To Die For
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Imagine you were a fly on the wall at a dinner between the mafia, the CIA, and the KGB. That’s where this unprecedented story begins. A journey through the dark world of Russian intelligence where, for the first time, a professed “sex spy” tells her story. All of it. Host Neil Strauss (Rolling Stone, The New York Times) brings listeners into the dangerous world of sexpionage, where enemies of the State are not the only victims. So too are the spies themselves, brainwashed to believe that their bodies belong to Russia and meticulously trained to become “the perfect weapons.” Who is Aliia Roza? From the creators of the hit podcast series To Live and Die in LA, this is To Die For.
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Incredibly compelling, with some reservations
Sep 10
I loved this so much that I binge-listened to the entirety of this harrowing story in two days and probably will listen all over again. The five star review is due to how compelling the story is, and how truly moving it is to hear Aliia describe every gut wrenching experience under a truly evil, messed up, cynical regime where, at least for women, sexual misery and psychological torture seems to exist by design. As other listeners mentioned, it feels like she lived a hundred lifetimes in one. Here is where I fault the podcast: there was a hint at the beginning of the series that we were going to examine ways in which Allia may, at times, be an unreliable narrator, but that never paid off. I fully agree with believing victims of abuse and allowing them the safe space to tell the story from their own perspective. She was 100% victimized, and it was so important for the podcast to bring the therapy angle into it. But there’s also a very deep fear of questioning anything at all in these cases, even when there are some massive holes in the story. This isn’t just a regular, run-of-the-mill person we’re talking about; this is purportedly a professionally trained spy whose entire craft is deception, seduction, and manipulation. There are very few instances in which the host questions or pushes further where the story trails off or gets confusing, and very few outside opinions questioning fuzzy parts of the story, motivations, etc. in any way. This needs a follow up to flesh out what’s been left out.
Well, she said it so it must be true
5 days ago
Aliia describing combat in the 2nd Chechen war when she was a soldier “He (her comrade in a combat zone) touched me, he rubbed my shoulder, and said now. Then he pressed the trigger and he shot the enemy. He said to me it’s simple, now it’s your turn. I saw through the scope, I saw the face with a beard and with the hat. He said do it now. I pressed the trigger and it was silence and I didn’t look again and closed my eyes. Then he told me good job. I laid there for maybe an hour.” I shortened this a bit but this is word for word what she described doing in war, at night, with a gun she doesn’t know the name of and didn’t know how it worked. 🤣 Great journalism!
Vulnerable, healing, emotional…
Sep 7
This is story telling at its best. Listening the story organically unfold and evolve through vulnerability and trust was beautiful and poetic. I found many comments disheartening. After all the vulnerability, care, and empathy put into the story telling, it’s fascinating that anyone could focus on “creditability.” This story underlines the long term, damaging effects caused by abuse, human trafficking, oppression… all by using a first hand experience. This is a women who bravely bared her soul. The continued challenge of a woman’s credibility regarding sexual, mental, and emotional abuse is a sad study of society. I do agree with the mid roll ads. I understand the need for adds and appreciate the free access to this wonderful story, but they would be better at the beginning of the episode in a situation like this.
Speechless
Sep 4
This podcast is heartbreaking, terrorizing, unbelievable - a horror. The tenderness with which the story is told is so kind of the storytellers. I wept. I felt revulsion and I don’t think anyone would ir could of trated this material with mire delicacy and respect.
About
Information
- Channel
- CreatorTenderfoot TV and iHeartPodcasts
- Episodes23
- Seasons1
- RatingExplicit
- Copyright2024 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
- Show Website
- ProviderTenderfoot TV