Spacebridge 1 – Hidden Human Reserves
Radiotopia Presents: We're Doing the Wiz
Radiotopia
4.3 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2019
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At a low point in the Cold War, three men walk into a bureaucrat’s office at Gosteleradio, the state broadcaster of the Soviet Union. Two are Americans: an astronaut, and a researcher of psychic phenomena. The third is a Russian utopian with a notebook full of phone numbers he’s not supposed to know. The three want approval for something that’s never been tried before: a two-way, simultaneous satellite link between the enemy empires of the US and USSR.
Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy.
Find out more and listen to the previous series Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang, The Great God of Depression, and The Stoop at radiotopia.fm/showcase.
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Radiotopia Presents, from PRX's Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.6 | Stand by to set levels on the Moscow received. |
| 0:14.0 | Moscow called in San Diego. |
| 0:17.2 | You want us to check your audio? |
| 0:20.6 | This is the Kremlin, |
| 0:22.6 | Citadel of Russian Communists. |
| 0:24.6 | We'll have to go back a bit in history. |
| 0:26.6 | Okay, I'm waiting patiently. |
| 0:30.6 | Yet we know that Russia today is regarded as a grave threat to our nation, to our freedom. Good morning. |
| 0:38.3 | Yes. |
| 0:39.3 | Please, let's turn this on. |
| 0:40.3 | Why so? |
| 0:41.3 | What makes it a threat? |
| 0:42.3 | To ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire to simply call the arms race. |
| 0:48.3 | Here in Russia, you see the reason why we are spending billions of dollars in defense production. |
| 0:55.0 | Builder satellites instead of making research on each other, can connect people for free. |
| 1:02.0 | Politicians dare talk directly to each other. |
| 1:05.0 | What is the same? |
| 1:06.0 | The bar so. Imagine. It starts with a phone call. |
| 1:20.4 | Phone rings in Astankana, the Moscow television tower. |
| 1:26.7 | A concrete space needle whose shadow circles the expanse of the city and whose broadcasts |
| 1:32.2 | blanket the entire Soviet Union. The year is 1982. The phone that's ringing is the special |
... |
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