
894: I Couldn't Help but Notice
1 hour Posted Aug 3, 2026 at 12:00 am.
) Prologue: Rick Cole, a city councilmember in Pasadena, CA, talks to Ira about how he responded to a surprise nighttime military exercise in his neighborhood this June – complete with helicopters, gunfire, and flash bangs. (5 minutes)
) Act One: A doctor trained as a midwife tells the eye-popping story of how she and others came together to save a baby during a birth that suddenly went wrong, in a part of rural Maine where the local labor and delivery unit had closed less than a month before. (26 minutes)
) Act Two: Producer Valerie Kipnis never felt inside the jokes and stories her family would tell about growing up in the Soviet Union, until she saw this year's Oscar-winning documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin. The film follows the changes unfolding in one school as Russia rolled out a nationwide propaganda push after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Valerie interviewed the young teacher at the center of the documentary and learned things that never made it into the film. (21 minutes)
0:00
1:00:55
Show notes
People dealing with new, glaring, massive changes happening right where they live.(((
This podcast uses Podsights for stats, and tracking, Simplecast for stats, and dynamic audio, and Podtrac for stats. Learn more on this podcast's About tab. Dynamic Audio may cause this episode's timestamps to be slightly off.


