Don't Push the Horses

The billionaire son of legendary investor Warren Buffett is many things: A farmer, philanthropist, business executive, and former sheriff. He’s also among the top foreign donors to Ukraine and has visited the country two dozen times since 2022, often spending time on the front line (including a few close calls with FPVs). In today’s episode, Buffett joins us on his birthday to share his strategy for acting as the “risk capital of t...

Blackouts reaching ten or more hours a day are a fact of life across Ukraine these days, as Russia continues to use attacks on the electric grid as a key weapon in its hybrid war. One of the people fighting back is today's guest, Yuliana Onishchuk, who made a risky career change to focus on solar power at a time many people thought it wasn't needed - only to prove, 33 schools and hospitals later, that renewable energy is es...

In today’s episode, top Hollywood screenwriter Beau Willimon — whose credits include House of Cards, Severance, and Andor — and award-winning filmmaker Noaz Deshe tell the story of how they rushed to Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale invasion with no clear plan of what they would find — and, in Willimon’s case, without permission from his employer — but managed to produce a captivating new film that “penetrates the veneer ...

In this episode, Tim fights his way through a forgotten corner of Soviet-style bureaucracy — and Kseniia Kalmus talks about her transformation from Kyiv florist to drone engineer, and how she created a community of foreign and Ukrainian volunteers working together to build some of the military’s most important weapons.

She shares how fundraising became a daily part of life for every Ukrainian, what it costs to produce an FPV drone, ...

In today’s episode, Tania gets a puppy — and Nastya Leonova shares the story of IST Publishing, which has become one of Ukraine’s top producers of beautiful hardcover photo and culture books, despite rockets, blackouts, and paper shortages. We also talk about how, even as missiles fall, new bookshops are opening in Kyiv, the growing demand for Ukrainian-language books, and how people are clearing out their shelves of Russian ones.

I...

Before the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian filmmaker Anton Shtuka made his name directing music videos for some of the country’s biggest stars, including Aliona-Aliona and Kalush. But when Russia launched its all-out war, Shtuka wasn’t sure how to contribute - until he picked up his camera and began documenting the reality in front of him. Since then, he has completed three feature films that capture both the chaos and resilience of...

Tanya celebrates a birthday, and Tim gets schooled on Ukrainian birthday traditions. Then, badass folklorist and musician Maria Kvitka explains what’s wrong with Ukrainian museums, what it took to make traditional embroidered shirts cool, and why some young Ukrainians are still afraid to stop speaking Russian.

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Listen Maria Kvitka on Spotify: htt...

In our inaugural episode, Ukrainian-American photographer Sasha Maslov recounts his chaotic return to Kyiv in the first days of the full-scale invasion, and how the war transformed his approach to photography.

We also reflect on how the invasion began for each of us: the shock of that first day, the changes that swept through Ukraine - and Kyiv in particular - as the war unfolded, and the strange logistics of traveling into a countr...