Toy Soldiers

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

History, Science, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Back in February of 2022, anyone who knew anything thought the War in Ukraine would be over in a few weeks. Russia simply had more bodies to fight with and more steel to kill with.Fast-forward to today, however, and the war is anything but over. Ukraine has held and regained territory with shocking resilience. Stranger still, a small, cheap gadget that up until now was little more than a toy, has been central to their success.Today on Radiolab, we track the deployment of this weapon and wonder what happens when you have to look your enemy in the eye before you pull the trigger. Special thanks to Anna Kaliusna and her team for her footage from the frontline, Yulia Tarisuk for her help with all things Ukrainian language related. And Hanna Rose Shell for her helping us understand the history of camouflage. EPISODE CREDITS:Reported by - Simon AdlerProduced by - Simon AdlerOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Simon Adler and Jeremy Bloomwith mixing by - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Natalie Middletonand Edited by - Becca Bressler EPISODE CITATIONS:AUDIO:On the Media, “The Fog of War” (https://zpr.io/8NKDM2xHWzRp)Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I's Lati, one quick thing I wanted to say before we get going today, despite everything
0:09.3	that has been in the news, despite the fact that what's happening in Israel, Palestine, is on everyone's mind,
0:14.4	including everyone on our staff.
0:18.2	Our episode today is not about that, but we did want to do one thing.
0:23.0	We just wanted to shout out at the top that in situations like this one where things are
0:27.9	changing so quickly, when emotions are so heated, when good information is so hard to come
0:32.0	by, the podcast we listen to is
0:34.3	on the media. They put out an episode last week called The Fog of War. It's
0:39.4	really solid journalism. For those who want to hear more about what's happening, take a
0:45.0	list in there. That's it. That's all we wanted to say. And let's get on with the
0:50.7	show.
0:51.7	Wait, you're listening. Okay.
0:53.0	All right.
0:54.0	Okay.
0:55.0	All right.
0:56.0	You're listening to Radio Lab.
1:00.0	Radio.
1:01.0	From.
1:02.0	W.N. C. C. See? Yeah. Radio from WNY's
1:03.0	See?
1:04.0	Yeah.
1:05.0	Hey, I'm Latif Nasser.
	...

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