James C. Pearce, Jeremy Morris and Jonny Tickle trace how the Russian state reaches from hospitals to housing, schools to smartphones. They break down its four layers – bureaucracy, surveillance, economic direction and moral oversight – and ask where public service ends and supervision begins. The discussion moves from Gosuslugi and CCTV to patriotic education, corporate loyalty and cultural bans, exploring how order and convenience coexist with limits on independence in daily life.

This podcast is an independent project and does not represent the views of our employers or affiliated institutions.

James C. Pearce, Jeremy Morris and Jonny Tickle examine why lived experience often contradicts desk-based takes, asking what language skills, fieldwork and everyday conversations add that surveys, Telegram feeds and think-tank incentives miss. They probe the outsourcing of “Russia expertise” to diasporas and distant commentators, the class divide between capitals and small towns, and why certainty sells even when nuance is truer. Along the way they discuss textbook myths, journalism-by-proxy, and the awkward fact that there is rarely a penalty for being wrong.

This podcast is an independent project and does not represent the views of our employers or affiliated institutions.

James C. Pearce, Jeremy Morris and Jonny Tickle test Moscow’s reputation for effortless daily life: world-class metro and buses, expanding lines, e-governance, safety, and abundant parks and culture. They weigh the trade-offs since 2022, including curtailed travel, payment card problems, rising costs, and widening inequality, and dig into housing bubbles, micro-district legacies, and the split between old and new Muscovites. The conversation also looks beyond the capitals to ask what liveability means across Russia in 2025. This podcast is an independent project and does not represent the views of our employers or affiliated institutions.

Since 2022 a new wave of Westerners has headed to Russia, drawn by talk of tradition, order and conservatism. James C. Pearce, Jeremy Morris and Jonny Tickle compare this cohort with earlier movers, ask what they are seeking versus what they find, and dig into language barriers, bureaucracy, soft power, the YouTuber economy, and how Russians actually view these arrivals. They also set this against the wider picture of Central Asian migration and everyday life in Moscow and beyond.

This podcast is an independent project and does not represent the views of our employers or affiliated institutions.

Is it okay to like Russia in 2025? James C. Pearce, Jeremy Morris and Jonny Tickle unpack why Russian art and literature still matter in the West, how academic debates over decolonising Russian studies spill into public life, and where personal taste ends and institutional endorsement begins. They also weigh Ukraine’s cultural pushback, whether boycotts work, and what everyday life in Russia actually looks like, from multicultural reality to Moscow’s day-to-day convenience.

This podcast is an independent project and does not represent the views of our employers or affiliated institutions.