The Last Soviet: Recent Episodes
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Lance Bass, NSync Superstar and Russian trained astronaut, takes you on a wild ride into space. He tells the story of the last Soviet cosmonaut who is trapped on the world’s only space station, as the country he knows and loves collapses beneath him. On this journey through Earth’s atmosphere in the form of a podcast, Lance introduces you to the woman who won a reality show cosmonaut contest, a ham radio operator in Australia who became a lifeline for the Soviet Space Station, a hustler from Chicago who tried to sell coca-cola to the Russians and the editor of Playboy who took part in a revolution.
It’s one man’s dream to go to space, his dedication to the country he thought he knew and 313 days spent orbiting the Earth. 313 days that changed our world.
Plus, Lance’s own dream to go to space and the lengths he went to make it a reality.
When an astrologer tells Mangesh that he’ll (probably) die early, he takes it in stride. But his family and friends (not to mention all the Don’t Die longevity influencers on his FYP) feel differently… and besides, if science can keep his brain sharp and his tennis game strong for longer, why not take advantage? So he visits Dr. Nir Barzelai, the world’s leading aging researcher, and Dr. Ron Primas, an elite longevity doctor, to figure out what he should do. Plus: A chat with Ken Reid from TV Guidance Counselor about age in pop culture, from the Golden Girls to “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Disclosure: The experts we spoke with want to be clear that although they have some minor quibbles with Bryan Johnson, they’re grateful for the fact that he’s started the conversation on longevity. Any insinuation that he’s got weird vibes is ours.
- Listen to Ken Reid’s podcast, TV Guidance Counselor
- Learn more about Nir Barzelai’s Longevity Genes Project and his book, Age Later
- Learn more about Ron Primas’s longevity and concierge medicine practice
- Read Cynthia Kenyon’s groundbreaking 1993 study of worm longevity
- Check out the Ray Kurzweil Library
Special thanks to Azadi Records and Bliss Samsa for their beautiful tracks, and Botany for the score.
Episode collage art by Vahini Shori.
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A young radio producer in Afghanistan is given an impossible task: to create a brand new, revolutionary talent show in just two months.
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To purchase original Afghan Star artwork visit www.awastudios.com/afghanstar — proceeds go to support The Noor Initiative, who are on a mission to ensure every Afghan girl has access to education and opportunity.
Music at the end of this episode from Afghan musician Qais Maroof, contestant on The Voice of Afghanistan.
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From the fall of the Taliban until its return, people all over Afghanistan planned their lives around Afghan Star. People would pack into apartments. Villages would hook up generators to a single tv so crowds could watch. New Year’s celebrations would come to a halt, all to watch this one show. Over its 15 seasons, Afghan Star spotlighted an Afghanistan that could be: women singing without hijabs, Afghanistan’s first rapper, people of warring ethnic groups hugging and cheering for each other on stage. And it launched a cultural revolution. This is the story behind it all– from how a ragtag team scrambled to make the show every week, to the dangers they faced for trying to push the country forward. In Afghanistan, a cultural revolution was televised through a musical talent show, and this is its story. Hosted by John Legend.
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Vassilis Palaikostas, aka “Greece’s Robin Hood” has been on the lam for 14 years. In his absence, legends of his generosity have grown. But no one knows where he is, or if the stories are even true.
Here’s what we do know: there’s a million Euro bounty out for Vassilis, and a 24-hour task force trying to track him down. When he robs banks, he shares the money with the poor. When he kidnaps industrialists-- and he only kidnaps those who are known for unfair labor practices-- they give baffling interviews showing how he opened their minds. And when he escapes heavily reinforced prisons, as he’s done ... by helicopter ... twice, he does it without harming a guard.
Join host Miles Gray and our team of Greek reporters as we follow Vassilis’ trail from Athens to tiny islands to remote mountain hideouts. Along the way, we’ll meet Vassilis’s inner circle, chat with police chiefs and prime ministers, and work to understand how this thief managed to steal the country’s heart.
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A coup in Haiti empowers a new paramilitary squad, bold enough to face down the U.S. military. In Miami, the black book resurfaces – and the killings continue.
Available to all on May 18, 2023.
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When music promoter and DJ Jean-Claude Olivier is shot outside a club in Miami, Little Haiti wonders – how much further is this going to go?
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The collapse of the Soviet Union heralds a new era in international space travel and leads to the arrival of Lance Bass in Star City. But what happens when Lance’s mission goes wrong?
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Sergei finally returns to a new country. But what will happen to his beloved space program now cosmonauts are selling their space medals in the metro?
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A starry eyed young wheeler-dealer from Toronto sets out on a mission. To get a coca cola can onto Sergei’s space station. But soon the idealism of post Communist Russia turns dark as Sergei’s new country is plunged into chaos.
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Sergei makes the decision to stay in the space station. But a few weeks later something happens that changes everything. Mikhail Gorbachev disappears. What happens over the next 3 days will decide the future of the Soviet Union once and for all. Three days that changed the world.
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In this mini-episode, we take a pit stop with our host Lance Bass in Star City. He gives us the no holds barred account of training with the Russians: from flying a fighter jet drunk on vodka to elective heart surgery. Plus, we hear about why he never did make it to space…not yet anyhow.
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A woman in her shed in suburban Australia makes contact with the Soviet Space Station. Little does she know she’s about to become a lifeline to Sergei as his country collapses.
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A woman is driving home from work one day when she hears an ad on the radio that changes her life. “Astronaut Wanted No Experience Necessary.” This unassuming Brit who worked in the Mars Bar factory in the suburbs would end up traveling with our cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev on the mission he almost didn’t come home from. An effort to save the Soviet space program, birthed commercial space travel.
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The world’s only space station goes dark. And now Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev has to lead one of the riskiest missions ever flown in space. He alone is tasked with saving the Soviet Space program from catastrophe.
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Traveling at five miles a second, 250 miles above the Earth’s surface, Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev wakes to a message from his handlers on the ground: the Soviet Union is collapsing. And so is the Soviet Space agency. You have a choice: come down as planned and abandon the world’s only space station to an unknown fate. Or stay, protect the final outpost of a falling empire and risk your life?
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Boyband sensation and little known Russian trained astronaut Lance Bass has a story to tell you. It’s a thriller about the last Soviet cosmonaut stuck in orbit as his country and a way of life disintegrates beneath him. With only one trusted source on earth to explain these unprecedented events, Sergei Krikalev relies on a ham radio operator from Australia, who has managed to tap into the Mir Space Stations frequency.What does it take to defend the final outpost of a falling empire?
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