Author: Natasha Lance Rogoff

The journalist and television producer is joined by scholar Deborah Kaple to discuss her book "Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia."

From the publisher: After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the timing appeared perfect to bring "Sesame Street" to millions of children living in the former Soviet Union. With the Muppets envisioned as ideal ambassadors of Western values, no one anticipated just how challenging and dangerous this would prove to be.

In "Muppets in Moscow," Natasha Lance Rogoff brings this tale to life. Amidst bombings, assassinations, and a military takeover of the production office, Lance Rogoff and the talented Moscow team of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and puppeteers remained determined to bring laughter, learning, and a new way of seeing the world to children in Russia, Ukraine and across the former Soviet empire.

More than just a story of a children’s show, this book provides a valuable perspective of Russia’s people, their culture, and their complicated relationship with the West that remains relevant even today.

Natasha Lance Rogoff is an award-winning American television producer, filmmaker, and journalist of television news and documentaries in Russia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union for NBC, ABC, and PBS. Her book, "Muppets in Moscow", was a nominee for the 2023 Pushkin House Book Prize and received The Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for Best New Voice (Silver Medal) and Best Audiobook in Nonfiction (Silver Medal), and the Independent Publishers Book Award for Best First Book (Gold Medal).

Deborah Kaple is a research scholar and lecturer at Princeton University. She has studied at Ohio State (BA), George Washington (MA), Princeton University (Ph.D.), and Vermont College (MFA). She teaches a Freshman Seminar on the Cold War, and a class titled "Communism and Beyond: Russia and China." Her publications include "Dream of a Red Factory: The Legacy of High Stalinism in China," and "Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir." 

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