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April 22, 2022

The Other Front Lines

Four personal stories from the war in Ukraine.

Yevgenia Belorusets

Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

Prologue

Prologue

Host Ira Glass plays recordings of a woman named Katia in Kyiv, dealing with the quotidian challenges of life — like taking the dog out to pee — in the middle of the war. (7 minutes)

We found out about Katia from the podcast Vice News Reports, a show with a lot of great reporting on the war in Ukraine, plus stories that are unfolding all over the world.

Act Two

Munachi and The Escape 

There’s a group chat for Nigerian students living in Ukraine that got totally upended by the war. Reporter Alexis Okeowo tells the story and talks to one of the students in it. (19 minutes)

Read more of Alexis’s reporting on foreign students in Ukraine at The New Yorker.