Spacebridge
A series from Radiotopia Presents, a podcast of limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices.
Spacebridge tells a largely-forgotten saga of the late Cold War, when despair about the prospects of a nuclear conflict gripped the world. Both Soviets and Americans grasped at emerging communication technology via satellite and early Internet “spacebridges” that brought together citizen diplomats ranging from New Agers to tech-enthusiasts to astronauts. The urge to “just connect” helped tilt the world from top-down broadcasting to the more horizontal, Internet-levelled society where we all now live…for better and/or for worse.
Spacebridge is co-hosted by Julia Barton and Charles Maynes, with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy.
listen to the trailer
Episode 1: Hidden Human Reserves
Episode 2: Foreign Policy According to Freud
Episode 3: A Live Studio Audience
Episode 4: The Fifth Dimension
Julia Barton, Co-Host
Julia first visited the USSR in 1985 as a high school student studying Russian. She’s been back to that part of the world many times as a reporter and journalism trainer. In her other life, she is executive editor of Pushkin Industries, an audio production house founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg.
Charles Maynes, Co-Host
Charles is a journalist based in Moscow. A frequent contributor to PRI/BBC’s The World, his audio feature work has also been featured on This American Life, 99% Invisible, Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything, and BBC Radio 4 among other programs and podcasts. He is the recipient of a Third Coast International Audio Festival Award (2011) and the Prix Marulic Gold prize for documentary (2017). He is originally from Washington, DC.
