Podcasts about sochi russia

Our guest this week is Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada. You can find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com.   TRANSCRIPT: Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:14): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I am Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historical context in which these events occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. The question before us is what has happened to academic freedom and free speech? For example, there's an article in the Manitoban, the student newspaper of the University of Manitoba Canada, and it's entitled you of Manitoba, professor Soft on Putin, an Alumnus, thoughts on a Professor's Interactions with President Putin. My guest is a professor in the Department of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada. She's an author of numerous books, and she's the subject of this article. She's Dr. Radhika Desai. Dr. Desai, welcome to the show, and let's connect some dots. Dr. Radhika Desai (01:44): Absolutely. Wilma, let's get going. Dr. Wilmer Leon (01:46): So you and your husband attended the Valdi Discussion Club and all expenses paid trip to Sochi Russia. You went earlier this month and this forum, the Valdi Forum, is billed as a wide ranging conference about international issues. Russian President Putin speaks at the conference every year. Now, as a result of your attending this revered and respected international conference, you and your husband have come under attack. So if you would please, first let's explain to the audience what is the VALDI Conference? Dr. Radhika Desai (02:25): So the Valdi Club is called the Valdi Discussion Club, and as its name indicates, every year, well, first of all, it holds discussions of course, throughout the year. It has a very good website with some leading commentators from around the world posting analysis of what's going on in the world, in the world economy, in world politics, et cetera. And then every year it has an annual conference to which it's an invitation only event. And of course the press is there as well. And every year they essentially analyze the world context in which the fast changing world context, shall we say, it's been going for 20 years. Indeed, the last conference we went to was the 20th Anniversary conference. A couple of other things about it that are important is that firstly, because Russia has been, if you think about the last 20 years from 2004 onwards, Russia has really been sort of in the eye of the storm that is changing the world so quickly and so rapidly, particularly over the last few years. (03:28) So that conference is actually a very fascinating conference to be at because people from, as I say all over the world, experts and academics, and even people, former diplomats, et cetera, all these sorts of people who really know what's going on attend the Wildlife Conference. So these conversations are absolutely fascinating. And second, the second thing I wanted to say is that of course the organization was set up by a few academics. As you say, president Putin always speaks at it. And in a certain sense, it will be interesting to think of it as the Russian equivalent of, for example, the Council of Foreign Relations in the United States or the Royal Institute of International Affairs, otherwise known as Chatham House in the United Kingdom. Dr. Wilmer Leon (04:17): And so you and your husband attended the conference and you even were able to submit a, well, you and your husband were able to submit a question to President Putin. And one of the things that for me is utterly amazing is he takes all comers, the questions aren't really screened. You're able to ask him anything that's relevant to world events, and he will at times speak for two and three hours just openly engaging with the press. Absolutely. I can't imagine Joe Biden, I can't imagine Barack Obama, bill Clinton. I could see doing it, but because it's so, it's structured but unstructured. Dr. Radhika Desai (05:12): Yeah, I mean, you are absolutely right about that. And I think the fact that we have political leaders who can barely read a teleprompter, let alone talk for four hours to essentially unscripted questions. This is really quite interesting. But anyway, to get to the point, president Putin, I've asked questions before. So I remember earlier in a 2014 Valdi Club conference when I had a previous possibility of asking a question, it was completely unscripted. And I had asked him about his economic policies for Russia and why he wasn't being, shall we say, more developmental in his policies. In one of my criticisms of President Putin would be that his economic policies remain a bit too neoliberal even today. I mean, of course they've become much more developmental than they were in 2014, but that's a small point. But anyway, this time around Dr. Wilmer Leon (06:05): Minute, it's important I think for people to realize that not only is Vladimir Putin and attorney, he has a PhD in economics. Dr. Radhika Desai (06:17): Yes. Dr. Wilmer Leon (06:18): A lot of people don't know that. Dr. Radhika Desai (06:21): True. Exactly. And as I say, I mean, in fact, I have a very good friend of mine pointed this out to me years ago that Putin is one of the few people who can simply give speeches that are really interesting, historically informed as he did this time around, and then engage with the audience on unscripted questions, giving a wealth of information and detail about what his government is doing. So it is really quite interesting. But anyway, this time around in more recent years, we have been asked to submit questions. So I submitted a question last year, but I wasn't called upon to ask my question, but this year I was called upon, and the question, I actually hadn't submitted a question when we set off, but then the Canadian Parliament engaged in the most astonishing act, essentially the Canadian Parliament on the occasion of President Vome Zelinsky visit to Canada, invited to Parliament, a man, a very old man, a 98-year-old man who was billed as a great hero veteran who had fought against the Russians. And the entire Parliament stood up and clapped. And by the next day, however, essentially the, you know what had hit the fan and the entire country was a Russian news stories about how this man was a Nazi. Now, how could such a thing happen? The fact of the matter is we have a deputy prime minister who is of Ukrainian heritage, who has a PhD in Russian and Ukrainian studies. There's absolutely no way that the Canadian government did not know that it was bringing a Nazi to Parliament. There were Dr. Wilmer Leon (08:08): Hoka is his name. Dr. Radhika Desai (08:11): Exactly. So Mr. Hunka, the Parliament, not even a single person in the hundreds of people in Parliament actually thought to ask, wait a minute, if he was fighting the Russians in the Second World War, who was he fighting with? And then it emerged that he was a member of a certain Kian division in the Waff ss. And this was actually totally a collaborationist Nazi unit which had participated in the genocide of Jews, Russians polls, and of course, Roma President Putin, in response to my question, also reminded us that an uncounted number of Roma people had also been attacked by these people and eliminated by these people. So anyway, no one in parliament had the guts to ask this question. And to me, and the whole country, of course, was shocked and really, and I felt it was really important to give President Putin a chance to have his say on this matter, because which is the country that is most wronged by this, it is Russia. Because of course, the direct target of this action was of course Russia. We were applauding Mr. Hunker because he had fought the Russias. So what better thing to do than to ask the president of that country, who by the way, is also the target of a demonization campaign in the Western media. (09:43) It's as though Putin is some kind of a macabre, omnipotent person who runs everything in Russia. Everything that happens in Russia, and quite frankly, everything that happens abroad, which is not good, is usually attributed to Russia, which is so the point. Dr. Wilmer Leon (09:59): Russia, I even wonder, was he responsible for the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, and did he murder Jimmy Hoffa? I mean, he gets accused of everything. Dr. Radhika Desai (10:11): Of everything, exactly. And the fact is, we have to remember that if it had not been for the Russian contribution to the Second World War, if it had not been for the Russian effort, which cost Russia anywhere between 25 and 30 million lives, I mean, this is, Dr. Wilmer Leon (10:27): We'd all be speaking German now. Dr. Radhika Desai (10:30): Well, exactly. I mean, it was the critical contribution to the defeat. I mean, think about it this way. The Soviet Union rescued the capitalist west from its own, shall we say, from the very monster that it had created, namely fascism and Nazim. So in that sense, in this current war, which is essentially a proxy war, that the US is waging against Russia using Ukraine as proxies, fighting Russians, as John Muir Heimer likes to say, to the last Ukrainian in this war, all we hear in the West about Russia is of course the wall to wall propaganda that is everywhere. It's anti Putin and it's even anti-Russia. We are de platforming Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky. I mean, this is ridiculous. And so it has gone to such an extent. And so one of our purposes in attending the conference was that we want to remain in touch. (11:32) We have many friends in Russia. We have had long collaboration with a whole variety of Russian scholars and academics, so why shouldn't we go? And in fact, just a few days before we were to arrive in Russia, the Canadian government imposed sanctions on Russia, and we immediately got down, Valdi wrote to us saying, we have have been sanctioned by your government. If you do not come, we would understand. Please make up your mind and let us know whether you'll be coming or not. We sat down and read the sanctions law. We realized that it does not apply to attending a conference. It applies essentially to doing business with providing buying and selling goods, providing finance, et cetera, et cetera. So these were the sorts of activities to which it applies. Anyway, so we decided to go and we went. And so essentially, I am being pilloried, we are being pilled foregoing at all. (12:29) And for asking this question, which according to the media gave, it was a sort of softball question to Putin, which allowed him to essentially talk about how ridiculous Canada had been. This was called by some people who are, of course, we can talk about who these people are as well, but they're highly politically motivated, and this was called morally reprehensible. I ask you, what is morally reprehensible for 400 plus people who are the elected representatives of the nation who have the, shall we say, the honor and dignity of the nation to maintain, to indulge in and act like this, and to applaud Mr. Somebody like Mr. Hunker, or is it reprehensible to ask the president of the country, which is already the target of so much attack, giving him a chance to say something meaningful about how bad Canada Canada's leaders have been? Essentially the entire political class in Canada, in a single act discredited itself. I mean, this is how bad things have got. Dr. Wilmer Leon (13:36): And as a result of this, your prime minister, Justin Trudeau, apologized profusely called the honoring of Mr. Hunka in your parliament, a joint session of Parliament as an accident. But here's what I find to be really, really confusing, is Zelensky was there, and Hunka was brought in as a kind of a tangential honoring of Zelensky. And what we know very clearly, even though many in Western mainstream media don't want to discuss this, is that with organizations like the Wright sector and the as Ofv Battalion in Ukraine, that there are Nazis many call, but they ain't nothing neo about 'em. They are Nazis who honor the late Stefan Bandera, who was a just brutal, horrific war criminal. And so all of this was orchestrated as a way to pay homage to Zelensky and then pay homage to the Nazis that the United States is paying training and organizing with in Ukraine. Now, is that rhetoric on my part or is that supported by the data? Dr. Radhika Desai (15:09): Absolutely supported by the data. I mean, and by the way, it's not just the United States, the Canada, and the Oh yeah, absolutely are also contributing to the training and equipping of this army, of which Nazis are such an important and big part. In fact, I would say they're the kind of cutting edge of the army. So absolutely this is the point. But the other thing that occurs to me when you were sort of reeling out all these facts is that we are often told when we point out that there are Nazis, Ukraine has a Nazi problem, we are told, oh, well, of course Ukraine has no Nazi problem because President Zelensky is Jewish, Dr. Wilmer Leon (15:47): A Jewish. So here Dr. Radhika Desai (15:47): You are, you want to respect this Jewish gentleman who is, and you bring a Nazi and applaud him in front of this guy. What kind of a ridiculous thing it is. Wilma, I think many people, of course, prime Minister Trudeau said, oh, it was a regrettable mistake. It was a tragic accident, et cetera. There was nothing accidental about it. The fact of the matter is that nobody gets into Parliament without being vetted. The people would've known there's an entire process of vetting, and even if there was no process of vetting, the fact of the matter is that our Deputy Prime Minister, Christia Freeland, is not only of Ukrainian origin in Canada, her ancestors have been the beneficiaries of laws that explicitly encouraged Nazis to immigrate to Canada in the post-second World War period at a time when it was difficult for Jews to immigrate to Canada. (16:50) Jews who had been fleeing what remained of the Jews in Europe who were fleeing Europe at the time, even they were not welcome in Canada, but the Nazis were welcome. And what's more Christia Freeland, she is the granddaughter of one of these people. Now, nobody can help who our parents and grandparents are. I mean, that's not her fault. But what she has done is she has consistently maintained that she's very proud of her grandfather. She believes he's a great hero, even though it has been revealed that he too was a close follower of Bandera, was working very closely with them. All this stuff has come out in the newspapers, and it has simply the mainstream press after one or two stories are published, they completely sort of forget about it. And Christia Freeland also has a PhD in Russian and Slavic studies. She speaks Russian, she speaks Ukrainian. She speaks many other European languages, absolutely no way. She did not know that Mr. Hunker was, this person was essentially a Nazi. So the idea that it was a mistake that only the speaker has to resign, and then everything is fine. This is completely ridiculous. Dr. Wilmer Leon (18:12): What, if anything, does this say to you about the broader issue or context of white supremacy? And what I mean by that is when I was in high school and learning history, oh, the Nazis were evil, Hitler was evil. All of that is true, and Hitler was vilified. The Nazis are vilified, and oh, the one thing you don't want to be called other than anti-Semitic, you don't want to be called a Nazi. But what we find out now is the United States worked with them in World War ii, the United States insured Safe Passage, and I say United States, and also in that is United States allies insured safe passage of a lot of Nazis to the United States, to Canada, to South America. So one, then I think this only begs the question was or was the conflict, or is the conflict not so much ideological, but procedural? Oh, because does that make sense? I think you got my question. Dr. Radhika Desai (19:32): Yeah. I mean, I think that of course, during the, first of all, in order to understand the second World War, you have to see in a certain sense, the first World War and the second World War as a single conflict, it was a single inter imperialist conflict. So in that sense, the First World War, everybody recognizes that it was an inter imperialist conflict in which although Western countries, the Anglo-American part of the west continues to maintain the silly idea of German guilt. In reality, all the imperialist powers, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, everybody included, were all equally complicit in the outbreak of the First World War. So there was this conflict, and then after it ended the versa, so-called Versailles settlement actually settled very little. It simply laid the foundations of the causes that would lead to the Second World War, because as I say, it settled very little. (20:35) So in that sense, the second World War also has to be seen as an inter imperialist conflict with one big difference. And that is that the Soviet Union and also Chinese forces, communists, but also nationalists, but mostly communists, these forces were the ones who were able to turn the tide and save the liberal west. I put this in quotes because, but in name, at least these were the liberal west as against the fascist west, and they were able to save the liberal west from the fascist west. But of course, contrary to the notion that somehow fascism and communism are closely connected, in fact, fascism is the progeny of capitalism. Many would say that once you get to the monopoly stage of capitalism, which we were at basically in the early 20th century, already fascism is inherent in the system. It is a permanent temptation, a permanent possibility. And it is not surprising by the way, that today we are seeing the resurgence of fascist forces. And this resurgence is also facilitated by something else you alluded to, which is that, so we fought the Nazis in the Second World War, but you know that before the onset of the Second World War, many major world leaders were sympathetic to the Nazis. Many major western leaders were sympathetic to the Nazis, to the fascists in Italy and so on. George Dr. Wilmer Leon (22:06): Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazis in World War ii. Dr. Radhika Desai (22:11): Very interesting, very interesting. I didn't know that. But yes, or people like Churchill and so on, they were secretly or openly the royal family for that matter, everything. So I mean this already then of course, there was this terrible war and the discovery of the Holocaust and all of these things, but even thereafter, in order to preserve capitalism, in order to ensure that the enormous sympathy that communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular had among the masses of Europe, would be pushed back essentially the West Connived in keeping many fascists in power in countries like Germany, Italy, and elsewhere. So in that sense, there was already this collaboration. And since that time, I mean, the fact of the matter is that, take for instance, something very recent, the Bernie Sanders Trump thing, Sanders campaign as a left-wing politician, he was absolutely not allowed to come anywhere near power. I mean, not within sniffing distance of power, but the election of Trump could be tolerated. (23:27) And so we see that fascist temptation is always there, and it is, the bias of the system is so much to the right. And today we are in this absolutely awful situation in which we have completely useless leadership, but the only opposition to this completely useless leadership that western countries have comes from the right because the left over the last so many decades has been completely beaten down. You began this conversation by asking about academic freedom and freedom of speech and what is happening. I should say, by the way, for the record, that my university has maintained the academic freedom stance, and I'm glad that is so that's very good. However, the fact that you can be pilled on Twitter and by personal emails that I'm sent on Facebook, et cetera, for essentially doing something very simple like putting a question in a conference, this kind of behavior, this kind of cancel culture that exists, this is essentially, you can say it is the verbal version of the sort of vigilante action which is associated with fascism. There's absolutely no doubt about it. Dr. Wilmer Leon (24:47): In this article that I referenced in the Open an Alumnus thoughts on professors' interactions with Russian President, I'm going to read a bit of it. I'm an alumnus of the Department of Political Studies, and I am a former student of Professor Desai. I cannot say that I aligned with all of her positions at the time, but after finding out that she had spent part of last week shilling for War Mongerer Putin, I found her actions to be particularly disgusting. The student continues, former student continues, A discussion club may seem like a noble endeavor in a free and democratic society. However, in Putin's Russia, public discourse is manipulated and dissenters are repressed and punished. I would be shocked if this Valdi forum was anything more than premeditated theater for Putin to stoke his own ego. Couple of things. One, if this was a former student of yours, this individual obviously didn't spend a lot of time paying attention in class. (25:52) That's the first point. And this idea that in Putin's Russia public discourse is manipulated, I would ask the individual that wrote this, if they know anything about Julian Assange and what the United States is doing, what Joe Biden is trying to do to Julian Assange, then this idea that public discourse is manipulated. This individual obviously knows nothing about what Tony Blinken did before he became Secretary of State trying to kill the story of Joe Biden's son Hunter and the Hunter Biden laptop story. So all of this is subterfuge and rhetoric, but this is just one example. There are what, five or six articles that have been written against you. Speak to that, please. Dr. Radhika Desai (26:48): Yeah, I mean, first of all, let me just say that this idea that there is no freedom of speech in Russia, and for that matter in China, I often encounter this because as it happens, I have a very big range of academic connections, both in Russia and China. And I visit these countries regularly for conferences and so on. And what I found is very ironic, but the actual spectrum of opinion in both of these countries in Russia and China is actually much broader. In all of these countries, you have sort of open expression of neoliberal positions on the one hand on the right, and then socialist positions on the other. And everything in between is at least expressed. Whereas what we find here is that there is a systematic suppression by the mainstream media of anything but a set of views within a fairly narrow spectrum of opinion. (27:47) And people like the author of this article, some of the authors of the reporters and others who have written other articles who have been participating in an attempt to create a Twitter storm against me, which hasn't been very successful. But nevertheless, the attempt is made. What these people do is they're sort of what I call the ankle biting little yappy dogs of the authorities who kind of try to do some of the little work for the authorities. So that's what they're trying to do. Now, I do want to say one or two other things about it. There is no doubt that there is a certain amount of censorship in Russia. For example, my very good friend Boris Kaki, who is one of the contacts, he's a very fine scholar, a very prominent historian, sociologist of Russia. He's also a political activist. He has run for parliament. (28:37) He works actively for essentially trying to promote some sort of socialism in Russia. Now, as it happens, he is deeply opposed to this war. I mean, I'm opposed to any war as well. I don't think it's a very good way of settling things. But by not entirely agreeing with Boris, I think that I understand his position. Anyway, Boris has essentially been jailed by some part of the state apparatus for essentially allegedly AB betting terrorism. I can't believe that. And few people who have been pillaring me for asking Putin this question about what happened in the Canadian parliament mentioned the fact that I had actually two things to ask President Putin. The first was about this matter that we've already discussed about the Canadian Parliament, and the second was a personal appeal that he himself look into the matter of Boris Kaki, along with some friends. (29:37) We delivered a letter to him, in which we also pointed out that there was absolutely nothing to be gained by doing this in any case. So my point is that there is a certain amount of censorship in these countries, but as you rightly point out, such censorship also exists in our country. Look at what we are doing to Julian Assange or Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning or a whole range of other academics who've actually lost their positions for the views they've expressed and so on. So I mean, this sort of persecution is going on all the time, but in the West, we don't just have this censorship of what I call the censorship of sticks. We also have the censorship of carrots. And what do I mean by that? Essentially, the entire media world and the academic world is manipulated by essentially giving out everybody, making it known that if you repeat what we want you to repeat, you will get a good job. (30:36) You will get promotion, you will get grants, you will get preferment, you'll get tenure, tenure. You'll get to hold the, that is the media. So all of these things are available provided you do certain things. And a lot of people, too many people, I would say most people in academia tend to fall for some version of this. I don't say all because there are still independent voices in academia and more power to them and more power to us. But nevertheless, too many people fall for this because it's just so easy and it's so convenient. So anyway, the point is that both of these forms of censorship exists, and what they have done is they have narrowed the spectrum of opinion. (31:21) And this is a very serious problem because the West is now part of the reason why nobody said anything in Parliament is because also in parliament where our leaders, our elected representatives are supposed to speak their mind, to represent the ordinary people. They are essentially not doing their job. So our political systems are broken. As a result, we desperately need to widen the spectrum of opinion to have more voices speaking out. This is key. Now, I think if we continue, because it's also fueling the wars that our countries are promoting around the world. Now we have, until recently we had Ukraine. Now we also have Israel Gaza, which is getting to be exceedingly dangerous. And tomorrow, by the way, we might have one with China. Dr. Wilmer Leon (32:10): And to your point about censorship and what's going on in Gaza, and to your student that talks about suppression in Russia, university of California, Berkeley law professor Stephen Davidoff Solomon called out some of his students for supporting anti-Semitic conduct on campus. What this law professor did was wrote a open letter to the law firms that he is in touch with telling them not to hire certain of his students who have proven to be pro-Palestinian. Quote, my students are largely engaged and well-prepared, and I regularly recommend them to legal employers. But if you don't want to hire people who advocate hate and practice discrimination, don't hire some of my students. anti-Semitic conduct is nothing new on university campuses, including here at Berkeley. That's just one example of the stifling pressure that academics are imposing upon their own students. We know what happened at Harvard, thank God the president of Harvard, I think her last name is professor President Gay, did not succumb to the requests and the pressure to turn over the names of Harvard students that were protesting in support of Palestine. I believe the same thing has happened at Columbia University. So these are just examples, real clear examples of how stifling the pressure can be in the United States. Dr. Radhika Desai (33:59): Absolutely. And when you do that with students, it's a bit like get them young, so that sort of slap them into shape before they get into bad habits sort of thing, according to the authorities. But this sort of thing is going on around the world in the uk. They're trying to ban the Palestinian flag and trying to essentially, they're persecuting people for going to pro-Palestinian demonstrations. But you know what? Wilmuth around the world, what we are seeing, especially in the Western world, is that the Western world's leaderships, which are all repeating the same mantra of Israel, has the right to defend itself completely ignoring the context, et cetera, the historical context and everything. They are completely out of touch with the vast majority of the people. Dr. Wilmer Leon (34:51): And they're ignoring international law. Dr. Radhika Desai (34:55): Indeed. And they, in fact, absolutely, they keep saying that they should abide by international law. But the fact of the matter is Israel is not abiding by international law. It has already declared that it is at war, but at the same time, it is essentially by corralling all the people of Gaza into Gaza, not allowing them to leave, depriving them of water, electricity, sanitation, bombing hospitals killing children over 2000 of them already. This is completely against international law and Dr. Wilmer Leon (35:33): It, it's called collective punishment. And collective punishment is a war crime. Now, I don't think you're making that up. I know I'm not making that up. If you pay any attention to the International criminal court, if you know anything about, and this conversation is not anti-Semitic Pro, international law and collective punishment is a war crime. Dr. Radhika Desai (36:06): Absolutely. And it is. It is also pro justice. I mean, at the end of the day, what these people Dr. Wilmer Leon (36:11): And pro morality Dr. Radhika Desai (36:14): And promo, they decontextualize, everything Hamas, everything begins in this discussion of the West today. Everything begins from the 7th of October when Hamas attacked Israelis and killed many of them and so on. But the fact that Palestinians have been living, Palestinians have had their land occupied since 1948 and before 1948, this is completely forgotten the fact that Palestinians have been displaced, that the Palestinians have the right to resist, and they have the right to self-determination. All of these things are completely swept under the carpet. It's really shocking. And this is entirely a result of the fact that the spectrum of opinion has been narrowed. The forms of censorship that I pointed out earlier operate both in media and in scholarship, so that more and more we are hearing either completely irrelevant things or things that are only repeating what the authorities want repeated. Dr. Wilmer Leon (37:17): And let me give an example of that. President Obama published an op-ed thoughts on Israel and Gaza, and I'm going to read the three opening paragraphs. It's been 17 days since Hamas launched its horrific attack against Israel, killing over 1400 Israeli citizens, including defenseless women, children, and the elderly. In the aftermath of such unspeakable brutality, the US government and the American people have shared in the grief of families, prayed for the return of loved ones and rightly declared solidarity with the Israeli people. As I stated in an earlier post, Israel has a right to defend its citizens against such wanton violence. And I fully support President Biden's call for the US to support our longtime ally in going after Hamas, dismantling its military capabilities and facilitating the safe return of hundreds of hostages. But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters. In particular, it matters as President Biden has repeatedly emphasized that Israel's military strategy abides by international law, including those laws that seek to avoid to every extent possible, the death or suffering of civilian populations. I just wanted to read the opening here because this is really where I formulated the earlier question to you about white supremacy. And this being not a matter of ideology, but a matter of strategy. Because what I take away, there are a number of fallacies in what Obama wrote, but what I take away in that last paragraph is Obama saying this slaughter, slaughter Hamas, as you want to just be a little nicer in how you go about doing it, Dr. Radhika Desai (39:13): But it gets worse than that Wilma, because the very next paragraph. So it says all of these things that we should try to avoid as much as possible, not try to avoid, only try to avoid as much as possible, which is already a big qualifier. But then, or Dr. Wilmer Leon (39:29): Don't do it because you're violating international law. Dr. Radhika Desai (39:33): That's right. Yeah. How about that? He already is giving Israel a free pass there, but then he says, this is an enormously difficult task, so trying to minimize the suffering of the civilian population is already too difficult, so it may not be possible to minimize it anyway. And then he says, the United States has fallen short of this high values when we are engaged in war. And then he says, it is understandable that Israelis have demanded that their governments do whatever it takes to root out Hamas. And then he repeats the, oh my God, if I hear it one more time, my head will explode. They are using civilians as human shields. So he repeats this old trope that the Israeli government sources never fail to repeat. And so the thing is that this whole thing is really a gift. He's doing nothing. He seems to be calling for sympathy for Palestinians and so on, but Israel has rights. (40:39) Palestinians only have our sympathies. And there is a big difference. Sympathies is, at the end of the day, an empty sentiment, especially if it is not backed up with action, of real support, of real solidarity, of a real, even-handed attempt to try to, I mean, the whole thing is, I talked about the earlier history, the fact that Palestinians have, have had that land occupy for decades. So all of these things are true. And throughout this time, the United States has always intervened in this situation in a way that is heavily loaded in favor of Israel while trying as best as possible to make a show of even handedness. The fact of the matter is that this article by Obama, which completely supports the Biden administration, essentially is just repeating what the Biden administration is doing, and it is simply showing the pronounced US bias in favor of Israel. And he says at one point he says that we should try to minimize civilian casualties because it'll otherwise alienate the people of the world. The fact of the matter, it's Dr. Wilmer Leon (41:58): Bad for business Dr. Radhika Desai (42:01): And it's bad for business. But also the fact is that at this rate, there will, and he says that there will not be enough actors in the region who support Israel's right to exist and also support the Palestinians will not be able to broker a deal. But at the rate at which Israel is going and the way in which the United States is completely behind Israel, there will be very few actors in the region who will continue to recognize Israel's right to exist because the street will not allow them, the ordinary people. I already read in today's newspaper a report that the Tunisian parliament is going to outlaw any kind of normalization of relations with Israel, and also essentially prevented citizens from engaging in any kind of contact with Israelis. So this is already one of the reactions. And I would say that if as the collective punishment of Gaza continues, as children continue to be killed in Gaza, the whole world is going to turn against Israel. It's not good for Israel, actually, for the way in which this is unfolding. Dr. Wilmer Leon (43:14): Libya, I believe, has taken a similar action as Tunisia is taking. And we know that based upon the Abraham Accords that the United States was trying to broker reproach monk between Saudi Arabia and the Zionist colony of Israel, and that as a result of Hamas' action, the Saudis have put that whole thing on hold because to your point, they see what's happening in the street and they don't want to be overthrown following the United States down this rabbit hole. And they see what's happened in Ukraine. They see what the United States is doing relative to Taiwan, and they see that's a formula for World War iii. Dr. Radhika Desai (44:10): Absolutely. And I just like to add one other thing. I mentioned street. You mentioned street. The fact what we know is that you, many, many of the governments of the Middle East, including Arab countries, would have been happy to compromise with Israel. But what has held them back, what has kept the Palestinian cause on the front burner throughout all this time is popular protest and P, we talk about how the Arab Street has been essentially the defender of the Palestinian cause, the people who have essentially not allowed it to be snuffed out. But today, I would say that people in the West are also fed up with this one sided support. I mean, I'm reading in the papers not only about big demonstrations in the capitals and big cities of Middle Eastern countries, but throughout Europe as well, and also in North America. I mean, you folks, you've had huge demonstrations in your big cities in the United States. We've had big demonstrations. London apparently had a demonstration that was 300,000 strong, which is the biggest demonstration of its sort since the 2003 February, 2003 demonstrations against the Iraq War, which were historic, as you will remember. (45:30) And already, it's such an irony because Kier has become the leader of the Labor Party precisely on the antisemitism bandwagon where anybody who supports Palestine is essentially branded as Antisemite. Kier and his gang have essentially participated in a process of pushing out Jeremy Cobin as the leader of the Labor Party on these completely flimsy grounds. But today, STAMA is facing a revolt from within his own party because he, like all the other Western leaders, is essentially backing the US position and the Israel position. Without question. I mean, people are saying, look, folks, there's got to be a ceasefire. There's got to be a negotiated settlement. Anybody with a small amount of knowledge of the Palestinian Israeli situation can easily see that, but the leaders cannot, and they are really getting say, completely unstuck from the people who support they will need come the next election. Dr. Wilmer Leon (46:40): The title of the show is Connecting the Dots. Is it hyperbolic for me to look at, again, Ukraine, look at what the United States is trying to do with Taiwan, and look at how now the United States is involved in this conflict in Palestine and see similar traits. And I'm just using the three most recent events. I don't have to go too far back in history. I can talk about Afghanistan, I can talk about Iraq, but just looking at where we are right now, again, Ukraine, Taiwan, Juan, and Palestine. Am I wrong to connect those dots? Dr. Radhika Desai (47:24): Absolutely. No. And you know what? All three of them are interesting proxy wars. And by the way, the United States has developed the idea or developed the practice of proxy wars into a fine art because the United States used Islamic fundamentalists to fight Russia in Afghanistan, for example, and other such. There have been many such ways in which they have done so in the present context. Yes. So the United States, Dr. Wilmer Leon (47:53): The United States is doing that in Congo right now. Dr. Radhika Desai (47:56): Yes, exactly. Dr. Wilmer Leon (47:57): Doing the same thing in Dr. Radhika Desai (47:57): Congo. The United States is fighting Russia via using Ukrainians. The United States hopes one day to fight China using the Taiwanese. And today, think about this, what is probably given the possibility that if Israel stages a land invasion of Gaza today, it may be very difficult for Iran to stay uninvolved. And Iran has been the consistent defender of Palestinian rights throughout this period. Really an important and interesting point now in this context, then what will happen, the United States will use Israelis to fight Iran. And so again, as I like to say, everyone who's in our countries in the US and Canada who's saying we are standing up for Ukraine, et cetera, et cetera, they are the ones contributing to the destruction of Ukraine. And it may ironically be the case that everyone who will say we stand up for Israel's rights to exist, et cetera, et cetera, and to defend itself, will essentially be contributing to the destruction of Israel. So there may be one of the biggest ironies of all, Dr. Wilmer Leon (49:08): You mentioned people standing up and saying that they're trying to prevent the destruction of Ukraine, but what they are also supporting in that is a destruction of the United States. Because when you look at the budget, when you, I think very recently, or Joe Biden's now trying to get another 125 billion to be sent to Ukraine, and people need to understand what this money is doing. The United States is paying the salaries of Ukrainian civil servants. The United States is paying for the pensions of Ukrainian civil servants when the UAW is on strike in the United States trying to get pensions restored in the United States. All of this under the pretext of democracy and defending democracy, when it was the United States in 2014 with the Maidan coup that went in and overthrew the democratically elected jankovich government in Ukraine, which was the precipitant to where we are today, the hypocrisy in all of this is nauseating. Dr. Radhika Desai (50:28): And also when they say, I mean anybody knows when the United States says that it's defending human rights and democracy, what it's really doing is first of all, it's using usually some sections of the middle class as essentially the protesters who will protest against the government that the United States does not like, et cetera. So they're again using them as instruments and appealing to their liberal principles, et cetera. But more to the point that the kinds of rights and freedoms the United States wants to see realized in all the other countries of the world are those rights and those freedoms of US corporations to go there and do as they please engage in whatever economic activity that they want to, and all sorts of exploitative activities that they want to get into. So that's what the defense of human freedom and human rights actually amounts to. Anyway. And then on top of that, the irony is that the United States requires all its partner countries. Whoever wants anything from the United States must enact neoliberal policies. What are neoliberal policies? They're precisely the policies that make democracy impossible, because in a capitalist society, you cannot have anything like a functioning democracy without making some substantial material concessions in the form of good wages, good welfare states, et cetera, to the ordinary people. But this is precisely what is made impossible. So what is there for ordinary people to vote for? Dr. Wilmer Leon (52:05): And that's a great, great point. And there's something else I think from a societal and a cultural perspective that needs to be taken into account here. And that is the United States, and this has been a stated objective since this whole Ukraine conflict started. The United States wants to engage in regime change in Russia. They want to get rid of Vladimir Putin. But I've seen independent polls, and what I mean independent, I mean from Princeton University and other US Ivy League institutions that say over 86% of Russian people support their government. I've seen independent polls from, again, American institutions, 96% of the Chinese people support President Xi and the Chinese government, we tried to overthrow Ade in Syria. He won the last election with 86% of the vote. And I have friends of mine that were election observers in Syria who said, free and fair election. Same thing with Maduro in Venezuela, free and fair elections. So my point is there forms of democracy because of their histories and their cultures are different than our form of democracy. But that doesn't mean they're not valid. That doesn't mean they're not supported by the people, and that means that does not mean that they should not be supported by us. Dr. Radhika Desai (53:44): Absolutely. I mean, I remember I used to teach a course on democracy and capitalism, and my students had to read this particular text written in the seventies by CB McPherson, a very important Canadian Marxist philosopher, but also very widely respected. And you read there in the seventies, it was completely natural for people to say, you know what? We may have our form of democracy, but it is a liberal democracy. But in the communist countries, which existed at that time, they also have their own form of democracy, and that's a different one. And third world countries are trying to realize their own forms of democracy. So this type of pluralism had to be accepted because the fact that the Soviet Union existed was an important restraint, constituted an important restraint on the West and on the United States. The moment the Soviet Union has ceased to exist, the United States has gone full fledged into this completely delusional quest for supremacy around the world, which is an impossible quest. (54:48) The United States can never enjoy that form of supremacy, but the problem with the United States is failing that it has no plan B. So US leaders keep trying to achieve that supremacy, as you rightly put it, destroying the United States itself in that process. But also I would say, of course, causing mayhem around the world, causing economic crises, wars, financial crises across the board, essentially making people's lives a misery. I mean, it's no wonder that China is today welcomed with open arms in so many countries where the United States and the West more generally have historically visited very little but abuse on these countries. Dr. Wilmer Leon (55:34): We have just about probably four minutes left and you saying that just made me think. When you listen to President Putin, he talks about the shift away from the unipolar dynamic to a multipolar dynamic. When you listen to President Xi, he talks about the shifting away from a unipolar dynamic to a multipolar dynamic. And I just heard Joe Biden say recently, we're getting the sense that the world is shifting and we need to consider a new world order. I've heard that before. And then he says, and the new world order needs to be led by the United States. I said, Joe Biden, man, you are, if not senile, you are at least out of your mind. Dr. Radhika Desai (56:28): Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, as I said, there is a certain level of delusion. I mean recently, I can't remember the exact words, but President Joe Biden was asked whether the United States could fight a two front war, and he said, of course we are. Of course we can. Of course we can. We're the United States. I mean, the fact of the matter is Wilma, if you think about it, and you are the historian, I'm not. But if you think about it, the United States has never won a single war, which it has fought on its own. I mean, not counting it later, Dr. Wilmer Leon (57:01): Ii, since World War ii, the United States, maybe we could say Grenada, and maybe we could say Panama, other than those two, the United States hasn't won a thing where didn't win Vietnam. I could tick off the didn't win. Afghanistan didn't win. Iraq we're like, oh, for five. Dr. Radhika Desai (57:26): And so the question arises. We are told in the same breath that the United States, we are told that the United States spends almost a trillion dollars a year on its military. What good does that do if the United States can't win wars? Dr. Wilmer Leon (57:44): What if the United States spent a trillion dollars on its infrastructure? Dr. Radika Desai, how can people reach you and connect and read your work? Dr. Radhika Desai (57:54): Well, my email is very easy to find. So if you just Google ika dea, university of Manitoba, you'll find my email and my website is ika dea.com. Dr. Wilmer Leon (58:05): I want to thank my guest, Dr. Rika Desai for joining me today, and thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share my show, follow us on social media. You'll find all the links below in the show description. And remember, folks, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wier Leon. Have a good one. Peace

E' durato circa novanta minuti il colloquio a Sochi tra il presidente russo Vladimir Putin e quello turco Recep Erdogan. Molti i temi sono stati toccati dai due leader, dalla situazione in Ucraina fino all'accordo sull'export del grano e del passaggio delle navi nel Mar Nero, accordo scaduto a luglio e che il Cremlino non aveva voluto rinnovare.

Recently, I was listening to a speech by Neill F. Marriott. She shared an interview she had with Noelle Pikus-Pace the 2014 silver medal winner in Sochi Russia in the skeleton race. Noelle said, “Where you look is where you GO“. I started thinking about this phrase and began to think about the scriptures and how often we are told to look. Join me today as I share with you some of my thoughts about LOOKING to the Savior to find our light. “Sorrow looks back. Worry looks around. Faith looks up.” Ralph Waldo Emerson. President Russell M. Nelson has called us to look unto Jesus Christ in just this way: “There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.” https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neill-f-marriott/pointing-our-souls-to-christ/ bethnewellcoaching@gmail.com bethnewellcoaching.com PODCAST Platform- APPLE podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seeking-light-podcast/id1622253467GOOGLE podcasts Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy80NzY0NjQ0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Amazon Music podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/46faf3a2-e381-45f1-9d2d-03456c797729/seeking-light-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4nnSNVR15NULHBgPMvOHny Anchor: https://anchor.fm/beth-newell

Recently, I was listening to a speech by Neill F. Marriott. She shared an interview she had with Noelle Pikus-Pace the 2014 silver medal winner in Sochi Russia in the skeleton race. Noelle said, “Where you look is where you GO“. I started thinking about this phrase and began to think about the scriptures and how often we are told to look. Join me today as I share with you some of my thoughts about LOOKING to the Savior to find our light. “Sorrow looks back. Worry looks around. Faith looks up.” Ralph Waldo Emerson. President Russell M. Nelson has called us to look unto Jesus Christ in just this way: “There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.” https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neill-f-marriott/pointing-our-souls-to-christ/ bethnewellcoaching@gmail.com bethnewellcoaching.com PODCAST Platform- APPLE podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seeking-light-podcast/id1622253467GOOGLE podcasts Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy80NzY0NjQ0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Amazon Music podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/46faf3a2-e381-45f1-9d2d-03456c797729/seeking-light-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4nnSNVR15NULHBgPMvOHny Anchor: https://anchor.fm/beth-newell

Noelle Pikus Pace, US Silver Medalist Olympic Champion in the Sochi Russia 2014 Winter Olympics. Noelle experienced a tragic accident when a bobsled left the track and hit Noelle on the right leg resulting in a compound fracture that took her out of the sport for a period of time and nearly ended her carrier. Noelle has come so far developing her skills as an athlete in track and field leading her to have the skills to compete on the world tracks. She went to the 2010 Olympics representing the USA and again in 2014 bringing home the silver medal! Noelle has a wonderful family inclusive of her supportive husband Janson who actually designed her winning Skeleton sled. Noelle has incredible energy and influence as a mentor, leader, and friend. She lets us in on how she views life now and takes advantage of every moment she has to help others. Tune in and listen now to her story. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bob-howard9/message

Title: History of Olympic Figure SkatingDescription: Figure skating is a mainstay of the Winter Olympic Games. It is sometimes controversial and always fascinating to watch. Today we are joined by Ryan Stevens of the Skate Guard Blog to discuss the past, present and future of Olympic figure skating.Learn More About our Guest:Ryan Stevens of the Skate Guard Bloghttp://skateguard1.blogspot.com/https://twitter.com/SkateGuardBlogYou can learn more about Beyond the Big Screen and subscribe at all these great places:www.atozhistorypage.comwww.beyondthebigscreen.comClick here to support Beyond the Big Screen!https://www.subscribestar.com/beyondthebigscreenhttps://www.patreon.com/beyondthebigscreenClick to Subscribe:https://www.spreaker.com/show/4926576/episodes/feedemail: steve@atozhistorypage.comwww.beyondthebigscreen.comhttps://www.patreon.com/historyofthepapacyParthenon Podcast Network Home:parthenonpodcast.comOn Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/atozhistorypagehttps://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfThePapacyPodcasthttps://twitter.com/atozhistoryMusic Provided by:"Crossing the Chasm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Image Credits:Begin Transcript:Thank you again for listening to Beyond the Big Screen podcast. We are a member of the Parthenon Podcast network. Of course, a big thanks goes out to Ryan Stevens of the Skate Guard Blog. Links to learn more about Ryan and Skate Guard can be found at http://skateguard1.blogspot.com/ or in the Show Notes. You can now support beyond the big screen on Patreon and Subscribe Star. By joining on Patreon and Subscribe star, you help keep Beyond the Big Screen going and get many great benefits. Go to patreon dot com forward slash beyond the big screen or subscribe star dot com forward slash beyond the big screen dot com to learn more.Another way to support Beyond the big screen is to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. These reviews really help me know what you think of the show and help other people learn about Beyond the Big screen. More about the Parthenon Podcast Network can be found at Parthenonpodcast.com. You can learn more about Beyond the Big Screen, great movies and stories so great they should be movies on various social media platforms by searching for A to z history. Links to all this and more can be found at beyond the big screen dot com. I thank you for joining me again, Beyond the big Screen., [00:00:00] this is beyond the big screen podcast with your host, Steve Guerra. Welcome back to this very special bonus episode of beyond the big screen today, we aren't specifically talking about a movie, but instead we're revisiting a topic we discussed in a previous episode, figure skating through the movie.Hello London. The 23rd winter Olympics and PR Chang, South Korea are upon us. And I am very happy to be joined by Ryan Stevens of the skate guard blog to give us a little primer on Olympic figure skating. Thank you so much for joining us today, Ryan. Oh, you're most welcome. It's a pleasure to speak with you.Again, Ryan Stevens is a former competitive figure skater and C F S a skate Canada. Judge. He's been writing about figure skating history since [00:01:00] 2013. Ryan has media credentials with skate Canada covering the 2016 Canadian tire national skating championships on Halifax, as well as conducting interviews with many of the top figure skater.Past and present. And in June, 2017, Ryan released a full length biography of British actress figure skater and dancer. Belita Jepson Turner, who is a contemporary of Sonja. Henie, who we discussed in the hello London episode, which will be linked to an MES in the show notes for this episode, as well as the links to escape.So I highly suggest you go back and listen to that episode because it was a lot of fun and very informative before we get rolling. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog? Absolutely. So I'm based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I'm here in Canada. Um, for those of you that are down in the states.[00:02:00] And, uh, I write about skating history all around the world and I kind of bounce a little bit. I bounced around a little bit. I released three blogs a week covering a whole range of topics, everything from, um, How skating might've developed in a certain country to a biography of a skater to look back at an event task.So we just kind of bumped, uh, bumped around a little bit. And, uh, it's really a lot of fun. Yeah. That sounds like it, it gives you a lot of avenues to discover and explore different areas of the. Absolutely. Now, can you just give us maybe a little bit of history or context to figure skating as an Olympic sport?Certainly. So the first time that figure skating was actually included in the Olympic games was [00:03:00] in 1908. It was included in the summer Olympic games in London, England, and, uh, There were three categories, uh, pardon me, four categories. Uh, there were men's and women's single skating pair skating and a category that was only ever held at that first Olympics called special figures where skaters would trace out, uh, very intricate designs on the ice.Uh, they created themselves and that was only held at the 1908 Olympics. Um, The figure skating was included in the 1920 summer Olympics as well. And it was first included in the winter Olympics in 1924. And it's been probably the most popular if not, um, one of the most popular, but I like to think the most popular sport in the winter Olympics.Um, [00:04:00] since then, uh, At winter Olympics, uh, in 2014 in Sochi Russia, a new event, uh, was at it. To, uh, the, a lot of figure skating events and that was a team event. And, uh, that's going to be contested again in Korea. And it's a really interesting and unique format that I think will bring, um, a lot of excitement to the.To the roster of competitions that everybody will be seeing, you've shown us how the events, some of the events have changed. There's some events that are no longer a part of Olympic figure skating. And then there's some events that have been added as a part of maybe the strategy of the game or how it's judged.How has that evolved over the course of the year, since the Olympics have started?[00:05:00] Well, um, maybe how more, so how, I guess it plays into judging, how has it changed from maybe more of a, um, like technically, maybe how has it changed? Well, technically it's changed in a lot of ways. Um, if you look at, so right now, uh, if you don't count this new team event and you take into account single scale, Pair skating and ice dancing, which was added to the Olympics, uh, in 1976 for the first time.Those are the, those are the four main disciplines men's and women's singles pairs and ice stamps. And all four of those disciplines have, uh, changed from. The change their formats from when they first started in the game. So in the single skating, uh, used to see school [00:06:00] figures where a skaters would skate out, would trace out, uh, set patterns on the ice and then free skating pairs getting started with just a free skate and ice dancing started with compulsory dances.Now you won't find school figures at all. And there's no figures in figure skating. Um, in single skating pairs, skating has had a short program at it and the compulsory dances are gone from ice dance. And now you'll see a short dance and a free dance. So all four of the disciplines have changed their formats since they were first introduced to the games.And what you'll see are a. A short program and a free skate in the singles and the pairs, and then the short dance, the free dance. And I stamped now. So that might be, might be able to hook them using if you've ever seen the skating before, uh, in the games, [00:07:00] but basically in every discipline, you're going to see.All of the skaters twice. If they're going to come out once before I'm a short program or a short dance, and they're going to come out a second time, perform a free skate or a free dance. That's what I love. That's something like it's called figure skating, but the actual event that it, the name is based on isn't even a part of the event anymore.It is not. I mean, I, I think skating has evolved, uh, to such a technical level now that, um, it should almost be called, um, I don't know, ice jumping or something, but, um, but, uh, no, there are no more figures in figure skating, at least at the Olympics. Now, as you as a professional and are fishy and Otto and somebody who's.Into skating and figure skating. What are some of the high points you think, um, [00:08:00] that you've seen in previous Olympics? Oh my goodness. It's too numerous to even mention Amy. One of, one of my favorite and Olympic memories, uh, was from the 1988 Olympic games in Calgary, Alberta. When Elizabeth Manley, uh, she wasn't.Even expect it to be one of the challengers for the top two spots at all. And she'd gone through so much in the years leading up to deal with the games. Um, and. It was supposed to be a showdown between, uh, an American skater, Debbie Thomas, and, uh, an east German skater, calorie and Yvette. And it was called the battle of the Carmens because both skaters were skating to music from B's A's Carmen and.Elizabeth man. We came out of nowhere. I had the free skate of her life, [00:09:00] uh, or the standing ovation brought the house down and she won the, she didn't win the gold medal, but she wasn't a free skate. And, um, that, that moment stands out in my mind as being one of them. The biggest, uh, I don't know, biggest Olympic moments that I've ever seen and another would definitely be, um, Jayden's horrible.

The second show this week and its all F1 -- well mainly. David and Bob review the recent F1 Grand Prix in Sochi Russia and look at other aspects of Motorsport and the over night updates in the IndyCar World.

McLaren starts on poll, Ferrari leads out of the gate, and Hamilton surpasses everyone. This is a true "where were you when" moment!

In this episode we speak with Sarah Hendrickson, Olympian and World Champion in the sport of ski jumping about the benefits of plant-based dieting and the unique pressures for female athletes. Sarah attended the first ever Olympic Games in Sochi Russia in 2014, and with bib number one, became the first ever female to ski jump in an Olympic event. Prior to that event, she won the first ever world cup event and world cup overall title in the sport. Although she does not like to be defined by her injuries, a crash in 2013, training for the Olympics, severely injured her right knee. But with an intense rehab program, recovered in a short five months to qualify for the Olympic team. Sarah knows her challenges with injuries has taught her a lot about mental toughness, mental health, rehabilitation and perseverance to return to her passion. Although she has retired from the sport, she remains highly involved on the international level through the International Ski Federation as a four year athlete representative for women's ski jumping. The inequality that this sport specifically faces fuels her dedication to push for more acceptance, increase prize money and increase the amount of events to someday match the men. Learning points: Can a plant-based diet support the nutritional needs of an Olympic athlete? Are there unique pressures for female athletes? How did Sarah's injury impact her mental health? Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schendrickson Website: https://www.sarahhendrickson.space/

EVERYTHING I’VE HEARD presents WILD ALISA - Wild Alisa is a Sochi (Russia) based original 80’s funk and boogie DJ. Through years of collecting records and DJing Alisa became a part of Saint Petersburg “Masterfunk” community, took part in most popular funk events all across Russia, guested “FunkFreaks” Frankfurt and TestFM radio show. Alisa prefers mixing classic and rare grooves, she is a true fan of 70’s/80’s/90’s sound. More about Wild Alisa : Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/wildalisa Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dj_wild_alisa

On this week's pod, Nick and Mike discuss the changes at partypoker with analysis of the interview of partypoker's Tom Waters and Rob Yong and a recap of the information that has come out since. Pennsylvania is set to open its online poker market in 2 weeks time, and the guys discuss what they know about which online poker rooms will be ready at launch. Live poker in Sochi, Russia has become a priority for all of the major online poker operators and the guys discuss why.

Paul Skog - Savior of The Jamaican Bobsled Team (Part 2)This is part 2 of my interview with city attorney Paul Skog. In addition to being a city prosecutor, and a county defense attorney; Paul is the Director Of Operations - North America for the Jamaica Bobsled Team. In this interview we talk about Paul getting to meet a Prince and a King! We also talk about his work with the Jamaican bobsled team, his relationship with 4 time Olympian Winston Watts (who also happens to be Paul's very best friend). And finally, we talk about Paul's experience attending the 2014 Olympics in Sochi Russia.Paul is not on any social media, but I will pass along any and all feedback to him if you send it to me.Enjoy!

Kemal Brown is the founder and Creative Director of Digita Global Marketing Limited, a digital media agency and Accume International, a personal development company which has trained, motivated and guided several top companies and organizations in Jamaica. He was selected as one of the Caribbean Leaders to represent Jamaica at the 19th Annual Global Youth Leadership Forum in Sochi Russia and was recently awarded the Top Performer award in the ScotiaBank Vision Achiever Programme for 2017. In this episode, we talk about: How to gain a competitive edge in any industry; One of the biggest problems facing new businesses today and how you can overcome it; The under-utilized rule of highly successful people; and so much more.

It's Bristol baby!!!   This week the guys recap all the action at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Some great racing action as well as a few great stories.  This is all topped off by Dale Jr's announcement that he will be retiring after this season.  We follow that with an in depth discussion on what makes a driver worthy of the Hall Of Fame. Nick takes over for segment 2 as we talk about the Indy lights series and the incredible action they provide.  Then we discuss more of Fernando Alonso running the Indy 500 this year, and look forward to an exciting F1 race in Sochi Russia.   Some Supercross racing took place over the weekend as well and the NHRA is heading to the 4-Wide Nationals.  In the local segment we preview the new opening night and Fan Fest at Wall Stadium Speedway.

Every four years we tune in to the excitement, passion and drama of the Olympic Games. It's hard not to get wrapped up in all the the anticipation and celebration, for one of the most widely watched events in the world. Each successive Olympics seem to be a bigger spectacle than the last, with dramatic and expensive changes to the city itself. What are some of the ways the Olympics transform the physical structure and form of the host city, and who pays for the hefty price tag? Jules Boykoff is a former professional soccer player, and represented the men's US Olympic soccer team in international play. Jules has extensively researched the politics and activism in the Olympic Games, including the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver Canada, the 2012 Summer Games in London, the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi Russia, and the upcoming Summer Games in Rio De Janeiro Brazil. His writings on the Olympics include Activism and the Olympics: Dissent at the Games in Vancouver, Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games, and the recently published Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics. Photo credit: Luke & Jules

We are back with am awesome and fun, and slightly more laid back episode of the RPM Podcast.  We argue about restrictor plate racing at Talledega as well as the danger of auto racing.   We quickly summarize Formula One in Sochi Russia.   Indcyar cancels a race during their off week.  Erik Graham can't get into drag racing, plus a lot of local racing coming up this weekend. 

Dave and Jay discuss with Josh Usheroff about his experience in Sochi Russia and the winter Olympics.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia have commenced without a hitch…well almost.  What did you think of the opening ceremony (minus the malfunctioning snowflake of course)?  For a first hand point of view we welcome back our guest, the Olympic Flame with his candid perspective on all things Olympics, Russia and Putin. Continuing with sports news the NFL may have its first openly gay player with Michael Sam.  Did he do the right thing by coming out before the draft or did he doom his future career options?  How will the NFL and the fans react? Wendy and Joey gave a weight loss update and another person is eliminated on their journey to become the #1 Creamie for 2014. www.cocktailsandcreampuffs.com

Grahame and Lauren talk Sochi Russia, more spying (this is getting old!). Plus, Obama's State of the Union (Re)Address, and devastation in South Sudan.Track List:Samuel Truth - Deja Vu - Blossoms Interlude-After Hours EPAlexalfonds - Tape pops (preview)-B.I.G mash upKline - Peek-A-Boo-Mirror EP Low Indigo 004Werd - Week Two-Dynamix RecordsWildlight - Rise-BZNZ remixWulf - Space V.I.P.-SoundcloudPANTyRAiD and Mimosa - Chaos Control-SoundcloudJoseph l'Etranger - Dong A-x The OneiroscopistRook Milo - Outland-s/o ASL famiinaK - Bitten Lip-ResistanceRidylan - Geektup-Ground Mass MusicAfterlyfe - Gold Dust (Re-Trap)-SoundcloudPigeon Hole - Higher $tate-Pinch Hitters RemixGrimes - Genesis-Krusha & Expendable Youth RemixDuncan Gerow - Rock The Boat-Aaliyah vs 40 + Alicia Keys

Здравствуйте и добро пожаловать … Hello and welcome to the very first 'Questions and Answers' edition of A Spoonful of Russian Podcast. Coming to you from a small home studio in beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina.Instead of trying to find time to get back to each and everyone of you individually through email, I decided to start accumulating the questions and answering them in a podcast. I am thinking of getting one out once a month maybe. I am getting questions sporadically. Sometimes several a day, sometimes nothing for days in a row. My hope is to have a large pool of questions to pull from. That way you can count on regular Q&A sessions.Ways to get your questions over to me:- contact form on my site: speakrussian.blogspot.com- Leave a quick voicemail calling: 209-980-7877 (209-980-RUSS)- email: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com- twitter: @russianspoonful (with hashtag #askNataliaW )- YouTube: youtube.com/spoonfulofrussianI am aware that many of you prefer to listen to podcasts rather than go to my YouTube channel and view content there. I myself am an avid listener of a handful of podcasts. When I am cooking in my kitchen or lifting weights in my garage I do not really want to look at a video. Truth is we all consume media in different ways depending on our activities. So, hopefully you, guys, will find this format useful and enjoyable.This would typically be a time in a podcast where I'd share with you a quick word from my sponsors, but I don't have any sponsors! I've been podcasting since 2005 when the whole podcast phenomena was rolled out by Steve Jobs. Since then several companies approached me, but none of them seemed like a good match for the content of this podcast. So, I'm still waiting for my advertising 'prince' … for the business marriage made in Heaven. Make me an offer I can't refuse, and you will not be 'sleeping with the fishes'. So if you are a huge corporation with lots of spare change in your pockets listening to me now, reach out by emailing me: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com### What do you think about the Hollywood actors' Russian accent?MOSFILM (Мосфильм) has been the largest and oldest film studio in Russia. It was founded in 1920 and its output includes most of the widely-acclaimed Soviet-era films.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosfilmhttps://www.youtube.com/mosfilmSome of my favorites:-  1968 War and Peace (Война и Мир)-  1968 The Diamond Arm (Бриллиантовая Рука)-  1973  Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (Иван Васильевич меняет профессию)-  1975 The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy your Banya! (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!)-  1977 Office Romance (Служебный Романс)-  1979 Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears (Москва Слезам не Верит)-  1985 Love and Doves (Любовь и Голуби)Here's the interview with Andrei Tarkovsky, a critically acclaimed Soviet film director:https://vimeo.com/2963155### In the age of instant information exchange and assimilation of cultures do Russian emigrants still hold on to some "Russian-only" traditions and ways?That is a great question. Very well-constructed I might add:) I agree that today cultural borders are getting less and less defined. Internet, I think, is mainly to thank for that. I remember times when the only way I could get info about foreign countries was through the hand-written letters of my pen pals. Back in the 1980s our TV had only 2 channels and both of them were run by the government. Radio was a bit different. One could catch BBC World Radio service or Voice of America station and get news that way. But being a little girl that was not my thing.Now Russians are very much cosmopolitan and have adapted the ways of the West into their everyday lives. But when a Russian moves away from his or her Motherland, they tend to resurrect and cherish their Russian-only customs and traditions. I'd say it is out of sentimental reasons. There is an innate desire to keep to our roots, preserve the rich legacy for our children. I hope I am correct when I speak for my friends here in the States when I say that things we took for granted while in Russia we now find of great value. Personally, I am re-reading all the classics I skimmed through while in high scroll and in college. The same goes for films. I bug my Mom for her family recipes every time I get her on a Skype call. I also try to collect all the family history and old photos.As far as traditions themselves I'd say hot tea drinking is among the top ones. Of course, drinking Vodka for relaxation will be another. For many, but not for me. I never developed a taste for the stuff:) I'm more of a red wine person. Taking shoes off indoors, of course. Russian emigrants’ New Year celebration is  much more involved and elaborate than that of a regular American family.- That holiday in itself carries tons of traditions, such as making of винегрет (salad based on beetroot). Here's the best recipe of it I could find:http://natashaskitchen.com/2010/06/21/russian-vinaigrette-recipe-with-beets-and-sauerkraut/- Оливье (check out this Olivye recipe:http://natashaskitchen.com/2009/12/23/olivye-ukrainian-potato-salad/- селёдка под шубой (dressed herring). A layered salad composed of diced salted herring covered with layers of grated boiled vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beet roots), chopped onions, and mayonnaise. Some cool info and link to recipes here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dressed_herring- заливная рыба (one of the ways the phrase is translated is 'aspic fish'). There's a very famous and widely quoted line from that film I mentioned above that says "Какая гадость, какая гадость эта ваша заливная рыба!" -  "this aspic fish of yours is a total failure" (a polite way) or more straight forward translation "Jesus, your aspic fish sucks bit time!"a YouTube link to the clip- There's also фаршированные яйца (deviled eggs)- холодец (aspic) One of my favorites growing up. My мама used to make it just right. The best recipe is from Natasha's kitchen:http://natashaskitchen.com/2013/03/18/ukrainian-aspic-recipe-kholodets/- Something else that my Mom excels at is мясо по-французски (French Meat Casserole). I looked around the interwebz and the closest recipe to my Moms was one published by Nadia. Here's the link:http://delightsofculinaria.com/french-meat-casseroleSo those are just some of the staples. I am sure I'm missing some. If you catch it, send me and email:)As you can see Russians are very fond of their traditional foods. The prep work  for the New Years' feast involves your whole family and oftentimes friends cooking together, while watching 1975 film “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy your Banya!” (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!). Every...single...year. And we never grow tired of it:)Boy, this whole New Year traditions thing got me quite exited:) LOL …and sentimental.For the sake of time we do need to move on to the next topic. But if the above information births a question in your mind, do not hesitate to contact me.### Is it easy for foreigners to get a job in Russia? It's been a long time since my last visit to Russia, so I contacted one of my American friends who is currently living in the country. He says "Short answer is no. You need a work visa, and an invitation from a Russian company that is willing to sponsor you. What about coming and working for a non-profit organization? They are under a lot of scrutiny from the government right now. You can still get "humanitarian" visas I believe. But you would need a sponsor as well."### Why are Americans the 'bad guys' in modern Russian action movies and games?Let me answer this question with a question "Why are Russians always the 'bad guys' in almost all American movies? Remember "Crimson Tide", "Red Dawn", "The Hunt for Red October", "Air Force One", "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", "Red Heat", "Salt", "The Tourist", "The Sum of All Fears". I can go on on on. And it's more than just in action films. There are plenty of animated films that have cute little villains speak broken Russian, like that Blue Russian cat in "Cats & Dogs" or Steve Carell as Gru in Despicable Me. So yeah, it goes both ways. It always did. There's just this strange dance going on between the two countries. Kind of reminds me of the movie "Mr and Mrs Smith":) By the way, a couple of detergent-making companies should consider naming their products "Crimson Tide" and "Red Dawn".### Good Russian bands/songs?I get asked this a lot too. Unfortunately, I cannot just give you a list. Music tastes differ so much. One man's 'awesome music' is another man's 'garbage'. I am sure you can google 'Russian traditional music' and get lots of results. For a taste of current Russian artist point your browser tohttp://www.last.fm/tag/russian...and you'll get a pretty good idea. I've been listening to it today and my personal favs are Город 312, Юлия Савичева, МакSим, Zемфира, Би-2, Браво, Кино, Елка, Сергей Лазарев, Света, Жанна Агузарова...### Are Russian men womanizers like French guys?First of all, I personally do not have any experience with French men, so I cannot confirm nor deny the assumption that they are womanizers.  As far as Russian men go, I'd say they are gallant towards women. At least within the circle of my family and friends. They will open the door for a woman, they will get up from their seat in the presence of a woman. They will get up and offer a woman their seat on a public transport. I guess some western women take that as flirtation, but for us this behavior is the norm.### What kinds of transportation are used in Russia?This question is interesting because the ways of transportation have evolved in the last 15 years dramatically. Growing up in 1980s all I knew on a daily basis was buses and trolleys. Occasional taxi, when my parents felt like splurging. In the early 1980s when I was a kid my Dad bought a car (LADA make, for those who are interested) and that was considered a luxury. When most Russian folks would ride a bus to their 'dachas', Daddy used to take us to dig up our potatoes in style:) Nowadays my understanding is that lots and lots of people own a car in Russia. Problem is there are not enough parking space for all these cars. Certain infrastructures will have to play a game of catching up. And fast!Trains and airplanes have been on the transportation scene for a while now.  Not much changed there.### When will the 2014 Winter Olympics be held?7th February - 23rd February in Sochi (Сочи) Russia.### What foods do Russians enjoy eating? Борщ (borsch) Served either hot or cold. Traditional borsch soup in Russia uses beef, beef stock, beets and cabbage. However, today's recipes have been modified and borsch often contains a variety of different vegetables.Щи (Shchi) - is a Russian soup with cabbage as the main ingredient. Its primary distinction is its acidic taste.Картошка (potatoes) - Russians also enjoy a number of dishes made from potatoes, representing the heartier side of Russian cuisine.Блины (crepes) - Bliny, pronounced "bleeni," with the last vowel sounding like the "i" in "it," appear as a thin pancake, much like a crepe, filled with savory or sweet toppings. Popular Russian variations include sour cream and caviar, preserves, potatoes, mushrooms or meat. Because a blin, singular, has such a light taste on its own, you can fill it with almost anything.Оладьи (pancakes) - Olady (pronounced [aladyi]) is one of many Russian traditional flour treats, usually served for breakfast. There are classic and simple olady. Classic are made with yeast, and simple are made with baking soda and buttermilk or sour cream.Пельмени (pelmeni) are dumplings consisting of a filling wrapped in thin, unleavened dough)Черный хлеб (chorny khleb) - a form of rye bread that's not actually black, has a very sharp flavor and firm texture. It may take a while, but many non-Russians come to love the black bread.)Пироги (pirogi) - In the Russian frame of mind, everything with a crust counts as a pie, or "pirog." While some Russian pirogi contain fruit, others feature savory fillings like meat, mushrooms and a fresh cheese called quark. Pirozhki, the diminutive form of pirogi, means "small pies."Окрошка (Okroshka) - is a traditional cold Russian summer soup that doesn't need to be boiled. It is usually made on hot days when nobody wants to move, let alone cook something serious in the kitchen. This soup contains mostly raw vegetables, boiled eggs, and fermented drink kvass.Квас (kvass) - Kvass is a fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread.Каша (kasha) - porridge ranks as a common Russian breakfast meal made from buckwheat or any cereal wheat, barley, oats, millet,rye and cooked in milk or water. At least a thousand years old, kasha is one of the oldest known dishes in Central European and Eastern European cuisine. Grechka (гречка) is by far my favorite. Has been since childhood. My husband and kids love it too now. Buckwheat groats are used and it is cooked like rice. Has awesome nutritional profile ( http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=11 )dozens of different salads drenched in mayonaise:)### Do bears still walk along Russian streets?Um…no*****Looks like this is it for the first Q and A session of the podcast. I did my best and hope you enjoyed your time. You might   have even learned something new today. I sure hope so. I know I did while getting this podcast together:)In closing, I just wanted to thank you all for taking time out of your busy lives to listen to my ramblings. From the feedback you guys leave on iTunes I gathered that the audience of A Spoonful of Russian is a peculiar one. In a good sense of the word:) For one reason or the other Russian language is not considered to be one of the highly sought out foreign languages like Spanish, French, or German.(go ahead and leave your feedback for my podcast on iTunes. Bring the ratings for the Russian language up!)There is a small yet a well-defined layer of the society that finds the Russian language and the Russian culture of great interest. You are that layer, and I salute you! Your reasons for sticking with a less popular language could be different. So, I leave you, my friends, with this question:"What is it that draws YOU to the Russian language, history, culture?"I am looking forward to your answers and will share them in the next Q and A session.Ways to get your answers over to me:- Leave a quick voicemail calling: 209-980-7877 (209-980-RUSS)- For longer question email: spoonfulofrussian@gmail.com- twitter: @russianspoonful (with hashtag #askNataliaW )- YouTube: youtube.com/spoonfulofrussianThe above ways of communication are not just for questions. Any kind of feedback is encouraged and appreciated!Until next time. До встречи! In the meantime, in the words of a famous physicist Richard Feynman "Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible."

Dr. Adizes will share with his listeners the speech given at the XI International Investment Forum held in Sochi, Russia on September 21, 2012. The forum was attended by over 2,000 people, including all MEMBERS OF THE RUSSIAN CABINET, regional Governors of Russia, Ambassadors to Russia among them the Ambassador from the United States, top business leaders of Russia like the Chairman of GAZPROM and the President of LUKOIL. During this episode, he continues to answer the question, "What are the causes of the fear that Russian managers exhibit in their management practice?" Please join him on October 6, 2012 at 10 AM Pacific Time. He will take Questions from the Audience at end of his speech!

Dr. Adizes will share with his listeners the speech given at the XI International Investment Forum held in Sochi, Russia on September 21, 2012. The forum was attended by over 2,000 people, including all MEMBERS OF THE RUSSIAN CABINET, regional Governors of Russia, Ambassadors to Russia among them the Ambassador from the United States, top business leaders of Russia like the Chairman of GAZPROM and the President of LUKOIL. During this episode, he continues to answer the question, "What are the causes of the fear that Russian managers exhibit in their management practice?"

In this episode we talked about Six Flags in general, a possible Cedar Point coaster name, the CoasterCrazy.com  Coaster Draft, Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure, and the 2014 Winter Olympic village getting three new rollercoasters in Sochi Russia.Download Here

A result of delicious happenstance, the guys are seated next to Jill Bernard, co-founder of the HUGE Improv Theater in Minneapolis.