Ukraine: Race Against The Machine

Rough Translation

NPR

Society & Culture, Social Sciences, News, News Commentary, Science

4.8 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2019

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the country on the other side of the impeachment hearings... A comedian runs for president of Ukraine and wins in a landslide, with a parliamentary majority to pass any law he wants. So now what? Our host, Gregory Warner, reports from Kyiv.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Gregory Warner and you're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.
0:07.2	Before we start the show, we have a survey for you.
0:09.2	It's our chance to hear from you why you listen, what you're listening for, what you want
0:13.3	to hear more of.
0:14.3	It only takes 10 minutes to fill out.
0:16.1	We'd love it if you would.
0:17.1	We'll have a link at the end of this episode and in the show notes.
0:21.0	And thanks.
0:23.5	President Trump shares a few things in common with the President of Ukraine, the Vladimir Zelensky.
0:29.4	Both are outsiders to politics.
0:31.5	Both made their name by starring in a TV show.
0:33.7	Zelensky starred in a Ukrainian sitcom called Servant of the People.
0:38.3	In the sitcom, he plays this mild mannered, precariously employed high school history
0:42.3	teacher whose fortunes shift one day when he delivers a curse-filled rant to another teacher
0:48.2	all about feaving politicians.
0:51.7	What he does not know is that one of his own students is secretly filming him through
0:58.7	the classroom window.
1:00.4	The video goes online.
1:02.1	The teacher is nearly fired.
1:03.9	But in a twist, the video is so popular that the teacher runs for President and wins.
1:09.8	Which gets to one more connection between Zelensky and the American President.
1:14.4	Both made a campaign pledge to get rid of political elites to drain the swamp.
	...

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