Best Felix And George Podcasts (2025)

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#225 Wes Via 2: The Dark Night of the Soul 1:43:50

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20h ago1:43:50

1:43:50

The gospel brings freedom from sin and transforms lives, yet preaching this message often comes with unexpected costs and opposition from established religious systems. • Wes Vi discusses his complicated relationship with the church as an institution • Understanding the "dark night of the soul" as a spiritual experience where God feels distant yet …

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Dark and Tender: Aaron Johnson on Reclaiming Touch and Dismantling the Black Brute Myth - Episode 80 36:14

6d ago36:14

36:14

In this episode of The Inside Circle Podcast, Eldra sits down with social activist and founder of The CUT Project, Aaron Johnson, about the need for holistic, platonic touch in the lives of Black and BIPOC men. Drawing from personal experience and his work, Aaron explores how unaddressed trauma and chronic under-touching affect nervous systems, rel…

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#224 Micah Moddrell: When God Transforms from Information to Relationship 1:05:49

8d ago1:05:49

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Micah Modrell shares his powerful journey from rigid religious legalism to discovering the transformative grace of the gospel that completely changed his understanding of God and his approach to ministry. • Born and raised in an Adventist home with legalistic tendencies • Parents divorced when he was eight, creating a split between "church house" a…

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Felix Cowan, "The Kopeck Press: Popular Journalism in Revolutionary Russia, 1908-1918" (U Toronto Press, 2025) 51:56

10d ago51:56

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In this episode, Alisa interviews Dr. Felix Cowan about his new book, The Kopeck Press Popular Journalism in Revolutionary Russia, 1908–1918 (University of Toronto Press, 2025). The Imperial Russian penny press was a vast network of newspapers sold for a single kopeck per issue. Emerging in cities and towns across the empire between the 1905 Revolu…

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Elana Gomel, "The Pilgrim Soul: Being a Russian in Israel" (Cambria Press, 2009) 1:06:01

11d ago1:06:01

1:06:01

Elana Gomel is a former senior lecturer in the Department of English and American Studies at Tel Aviv University, where she also served as department chair for two years. This book investigates the Russian community in Israel, analyzing the narratives through which Russian Jewry defines itself and linking them to the legacy of Soviet history. Gomel…

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Sergey Radchenko, "To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 1:14:35

11d ago1:14:35

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What would it feel like To Run the World? The Soviet rulers spent the Cold War trying desperately to find out. In To Run The World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power, Sergey Radchenko provides an unprecedented deep dive into the psychology of the Kremlin's decision-making. He reveals how the Soviet struggle with the United States and Chin…

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Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn, "Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective" (CIUS Press, 2016) 1:13:33

12d ago1:13:33

1:13:33

In this volume, leading specialists examine the affinities and differences between the pan-Soviet famine of 1931–1933, the Ukrainian Holodomor, the Kazakh great hunger, and the famine in China in 1959–1961. The contributors presented papers at a conference organized by the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium in 2014. Learn more about your a…

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Talin Suciyan, "Outcasting Armenians: Tanzimat of the Provinces" (Syracuse UP, 2023) 47:03

12d ago47:03

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The history of Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire has largely been narrated as a unique period of equality, reform, and progress, often framing it as the backdrop to modern Turkey. Inspired by Walter Benjamin's exhortation to study the oppressed to understand the rule and the ruler, Talin Suciyan reexamines this era from the perspective of the Armenian…

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Antonio J. Muñoz, "Hitler's War Against the Partisans During the Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943" (Frontline, 2025) 1:39:18

13d ago1:39:18

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Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler’s War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943 (Frontline Books, 2025) explores the brutal and widespread partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during 1942-1943, detailing the Axis forces' anti-partisan efforts and the impact on the Soviet war effort. From the start of th…

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Wilson T. Bell, "Stalin's Gulag at War: Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War" (University of Toronto Press, 2018) 1:35:06

14d ago1:35:06

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Stalin's Gulag at War: Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War (University of Toronto Press, 2018) places the Gulag within the story of the regional wartime mobilization of Western Siberia during the Second World War. The author explores a diverse array of issues, including mass death, informal practices, and the respo…

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#223 Stephanie Wagner, The Grease Slide: Confessions of a Love Addict 2:51:38

15d ago2:51:38

2:51:38

Stephanie shares her powerful journey from seeking love and validation in relationships to finding her true identity and freedom in Christ. • Growing up in a Christian home with loving parents who demonstrated real faith daily • Developing a destructive relationship framework in eighth grade after being cheated on • Believing the lie that physical …

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Yaroslav Hrytsak, "Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation" (PublicAffairs, 2024) 1:24:37

15d ago1:24:37

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When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the world witnessed the “creative, freewheeling, darkly humorous, and deeply resilient society” that is contemporary Ukraine. In this timely and original history, a bestseller in Ukraine, the historian Yaroslav Hrytsak tells the sweeping story of his nation through a meticulous examination of the major events, c…

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Danielle Leavitt, "By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025) 57:09

15d ago57:09

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An intimate, affecting account of life during wartime, told through the lives that have been shattered. Even as scores of Americans rally to the Ukrainian cause and adopt Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero, the lives of Ukrainians remain opaque and mostly anonymous. In By the Second Spring, the historian Danielle Leavitt goes beyond familiar portraits of…

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Stephan Kieninger, "The Diplomacy of Détente: Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz" (Routledge, 2018) 48:32

19d ago48:32

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The Diplomacy of Détente: Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz (Routledge, 2020) investigates the underlying reasons for the longevity of détente and its impact on East–West relations. The volume examines the relevance of trade across the Iron Curtain as a means to facilitate mutual trust, as well as the emergence of n…

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John Man, "Conquering the North: China, Russia, Mongolia: 2,000 Years of Conflict" (Oneworld Publications, 2025) 50:20

21d ago50:20

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China, famously, built the Great Wall to defend against nomadic groups from the Eurasian steppe. For two millennia, China interacted with groups from the north: The Xiongnu, the Mongols, the Manchus, and the Russians. They defended against raids, got invaded by the north, and tried to launch diplomatic relations. John Man, in his book Conquering th…

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James D. Brown, "Cracking the Crab: Russian Espionage Against Japan, from Peter the Great to Richard Sorge" (Hurst, 2025) 32:18

21d ago32:18

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Richard Sorge is one of history’s most famous spies. This hard-drinking, womanising, motorcycle-crashing Soviet officer penetrated the German embassy in Tokyo during the 1930s and gathered intelligence credited with changing the course of the Second World War. It is an intriguing tale; but Sorge’s spy ring was just one chapter in a much longer hist…

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#222 Nancy Dodson: The Anatomy of Grief, A Mother's Journey Through Loss and Faith 1:45:00

22d ago1:45:00

1:45:00

Nancy Dodson shares her transformative journey from a legalistic faith upbringing to discovering God's true nature through devastating grief after her son's suicide. She vulnerably explores how trauma reshaped her understanding of God and why churches often fail those experiencing profound loss. • Growing up in a performance-based religious environ…

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Paul W. Werth, "How Russia Got Big: A Territorial History" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 1:10:23

25d ago1:10:23

1:10:23

Paul W. Werth, How Russia Got Big: A Territorial History (Bloomsbury, 2025) “Even people who know little about Russia know that it is big.” Thus Paul Werth begins his forthcoming book, How Russia Got Big: A Territorial History. The geographical expanse of the Russian Empire—known since the eighteenth century to span 1/6 of the earth—has been widely…

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Marlene Laruelle, "Ideology and Meaning-Making Under the Putin Regime" (Stanford UP, 2025) 52:10

28d ago52:10

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Much has been written to try to understand the ideological characteristics of the current Russian government, as well as what is happening inside the mind of Vladimir Putin. Refusing pundits' clichés that depict the Russian regime as either a cynical kleptocracy or the product of Putin's grand Machiavellian designs, Ideology and Meaning-Making unde…

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#221 Kirsti Armenta: God Was Never Distant, I Just Couldn't See Him 1:53:54

29d ago1:53:54

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Kirsti shares her powerful journey from viewing God as distant to discovering His intimate love and presence within her. Her transformation reveals how understanding our identity in Christ brings freedom from both our own sins and the sins committed against us. • Growing up with divorced parents in an unconventional household filled with exotic ani…

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Kevin B. Anderson, "The Late Marx's Revolutionary Roads: Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism" (Verso, 2025) 1:04:22

1M ago1:04:22

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Kevin Anderson’s The Late Marx's Revolutionary Roads: Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism (Verso, 2025) encourages to look again at the intellectual and political work of a figure some may assume has been exhausted: Karl Marx. Following on from his earlier landmark study Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity and Non-Western Socie…

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My Time Gonna Come: Ian Manuel on Poetry, Prison, and the Power of Forgiveness - Episode 79 50:32

1M ago50:32

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In this powerful conversation, host Eldra Jackson III sits down with Ian Manuel—activist, poet, and author—whose life was irrevocably changed after being sentenced to life in prison at age 13. Ian shares his remarkable journey from solitary confinement to the national stage, where his poetry and voice are transforming narratives about justice and h…

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Tamar R. Shirinian, "Survival of a Perverse Nation: Morality and Queer Possibility in Armenia" (Duke UP, 2024) 1:10:40

1M ago1:10:40

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Tamar Shirinian is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her new book, Survival of a Perverse Nation: Morality and Queer Possibility in Armenia (Duke UP, 2024), studies the relationships between gender, sexuality, nationalism, political-economy, and social reproduction and how these are experienced,…

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Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth, "A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:02:53

1M ago1:02:53

1:02:53

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn’t have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wo…

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#220 Reneze Trim: Angels as Playmates: How a Lonely Child Found God 1:01:19

1M ago1:01:19

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Reneze shares her miraculous birth story and spiritual journey from childhood struggles with rage to finding her purpose through God's transformative love. • Born in Trinidad when doctors said her mother's fibroids made pregnancy impossible • Grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn where Sabbath observance was part of the community • Played wi…

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Sheila Fitzpatrick, "Lost Souls: Soviet Displaced Persons and the Birth of the Cold War" (Princeton UP, 2024) 1:06:26

1M ago1:06:26

1:06:26

When World War II ended, about one million people whom the Soviet Union claimed as its citizens were outside the borders of the USSR, mostly in the Western-occupied zones of Germany and Austria. These “displaced persons,” or DPs—Russians, prewar Soviet citizens, and people from West Ukraine and the Baltic states forcibly incorporated into the Sovie…

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Talin Suciyan, "Armenians in Turkey after the Second World War: An Archival Reader of USSR Consular Documents" (I. B. Tauris & Company, 2025) 50:03

1M ago50:03

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This reader brings to light newly discovered archival material compiled by the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul. The book reveals the lives and experience of Armenians in Turkey in the 1940s, with a particular focus on the process of emigration to Soviet Armenia. The accounts, translated for the first time into English, are comprised of Soviet official…

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Jeremy Morris, "Everyday Politics in Russia: From Resentment to Resistance" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) 1:08:27

1M ago1:08:27

1:08:27

What do Russians really want? Do they want authoritarianism and are they prepared to go along with a war of conquest and destruction? Or do they want something else? A landmark contribution to the field, Morris is the only social researcher to have carried out fieldwork in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, engaging with communities in Moscow, r…

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Serhii Plokhy, "The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine" (Basic Books, 2015) 1:30:17

1M ago1:30:17

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As Ukraine is embroiled in an ongoing struggle with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence, celebrated historian Serhii Plokhy explains that today's crisis is a case of history repeating itself: the Ukrainian conflict is only the latest in a long history of turmoil over Ukraine's sovereignty. Situated between Centra…