The Naked Pravda
Meduza’s first English-language podcast, The Naked Pravda highlights how our top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia. The broader context of Meduza’s in-depth, original journalism isn’t always clear, which is where this show comes in. Here you’ll hear from the world’s community of Russia experts, activists, and reporters about the issues at the heart of Meduza’s stories.
Stephen Cohen’s legacy
“The Naked Pravda” speaks to historian Sean Guillory about the significance of Stephen Cohen’s work on Nikolai Bukharin, about Cohen’s place in American policy debates about Russia, and what his passing means for the study of Russia in the U.S.
Belarusian propaganda: From courting the West to taking Russia’s cues
“The Naked Pravda” speaks to Alexey Kovalev about his two most recent investigations into Belarusian propaganda: a decade-old PR campaign to ingratiate Alexander Lukashenko to the West and a collaboration now unfolding in Minsk with Russian journalists.
Finding the poison: Dr. Marc-Michael Blum explains the analytical chemistry needed to identify nerve agents in patients
‘Meduza’ interviews biochemist Marc-Michael Blum about how analytical chemistry is able to identify nerve agents in patients and what the outlook is for Alexey Navalny’s recovery.
For Russian eyes only: U.S. voter data, hackers, and the story that wasn’t
‘Meduza’ asks three analysts working on cyber-threats, digital diplomacy, and Russian politics about a controversial, misleading report published this week in ‘Kommersant’ about U.S. voter data shared on a hacker platform.
Russia’s coronavirus vaccine: Assessing the risks and research behind ‘Sputnik V’
Meduza asks two American experts on healthcare and demography in Russia and Eurasia about “Sputnik V” — the coronavirus vaccine Moscow has approved for general distribution this fall.
Poisoned in Russia: Alexey Navalny fights for his life as a deadly trend catches up to the country’s top oppositionist
Meduza reviews Alexey Navalny’s mysterious illness and looks back at some recent poisonings in Russia to get a sense of what he’s up against.
The Belarusian Election: Three experts explain what to expect from the presidential vote and the real political battle that follows
Meduza speaks to three experts on Belarusian politics about the August 9, 2020, presidential race and the geopolitical game Minsk is playing with Moscow.
The Sino-Russian Propaganda Pact: How Moscow and Beijing bungled a media partnership meant to promote each other
Meduza asks a handful of regional and media politics experts how the Russian and Chinese state media work together, why this cooperation has stumbled, and how geopolitics plays into this relationship.
The FSO on the QT: The state of sociological work and opinion polling in Russia today
“The Naked Pravda” speaks to two sociologists about the Kremlin’s secret polling and the state of public opinion surveys in Russia today.
Treason and Military Journalism in Russia: The arrest and prosecution of Ivan Safronov
“The Naked Pravda” speaks to Human Rights Watch’s Rachel Denber and Harvard University’s Dmitry Gorenburg about the treatment of journalists and reporting on the military in Russia, following treason charges against Ivan Safronov.
The Seventh Studio Case: What Kirill Serebrennikov means to Russia’s art world
“The Naked Pravda” takes a closer look at stage director Kirill Serebrennikov to try to understand what makes him so special in Russia’s art world.
‘Secondary Infektion’: Ben Nimmo explains how his investigative team helped to uncover a long-running Russian disinformation operation
“Graphika” head of investigations Ben Nimmo answers questions about new research exposing the long-running Russian information operation “Secondary Infektion,” a group allegedly responsible for forgeries, election interference, and virtual attacks.
Nationalism and the Alt-Right: Another look at ‘Russian Lives Matter’
This week’s show looks at Russian nationalism, activism in Russia against police brutality, and the American alt-right. We also return to the “Russian Lives Matter” movement.
Russian Lives Matter: How America’s new civil rights movement reverberates in Russia
Five guests in Russia and the United States discuss the nature of the Black Lives Matter movement and its significance around the world, including its relationship to a similarly named initiative against police brutality in Russia.
Moral calculus under Putin: Joshua Yaffa talks about his new book, ‘Between Two Fires’
Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker's Moscow correspondent, talks to Meduza about his new book, “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia,” which offers a look at Putin’s Russia without focusing on Putin.
It's business time: Max Seddon dissects the controversy at ‘Vedomosti’ and reviews the nature of financial reporting in Russia today
Host Kevin Rothrock reviews what we know about developments at the newspaper Vedomosti and speaks to Financial Times Moscow correspondent Max Seddon about the newsroom controversy and business journalism in Russia more broadly.
F**k the Pulitzer: A Russian investigative journalist says his team deserves recognition for breaking one of the stories that won ‘The New York Times’ its latest reporting award
‘The New York Times’ has won another Pulitzer Prize for its Russia reporting, and once again Russian journalists say the U.S. newspaper failed to acknowledge their own groundbreaking investigative work.
‘Red Dawn’: What Hollywood's most outlandish Cold War movie says about Americans and Russians
In a world engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic, “The Naked Pravda” travels back in time to the carefree 1980s, when Americans and Russians worried about simpler things like World War III, and Hollywood released “Red Dawn.”
Pandemic Justice: How COVID-19 and coronavirus containment measures have exacerbated problems in Russia's courts and prisons
How have coronavirus containment measures affected Russia's justice system? “The Naked Pravda” turns to two pairs of human rights activists and scholars, as well as the author of a Meduza investigative report.
‘Russian Journalism's Newspeak’: How the Kremlin's euphemisms creep into reporting about disasters
As Russia confronts the global coronavirus pandemic, the role of euphemisms in news reporting takes on special importance. On today's show, two media experts explain how journalists in Russia and other countries take cues when writing about disasters.
‘The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad New Boss’: Editorial changes at ‘Vedomosti’ jeopardize one of Russia's best-respected business newspapers
To understand the significance of recent editorial troubles at Vedomosti, “The Naked Pravda” turns to Vedomosti editor-at-large Maxim Trudolyubov, who helped launched the publication more than 20 years ago.
‘Queer Science Fiction in Russian’: What space epics and tech dystopias tell us about post-Soviet minority activism
As governments and vigilantes ramp up violence against LGBTQ Russian speakers, queer activists are turning to science fiction to map out a political future when it seems like any future is impossible.
‘Russia's Chances Against Coronavirus’: Sizing up the country's healthcare capacity and social readiness for a pandemic
With Russia's suspiciously low coronavirus numbers raising concerns about the reliability of official statistics, Meduza turns to several healthcare experts to understand the challenges ahead.
‘Constitutional Gymnastics’: Russia's strange initiative to keep Vladimir Putin in office for years to come
The Russian authorities are marching forward with sweeping reforms to the country's Constitution. What laws are being bent or trampled in the campaign to allow Vladimir Putin another two presidential terms?
‘Russians in America’: Russian immigrants and visitors in the U.S. discuss the 2020 Democratic primaries
Americans worried about election interference talk constantly about “the Russians.” Here's what Russian people living the U.S. think about that.
‘Starting WWII’: Today's war of words between Russia and Poland over the history of the late 1930s
Four historians explain why assigning blame in WWII is more complicated than it seems and how the fight over memory in Russia and Poland muddies the path to the truth.
‘Academic Freedom’: The fight over political activism inside Moscow's Higher School of Economics
An in-depth look at controversial amendments to the internal rules and regulations on political activism by students and faculty at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, perhaps the best university in Russia.
‘RuNet Sovereignty’: How Russia is trying to isolate its Internet segment from the rest of the world, maybe
More crippling regulations and censorship saddles the Russian Internet every year, but it remains a space for surprisingly free speech and remarkable profits. How?
‘Conspiracy theories’: What Americans and Russians reveal about themselves in the stories they tell about each other
Conspiracy theories in America and Russia are booming and even converging today. What do these false narratives say about the two countries' politics and cultures?
‘Executive power in Russia’: How we know what we know about Kremlin politics and what to expect from Putin's new Constitutional shakeup
Vladimir Putin has proposed a redistribution of executive power in Russia. Or has he? Let's dive deep into the politics of the Kremlin and the presidential administration.
‘Tabloids and an inferiority complex’: The business and political strategy behind the media's biased Russia coverage
A recent study by Russia's state media says half of Western reporting about Russia is “negative.” It turns out that a single tabloid journalist writes a big chunk of these stories.
‘The Information Nation’: Kremlin researchers and forensic journalists intersect at Russia’s black market for leaked personal data
Kremlin computer researchers and forensic journalists are natural enemies, but both groups sometimes rely on illegally traded leaked databases. Meduza asked three reporters to explain how these Internet black markets lead to strange bedfellows in Russia.
‘Instead of her face, I saw a pizza’: How women in Russia are fighting back against sexual assault
What compels rape survivors in Russia to come forward publicly? Are women’s rights advocates optimistic about making the country safer for women? How should we even talk about sexual assault? Tune in for a discussion with journalists and activists.
‘The Naked Pravda’ premiere trailer: Meduza’s new English-language podcast
The Naked Pravda highlights how Meduza’s top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia.
Producer, sound editing and mixing — Kevin Rothrock
Executive producer — Alexandr Sadikov
Music — Victor Davydov