Wavemaker Conversations: A Podcast For The Insanely Curious

35 years ago, Julia Ioffe and her family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from the former Soviet Union, having fled their homeland upon rumors of a planned pogrom against the Jews of Moscow. Julia was only seven. Today, Julia Ioffe — a happy American accident, as she has called her life — has become a go-to journalist for her singular insights on Vladimir Putin and Russia and her reporting on the war in Ukraine and U.S. national security policy.In this conversation with Puck News correspondent Julia Ioffe, recorded August 9, 2024 live at Nantucket’s Dreamland Theatre, we discuss: Ukraine’s surprise offensive inside Russia; Putin’s grip on power — and what it would take to loosen it; Ioffe’s deep dive into Putin’s childhood; the enduring impact of Stalin’s Great Terror on the Russian psyche; Ioffe’s reflections on Alexey Navalny; a show & tell analysis of Putin, on camera, demanding obedience from his top aides; how to curse like a Russian; and, two months before she gave birth to her first child, what Juli