What Is Life Like On The Ground In Ukraine? - Jake Hanrahan - #442

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello everybody, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Jake Hanrahan. He's a conflict journalist, documentary filmmaker, and the founder of Popular Front. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been going on for a week, but it's felt like a year. Social media, YouTube and news channels have been awash with stories from on the ground, and even the Wikipedia page has had over 500 contributors and is more than 20,000 words long. Given this, I wanted to find out what life is actually like on the ground in Ukraine from someone who's been there. Expect to learn what protection the Ukrainian citizens have access to from bombings, where civilians are getting all their guns from, how you coordinate citizen militias with zero military training, whether world champion boxers are actually helping the effort, how sceptical Jake is of the press coverage, how many Russians actually want this war and much more. This was a conversation I really wanted to have. I want to try and cut through all of the noise and misinformation and disinformation and TikToks and live streams and Instagrams and really try and find out exactly what life is like from a citizen's perspective. I understand that the geopolitics of this are having repercussions and is NATO going to push back and what's Biden going to do and blah blah. But I think that first and foremost, this is an issue which is affecting people and understanding the plight and suffering of people on both sides and how they feel and what it's actually like to be there is a pretty important thing to do. And the work that Jake does with Popular Front is really important. So if you like it, you should go and support him. He's got a Patreon, he's got an Instagram and Twitter and stuff like that. So go and follow him and give him some support. In other news, this episode is brought to you by MyProtein. You need to get clear way in your life. It is the best protein that I've ever found. And I'm not gonna stop talking about it until you start using it. If you are sick of normal protein powders that are milky and give you digestive discomfort and make you feel bloated and slow after you've had them, then this is the solution for you. I spent absolutely ages, literally years, trying different protein powders, ones that had beef in, rice proteins, pea proteins. And the best solution for me was Clear Way. It looks and tastes like juice. It's completely see-through. It's super light and fruity, but it has more protein in than a normal protein shake. It's so refreshing that you can have it during a workout and you just enjoy drinking your protein powder, which is the most important thing. You don't have to force it down. Also, they do a vegan version. So if you are vegan, you can get in on the Clear Way action. On top of that, their layered cookie bars, their gooey cookies, all of their protein supplements, their sports supplements, their multivitamins. They have the widest selection of supplements and nutrition products available plus apparel. And you can get 37% or greater of everything site-wide by going to bit.ly slash ProteinWisdom. That's B-I-T dot L-Y slash ProteinWisdom. And the code Modern Wisdom will become activated at checkout, which means you can get 37% or greater of everything site-wide. And this is valid internationally. So no matter where you are, MyProtein will fulfill and they will use that code to get you the maximum discount. Bit.ly slash ProteinWisdom and Modern Wisdom at checkout. In other, other news, this episode is brought to you by Mission Tea. Mission believes that the world has a caffeine problem and they're probably right. They've created a new range of 100% natural, hot and cold performance teas as alternatives to coffee and energy drinks that provide something that everybody needs more of, sustainable energy. Mission won the Great Taste Awards and Sport Nutrition Product of the Year by Runners World and has become the daily routine of England cricket players, hundreds of GB athletes, Premier League footballers, F1 teams, business leaders and thousands of other self-improvers all around the world. It means that you will have less coffee, less caffeine drinks, less energy drinks, but more sustained energy with no crashes throughout the day. 95% of customers said that they felt an improvement in their energy levels after trying Mission for just 30 days. Mission's best seller, Energize, is a great alternative to coffee that provides calm and steady natural energy throughout the day. So, if you are struggling with the side effects of too much caffeine or you simply want to cut back, swap a few of your daily coffees for Mission and reward your mind and body with natural sustainable energy. Head over to missionuk.com and enter the code MW20. That's all one word at checkout. MW20 at missionuk.com.