About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin

by Audacy Studios | Puck

Category

History

Frequency

Weekly Series

Language

English

The West's obsession with Vladimir Putin's KGB past often misses the biographical detail that can be captured by a single word: dvor. The word means courtyard in Russian, but to a Russian speaker, it is evocative of a whole universe. It was the space where Putin, like so many Soviet kids of his generation, grew up and learned an unforgiving, often brutal social code. Puck journalist Julia Ioffe introduces Westerners to that universe and explains why it’s critical to understanding the Russian pre...

Listen Ad-Free with Poddly

Poddly automatically skips ads in your favorite podcasts.

Recent Reviews

Excellent

InfamousLN•12/11/2025

A deep dive into a fascinating subject while remaining accessible— really well done.

Quality and depth

Stargirl115•11/7/2025

Carefully made, giving important historical background. Also interviewing Russians which was great. Bravo! Looking forward to more from Ioffe

Outstanding podcast!

Álex Escudero•3/8/2024

Incredible insights and superb production, explained in an easy way to follow but still providing lots of detail. Congrats!

Extremely Insightful!

mamioso•2/12/2024

What a fascinating journey to better understanding the Russian perspective. I am thrilled I happened upon this helpful podcast, and have already shared it with several friends.

I hope there is more in the works.

Eliza 4516•2/8/2024

Really interesting