'Patriot' is a posthumous memoir by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
NPR's Book of the Day
Resilience and Reflection in a Life of Political Struggle
This chapter explores the life of a notable Russian opposition leader who employs humor to combat adversity, detailing his experiences of poisoning and imprisonment. It contrasts the narrative of his memoir with heartfelt reflections during his incarceration, while also addressing the emotional turmoil associated with a possible prisoner swap.
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Speaker 4
Like there is a whole world of podcasters and TikTok influencers. I'm glad I'm seeing this video. Have some really curious ideas of the world. And I also think that we're learning right now that their followings are just as big if not bigger than traditional celebrities and they've they've gone unmarked they've gone uh they got a free pass to this point and we don't think that that's fair you
Speaker 1
don't think that that's fair that's the word i'm sorry onion let me look can you do me a favor and pull up? Like, is there a way to track traffic going to the Onion versus Babylon Bee and measuring the two together for the last three years? I am begging you to find this. There used to be a site called Alexa.com. Can you please find the two together? I don't know the data, by the way, so I could be wrong, and Onion's been crushing it. But from what I see, I am willing to bet Babylon Bee's traffic versus the Onion, they're destroying the Onion. onion wishes they could be babylon b and you know you know what'd be funny with this entire part that is this is who by the way this is who rob the jew just put in organic traffic and this is on what website uh it's
Speaker 5
ahrefs.com okay
Speaker 1
and they showed up as what 273 can you do me a favor just take copy paste to our the the what do you call it the link and just open up a new window so don't close it so we can compare the two together and put up a new window and on this new window that you do put babble on b in there and let's see what it's doing the same way you just did it I don't know what oh it doesn't let you do two at a time let
Speaker 5
me try a different way give me one second yeah
Speaker 1
I would be very curious to know because so this guy had a play where he wanted to publicly humiliate he said conservative podcasters
Speaker 5
what did he call him he says these other traffic. So who is ahead, Rob? It says, according to this website, Babylon Bee is at 95.5 thousand, and The Onion is at 273
Speaker 1
thousand. So Onion is still ahead. According to this website. Can you do me a favor to find out when did Babylon Bee start and when did The Onion start? When did Babylon
Speaker 2
Bee start? The Onion's been around for for a
Speaker 1
decade babylon b started it was a newspaper babylon b started eight years ago okay when did onion start i
Speaker 2
think it started off as a college newspaper yeah it's a newspaper 1988 so madison 80 one of the more liberal cities in america by the way right so 88
Speaker 1
88 2016 is what? 28 years before Babylon Bee started, right? Now, Musk is a big fan of Babylon Bee. So these guys are buying InfoWars to try to humiliate, what do you call it, Alex. And by the way, is there the dollar amount, Rob, that we have in an article? Because I think the number, when I asked you yesterday, was like $1.75 million. Less than $2 million. And they're giving $700,000 to what do you call it to the family and all this other stuff can you go to that Rob real quick
Speaker 5
$1.75 million in cash, and then part of that settlement was $750,000 that would go to the families of the Sandy Hook victims.
Speaker 1
So give or take $2.5 million to buy Infowars. Correct.
Speaker 5
There's nothing. Elon has that
Speaker 1
in his pocket right now. Does the lawsuit
Speaker 3
come with it?
Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, died in a Siberian prison this past February–and in his diary entries, Navalny wrote that he knew he might not make it out alive. Those diaries are part of Navalny's new memoir, Patriot, published posthumously with help from his widow, Yulia Navalnaya. The book details some of Navalny's darkest moments in his fight for a more democratic Russia, but also showcases the leader's characteristic humor. In today's episode, Navalnaya joins NPR's Ari Shapiro to talk about a pivotal conversation between the couple during a prison visit, the duality of her late husband's personality as a serious politician and an ordinary family man, and taking up the mantle of the Russian opposition movement after Navalny's death.
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