This is a fantastic conversation (roughly 90 minutes with questions) with Serhii Plokhy and Olia Hercules at the Ukrainian Institute London:

The Russo-Ukrainian War on Youtube

Plokhy is a historian and professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard; he’s written books including Gates of Europe, an excellent, readable introduction to Ukrainian history. Hercules is a culinary writer with a focus on her native Ukrainian cuisine; her book Summer Kitchens is just fantastic.

Both bring some incredible insight to the conversation, with such different perspectives on topics ranging from geostrategy and war to language. Just wish somebody had asked Olia a bit about whether the culinary landscape in Ukraine is changing in any way like the language use is!

The talk itself was recorded on 17 May, so a couple of weeks before russia blew up the dam - worth bearing in mind when hearing Olia talk about her family home in Kakhovka. Really powerful stuff.

(PS - not put the link in the URL field this time, let’s see what happens…)