Listen now | Since I wrote a bit nuclear contamination here in San Francisco and mentioned the work of Kate Brown on nuclear history and politics, I figured I’d repost the great interview that Evgenia and Eileen Jones did with Kate Brown a few years back — back when Evgenia still cohosted Filmsuck. Eileen and Evgenia talked about her revisionist history of Chernobyl —
Very interesting and informative conversation. Appreciated Evgenia’s comments on life in the waning days of the Soviet Union. The series was entertaining, but I was put off by the obvious stereotypes of government officials and Soviet society in general. It seems that in western movies and shows, Russians only come in a few one dimensional caricatures - corrupt and incompetent Party apparatchik, brutal gangster or heroic dissident - instead of normal complex human beings with their strengths and flaws. I agree with most of the criticisms the conversation brought forth, and showing how the series played into so many unreal stereotypes of Soviet society at the time was very informative. One thing I think the series did right was to show how complex systems such as those involved in operating a nuclear plant can fail for reasons beyond human control, which should be a warning for any attempt to promote nuclear energy as an ‘clean’ alternative.
Just subscribed to Yasha’s Substack and I’m really enjoying the range of information available as well the more civilized conversations compared to Twitter.
Very interesting but Kate brown's 🎤 is awful.
Very interesting and informative conversation. Appreciated Evgenia’s comments on life in the waning days of the Soviet Union. The series was entertaining, but I was put off by the obvious stereotypes of government officials and Soviet society in general. It seems that in western movies and shows, Russians only come in a few one dimensional caricatures - corrupt and incompetent Party apparatchik, brutal gangster or heroic dissident - instead of normal complex human beings with their strengths and flaws. I agree with most of the criticisms the conversation brought forth, and showing how the series played into so many unreal stereotypes of Soviet society at the time was very informative. One thing I think the series did right was to show how complex systems such as those involved in operating a nuclear plant can fail for reasons beyond human control, which should be a warning for any attempt to promote nuclear energy as an ‘clean’ alternative.
Just subscribed to Yasha’s Substack and I’m really enjoying the range of information available as well the more civilized conversations compared to Twitter.