian imperialism, and Russian imperiality. We are talking about Russification and what it means to de-Russify. And we are also talking about Sovietization and what it means to de-Sovietize.And I would argue that while these four concepts are very much interrelated, they have very different agendas. So, I think it's a question of definitions. How do we define what our agenda is? Which of the four do we have in mind when we talk about decolonizing Baltic countries, Baltic studies, or anything else?And I would say that each of the four has its place and is significant. But the flip side of that, especially if we stay with the question of decolonization, is the question of Western theory, practice, and scholarship as it relates to Baltic studies. Because if we go back to the early questions in the conversation of what is civil society and whether there is a civil society, Baltic countries and the region as a whole are pathologized.Because the concept of what civil society is, or is not, was based on Western understandings and Western practices. And it rendered civil society in the region invisible. In what ways does the production of scholarship and knowledge about the region continue to be based in very unequal power relationships, in such a way that it continues to pathologize the region?And these are very uncomfortable questions, because much like, you know, in the late eighteenth century when the Lithuanian Polish Commonwealth was divided between the three powers, we're facing the same question: Who is our ally? Because we have learned that Russia is definitely not, but the West is also a problematic ally.This is where I think the question of what it means to center the study of the region in the theory, in the practice, in the questions that actually originate from the ground up, are so important. And I'm not ditching all Western scholarship out the window. That would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.But I'm saying, what does it mean to balance? What does it mean to center? What does it mean to change the parameters of the conversation?BGG: Those are some weighty questions. I think they're good questions that the field is, I would say not even starting to engage with, but is engaging with, which is really excellent, but it's a long path.As anyone who is a scholar of decolonization will tell you, it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen over a decade. It's sort of a continuous process. So, I think that is where we're going to have to leave it, knowing that there is so much more we could have talked about. But, Gražina, thank you so much.This has been a fascinating conversation. Thank you for joining Baltic Ways.GB: Thank you so much for having me, Ben. It's been a privilege.BGG: Thank you for listening to this episode of Baltic Ways, a co-production of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies and the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). A note that the views expressed in this and every Baltic Ways episode do not necessarily reflect those of AABS or FPRI.To ensure you catch the next episode of Baltic Ways, make sure you're subscribed to your podcast feed or wherever you get your shows. Thanks so much, and we'll see you next time. Get full access to FPRI Insights at fpriinsights.substack.com/subscribe

Buckle up for the unbelievable story of Vladimir "Mad Vlad" Romanov's chaotic and controversial reign as owner of Heart of Midlothian FC. From big promises and managerial mayhem to referee rants, financial meltdowns, and bombshell interviews years later, we dissect the madness and the legacy of the Lithuanian tycoon who turned Hearts into Scottish football's most unpredictable show.Vladimir Romanov, Hearts, Scottish football, Mad Vlad, Tynecastle.

Laura Spinney discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Laura Spinney is a writer and science journalist. Her writing on science has appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, Nature and National Geographic, among others. She is the author of two novels, The Doctor (2001) and The Quick (2007), and a collection of oral history, Rue Centrale (2013). Her bestselling non-fiction account of the 1918 flu pandemic, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World (2017), was translated into more than 20 languages. Her latest book, Proto: How Once Ancient Language Went Global, the story of the Indo-European languages, appeared in 2025. She lives in Paris. Osmothèque – international perfume archive in Versailles. Conserves 4,000 perfumes, of which 800 have “disappeared” Studs Terkel. Legendary American broadcaster, writer, actor and historian Circus elephants, or rather their owner-handlers. A dying breed, as they should be, but they deserve our compassion and respect Papuan languages. Nearly 900 of them, vast majority of which are undocumented Gloria! 2024 Italian-Swiss film, directorial debut of Margherita Vicario Marija Gimbutas. Lithuanian-born archaeologist who got it right on the word's largest language family, Indo-European This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Ukrainians have resisted Russia's aggression for years. Since the full-scale invasion of their country in 2022, Ukrainian women in particular have taken on important roles on the frontlines, in civil society, and at home. Gražina Bielousova's research examines how Ukrainian leftist feminists advocate for their causes at home and abroad, facing distinct sets of challenges as they attempt to defend their country. The Ukrainian case is also distinct in comparison to Latvia and Lithuania, whose organizing takes on different shapes for the same cause. Bielousova joins Ben Gardner-Gill to explain these interactions and discuss the ongoing process of decolonization in Baltic Studies.TranscriptBen Gardner-Gill: Hello, and welcome to Baltic Ways. I'm your co-host, Ben Gardner-Gill. Today we're talking with Gražina Belousova. Gražina is a feminist scholar of race, religion, and gender in post-Soviet Europe. She earned her PhD from Duke University in 2022. Currently, she is a postdoctoral scholar at Vilnius University's Institute of International Relations and Political Science and a researcher at Vytautas Magnus University.Her current research project focuses on leftist feminisms in East Europe in light of Russia's war against Ukraine, which will culminate in her first book, What's Left of Feminism in East Europe.Gražina, welcome to Baltic Ways.Gražina Belousova: Thank you so much for having me, Ben.BGG: So let's kick off by just hearing a little bit more about your background. I know you finished your PhD pretty recently. Could you tell us a little bit more about how you got into academia, sort of your research interests, and what you're working on at the moment?GB: Right. Yes, I just defended my PhD in 2022. It's hard to believe that it's been nearly three years now. In my PhD, I focused on historical matters. My PhD was in religion and cultural anthropology. And one of the things that I found missing when I was trying to theorize the part of the world that I call home and that most of the world calls Eastern Europe—I realized that I was lacking a solid theory that would bridge economics, anthropology, and religious studies.I wanted to understand how religious difference, especially perceived religious difference, played a role in creating the space that we call Eastern Europe today. And that took me to 18th and 19th century travel writings by Western travelers, oftentimes who were on an official mission, to the edges or to the depths of the Russian Empire.So I've read a lot of ambassadors' letters. I've read a lot of dispatches from St. Petersburg and Moscow, trying to understand how Westerners thought about that religious difference and how that thinking structured their understanding of what this place was and why it was different. What I tried to argue is actually that perceived religious difference was at the root of thinking of Eastern Europe as something different.Now, when I chose to embark on that topic, I had to put another topic aside, which was the question of very contemporary matters, the question of leftist political thought and feminism. At that point, it felt to me more pertinent to write the kind of theory that I felt was missing. When I was given the opportunity to pursue a postdoctoral position at Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, I pitched this idea to them.And we very quickly pulled together the application. And the next thing I knew, I was embarking on a project on leftist feminisms in Eastern Europe in light of the war in Ukraine. So, the path was windy, but here I am today, knees and elbows deep, in the project on leftist feminism.BGG: Wonderful. I mean, a windy path is going to be familiar to so many people listening.So, no surprise and no surprise as well that the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has really impacted your work and your life as it has for many of us. So tell us a little bit more about that.Over the last three years, we've been watching and seeing the horrors in Ukraine. From your perspective, from your academic work, what are some of the main things that you're looking at?GB: One of the things that I'm particularly interested in is the way that groups that are on the edges of society, on the margins of society, such as leftists, such as feminists, and especially leftist feminists—when the two come together and try to articulate their social and political vision and explain to themselves and to their fellow compatriots and oftentimes foreign donors, in my case, also Western leftist feminists, their relevance, how they're trying to articulate their position.War has a penchant for heightening nationalist tendencies. And this is not some kind of particular Eastern European pathology. War anywhere is going to produce these results. That is normal. People defend themselves and articulate themselves on the basis on which they're being attacked, on the basis on which they're being bombed.So this is what we are seeing in Ukraine. Leftism in Eastern Europe, because of the Soviet past, is often associated with Soviet nostalgia. Feminism, on the other hand, is oftentimes seen as something antithetical to national identity, something that is imported from the West, and something that either has no relevance or can be dangerous, especially when questions of national unity, questions of national defense come about.That is one of the reasons why I embarked on this journey, and this is one of the reasons why Ukraine had to be part of this picture. Because while the other countries that I'm looking at—Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Moldova—experience the threat of invasion, Ukraine is under attack.And one of the things that I'm finding is that Ukrainian leftist feminists are incredibly resourceful and incredibly gifted at articulating their relevance.One of the things that I'm going to say that stems from that understanding of leftist feminism that's erroneous, but that's pervasive, is that Ukrainian leftist feminists do not debate the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state. What is in question is the way things are happening under the conditions of war.The questions of most vulnerable people—so questions of what happens with people with disabilities, questions of what happens to single mothers, questions of what happens to the elderly people who are maybe unable to evacuate, questions of what happens to the working class people—all of these things are at the forefront of their minds. They're trying to be the advocates of their pleas to the larger society, while at the same time trying to articulate Ukraine's right to self-defense to Western leftist feminists.BGG: So they have both this tension, maybe tension is the wrong word, tell me if it isn't, but they have this tension internally where they're trying to advocate for what they see as justice or what is right with a domestic audience who, understandably, may be more frequently focused on what's happening at the front lines.And then there's also this international question, the foreign audience for these Ukrainian leftist feminists, who have a very different perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. And I specifically use that verbiage instead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine because they're going to think about it very differently.So let's split those out a little bit, and I want to start with the domestic. You talked about the advocacy of these leftist feminists for the most marginalized groups in society, for those who are most vulnerable.In your view, where have they been most successful, perhaps? Where have they seen actual progress happen from their advocacy?GB: One of the things that immediately comes to mind, and many of my interlocutors were directly involved with, is the nurses' movement–the unionization and self-organization of the nurses.There is a movement called Be Like Nina, referring to one of the nurses seen as a pioneer of resisting exploitation. And, of course, under the conditions of war, the labor of nurses is incredibly valuable and needed, but not always appropriately compensated. This is what we can call essential labor, especially when we talk about the front lines, where people are wounded.Many of them are wounded very badly on a daily basis. However, there are other things that are happening in the background as well. While a lot of the resources are pulled to the front, there are people who are experiencing regular daily struggles with their health. And the nurses are being stretched very thin.And this was something that was really amazing to me. This was really one of the very few instances where I saw academics who are leftist feminists actually touching the ground with their ideas: where they got involved with helping the nurses organize, but not taking the center stage, where they acted as support, as a resource, but not overtaking the movement, rather creating the conditions under which nurses themselves could articulate what it was that they needed, what their goals were.And that was incredibly impressive to me because healthcare is severely underfunded across the whole region, and to achieve such tangible goals as wage increases and regulations that empower nurses to do their job was truly impressive. With every conversation with a woman—because I specifically talk only to women—I just felt sheer amazement, because this is so contrary to so many imaginations of what civil society, self-organization, or networks are like in Eastern Europe.This is so contrary to what some have called ‘uncivil' society. What is happening is really self-organization and civil society at its best, organized by women who are oftentimes stretched very thin, not just at work, but also at home, women whose husbands are potentially on the front lines.So to me, I really cannot think of anything else that, in terms of real life impact and in terms of transforming people's lives, has been grander (I'm going to go for that word) than this.BGG: That's remarkable, and thank you for bringing that. I had very little idea of this progress and this happening.So you use the term civil society, which I think is quite apt, and Western conceptions of civil society in the region that we call Eastern Europe can be highly misguided. Let's just put it like that. I think back to a webinar that the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) hosted on Ukrainian civil society, democratization, responses to the war, and we have this comparative Ukrainian and Baltic perspective, where we looked at how Ukrainian civil society was responding.We looked at how Baltic civil society was responding, and you're doing something similar in your research here. You're looking at Latvia and Lithuania as two of the other case studies, in addition to Poland, Moldova, and, of course, Ukraine. One thing that I think we can all observe just from watching the news, let alone being in the countries as well, is that civil society across the region has had this really robust response in the last few years.So could you speak a little bit more to that in the comparative cases outside of Ukraine that you're looking at in your research, especially Latvia and Lithuania?GB: For sure. I think that in order to theorize civil society and the region in general, we need better theory than has been used often to talk about civil society at large.Here, for example, I'm thinking about Emily Channel Justice and her work and the way that she articulates the notion of self-organization. The way that she thinks about Ukraine, especially in the context of Maidan. The way that it left a self-organization, but that can be applied also to any form of civil society, regardless of ideology, is really a network of decentralized, self-organized people's groups.If you were to look for some kind of central organizing pattern, or some kind of centralized way of doing things, most likely you're not going to find it because it's based on personal network, connections, and localized issues. And I think that's definitely something that I'm seeing in Ukraine.One of the things that I'm seeing in Lithuania and Latvia is that it's going to differ slightly because there are going to be more central organizing figures. If we talk about organizing support for Ukraine, one of the things that we're going to see is that people are going to point to nationwide initiatives.Right now in Lithuania, there is an initiative called Radarum, which is a play on words, on radar and on darom, which is a Lithuanian word for let's do it. And it's a nationwide initiative to collect funds to purchase drones and anti-drone equipment for Ukraine. And there are particular faces that we associate with this initiative.National television is running ads for it. So there's a little bit more of a centralized sense to it. But once again, I would say that this is the mainstream way of organizing civil society, which, of course, with Westernization, has taken on some of the patterns that are similar to the West.If we look towards the left, we're going to see very much that it is self-organized, small groups of people who take different initiatives, such as raising funds for medical care, such as raising funds for queer people in Ukraine. So the more mainstream we go, the more patterns that are akin to those that we see in the West we're going to see.That is also going to be true in Latvia. The further left we go, the more organic, grassroots, self-organized cells of people we're going to find who participate in smaller, less visible initiatives. So that's probably the best way that I can explain the difference.BGG: Got it. We see this distinction of centralization and decentralization.One could consider these different types of movements organic in their own ways, but different in different ways. When one thinks of leftist organizing, which has a long and rich history, organic is sort of one of the key words.It's perpetual, and these society-wide initiatives, like what's currently going on in Lithuania, that we've seen across other countries over the last few years, are maybe a little bit less frequent and less common. So there's an important distinction there.So I want to pivot to the international dimension of how the Ukrainian leftist feminists are talking, especially with Western counterparts. And by Western, we mean Western Europe. We mean American and Canadian. We mean Western, as in not Eastern Europe. So could you talk a little bit about the challenges they're facing there?I think I alluded to it earlier, and you alluded to it earlier, but could you dive a little bit more into that discourse, that dialogue between the Ukrainians and their counterparts?GB: This is the main point of contention. What does it mean to be leftist? How much does local experience shape being leftist?What is the relationship of the left to the national question? And I think this is where we are seeing the real tension. Underlying this tension, of course, is the question of Russia. Let me try to unpack this. And I'm going to start from the other end than I listed, which is with the question of Russia.Eastern European in general, and Ukrainian in particular, leftist feminists have a very different understanding as to what Russia is in terms of geopolitics than the Western counterparts are going to have. This stems from very different histories. Western leftism—especially the new wave of leftism that arose in the sixties and the seventies—in many ways has redefined itself not just through the questions of class, which I would argue were lost to some extent. They lost their centrality.And they redefined themselves through the anti-colonial, anti-racist struggle. And that struggle was particularly important because after the fall of the formal colonial system, the colonial patterns of economic exploitation, of social exploitation, of brain drain still very much persisted. And naming that and defining themselves against Western neoimperialism or neocolonialism in the Global South was one of the most defining features of the Left, both in the Global South and in the West. Now, Russia at that time had positioned itself as the ally of the colonized countries. And some of it was pure show, and some of it was actual money, resources, and help that were sent, for example, to Angola. And that made a real difference. Whether that was genuine concern for the colonized people or whether that was an ideological tool is a matter of debate.Whatever it was, it had a profound impact on the way that Western leftists relate to Russia. They continue to see Russia out of that tradition, in many ways, as an ally against Western capitalism and imperialism. Their empire, against which they define themselves, continues to be in the West, and oftentimes is seen as centered on the United States.The empire against which we define ourselves in Eastern Europe is Russia, because Russia was the colonizing power in a very real sense in the region. It was our empire that subjugated us. It was the colonial power that engaged in just about every single practice in which any colonial power engages in the region.For us, if we think outside of ourselves, Russia continues to be the colonial power in the way that it relates to Central Asia, in the way that it relates to the indigenous people of Siberia, in the way that it continues to conduct business. So both the left in the West and the left in the East continue to define themselves against the empire, but disagree on who the empire is.The fundamental difference is the question of Russia. Because of the way that Western leftists, and particularly Western leftist feminists, have been taught to see the world, the way that they have been habituated to see the world, they're unable to see Russia as an aggressor. They're unable to change their narrative about how NATO might act.And of course, the criticisms of continued Western abuses of power, especially when they center on the United States—such as Afghanistan or such as Iraq, but also here in the European context, intra-European context, Serbia is another context in which that comes up—are highly debatable questions, but they're seen a certain way. They're understood in a certain way by Western leftists. And because of Russia's criticism of the West, Western leftists see it as a natural ally, or at least as an equally guilty party.BGG: That's a really great explanation. I think the way that you've laid that out makes a lot of sense.It also harkens back to where I want to bring this, which is the debate that has been going on in Baltic studies and other academic fields, especially those focusing on the region, about thinking about Baltic history in particular as a colonial history and thinking about what it means to decolonize Baltic studies as a field, to decolonize our academic thinking. There have been a lot of discussions.I know that we were in the same room at the AABS panel at Yale last year on that fantastic panel about decolonization. Where do you think this leads with regard to your research specifically? There's already this trend in this field. I get the sense that you are an advocate and moving forward in land seeking for the field as a whole to move in that direction.What do you think the next steps are? What paths do you think could be taken? What do people need to be thinking about that they may not already be thinking about?GB: Well, I think for me, the key question when we are talking about Baltic studies and decolonization is what is it that we talk about when we talk about decolonizing Baltic studies or Baltic countries?Because I think sometimes we're talking about four different things. We are talking about the question of colonialism and coloniality. That's one. We are talking about imperialism, Russian imperialism, and Russian imperiality. We are talking about Russification and what it means to de-Russify. And we are also talking about Sovietization and what it means to de-Sovietize.And I would argue that while these four concepts are very much interrelated, they have very different agendas. So, I think it's a question of definitions. How do we define what our agenda is? Which of the four do we have in mind when we talk about decolonizing Baltic countries, Baltic studies, or anything else?And I would say that each of the four has its place and is significant. But the flip side of that, especially if we stay with the question of decolonization, is the question of Western theory, practice, and scholarship as it relates to Baltic studies. Because if we go back to the early questions in the conversation of what is civil society and whether there is a civil society, Baltic countries and the region as a whole are pathologized.Because the concept of what civil society is, or is not, was based on Western understandings and Western practices. And it rendered civil society in the region invisible. In what ways does the production of scholarship and knowledge about the region continue to be based in very unequal power relationships, in such a way that it continues to pathologize the region?And these are very uncomfortable questions, because much like, you know, in the late eighteenth century when the Lithuanian Polish Commonwealth was divided between the three powers, we're facing the same question: Who is our ally? Because we have learned that Russia is definitely not, but the West is also a problematic ally.This is where I think the question of what it means to center the study of the region in the theory, in the practice, in the questions that actually originate from the ground up, rather than are solely important. And I'm not ditching all Western scholarship out the window. That would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.But I'm saying, what does it mean to balance? What does it mean to center? What does it mean to change the parameters of the conversation?BGG: Those are some weighty questions. I think they're good questions that the field is, I would say not even starting to engage with, but is engaging with, which is really excellent, but it's a long path.As anyone who is a scholar of decolonization will tell you, it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen over a decade. It's sort of a continuous process. So, I think that is where we're going to have to leave it, knowing that there is so much more we could have talked about. But, Gražina, thank you so much.This has been a fascinating conversation. Thank you for joining Baltic Ways.GB: Thank you so much for having me, Ben. It's been a privilege.To ensure you catch the next episode of Baltic Ways, make sure you're subscribed to your podcast feed or wherever you get your shows. Thanks so much, and we'll see you next time.(Image: Facebook | Феміністична майстерня)Baltic Ways is a podcast from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, produced in partnership with the Baltic Initiative at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of AABS or FPRI. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpribalticinitiative.substack.com

Christian Allyn is proud to be Lithuanian. So when he found out that the archbishop was going to close his Lithuanian church in Waterbury, Connecticut, he decided to step in. Can his appeal save St. Joseph's Church?The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional writing and reporting from Ray Suarez. It's edited by Jarrod Sport with production support from Elize Manoukian, Sienna Barnes and Joshua Dudley. It's made possible with generous support by the Henry Luce Foundation and is distributed by PRX.

Send us a textJaron "Boots" Ennis just delivered a statement performance that has the boxing world buzzing. Standing across from him was the previously undefeated Eimantas Stanionis, a fighter no one had ever been able to stop - until now. What we witnessed wasn't just a victory, but a declaration: Ennis belongs among boxing's elite.THE SPAR-INN ON YOUTUBE

Join Pamela Cook on Writes for Women as she chats with Lauren Keegan about her debut novel 'All the Bees in the Hollow.' Learn how Lauren's background in perinatal psychology shapes her storytelling and character development. Discover the intriguing folklore of Lithuanian beekeeping and the challenges of writing historical fiction. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/writes4women?fan_landing=trueSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We welcomed former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis down to the bunker. He's already been offered tea by the Kremlin and has watch Lavrov slam vodka at a meeting of diplomats. He believes that Europe has not properly woken up to Russia and has not yet made the decisions that are obvious. Gabrielius' stuff: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glandsbergis... Twitter: https://x.com/GLandsbergis   SUPPORT THE CHANNEL - BUY MASTER STRATEGIST MERCH and DARHT's BOOKS EU shop: https://darths-eu-webshop-shop.fourthwall.com/en-usd/ US/Canada/worldwide: https://darthputin-shop.fourthwall.com Buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/inthebunkerwithdarth   Katie twitter: https://x.com/kshmatsina Darth twitter: https://x.com/DarthPutinKGB Darth Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/darthputinkg... Katie Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katiebelarus...

This week on the Eurovoix Podcast, we're in Amsterdam for Eurovision in Concert - and conversations with this year's biggest stars. Steven Heap hosts Wrap-Up in the United Kingdom this week while James Stephenson travels to The Netherlands to visit Eurovision in Concert, the year's first major pre-party. There, he spoke to Finland's fan favourite Erika Vikman about her song "Ich Komme" and what she might have planned for her performance in Basel.But that's not all - we had the chance to speak to four more of this year's Eurovision line-up. You'll hear from Lithuanian rockers Katarsis about how they're bringing the energy to perform "Tavo Akys", catch up with Ziferblat on their first trip out of Ukraine in years, and James interviews his own country's act - Remember Monday. There's even one of the most unhinged interviews we've ever had on Wrap-Up, as Tommy Cash brings pure chaos to the show as he chats about Espresso Macchiato! And with six more of our Eurovision song previews, we keep assessing which songs are looking strong ahead of the contest in May.For all the build-up to Eurovision, Wrap-Up is here every Monday at 07:00 CET to bring you the world of the world's biggest song contest, wherever you are.CREDITSCreated and Produced by: James StephensonHost: Steven HeapContributors: Darshan Bijuvignesh, Davide Conte, Franciska van Waarden, James Stephenson, Neil Farren, Sem Anne van Dijk, Tamara VecicEditor: James StephensonAnd our guests from Eurovision in Concert: Erika Vikman (Finland 2025), Katarsis (Lithuania 2025), Ziferblat (Ukraine 2025), Tommy Cash (Estonia 2025) and Remember Monday (United Kingdom 2025)Want to know more about Eurovision? Read all the latest news from the contest at Eurovoix.Follow Eurovoix on XFollow Eurovoix on InstagramFollow Eurovoix on Facebook

Before taking to the stage at Amsterdam's Eurovision in Concert, Angus spoke with Katarsis for an interview. Katarsis are representing Lithuania at Eurovision 2025 with their entry “Tavo Akys” During their interview, Angus and Katarsis talked about the usual creative process when they write a song, the impact of the Lithuanian language in the contest, […] The post TEP Interviews: Katarsis (Lithuania 2025) at Eurovision in Concert 2025 appeared first on That Eurovision Site.

It's been great to live in America since World War II, but Trump is in the process of blowing up that whole order. Even Canada is looking to lead a new alliance, because how can other countries trust us after voters put the stupidest convicted American back in charge? And never forget that Russia is not on the tariff list—despite the fact that the US does more trade with Russia than a number of other countries on the list. Meanwhile, Trump opted to head to a golf tournament instead of attending the dignified return of the four dead servicemen who were killed in Lithuania. Plus, 9/11 truther Laura Loomer is running the National Security Council and we're still bombing the Houthis. Adam Kinzinger joins Tim Miller for the weekend pod. show notes Video of Lithuanians paying homage to the four American soldiers who died in a training accident Tim's playlist

On the 176th episode of the SKIDS PODCAST; The sad news of legendary actor Val Kilmer's death; Hunter S, Thompson's crazy life; Morgan Wallen's SNL appearance controversy; Cory Booker philibusters nothing for 25 hours; Pirates getting blown out of the water; Germany puts troops on Lithuanian border; Argentinian President releases previously classified documents alleging Hitler escaped to Argentina at the end of WWII; And so much more!!Coffee Brand Coffee -https://coffeebrandcoffee.com/Use the coupon code: gps1 to get 5% off your purchase.  You will be supporting an independent, growing company, as well as our show in the process!!#skids #skidspodcast #gps #garbagepailskids #podcast #comedy #discussion #commentary #valkilmer #huntersthompson #morganwallen #snl #corybooker #democrats #philibuster #congress #politics #ww3 #worldwar3 #germany #pirates #houthies #yemen #hitler #argentina #classified #documents #greywolf 

We're excited to bring you a beautiful episode of The Moth, The Rest is History.  In this hour, Henny Lewin, a young Jewish girl, is smuggled out of a Lithuanian ghetto during WWII, Musician Frank Almond makes a historic discovery, and Sivad Johnson takes us behind the scenes of the Detroit Fire Department. On Tuesdays and Fridays, The Moth's podcast feed presents episodes of the Peabody-Award Winning Moth Radio Hour and original episodes of The Moth Podcast. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AP correspondent Naeun Kim reports on an emotional sendoff for four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania.

Headlines: Trump allies push for permanent tax cut plan; Why Wisconsin matters; NASA astronauts give first interview since return to earth; migrant influencer turned squatter ringleader deported; Israel strikes Beirut; Iran’s Khamenei warns Trump; Three American soldiers deceased in Lithuanian swamp accident; Hegseth signing memo on combat arms standards for men and women; more than a fifth of adults have left religious groups they were raised in.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Donald Trump said that reciprocal tariffs he is set to announce this week will include all nations, not just a smaller group of 10 to 15 countries with the biggest trade imbalances. "You'd start with all countries," he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. "Essentially all of the countries that we're talking about."Three of the four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sank in a peat bog have been found dead at the site, while the search for the remaining soldier continues, the Lithuanian president said on Monday.The Thai government announced a probe on March 29 of a 33-story building that collapsed during the recent 7.7 magnitude earthquake in neighboring Burma, with nine construction workers confirmed dead and around 100 still missing. The building was a joint Thai–Chinese construction project. Located some 800 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, the building was the only high-rise in Thailand to collapse during the March 28 quake.

In the latest episode of Nerd Out, Dave and Alec talked about the following topics.Quick thoughts on Signal-gate.Deep dive into radicalization including the latest trends, concerning behaviors and what individuals and organizations can do.Other all-hazard quick hits.Some of the references from the show include:Youth RadicalizationYoung people and violent extremism: a call for collective action - https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Unclassified-Five-Eyes-CT-minors-paper.pdfYoung guns: Understanding a new generation of extremist radicalization in the United States - https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Young-guns_Understandings-a-new-generation-of-extremist-radicalization-in-the-United-States.pdfTeenage Terrorists and the Digital Ecosystem of the Islamic State - https://ctc.westpoint.edu/teenage-terrorists-and-the-digital-ecosystem-of-the-islamic-state/Antioch, Tenn., Shooter Inspired by Broad Extremist Beliefs and Previous Mass Killers - https://www.adl.org/resources/article/antioch-tenn-shooter-inspired-broad-extremist-beliefs-and-previous-mass-killersEnhancing Bystander Reporting to Prevent Terrorism - https://www.dni.gov/index.php/nctc-how-we-work/joint-ct-assessment-team/first-responder-toolbox/terrorism-prevention/enhancing-bystander-reporting-to-prevent-terrorism#:~:text=The%20First%20Responder's%20Toolbox%20is,and%20responding%20to%20terrorist%20attacks.Quick hitsU.S. Military Targets Houthis in Yemen - https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-us-airstrikes-israel-hamas-takeaways-0d080ffc7c01b423cb81ec27713cdbc7Israel Resume Combat Operations in Gaza - https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/israel-gaza-war-resumes-airstrikes-hamasCENTCOM Forces Kill ISIS Chief of Global Operations Who Also Served as ISIS #2 - https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4121311/cent[…]ll-isis-chief-of-global-operations-who-also-served-as-isis-2/Russia behind arson attack on Ikea store in Lithuanian capital, says prosecutor - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/17/russia-behind-arson-attack-on-ikea-store-in-lithuania-capital-says-prosecutorDieNet Activity Escalates Against US Organizations - (hacktivists - geopolitical threat actors targeting wide variety of infrastructure) -  https://www.radware.com/security/threat-advisories-and-attack-reports/dienet-activity-escalates-against-us-organizations/Thailand - Myanmar earthquake - https://apnews.com/article/thailand-earthquake-bangkok-4fce87aced74b1fc0cf260fb5454d353

With Ukraine and Russia in the throes of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire, Westminster Insider Host Sascha O'Sullivan talks to some of the leading figures on the frontline of the war with Russia. She speaks to Finnish Minister for Nordic Co-Operation Anders Adlercreutz, who told her Finland has never stopped buying tanks and building bomb shelters, for fear of a Russian invasion, and builds resilience at every level through initiatives like media literacy to protect from ‘hybrid threats' such as misinformation. Lithuania Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė told Sascha Russia could be ready for a full scale invasion into her country – and NATO territory – in less than a decade. And she said Lithuanian's were prepared for what this means: “prison, torture and deportation”. Former NATO director of Planning and Policy Fabrice Pothier explains the risk of NATO losing it's relevance without the U.S. as a reliable ally, and warns it could undermine any security guarantees put in place in the event of a ceasefire. Ukrainian journalist at the Spectator Svitlana Morenets reflects on what it's like covering a war in her own homeland – and where Ukraine's redlines would be. Back home in the U.K., Sascha speaks to Denzil Davidson, a former Foreign Office and No10 advisor, about Britain's willingness to warm up it's relationship with the E.U. and how the lack of support from U.S. President Donald Trump could open up “a serious opportunity” for British politicians to step up in Europe. And Arminka Helic, another former Foreign Office advisor, tells Sascha that everyone in the country should stock up on enough basic supplies to last them 72 hours without electricity or water. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com* The golden age of Oaktown's 357 ("I just put Juicy, Got Him Crazy into Chat GPT to determine what it's about and it is definitely a song about...."* Yes, we briefly talk about forgotten about rappers and their dumb lyrics* Pumps and the Bump* Grok has this to say about our Hammer convo: “The casual acceptance of MC Hammer's Speedo situation is absurdly funny.”

Have you ever wondered how the wisdom of your ancestors could guide you today? In this video, I explore the power of reconnecting with our roots—honoring the land, the traditions, and the sacred images that shaped those who came before us.I'll share three key ways to start unlocking the healing wisdom of your lineage:1. Inquiry – Asking questions, seeking out family stories, and researching your heritage.2. Iconography – Discovering the symbols, plants, and figures that held meaning for your ancestors.3. Rituals – Embracing ancestral foods, seasonal practices, and creative handiwork.I'll also share my own journey of diving into my Sicilian and Lithuanian roots and how this process has brought me deeper peace and meaning. In a world that often feels disconnected, reclaiming our ancestral traditions can be a powerful way to ground ourselves, find belonging, and embrace the wisdom within our lineage.Join me as we rediscover these lost healing traditions together!

Today's West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy Podcast for our especially special Daily Special, River City Hash Mondays is now available on the Spreaker Player!​​​​​​​Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, the Chief Judge of the DC Circuit Court has substantially expanded his Temporary Restraining Order against Trump's phony "declaration of war" to lawlessly use the war time powers of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport migrants.Then, on the rest of the menu, a DOGE goon is accused of breaking Treasury privacy rules by circulating a spreadsheet with personal information to other people in the Trump administration; Trump ramps up rhetoric targeting the courts amid his mounting legal setbacks; and, staff cuts at federal agencies overseeing US dams are threatening their ability to provide reliable electricity, supply farmers with water and protect communities from floods.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table where Lithuanian authorities say Russian military intelligence was behind an arson attack at an IKEA store in Vilnius; and, new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Paris and London to seek alliances as he deals with Trump's attacks on Canada's sovereignty and economy.Bon Appétit!The Netroots Radio Live Player​Keep Your Resistance Radio Beaming 24/7/365!"I was never a spy. I was with the OSS organization. We had a number of women, but we were all office help." -- Julia ChildBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/west-coast-cookbook-speakeasy--2802999/support.

A Golden Age Hollywood star in every sense, at just 16 Ruta Lee was  cast in the all-time great movie musical, 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers', subsequently becoming the designated smoldering beauty, spicy sexpot and fiery vixen in  iconic TV Westerns, mysteries and dramas of  the '50s and '60s. She is celebrating her 90th birthday in classic Ruta fashion: with a one-woman show, fabulously titled 'Consider Your Ass Kissed! This week she brings her legendary inside showbiz lore and boundless energy to the Media Path studio!Ruta's story begins with her Lithuanian background and parents who escaped the oppression of the Communist regime to Montreal, Quebec, where Ruta was born, singing and dancing. Her mother reached out to a Lithuanian priest in Los Angeles and thus began the plan to head for Hollywood.Ruta's Hollywood High training prepared her to land roles on The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show, The Roy Rogers Show and then iconic films including Funny Face with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn and Sergeants Three with The Rat Pack! Ruta recounts her heroic efforts to extract her Grandmother from a Siberian internment camp. She took her request straight to Khrushchev! She tells us about her work with The Thalians, an organization founded by Hollywood actors to help children receive mental health care. Also, what is Audrey Hepburn's keep-slim advice? And what job yielded Ruta the most lucrative income? And with public speaking being our number one fear, Rick Mitchell joins us to talk about his new book, one of the most crucial reference guides of all time, 'How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Graduation & Every Other Event You Didn't Want to Go to in the First Place'!In recommendations-- Weezy: "Reality Winner Noir" - Reality (2023) on Max and Winner (2024) on HuluFritz: 'Nickel Boys' now streaming on PrimePath Points of Interest:Ruta Lee Consider Your Ass Kissed by Ruta LeeRuta Lee in“CONSIDER YOUR ASS KISSED”At The Purple Room in Palm Springs, Saturday & Sunday, March 29th and 30that The El Portal Theatre, Friday, May 30th, 2025Ruta Lee on WikipediaRuta Lee on FacebookThe ThaliansRick MitchellHow to Write a Funny Speech Buy LinksNickel Boys (2024)Reality (2023) on MaxWinner (2024) on HuluMedia Path Podcast

Dirtybird Radio welcomes Lithuanian-born and Ibiza-based Greta Levska, whose unique fusion of electro, tech and house has been moving crowds at iconic venues all over the legendary Spanish island. Her guest set includes some of her current favorite selects as well as a few brand new tunes ready for the upcoming season. VR warm-up set:Will Clarke & DJ Funk - "Booty Percolatin'" [Dirtybird Records]Gettoblaster & DJ Funk - "Get Dat" [Dirtybird Records]Kill Frenzy feat. DJ Funk - "Make That Booty Clap" [Dirtybird Records]DJ Funk - "House The Groove" [Dance Mania]Greta Levska guest set:Greta Levska - BASSID - ID Dukwa- where everything's fake Greta Levska, Last Magpie - Sands Of Time No_ip - Don't Look Back Greta Levska - ID Raxon - Acid Call Greta Levska - ID ID - ID Martin Landsky- Fools (They Don't Know The Time)

In this video, I explore the true meaning of “politics” and how understanding its roots can help us move beyond overwhelm and into action. We'll look at history for guidance—where systems fail us, where they offer hope, and how we can take small yet meaningful steps toward change.One of the voices that inspires me is Marija Gimbutas, a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist who uncovered evidence of matriarchal societies in "Old Europe"—cultures rooted in peace, equality, and cooperation. Her work reminds me that another way is possible, and that we have the power to shape it.I'll share what I see as the two essential pillars for reclaiming our power: the path of prayer and the path of action. These together form a stable foundation for meaningful work in the world. Along the way, I'll provide links to resources—books, films, and organizations—that can help you connect with movements for change, including plant-protecting initiatives across the country.We are not powerless. Small steps matter. I'll show you how to start.————MY ONLINE COURSES

Full Text of ReadingsTuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 348The Saint of the day is Saint CasimirSaint Casimir's Story Casimir, born of kings and in line to be a king himself, was filled with exceptional values and learning by a great teacher, John Dlugosz. Even his critics could not say that his conscientious objection indicated softness. As a teenager, Casimir lived a highly disciplined, even severe life, sleeping on the ground, spending a great part of the night in prayer and dedicating himself to lifelong celibacy. When nobles in Hungary became dissatisfied with their king, they prevailed upon Casimir's father, the king of Poland, to send his son to take over the country. Casimir obeyed his father, as many young men over the centuries have obeyed their governments. The army he was supposed to lead was clearly outnumbered by the “enemy”; some of his troops were deserting because they were not paid. At the advice of his officers, Casimir decided to return home. His father was irked at the failure of his plans, and confined his 15-year-old son for three months. The lad made up his mind never again to become involved in the wars of his day, and no amount of persuasion could change his mind. He returned to prayer and study, maintaining his decision to remain celibate even under pressure to marry the emperor's daughter. He reigned briefly as king of Poland during his father's absence. He died of lung trouble at 25 while visiting Lithuania, of which he was also Grand Duke. He was buried in Vilnius, Lithuania. Reflection For many years, Poland and Lithuania faded into the gray prison on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Despite repression, the Poles and Lithuanians remained firm in the faith which has become synonymous with their name. Their youthful patron reminds us: Peace is not won by war; sometimes a comfortable peace is not even won by virtue, but Christ's peace can penetrate every government repression of religion. Saint Casimir is the Patron Saint of: LithuaniaPolandRussia The Catholic Saints and Us Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

PM Anthony Albanese says federal government support will be made available to state governments ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred making landfall. A Lithuanian rower has been rescued off the Queensland coast, after he was caught in the waves and wind generated by a tropical cyclone. - 予想されているサイクロン・アルフレッドの上陸に先駆けアルバニージ首相は連邦政府より州政府への支援を行うと発言しました。　ローイング・ボートで太平洋を単独横断中に遭難していたリトアニア人の男性が、オーストラリア海軍により無事救助されました。

This week Andrew and Ted sit down to discuss Apple TV's "The Gorge" starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller. This Scott Derrickson (Director) / Zach Dean (Writer) thriller / action / romantic feature explores the lives and building relationship of Lithuanian mercenary Drasa (Taylor-Joy) and American mercenary Levi Kane (Teller) as they stand post on opposite sides of the expansively wide and deep gorge that is home a vast number of zombie esk humans trying to escape. Tune in to hear what Andrew and Ted have to say about Apple TV's swing at a big budget feature.

Is the Trump idea for Gaza a good one? Yishai breaks down the Trump Netanyahu press conference. Jake Turx, Chief Whitehouse Correspondent for Mishpacha Magazine, joins Yishai from DC to get a sense of the atmosphere there. Then, Malkah Fleisher helps understand the significance of Trump's first two weeks in office. Finally, Ben Bresky on rebuilding a Lithuanian yeshiva in Israel after the Holocaust. Plus, Table Torah on defeating Amalek!

SEASON 2025 EPISODE 5: Is the Trump idea for Gaza a good one? Yishai breaks down the Trump-Netanyahu press conference. Jake Turx, Chief White House Correspondent for Mishpacha Magazine, joins Yishai from DC to get a sense of the atmosphere there. Then, Malkah Fleisher helps understand the significance of Trump's first two weeks in office. Finally, Ben Bresky on rebuilding a Lithuanian yeshiva in Israel after the Holocaust. Plus, Table Torah on defeating Amalek!SPONSOR LINKS:The Israel Bible https://theisraelbible.com/Prohibition Pickle https://www.facebook.com/Prohibitionpickle/Hebron Fund https://hebronfund.org/The Jewish Press https://www.jewishpress.com/JNS https://www.jns.org/Kosher Cycle Tours http://www.KosherCycleTours.comPODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://yishaifleisher.com/podcast/Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3mIsdfUSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oP2Reo4JYnfIJdDUrQS2cRSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1271258.rssYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/YishaiFleisherTVSUPPORT & CONNECT:Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcastSupport on Givecloud: https://kumah.givecloud.co/Twitter: https://twitter.com/YishaiFleisherInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yishaifleisherLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yishaifleisher/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YishaiFleisherSupport the show