{"podcast":{"title":"Listening to America","slug":"listening-to-america-665403","podcast_index_feed_id":665403,"rss_url":"https://jeffersonhour.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://ltamerica.org/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/4/1/5/0/41508b7d84b1e15be55e3c100dce7605/LTA2024-20241112-39m0bubisu.jpg","author":"Listening to America","episode_count":550,"summary":"Listening to America aims to \"light out for the territories,\" traveling less visited byways and taking time to see this immense, extraordinary country with fresh eyes while listening to the many voices of America's past, present, and future. Led by noted historian and humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson, Listening to America travels the country's less visited byways, from national parks and forests to historic sites to countless under-recognized rural and urban places. Through this exploration, Clay and team find and tell the overlooked historical and contemporary stories that shape America's people and places. Visit our website at ltamerica.org.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-11T04:21:24.097012+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/listening-to-america-665403"},"episode":{"title":"#1703 Russia and America Today: A Journey Down the Volga River","slug":"1703-russia-and-america-today-a-journey-down-the-volga-river","published_at":"2026-05-11T22:36:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/listening-to-america-665403/1703-russia-and-america-today-a-journey-down-the-volga-river","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/listening-to-america-665403","url":"https://jeffersonhour.libsyn.com/1703-russia-and-america-today-a-journey-down-the-volga-river","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/jeffersonhour/05112026_Marzio_Podcastmixdown.mp3?dest-id=381384","summary":"Clay's conversation with Italian journalist Marzio Mian about his new book, Volga Blues: A Journey into the Heart of Russia. Mian and his photographer spent four weeks following the Volga River from its source northwest of Moscow to its mouth on the Caspian Sea. The Volga River is considered the mother and the flowing heart of Russia. Traveling by car with two sometimes dubious Russian guides, Marzio and his partner attempted to stay below the radar of the paranoid Russian government, now grinding through its fourth year of war against its neighbor, Ukraine. In this extraordinary interview, Marzio explains that the Russian people don't see the world as we do in the West. They believe they are fighting a defensive war in Ukraine against NATO, Europe, and the U.S., defending the sacred homeland from western aggression, territorial ambition, and cultural decadence. His goal was to encounter ordinary Russian people, to learn how they see the war in Ukraine, how they view Vladimir Putin now, in the 26th year of his dictatorship, and how they regard the Volga River, the spiritual artery of an ancient and mysterious civilization. This episode was recorded on February 14, 2026.","meta_description":"Clay's conversation with Italian journalist Marzio Mian about his new book, Volga Blues: A Journey into the Heart of Russia. Mian and his photographer spe…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3430,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/listening-to-america-665403/episodes/1703-russia-and-america-today-a-journey-down-the-volga-river/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/listening-to-america-665403/1703-russia-and-america-today-a-journey-down-the-volga-river.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}