Departures Podcast featuring Owen Matthews, author of ‘Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine’

By Editor | Published: January 20, 2023

As we approach the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a number of journalists and authors have published highly detailed chronicles from the battlefield, stories of resilience and heroism of the Ukrainian resistance, and geopolitical analyses across the spectrum. But few of these books view the war through Russian eyes, understanding the thinking that […]

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Departures Podcast featuring Deborah Cohen, author of ‘Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War’

By Editor | Published: January 12, 2023

The role of foreign correspondents, especially during times of war, can be extraordinarily important not only in shaping public perceptions and strategic decisionmaking at the highest level, but also in informing on revolutionary shifts in social norms, as these reporters find themselves bringing their personal lives into the public and the newsmaking process into their […]

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Departures Podcast featuring Luke Harding, author of ‘Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival’

By Editor | Published: December 29, 2022

After almost 23 years in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin currently appears more weakened and vulnerable than during any other period of his presidency, thanks in large part to his disastrous decision to invade Ukraine. On this week’s Departures, we bring back the veteran journalist Luke Harding, who for years serving the Guardian’s correspondent in […]

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Departures Podcast featuring Anna Aruntunyan, author of ‘Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine’

By Editor | Published: December 14, 2022

When we talk about the gig economy, we usually are referring to rideshare drivers, errand runners, and all sorts of service industry freelancers. But we rarely think about the freelancers and non-state actors which take part in wars and armed conflict, doing the sometimes violent fighting and often disruptive hacking, as playing a very important […]

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Departures Podcast featuring Raffaello Pantucci, author of ‘Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire’

By Editor | Published: December 9, 2022

Though we often view China’s increasingly activist foreign policy in its trade wars, territorial disputes, and frequent collisions with Western states, less attention is paid to its gradual and quiet expansion of influence in the ‘Stans of Central Asia. But it is here, among the populations of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan […]

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Departures Podcast featuring Jeremy L. Wallace, author of ‘Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China’

By Editor | Published: November 29, 2022

China’s recent political history has taken place at breakneck speed. A historic economic transformation, the consolidation of centralized power not seen since Mao, and the eager but then later truculent participation in the global economy. How do we measure this progress and its costs, and how do we measure its shortcomings? The numbers matter, and […]

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