Queer Outcast, to Murderer, to Sweetheart - Ryan Learns Love

In this episode, I chat with Vika, a human rights defender exiled from Belarus and now based in Lithuania. This was my first conversation with someone who hasn’t been incarcerated, and I was unexpecte...

14 Maalis 202542min

Jisu started the day by collecting the forbidden apples of her neighbours’ garden. By evening time she was imprisoned.How do you process and accept a situation where it feels like the universe is agai...

3 Maalis 202541min

Lisa is a Russian music artist based in Armenia, where she fled after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ‘Based’ is a nice way of putting it because she’s currently under arrest, pending trial for a ...

24 Helmi 20251h 2min

Simon Bright is a filmmaker and documentary producer. Born in Rhodesia, he was optimistic about the country's future, about Robert Mugabe's plan to build a better, more equal country.That all unravell...

14 Helmi 202544min

When you think of student protestors you might think of philosophy students at UCL smoking cigarettes and finger painting. In Belarus they get in trouble for less, and Kseniya was one of them back i...

4 Helmi 202541min

Professor Paul Dieppe, was, as he puts it, conventionally satisfied. A blossoming medical career, producing great research and raising a happy family. One day he was invited to a conference. He go...

24 Tammi 202558min

This is the second half of my conversation with Robin, a French citizen and masseuse who ended up in prison in China for drugs offences. In this part we discussed much more of how we made sense of...

19 Tammi 20251h 4min

I spoke with Robin this week. His story involved adventurism, cannabis, an authoritarian government and a 3-7 year prison sentence. Sound familiar? Singing jazz while cleaning out shit trenches, Rob...

14 Tammi 202544min