Surviving 491 days in a Russian prison

Evan Gershkovich spent 491 days in a Russian prison after being arrested on baseless espionage charges while reporting for The Wall Street Journal. He’s now out with a new tell-all book called This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story. In this episode, Jason and Evan explore the commonalities and differences between their experiences of being taken hostage by foreign governments. They discuss the guilt and confusion that permeate captivity, the ways they learned to survive, and what life is like after being released. It’s an unusually candid conversation between two journalists who have lived through similar harrowing ordeals and emerged determined to keep reporting. Today’s show was produced by Josh Carroll and Layli Nazarova. It was edited by Ted Muldoon.