Masha Gessen

Perhaps no writer is better suited to help us grapple with the tumultuous and unexpected recent history of Russia — a history that has enormous impact on the rest of the world — than the journalist and author Masha Gessen.  Her new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia is a panoramic, magisterial, and even page-turning look at the end of one era and the beginning of another, and the effect of decades of trauma on a nation.  With her book just named a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Masha Gessen joins Bill Tipper on the podcast for a deep dive into a society that many Americans are fascinated by — but which few of us understand.