If you happen to be a Russian speaker, you can listen to the original (Russian) version of this episode.
Chernobyl had cast a shadow over our childhoods. It was reportedly the cause of all the chronic diseases we’d struggled with. In the summer of 2018, we went there.
We wanted to walk into the belly of the beast, to debunk any nonsense around it. To hear about the doom, catastrophes, and everyday struggles.
But what we came back with was something else entirely – a beautiful and uplifting tale about love. Love for home, love for nature, love for people. Something stronger than the biggest nuclear accident in the history of humankind.
With uncertain times ahead of us all… it has given us the hope that we can overcome a whole lot, if only we care.
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If you happen to be a Russian speaker, you can listen to the original (Russian) version of this episode.
[00:00] Why we went to Chernobyl
[05:50] We find Evgeny, a former teacher
[07:57] ‘In 1986, nobody expected it...‘
[09:11] People weren’t informed about the disaster
[10:11] The evacuation of Chernobyl
[11:55] Evgeny returns to Chernobyl for the first time
[14:19] Evacuation centre dilemmas
[16:45] Chernobyl clean up
[20:45] Evgeny returns for good (and bad)
[24:40] Did other people try to come back?
[25:49] Living in Chernobyl in 2018
Written & produced by Żenia Klimakin & Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Nick White & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner, Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Guitars by Michał Przerwa-Tetmajer
Special thanks: State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Ygor Egorov, Serhyi Dmytriyev, Julia Kononenko