Hello, everyone. Sarah Koenig here. I’m going to try not to use exclamation points because I’m trying to keep my cool, but we’ve got such a great show coming next week I can hardly contain myself. Even the title fills me with vicarious pride: It’s called “The Idiot.” The host is M. Gessen. That might be a surprise, depending on your familiarity with their work. If you’ve read M.’s writing recently, it’s probably in the Opinion pages of The Times, where they’ve written about Ukraine, Venezuela, Gaza, Minneapolis. Or maybe you know M.’s books about Vladimir Putin or Pussy Riot or the Tsarnaev brothers. As someone who experienced government violence and repression firsthand in Russia, M. has been patiently explaining the hallmarks of autocracy to many of us here in America. Maybe you knew all that. But did you also know how funny they are? I did not. “The Idiot” is a shocking family story about M.’s least favorite cousin, Allen. He did terrible things, yet I had to mute my camera when the team and I listened to drafts of the episodes over Zoom so as not to disturb everyone with my snarfling laughter. I love this show. Exclamation point. All five episodes of “The Idiot” are out March 26, wherever you get your podcasts. You can find the trailer here.
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