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Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron actually finish War and Peace by covering both epilogues. Did you want to find out what happened to the characters? Too bad! It’s time for more argumentation about history. Well, okay, there’s a little bit of character wrap-up. But most of it, predictably, is about farming. Just another day with Tolstoy.  Major themes: Better History, Questionable Theories, Live Laugh Love Levin 00:58 - I meant to say “75 serving” and “120 serving,” which is far less than 100 pounds. Good God, could you imagine, though?  10:18 - An apiologist, apparently.  23:18 - The Machete Order for Star Wars The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon! 

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron finish War and Peace!! Well, minus the epilogue. Tune in to hear about the meeting of old acquaintances, the passing of old friends, and the quiet night at the end of a war. Book 4, Part 4. It’s the end of a true epic, in the most literary sense of the word. Be there or be square.  Major themes: PTSD = Cool Dude, Super Friendship, Laws of History The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon! 

Hi all, Unfortunately our lives got a little wild this week so we had to push recording forward a bit. You'll hear from us again next week with Part 4, Book 4 of War and Peace. Until then! Matt & Cameron

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron continue Napoleon’s invasion into Imperial Russia into its final phase: a slow, deadly retreat accompanied by irregular warfare in War & Peace’s Part 3 of Book 4. This is what Cameron studied for a potion of his degree and he is going to make that your problem in this episode. Follow along as we catch up with the youngest Rostov, Petya, as he finally deploys in the theater of war, and also find Pierre turning monastic during a death march. Nothing but good times, so grab your scavenged shoes found along a retreat route and tune in! Major themes: Guerilla Warfare, Spying = Being Mean, A Prosaic Prisoner 03:07 - I’d apologize for my Yreka slander, but I’m actually not sorry.  04:20 - I was trying to think of inter-state (between state), intra-state (between a state and a non-state actor in the former’s borders), and extra-state (between a state and a non-state actor outside its borders) warfare. 17:42 - Not to say this was a novel introduction of “rules of warfare.” Many places in many times had put similar thought into conducting warfare, but I mean to say this particular period has an outsized place in influencing modern thought.  The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon! 

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron move away from particular characters and start talking about the long arc of history in Book 4, Part 2 of War and Peace. As the French army retreats from Moscow, it’s the perfect time to ask the question: hey, wait, was everyone wrong about calling Stalingrad the Soviet War and Peace? You’ll have to listen to find out. Plus we’ll learn about the function of pain in Tolstoy’s work, which will really lighten the mood. Grab your water for a long march back to Paris, then tune in!  Major themes: The Function of Pain, Pierre’s Thiccness, Dialoguing with Stalingrad  26:45 - “Revisiting the Dialectic of Pain and Truth: War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by David Rosenshield The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon! 

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron start on Book 4, Part 1 (after diverging from our original plan to combine parts 1 and 2) and do a deep dive on how we can really analyze wisdom, on the horror of war collapsing into peace, and whether self-sacrifice can ever be a true ideal of Christianity. That’s right, it’s the big ideas section! Well - the whole book is the big ideals section, but this is a great survey of some of Tolstoy’s most interesting ideas. Grab your Youtube video of Slavoj Zizek and tune in!  Major themes: Collapsing War and Peace Together, The Nature of Wisom, The Banality of Evil 15:12 - I meant to say “Andrei,” not “Nikolai” here 18:48 - “Cry” not “die” 26:30 - Well, the prisoner per capita ratio is still high in China - just nowhere near as high as the U.S.  30:20 - I learned this in class sometime back, so I’m going to hedge this claim a bit. Here are some comparative numbers on draft dodging, but I’m unclear on how they got to these numbers (analyzing data from the U.S. gov vs. independent analyses) so I won’t say this is a definitive answer. If I can locate a study or similar research that uses a consistent methodology to analyze draft dodging these two periods, I’ll add it here.  51:57 - Some more information about Dostoevsky’s almost-execution 53:24 - Surprisingly, I was right.  Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon! 

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron fiddle while Moscow burns. They finish Book 3 of War and Peace by finally engaging with the direct interaction of war and society. Unfortunately for the population of Moscow, that comes as their city burns. Why that is? Well - Tolstoy has some opinions. (Unsurprisingly, those opinions begin with the fact that Moscow is mostly built of wood, which may have something to do with the fire). Grab your least flammable cocktail and tune in!  Major themes: Hanging’ With the Enemy, The Force of History, Burning Moscow 06:55 - The Achilles Paradox 30:40 - Vive L’Espanol  31:51 - Historically, I mean. 34:43 - I, personally, stand behind “The Long 20th Century.” But that’s only because the guy who wrote it was a professor of mine, and once spent an entire class lecturing on how a certain shade of green showed a) where Portuguese immigrants have gone and b) the implications of finding that green in places like Hawaii (sugar farming and resultant imperialist takeover, in that case).  41:29 - I think it’s actually usually translated as “money changers” instead of “money lenders.”  57:54 - Unfortunately for Matt, I get to edit these episodes and I have all the power.  The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.  Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon! 

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron continue Part 2, Book 3 of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Get your sabers ready, we’re about to head into one of the defining battles of 1812. Well - at least as Tolstoy would have you believe. And - for once - Marya appears in a scene without 2-3 pages of the narrator ragging on her looks. Who would have thought we’d come this far? Get your victory drink of choice ready, and tune in! Major themes: Beating Peasants, War Crimes, Losing Your Way to Victory 22:35 - My bad, I was thinking of the Church of Christ, Scientist, not Jehovah’s Witnesses. I have two aunts who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, you’d think I’d know that haha. 39:12 - The conditions of Napoleon’s exile.  40:17 -The False Dmitry I  54:48 - I’m pretty sure, but not 100% confident that this is what Matt is talking about.  Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron continue their slog through Book 3 of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, covering part 1. Get ready for more teen marriage plots, a little elucidation on Tolstoy’s thoughts on doctors, and the funniest section for Pierre so far. And trust us - that last bit jumped over a high bar. Grab your copies of the Book of Revelations and tune in! Major themes: More Teen Marriage Plots, Too Hot to be Godly, Anti Doctor Content 12:21 - As Eric Blaire, a.k.a. George Orwell, explored in “Shooting an Elephant.” Also a lot to explore about colonialism and perspectives on the racialized Other there, but that’s a different conversation. 40:32 - Here’s an Atlantic article about it. Happened around 20-ish years earlier. 46:52 - The exact quote is: “Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.” 51:27 - Here’s a bit more information about that event.  52:54 - Revelations 13:18, KJV: “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” In War & Peace “the Beast” is understood to be the anti-Christ. I, personally, have my doubts in that interpretation of the text - anti-Christs appear in several places, but the Beast only appears here; furthermore, the beast is never referred to as an “anti-Christ.” If I’m recalling correctly - the notion of the anti-Christ is never referred to in the Book of Revelations at all. I think it’s a concept from The Book of John. But also I’m just a person who read the Bible growing up, I’m not a scholar or anything. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon!

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Parts 4 and 5 in Book 2 of War and Peace. If you read Anna Karenina and thought, I like these hunting scenes 500 pages in but I wish they were more brutal and had more undertones about the aristocracy - don’t worry, we’ve got you covered here. And Natasha’s upcoming marriage comes under pressure. Grab your finest elopement garments and strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Major themes: "Uncles," Kissin’ Cousins, Elopement but it’s Kidnapping. 33:26 - When will you learn that your actions…HAVE CONSEQUENCES!  Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Book 2, part 3 of War and Peace to find the answer to an important question: is life over once you turn 31? And it’s time to turn a little religious and a little conspiratorial with Princess Marya and Count Pierre. Nothing better than covering two years of life in around 100 pages. Grab your finest soiree attire, some champagne, and tune in! Major themes: Hottie or Nottie, Gnarled Trees, Illuminist Freemasonry 05:51 - Hollywood Access is, of course, legally distinct from Access Hollywood. Please don’t fire me, NBC. 08:10 - He just like me fr Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron dive into Book 2 of War and Peace and cover parts 1 & 2. In this part, we get the honor (you might say) of getting to compare child marriage plots, duels, and bullying of my! Grab your kvass of choice and get ready to get into War and Peace. Major themes: Child marriage, duels, battle plans 21:11 - National Treasure, truly the greatest American contribution to the arts. 36:03 - Ritualized Violence Russian Style: The Duel in Russian Culture and Literature by Irina Reyfman Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes:  This week, Matt and Cameron finish up the first section of War and Peace by covering Book 1, Part 3. They’ll be delving more into the Kuragin family and their shared habits (and even some shared facial expressions), and keeping up with the military boys as they meet their idols…and have very different reactions than expected. Grab your reluctant wedding champagne and tune in!  Major themes: The Pettiness of Great Men, Bad Fathers, Vacant Expressions  02:53 - Ohio actually has produced seven presidents. And, yes, I did learn this from a Phil Ochs song. I’m not apologetic. He may not be from Ohio, but he’s its best export.  Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. 

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron turn to the war part of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in Part II of Book 1. Grab your field rations and greatcoats as we follow Andrei, Nikolai, and company into battle with the French. And although this seems to be the opposite…perhaps the battles parallel the “peace” of Moscow society more than it first appears. You’ll have to tune in to find out. Interested in the video version of this podcast? Find it ⁠here⁠. Major themes: Strawberry-Flavored Koumiss, Luck, Four Lads and a Cannon 08:18 - *The Great Bear Incident of 1804, it should be. 09:02 - Imperial Russian Hussars 28:13 - Minor point of order - I mixed up Ippolit and Anatole Kuragin. Ippolit is an acquaintance of Bilibin, the Russian Ambassador we met earlier; while Anatole is the Kuragin involved in the bear incident. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron kick off their longest series ever: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. This episode they’ll be reading Part 1 of Book 1 (don’t worry there are only four books and two epilogues) and get into the nitty gritty of peace. But at risk of engaging with too many clichés, the maneuvers of peace (and mostly the soiree) can be just as complex as war. Grab your koumiss and tune in! Interested in the video version of this podcast? Find it ⁠here⁠. Major themes: Big Heineken, Dangerous Neighborhoods, Felines 00:56 - *Cue Curb Your Enthusiasm theme music* 04:19 - Although Spotify does offer video podcasting, we unfortunately aren’t able to offer it on that platform! You can check out our Youtube channel if you would like to see the video versions of our podcasts. 10:47 - Big L on my part. Elder Bolkonsky is Nikolai Bolkonsky, while the younger is Andrei Bolkonsky. That being said, Andrei’s son will be named Nikolai in a later part so the joke stands if you shift it a generation. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron sit down with author Bob Blaisdell to talk about his new book Chekov Becomes Chekov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius. Bob was a wonderful person to chat with and learn from - and we hope you all take as much away from the conversation as we did. Bob Blaisdell is Professor of English at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough Community College and also the author of Creating Anna Karenina. He is a reviewer for the the Los Angeles Review of Books, Russian Life magazine, and Tolstoy Studies Journal, and the editor of more than three dozen Dover literature and poetry collections, including a collection of Chekhov's love stories, and the forthcoming Conversations with Karl Ove Knausgaard (University Press of Mississippi). Major themes: Deadlines, Fake Marriages, and Watermelons 12:01 - “Amateurs wait for inspiration. Professionals just get up and go to work.” from Stephen King’s On Writing 12:10 - Referring to On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Shownotes: This week, Matt and Cameron discuss the imminent future of the podcast and spend some time reflecting on two years of Tipsy Tolstoy. 03:41 - Our Linktree. Find the link to our Discord there. 05:51 - Third Space Theory  20:53 - Find our TikTok here, now with content! 21:35 - I’ve been informed by some TikTok users that this is simply called an “audio.” Fascinating. The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Follow us on Instagram, check out our website, if you’re so inclined, check out our Patreon!

Show Notes:  This week, Matt and Cameron sit down with Robert Chandler, a prolific translator of many authors including our own beloved Grossman. Robert Chandler’s translations from Russian, mostly for NYRB Classics and Vintage Classics, include works by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolay Leskov; collections of stories and memoirs by Teffi; and novels and stories by Vasily Grossman, Andrey Platonov and Hamid Ismailov.  He is the main translator of three anthologies of Russian literature for Penguin Classics: of short stories, magic tales and poetry.  His most recent publications are Pushkin’s Peter the Great’s African and Vasily Grossman’s The People Immortal, both co-translated with his wife Elizabeth.  His next publication will be Platonov’s long novel Chevengur.  Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: This week, Matt and Cameron bring you a shorter one (finally)! They’ll be covering - at long, long last - “The Shot” by Aleksandr Pushkin. Tune in to hear stories of officer intrigue, duels fought and left unfought, and the existential terror of being cornered at a party by the a dude whose main hobby is shooting handguns into his own wall. Switch out the beer for a kvass or water for this one because - say it with me - alcohol and firearms don’t mix. Enjoy! Major themes: Psychological Duels, Byronic Subversions, and Cherry Pits 02:03 - Oculus Founder Says He’s Working on an Exploding VR Headset that Actually Kills Players if They Lose 06:00 - While the whole Russian Cyrillic alphabet has 33 letters, only 32 of them are technically letters. 08:00 - Faro Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

Show Notes: Matt and Cameron have finished reading Stalingrad, but they aren’t yet done with Grossman. This week, they tackle his short story “The Sistine Madonna.” Written before the publication of Stalingrad and after he began to write Life and Fate, “The Sistine Madonna” is a piece about beauty, desperation, and hope for the future. Oh, and thermonuclear war. It covers a lot of ground. Grab your Bibles to track the religious analogies and tune in! Major themes: Non-religious Christianity, Aesthetic anti-Sovietism, Eternal Beauty 03:49 - Okay, I was close, but the beer is actually called “St. Pauli” 06:03 - Nicaragua, I mean 8:09 -  Check out The Sistine Madonna here 08:56 - “The Sistine Madonna” by Vasily Grossman 10:19 - I have once again switched Stalin and JFK’s death date, as I am want to do. Stalin died in 1953. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠! Our links: ⁠All links⁠ | ⁠PATREON⁠ | ⁠Merch⁠ | ⁠Watch on YouTube⁠ | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: ⁠TikTok⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.