THE LAST SOVIET - EP 6: Pioneers and Pirates

A young radio producer in Afghanistan is given an impossible task: to create a brand new, revolutionary talent show in just two months. ... To purchase original Afghan Star artwork visit www.awastudios.com/afghanstar — proceeds go to support The Noor Initiative, who are on a mission to ensure every Afghan girl has access to education and opportunity. Music at the end of this episode from Afghan musician Qais Maroof, contestant on The Voice of Afghanistan. Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The collapse of the Soviet Union heralds a new era in international space travel and leads to the arrival of Lance Bass in Star City. But what happens when Lance’s mission goes wrong?  Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sergei finally returns to a new country. But what will happen to his beloved space program now cosmonauts are selling their space medals in the metro?  Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A starry eyed young wheeler-dealer from Toronto sets out on a mission. To get a coca cola can onto Sergei’s space station. But soon the idealism of post Communist Russia turns dark as Sergei’s new country is plunged into chaos. Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sergei makes the decision to stay in the space station. But a few weeks later something happens that changes everything. Mikhail Gorbachev disappears. What happens over the next 3 days will decide the future of the Soviet Union once and for all. Three days that changed the world.  Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this mini-episode, we take a pit stop with our host Lance Bass in Star City. He gives us the no holds barred account of training with the Russians: from flying a fighter jet drunk on vodka to elective heart surgery. Plus, we hear about why he never did make it to space…not yet anyhow. Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A woman in suburban Australia makes contact with the Soviet Space Station. Little does she know she’s about to become a lifeline to Sergei as his country collapses.  Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A woman is driving home from work one day when she hears an ad on the radio that changes her life. “Astronaut Wanted No Experience Necessary.” This unassuming Brit who worked in the Mars Bar factory in the suburbs would end up traveling with our cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev on the mission he almost didn’t come home from. An effort to save the Soviet space program, birthed commercial space travel.  Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The world’s only space station goes dark. And now Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev has to lead one of the riskiest missions ever flown in space. He alone is tasked with saving the Soviet Space program from catastrophe. Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Traveling at five miles a second, 250 miles above the Earth’s surface, Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev wakes to a message from his handlers on the ground: the Soviet Union is collapsing. And so is the Soviet Space agency. You have a choice: come down as planned and abandon the world’s only space station to an unknown fate. Or stay, protect the final outpost of a falling empire and risk your life?  Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.