About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin
Audacy Studios | Puck
Show overview
About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin has published 6 episodes, alongside 1 trailer or bonus episode during 2023. That works out to roughly 3 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 28 min and 35 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. It is catalogued as a EN-language History show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 2.6 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. Published by Audacy Studios | Puck.
From the publisher
The West's obsession with Vladimir Putin's KGB past often misses the biographical detail that can be captured by a single word: dvor. The word means courtyard in Russian, but to a Russian speaker, it is evocative of a whole universe. It was the space where Putin, like so many Soviet kids of his generation, grew up and learned an unforgiving, often brutal social code. Puck journalist Julia Ioffe introduces Westerners to that universe and explains why it’s critical to understanding the Russian president and what he might do next in the war against Ukraine.
Latest Episodes
S1 Ep 5Chapter 5: All the World’s a Dvor
To predict what Vladimir Putin might do next in Ukraine, it’s helpful to remember his first and foremost education — in the dvor. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
S1 Ep 4Chapter 4: The Big Brother
Organized crime and violence reign supreme in post-Soviet Russia. In this world, the rules of the dvor prove invaluable — for the men fighting over the jewels of the Soviet industrial empire, and for Vladimir Putin. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
S1 Ep 3Chapter 3: The Punk
Putin grows up as a small, scrawny kid in a poor neighborhood with few ways up. Enter judo and the KGB. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
S1 Ep 2Chapter 2: The Rat
Soviet baby boomers are born into a country ravaged by war. Given that parents are largely absent — either dead, traumatized, or working to make ends meet – children spend most of their time in the dvor, the urban courtyard. The dvor is Vladimir Putin’s world. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
S1 Ep 1Chapter 1: The Ghosts
The Soviet Union suffers unthinkable horrors during World War II. Leningrad, the city into which Vladimir Putin is born, loses more than a million of its citizens to starvation, and Vladimir Putin’s parents barely make it out alive. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin
trailerIn the West, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is always seen as one of two things: KGB spy or judo master. But to anyone who’s ever lived in the Soviet Union, Putin is something else entirely: a street kid. Join journalist Julia Ioffe as she explores how Putin’s childhood taught him lessons that shape his thinking and actions to this day. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices