Episode 87 - From Russia Without Love

Rundown -

 

Larry Ryckman - 05:15

 

Right Wing Media Watch - 01:11:10

 

Ann Imse - 01:49:24

 

Troubadour Dave Gunders - 02:32:11

 

"My Dad" by Dave Gunders - 02:42:19

 

Colorado is blessed to have two reporters who covered collapse of the Soviet Union for the Associated Press. Imagine being a baby boomer with a hankering to witness and report on the conflict between Russia and America, and then doing it during critical hinge in history.

 

Larry Ryckman is Editor and co-founder of The Colorado Sun, which is this state’s top news outlet.  Larry Ryckman shares his experience thirty years ago as a foreign correspondent for AP covering Russia, Chechnya, and Ukraine. Listen to Larry describe Russians and Ukrainians and what it was like when the Soviet Union collapsed.

 

Russia’s loss of press freedoms is ominous. Russia has clamped down on legitimate journalism with 15-year prison sentences for reporting accurately on Putin’s war against Ukraine. What now is the role of the media in this conflict? And how does it affect Colorado? Listen to Larry Ryckman for his informed and entertaining perspective.

 

Right Wing Media Watch features #DenverTrumpRadio Sunday night mainstay Backbone Radio where conspiracy theories against Ukraine and Zelenskyy run rampant. We examine the heroic uplifting words of Zelenskyy to the British Parliament, and most impactful broadcasting regarding Russia’s Ukraine invasion.

 

Ann Imse is a superb former Rocky Mountain News journalist who grew up desiring to understand Russia. As an exchange student, Ann Imse attended Leningrad State and returned to Russia as an Associated Press reporter as the Soviet Union was collapsing. Ann shares her vibrant Russian recollections and despairs the loss of Russian press freedoms.

 

These dangerous times have a lot of us longing for an opportunity to ask our parents for their wisdom and reassurance. Show Troubadour Dave Gunders’ father, Henry Gunders, grew up in Munich and fled the Nazis in the 1930’s, as described in Episode 21. Now we are fathers, and we enjoy Dave Gunders’ song, “My Dad,” about a very good man.