Host Rachel Tausendfreunde sits down with Director of the European Program and Senior Fellow, Jan Techau and Maryna Rakhlei from GMF's Fund for Belarus Democracy. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, host and guests discuss recent occurrences in the transatlantic space that they are personally thankful for. Topics include developments in the Russian news media industry and U.S. domestic politics.
While everyone in DC is off for the holiday, Rachel Tausendfreund is joined by two colleagues in Berlin to discuss some recent events in global politics that we can appreciate, or in the holiday lingo, be thankful for.
Maryna Raklei, who works as a program officer in Berlin on projects supporting Belarussian civil society and used to work as a journalist in Minsk, talks about a successful crowdfunding campaign in support of critical press in Russia, and a new official Ukrainian church.
Jan Techau, the director of GMF’s Europe Program, talks about positive spending developments in Berlin and hopeful notes in U.S. society.
Rachel gives thanks for the success of anti-gerrymandering measures in Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S. in the recent Midterms.
Stay tuned for next week as we resume programming, shifting our focus back to the state of the European Union with an episode dealing solely with France and Germany.
We hope that all of our U.S. based listeners are enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.