As the Russian invasion of Ukraine rages on, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, the face of Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin, remains behind bars. Before that, filmmaker Daniel Roher was the fly on the wall documenting Navalny’s fight for democratic reform that led to his attempted assassination by a poisonous nerve agent, then his defiant return home to challenge the Kremlin. Even if you read it in the news, the footage remains astounding – a glaring reminder of how the world arrived at the current standoff with a brutal Russian authoritarian.


A Bonus Short Worth Savoring Right Now. 

“The Fisherman and the Dragon” | By Kirk Wallace Johnson

On the heels of “The Feather Thief,” Kirk Wallace Johnson continues to reveal an uncanny ability to dissect real-life dramas in the most gripping narrative nonfiction prose. In “The Fisherman and the Dragon,” Johnson takes us deep into the environment and culture of the Texas Gulf Coast, where generations of struggling shrimpers and crabbers start facing off against Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s. It’s a moment in modern history that most of us missed, and Johnson’s telling of it reads like a crime thriller. This is a work of deep investigation that lays bare a crossroads of American xenophobia, racism and environmental degradation that simmers with the angst of diminishing natural resources fueling long-burning flames of hatred. Johnson breaks down the intimate details of an ugly turf war that ignited the rage and prejudice of the Ku Klux Klan. It is a uniquely American story of immigrants facing up against institutional prejudice and oil industry gaslighting. The truths of the escalating conflict unravel day by day, like a whodunit, via Johnson’s deep dive into FBI records, personal interviews and newly unveiled case files. Forty years later, as America dances around the predicaments of pollution, climate change and social injustice, the “Fisherman and the Dragon” scenario feels prescient.


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