The journeys of two Russian anti-war YouTubers

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Endless Thread spends time talking with two young Russian YouTubers who've had to contend with Russia's crackdown on wartime dissent.

Natasha and Zack initially gained traction on YouTube for their videos about Russian food, culture, and daily life. Their slice-of-life vlogs were a huge hit, getting millions of views with each upload. But when Russia invaded Ukraine one year ago, both Zack and Natasha had to make tough decisions to stand by their values — which ultimately altered the course of their lives.

Credits: This episode was written and produced by Megan Cattel. Mixing and sound design by Matt Reed. Megan Cattel and Ben Brock Johnson are the co-hosts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	WBWR Podcasts, Boston.
0:12.0	So Ben, hi. How you doing?
0:15.0	Pretty good producer Megan Katel. I'm alright.
0:18.0	Alright, it's good to hear. I really want to show you this YouTube video.
0:23.0	I love a YouTube rabbit hole.
0:26.0	Are you ready?
0:27.0	I'm ready.
0:28.0	And we'll try to find out why Russian people like to swim in the cold water when it's
0:34.0	madness, 15 degrees Celsius outside.
0:36.0	Okay, so this is filmed by a Russian YouTuber named Natasha. Her username is Natasha's
0:42.0	Adventures. And she's here with a fellow YouTuber named Zach. And he goes by Zach the Russian.
0:48.0	They're both from Russia's Far East, which shares a border with China and North Korea.
0:53.0	So it's cold. It's really cold.
0:55.0	Okay, thanks a lot for this. Ready? It's 15 cold water.
0:58.0	Oh my God. So Ben, in this video Natasha takes us on this frozen river where the water is
1:06.0	blessed by priests for epiphany.
1:08.0	Okay.
1:09.0	And on this river, there are squares cut into the ice and crosses to make these openings so
1:14.0	people can jump in for a second, cross themselves as they don't come down into the water and
1:19.0	they just hop out and it's freezing.
1:21.0	So they're trying to have an epiphany by having a shock to their system?
1:26.0	Yeah, kind of. Maybe. Hopefully.
	...

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