Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Crimea, The Missing Jet, The Death Doula & The Movies
Putin's media crackdown, death doulas, an update on Malaysia Airlines flight 370, and our regular Friday film update.
By Madeleine Brand • • 51m ListenIf you write a novel set in the little-known Crimean region of Ukraine, what do you do when your setting is overtaken by world events? We talk to a novelist about his experience in Crimea. And we talk to a Russian news media specialist about Putin cracking down on independent news outlets not touting the party line on events in Ukraine. We do our weekly roundup on film: Veronica Mars, Need for Speed, Bad Words... We’ve been reporting on the funeral industry. Today, a “death doula” talks about taking funerals out of the professional mortuary and back into the home. Finally, the mystery of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 continues. We look at the latest in the six-day long search.
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In this episode
5 storiesCrimea Author
Writer David Bezmozgis has been working for a while on a present-day novel about a place most Americans traditionally don’t know much about: an area of Ukraine called Crimea. Now, with the world’s attention on that particular hot spot, everything has changed for him.
Read the story9 minPutin's Media Crackdown
The editor of a popular Russian news website was fired this week because it ran an interview with a pro-Ukrainian Nationalist. That editor has been replaced with someone who used to work for a pro-Kremlin publication.
Read the story8 minFast Cars, Mean Birds, and Rude Adults
Today on our Friday film roundup, we look at the Michael Bay’s controversial reboot of The Birds, the much-anticipated Veronica Mars movie, and Jason Bateman’s spelling-bee comedy about a bitter man who’s mean to kids.
Read the story9 minThe Business of Death: Death Doulas
We are reporting on the business of death. Yesterday, in the first part of our series , we examined the multi-billion-dollar funeral industry. That industry came about when funerals were taken out of the home and professionalized.
Read the story16 minMissing Jet Update
Six days ago, Malaysia Airlines flight 370, flying with 239 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared. The mystery surrounding what happened to the flight continues to deepen. Each day seems to bring a different theory.
Read the story6 min
