The Trialogue

Vladimir Pozner, Russian-American Journalist

Episode Summary

This week, our guest is Vladimir Pozner, a renowned Russian-American journalist. We discuss Pozner’s childhood in Paris, New York, and Berlin in the 1930s and 40s; his career as a Soviet propagandist in the 1960s-80s; US-Russia relations in the 90s; censorship in the US and Russia today; and what Americans should understand about Russians in general and Putin in particular, among other subjects.

Episode Notes

This week, our guest is Vladimir Pozner, a renowned Russian-American journalist. We discuss Pozner’s childhood in Paris, New York, and Berlin in the 1930s and 40s; his career as a Soviet propagandist in the 1960s-80s; US-Russia relations in the 90s; censorship in the US and Russia today; and what Americans should understand about Russians in general and Putin in particular, among other subjects.

Show Links:

• Pozner and Donahue, September 24, 1991
• “Spacebridge” (Leningrad-Seattle), 1985

Time Stamps:

• 00:00:00 Brief bio of Vladimir Pozner
• 00:02:11 Childhood in Paris, New York, and Berlin in the 30s and 40s
• 00:08:11 Move to Moscow in 1952
• 00:13:01 Soviet perceptions of the US in the 1950s
• 00:17:44 Career as a Soviet propagandist
• 00:24:17 Hosting the US-Soviet “space-bridge” joint television show in the mid 80s
• 00:28:35 Brezhnev reforms
• 00:31:56 The Pozner and Donahue show and US-Russia relations in the 90s
• 00:39:42 Cold War then and now
• 00:41:47 Was the collapse of the Soviet Union a geopolitical tragedy?
• 00:45:14 What should Americans understand about Russia?
• 00:49:05 Would something like the 1980s “space bridge” television show be possible today?
• 00:51:19 Censorship in Russia and the USA
• 01:03:00 What is your favorite Soviet joke?
• 01:03:45 What should Americans understand about Putin?