America and Beyond with Paul Starobin cover art

America and Beyond with Paul Starobin

America and Beyond with Paul Starobin

By: New Books Network
Listen for free

About this listen

Journalist and author Paul Starobin is a former contributing editor of The Atlantic and a former Moscow bureau chief of Business Week. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. His latest book, Putin’s Exiles: Their Fight for a Better Russia (Columbia Global Reports) will be published in January. His three previous books are A Most Wicked Conspiracy: The Last Great Swindle of the Gilded Age (PublicAffairs, 2020); Madness Rules the Hour: Charleston, 1860 and the Mania for War (PublicAffairs, 2017); and After America: Narratives for the Next Global Age (Viking, 2009). He posts on Facebook. Paul lives with his family in Orleans, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod.New Books Network Art Literary History & Criticism Political Science Politics & Government World
Episodes
  • "Assignment Moscow" with author James Rodgers
    Aug 20 2025
    Is it possible to do independent journalism in today’s Russia? “The short answer is no,” James Rodgers tells me in our conversation about his insightful and scrupulously researched book Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). Rodgers is a former BBC correspondent in Moscow. We first talk about Western coverage of the Russian Revolution and the early years of the Soviet Union, when many foreign correspondents, famously John Reed, openly identified with the Bolshevik cause and cheered it on. We discuss, too, the dubious example of New York Times reporter Walter Duranty, who infamously denied the reality of famine in Ukraine in the Stalin period. And we close with a discussion of journalism in the Putin era and the challenges that all journalists, including Russians, face. As Rodgers acknowledges, much of the best reporting on what is happening inside of Russia comes from Russian exiles with good internal sources. Such reporting does not get wide attention in the West but represents a valuable dissident Russian journalism tradition that took root in the glasnost era of the 1980s and has endured. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Understanding Ukraine: A Discussion with Author Yaroslav Trofimov
    Apr 17 2025
    Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is a native of Kyiv. In this conversation, we discuss two books. Our Enemies Will Vanish (Penguin Press, 2024), is a nonfiction narrative chronicling Putin’s invasion of Ukraine through the reporter Trofimov’s eyes. No Country for Love (Abacus Books, 2024), is his novel tracing the path of a young woman, the character based on his grandmother, on an arduous journey starting in 1930s Soviet Ukraine. Both books, as different as they are, cast a revealing light on the oppressions visited on the diverse peoples of Ukraine. In our talk, Trofimov offers insights into the books and also a guide as to how the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war might be concluded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    52 mins
  • On Fiorello La Guardia and Why He Still Matters: A Discussion with Author Terry Golway
    Apr 19 2024
    Has any American mayor ever made a greater stamp on the public consciousness than the Little Flower, Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945? La Guardia is brought to life in historian Terry Golway’s “I Never Did Like Politics”: How Fiorello La Guardia Became America’s Mayor, and Why He Still Matters (St. Martin’s Press, 2024). The podcast tracks with Golway’s thematic approach to his book, which features chapters on “In Defense of Democracy,” “The Immigrant’s Friend,” and “The Anti-Politician Politician.” Golway recognizes and celebrates the Little Flower as a champion of enduring American political and cultural values that, once again today, as in his times, are under severe and seemingly unremitting stress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.