WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.960 I was looking at the stack of sources for this 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:04.179 deep dive, and I honestly thought I had opened, 00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:07.000 like, three different browser tabs by mistake. 00:00:07.299 --> 00:00:10.619 Yeah, it's a pretty eclectic mix today, isn't 00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:13.000 it? Eclectic is putting it mildly. I mean, I 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:14.660 had to double -check that these documents all 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:17.179 actually belong to the same folder. Right, because 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:18.640 on one hand you're looking at, what, a dusty 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.280 old poem about a cow shed. A cow shed, exactly. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.000 And then on the other, we have these official 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.480 government decrees from the Russian Space Agency. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:30.550 Oh, and it pivots to a... violent 2023 video 00:00:30.550 --> 00:00:34.229 game about killer robots. Yes. And somehow we 00:00:34.229 --> 00:00:37.329 end up with a deep fake of Elon Musk singing 00:00:37.329 --> 00:00:41.649 in Russian. It sounds like a fever dream or, 00:00:41.750 --> 00:00:43.289 you know, one of those conspiracy boards with 00:00:43.289 --> 00:00:45.409 the red string connecting random photos. Right. 00:00:45.530 --> 00:00:47.909 But the crazy thing is there is actually a single 00:00:47.909 --> 00:00:51.340 red thread tying all of this together. It's one 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:54.920 song. Just one song. A song from 1983 called 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.840 Grass by the Home, or in the original Russian, 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:01.000 Trava Udoma. Which, I mean, if you just hear 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.359 the title without knowing the context, it sounds 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:05.420 like it should be a folk song about landscaping. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:09.219 Or maybe a gardening tip. Yeah, exactly. But 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:12.120 the mission for this deep dive is to figure out 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:15.280 how that song, which literally started as a poem 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:18.780 about a farm, became the actual official anthem 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:21.140 of space travel. Right. We're talking about the 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:24.340 track that real cosmonauts listen to while they're 00:01:24.340 --> 00:01:27.099 strapped into a rocket just waiting for the countdown. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:29.909 And that journey. from the soil to the stars 00:01:29.909 --> 00:01:32.650 is honestly one of the weirdest case studies 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:34.930 in culture I've ever seen. Oh, absolutely. Because 00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:37.510 it's not just music history. It's a really fascinating 00:01:37.510 --> 00:01:40.549 look at human psychology. It forces us to ask 00:01:40.549 --> 00:01:42.969 a pretty heady question. Like when we surround 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:45.569 ourselves with the absolute peak of high technology 00:01:45.569 --> 00:01:48.829 rockets, space stations, AI, what is it that 00:01:48.829 --> 00:01:51.170 we actually miss? Well, spoiler alert, it's not 00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:53.810 more technology. Definitely not. So let's unpack 00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:56.829 this. We need to set the scene. The year is 1983. 00:01:57.090 --> 00:01:59.969 We are in the Soviet Union. And a group called 00:01:59.969 --> 00:02:02.769 Zemlyan releases this track. Yes. First off, 00:02:02.849 --> 00:02:04.709 just for those who don't speak Russian, who are 00:02:04.709 --> 00:02:08.550 Zemlyan. So Zemlyan. Basically translates to 00:02:08.550 --> 00:02:11.009 earthlings. That is a very convenient name for 00:02:11.009 --> 00:02:12.830 a band singing about space. Was that intentional? 00:02:13.169 --> 00:02:15.469 It was, but they weren't just a gimmick. They 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:17.289 were actually quite a popular rock band at the 00:02:17.289 --> 00:02:20.050 time. They weren't some obscure folk duo. This 00:02:20.050 --> 00:02:23.330 was big, synth -heavy rock. Okay, that classic 00:02:23.330 --> 00:02:27.069 early 80s sound. Exactly. And the music for this 00:02:27.069 --> 00:02:29.750 specific track was written by Vladimir Maguia, 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:32.759 and the lyrics were by Anatoly Poporekny. OK, 00:02:32.819 --> 00:02:35.219 so we have the earthlings singing grass by the 00:02:35.219 --> 00:02:37.819 home. Now, if you look at the lyrics described 00:02:37.819 --> 00:02:40.599 in our sources, what is the actual narrative 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:42.680 here? Because when I think of a space anthem, 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:45.240 I'm thinking of, you know, ground control to 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:48.300 Major Tom or Elton John. Right. But it's almost 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:50.659 the inverse of those. The narrative here is very 00:02:50.659 --> 00:02:53.039 specific. The song puts us in the perspective 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:56.259 of cosmonauts who are deep in space. OK. They're 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:58.599 looking at the porthole, presumably at the SARS 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:00.860 or the void of the universe. Yeah. But the lyrics 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:02.979 make a very specific point about their attention. 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:05.159 They aren't thinking about the rockets. They 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:07.340 aren't thinking about the mission or the glory 00:03:07.340 --> 00:03:09.879 of the Soviet space program. So they're distracted. 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:12.719 They're longing. They're longing for Earth. And 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:14.280 not just Earth as a planet, you know, not that 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:16.039 same as the Blue Marble photo we all know. Right. 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:19.439 They are missing specifically their homes and 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:23.960 the grass. The imagery creates this massive deliberate 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:28.729 contrast. You have the cold, infinite. black 00:03:28.729 --> 00:03:31.629 vacuum of space on one side. And on the other, 00:03:31.689 --> 00:03:34.569 you have this very small, fragile green image 00:03:34.569 --> 00:03:37.289 of grass growing by a house. Exactly. It's a 00:03:37.289 --> 00:03:39.530 grounding image, pun intended. Everyone knows 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:41.830 what grass feels like. Everyone knows what that 00:03:41.830 --> 00:03:45.009 specific green looks like. It strikes me as a 00:03:45.009 --> 00:03:47.610 very vulnerable thing to sing about. Usually 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:49.930 when we think of space anthems, especially from 00:03:49.930 --> 00:03:53.659 the Cold War era, we think of triumph. power, 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:56.060 conquering the unknown, planting the flag. Yeah, 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:57.979 the eagle has landed, all that. It's usually 00:03:57.979 --> 00:04:00.759 about the achievement. But this song flips that 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.180 script entirely. It's about the cost of that 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.020 achievement. Interesting. It's admitting that 00:04:05.020 --> 00:04:07.020 we are biological creatures who belong on the 00:04:07.020 --> 00:04:09.379 ground, not in the sky. It suggests that space 00:04:09.379 --> 00:04:11.960 travel is inherently lonely. So it celebrates 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:14.960 the cosmonaut, but by focusing on what the cosmonaut 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.199 is missing. Which is a very Russian approach 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:20.019 to storytelling, if you think about it. Highlighting 00:04:20.019 --> 00:04:22.040 the melancholy within the heroism. It's not, 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:25.180 we are the champions, it's we are heroes, but 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:28.839 we are sad about it. Huh, wow. Now, here is where 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:31.290 it gets really interesting. You'd assume a song 00:04:31.290 --> 00:04:33.529 like this was carefully crafted in the laboratory 00:04:33.529 --> 00:04:37.110 to be the perfect space ballad. Like the Ministry 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:39.589 of Culture sat down and said, we need a song 00:04:39.589 --> 00:04:41.930 to humanize the space program. You would think 00:04:41.930 --> 00:04:44.670 so. It feels completely engineered to be an anthem, 00:04:44.709 --> 00:04:47.670 but the origin story is totally different and 00:04:47.670 --> 00:04:50.170 honestly much funnier. This is the part that 00:04:50.170 --> 00:04:52.389 got me. The source material reveals that the 00:04:52.389 --> 00:04:55.379 lyrics are based on an original poem. also titled 00:04:55.379 --> 00:04:58.100 Grass by the Home. But in that original poem, 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:01.160 there was zero mention of space. None. No rockets, 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:04.220 no orbits, no cosmonauts. It was purely a poem 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:07.079 about nostalgia, specifically a person in the 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:09.279 city longing for their parents' home in the countryside. 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:12.000 And the details that were cut are hilarious when 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.620 you think about them ending up in a space song. 00:05:13.779 --> 00:05:16.600 The original poem featured imagery like, and 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:19.300 I'm quoting here, cow's eyes and a shed. Can 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:22.060 you imagine? You're blasting off from the Baconer 00:05:22.060 --> 00:05:24.680 Cosmodrome. The engines are roaring. You're leaving 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:27.240 the atmosphere. And the song in your headphones 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:29.420 is talking about looking into the eyes of a cow. 00:05:29.699 --> 00:05:32.899 Houston, we have a cow. Huh. Yeah, it doesn't 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:35.000 quite work. It breaks the spell. Right. But this 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.120 is where the genius of the adaptation comes in. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:39.560 And it really is a master class in editing. Tell 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:42.490 me about the pivot. Well, the composer, Vladimir 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:45.870 Magulia, decided he wanted to write a song specifically 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:49.509 for Cosmonautics Day in 1982. Which is a major 00:05:49.509 --> 00:05:52.110 holiday, right? Yuri Gagarin and all that. Huge. 00:05:52.589 --> 00:05:55.110 So he needs a hit. He gets together with the 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:58.329 poet, Anatoly Paparekny, and they have a discussion. 00:05:58.490 --> 00:06:01.490 Magulia effectively says, look, I love the poem. 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:04.149 But I need a space song. So they have to pivot 00:06:04.149 --> 00:06:06.370 hard. They pivot very hard. They decide to take 00:06:06.370 --> 00:06:09.550 this existing structure of rural nostalgia and 00:06:09.550 --> 00:06:12.230 simply elevate it. They strip out the cow's eyes. 00:06:12.389 --> 00:06:15.009 They remove the shed. They take out all the specific 00:06:15.009 --> 00:06:16.790 farm elements that are just too terrestrial. 00:06:16.949 --> 00:06:19.250 But, and this is the key to the whole thing, 00:06:19.389 --> 00:06:22.129 they keep the grass. That is the brilliant creative 00:06:22.129 --> 00:06:25.519 leap right there. They realized that the emotion 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:28.399 of a person in the city missing their village 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.939 home is the exact same emotion as a person in 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:35.220 orbit missing the planet. The scale is different, 00:06:35.339 --> 00:06:37.939 but the feeling is identical. It's displacement. 00:06:38.259 --> 00:06:40.660 So they replaced the cow with the cosmos, but 00:06:40.660 --> 00:06:43.240 kept the grass to anchor it. If we connect this 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:45.160 to the bigger picture of songwriting or even 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:49.019 storytelling, it shows that specificity is what 00:06:49.019 --> 00:06:51.629 makes things universal. If they had just written 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:53.470 a song about, oh, Earth is great, we miss oxygen, 00:06:53.649 --> 00:06:55.589 it would be clinical. It would be boring. Right. 00:06:55.810 --> 00:06:59.129 But grass by the home, that is tactile. You can 00:06:59.129 --> 00:07:02.250 smell it. And clearly that pivot worked. Because 00:07:02.250 --> 00:07:04.449 the song didn't just do well, the sources say 00:07:04.449 --> 00:07:07.009 it became a massive cultural juggernaut. Oh, 00:07:07.009 --> 00:07:09.350 it was everywhere. The source notes that it was 00:07:09.350 --> 00:07:11.730 a finalist in the 1983 edition of Song of the 00:07:11.730 --> 00:07:14.209 Year. In the Soviet Union, that wasn't just a 00:07:14.209 --> 00:07:17.050 Spotify playlist. That was the Super Bowl of 00:07:17.050 --> 00:07:19.470 pop music. And it permeated pop culture in other 00:07:19.470 --> 00:07:21.769 ways, too. I was reading here that it showed 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:26.350 up in, well, just you wait, New Pagode, in 1984. 00:07:27.050 --> 00:07:29.230 Now, I didn't grow up with this, but I looked 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:31.670 it up. This is basically the Soviet Tom and Jerry, 00:07:31.709 --> 00:07:34.810 right? Pretty much. Wolf chases hair, chaos ensues. 00:07:35.069 --> 00:07:38.459 But it was massively popular. It's hard to overstate 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:41.180 how ubiquitous that cartoon was. Having your 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:44.199 song in the 14th episode of New Pagode meant 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.839 that everyone from toddlers to grandparents heard 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:49.779 it. Wow. It cemented the song in the cultural 00:07:49.779 --> 00:07:52.040 consciousness of an entire generation. So you 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:54.120 have the kids listening to it in a cartoon and 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:56.300 the adults listening to it on the radio. But 00:07:56.300 --> 00:07:58.500 the highest honor came much later. And this is 00:07:58.500 --> 00:08:00.519 the part that really blows my mind. We are talking 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:04.240 decades later. Yes. In 2009. 2009. That's 26 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.680 years after the song came out. The Soviet Union 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:08.779 doesn't even exist anymore. The space program 00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:13.199 does. And in 2009. Roscosmos, the Russian Federal 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:17.240 Space Agency, officially named grass by the home 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:20.579 the anthem of Russian cosmonauts. Official, like 00:08:20.579 --> 00:08:23.699 stamped, signed government McCree. Think about 00:08:23.699 --> 00:08:26.100 how strange that is compared to the American 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:29.120 approach. NASA doesn't have an official pop song. 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.639 You don't see a press release from NASA saying, 00:08:31.779 --> 00:08:35.139 by the way, Rocketman by Elton John is now mandatory 00:08:35.139 --> 00:08:38.240 listening for all employees. Or space oddity. 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:41.470 Exactly. NASA culture is very engineering focused. 00:08:41.990 --> 00:08:44.490 But the Russian space program has always been 00:08:44.490 --> 00:08:47.230 deeply ritualistic. They have traditions that 00:08:47.230 --> 00:08:49.929 go all the way back to Gagarin. They pee on the 00:08:49.929 --> 00:08:52.370 tire of the bus before launch. They watch the 00:08:52.370 --> 00:08:54.429 movie White Son of the Desert the night before. 00:08:54.669 --> 00:08:56.690 And they listen to this song. They listen to 00:08:56.690 --> 00:08:58.889 this song as they walk out of the hotel to the 00:08:58.889 --> 00:09:02.370 bus. It's part of the liturgy of launch. It institutionalizes 00:09:02.370 --> 00:09:04.970 that nostalgia we talked about. It acknowledges 00:09:04.970 --> 00:09:07.370 that the people in those suits are, well, people. 00:09:07.769 --> 00:09:09.350 They aren't just operating machines. They are 00:09:09.350 --> 00:09:12.250 living out that story of longing for the grass. 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:15.230 It's amazing because it implies that to leave 00:09:15.230 --> 00:09:17.690 Earth successfully, you have to acknowledge how 00:09:17.690 --> 00:09:20.429 much you miss it. Precisely. You can't just pretend 00:09:20.429 --> 00:09:23.429 you were a robot. So up to this point, we have 00:09:23.429 --> 00:09:26.590 a fairly linear story. 80s hit becomes government 00:09:26.590 --> 00:09:29.669 anthem, a nice historical factoid. But the story 00:09:29.669 --> 00:09:32.049 doesn't end there because culture never stops 00:09:32.049 --> 00:09:34.429 recycling things. And this brings us to the Internet 00:09:34.429 --> 00:09:38.179 age. And specifically. The strange, uncanny valley 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:40.460 world of deep fakes. Okay, so fast forward to 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:44.360 May 31st, 2020. This is a historic day. The first 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:47.700 crewed launch of a SpaceX spacecraft. The Crew 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:50.899 Dragon Demo 2. This is big news for Elon Musk, 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.899 big news for America, big news for space. And 00:09:53.899 --> 00:09:56.159 naturally, the Russian internet responded. With 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:59.299 a video. A modified video of the group Zemlyan 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:01.659 performing Grass by the Home, but instead of 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:03.799 the lead singer, Sergei Sekskov. It was a deep 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:05.639 fake of Elon Musk's face. Blinging the song. 00:10:06.299 --> 00:10:09.320 In Russian. It is such a bizarre collision of 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:13.039 eras. You have a Soviet song from 1983, a modern 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:14.960 American tech billionaire who is essentially 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:18.120 the face of the privatization of space and AI 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:20.639 technology all matching together. They went viral, 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:22.639 obviously. Obviously. It's the perfect storm 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:25.019 of meme potential. But what I found fascinating 00:10:25.019 --> 00:10:27.799 was the reaction. You might expect the original 00:10:27.799 --> 00:10:30.799 band to be offended. You know, why is this American 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:34.600 CEO singing our song? Or... This is disrespectful 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:37.039 to our legacy. That happens a lot with deepfakes. 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:39.720 Artists get protective. But according to the 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:42.720 source, Sergei Skachkov, the actual singer, spoke 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:46.059 to a radio station, Moscow Speaks, and he was 00:10:46.059 --> 00:10:48.379 totally into it. He liked it. He spoke positively 00:10:48.379 --> 00:10:51.039 about it. He even said he wished for everyone 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:53.419 to sing the song. Chinese people, Japanese people. 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:56.120 He saw it as a bridge. That is surprisingly wholesome. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:58.480 It validates the song's message, doesn't it? 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:01.480 Space is for everyone, and missing home is for 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:03.919 everyone. It doesn't matter if you were a Soviet 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:07.700 cosmonaut in 1983 or Elon Musk in a deepfake 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:11.000 video in 2020. The sentiment holds up. It also 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.200 speaks to the song's status as a cult classic. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:16.480 It's unkillable. Speaking of the song going global, 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:18.440 the sources mentioned some really interesting 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:21.299 translations that I didn't see coming. Yes. This 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:23.399 highlights that bridge -building aspect perfectly. 00:11:24.009 --> 00:11:26.509 There was a Japanese translation announced by 00:11:26.509 --> 00:11:29.190 an unregistered political party, the VKPB, in 00:11:29.190 --> 00:11:32.370 2020. And then, even more surprisingly, in 2021, 00:11:32.730 --> 00:11:36.450 a newspaper called Birobidziner Stern published 00:11:36.450 --> 00:11:39.129 a Yiddish translation. A Yiddish version of a 00:11:39.129 --> 00:11:41.690 Soviet space rock anthem. Complete with a video. 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:44.309 It just shows how adaptable the melody and the 00:11:44.309 --> 00:11:46.990 theme are. The idea of home translates into every 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:49.090 language. And we can't ignore the video game 00:11:49.090 --> 00:11:51.509 connection because this is how a whole new generation 00:11:51.509 --> 00:11:54.470 is finding this track. The outline mentions the 00:11:54.470 --> 00:11:57.330 game Atomic Heart, which came out in 2023. Right. 00:11:57.389 --> 00:12:00.190 If you aren't a gamer, Atomic Heart is a big 00:12:00.190 --> 00:12:03.610 budget sci -fi game set in an alternate 1950s 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:06.429 Soviet Union. It's full of robots, futuristic 00:12:06.429 --> 00:12:09.970 tech, and this very specific Soviet punk aesthetic. 00:12:10.269 --> 00:12:12.690 And the soundtrack is killer. It is. They use 00:12:12.690 --> 00:12:16.299 a modernized remix of Grass by The Home. alongside 00:12:16.299 --> 00:12:18.799 other Soviet -era songs. It fits perfectly there, 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.059 doesn't it? That game is all about the mix of 00:12:21.059 --> 00:12:24.059 Soviet aesthetics and futuristic horror. It is. 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:27.100 But it also introduces the song to people who 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:30.620 have zero connection to 1983 Russia. You have 00:12:30.620 --> 00:12:33.320 gamers who might be 15 or 20 years old, living 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:35.440 in the U .S. or Europe, who have never heard 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:38.440 of Zemlyan. Suddenly, they are fighting mutant 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.279 robots while listening to a remix of a song about 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:43.679 cosmonauts missing the grass. It's the circle 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:46.179 of life. Or the circle of content. It really 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:49.059 demonstrates how art survives. It survives by 00:12:49.059 --> 00:12:52.379 being repurposed. It started as a poem about 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:55.340 a cow shed, became a pop song, then a cartoon 00:12:55.340 --> 00:12:57.820 soundtrack, then an official government anthem, 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:01.000 then an internet meme with Elon Musk, and finally 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.379 a video game soundtrack. It's like the song itself 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:06.179 is a traveler. It is. And each generation finds 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.190 something new in it. So let's zoom out. What 00:13:08.190 --> 00:13:10.009 does this all mean? When we step back and look 00:13:10.009 --> 00:13:12.370 at this journey from the cow shed to the video 00:13:12.370 --> 00:13:15.269 game console, what is the takeaway here? I think 00:13:15.269 --> 00:13:17.330 it tells us that as humans, we need anchors. 00:13:17.929 --> 00:13:20.389 The further we push out, whether that is physically 00:13:20.389 --> 00:13:23.250 into space or technologically into AI and deepfakes, 00:13:23.309 --> 00:13:25.750 the more we crave something simple and organic, 00:13:25.909 --> 00:13:28.769 the grass. We can build the most advanced space 00:13:28.769 --> 00:13:31.830 station in history. We can go to Mars. But if 00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:34.330 you ask the person living on that station what 00:13:34.330 --> 00:13:37.169 they dream about, they won't dream of the titanium 00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:39.470 bulkheads. They won't dream of the recycling 00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:41.710 systems. They will dream of the smell of rain 00:13:41.710 --> 00:13:45.159 on dirt. Or the sound of wind in the trees. That 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:47.899 is a really powerful thought. We spend all this 00:13:47.899 --> 00:13:50.360 effort trying to leave, but the art we create 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:53.279 is all about looking back. Precisely. And the 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:55.320 fact that the song changed from being about a 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:58.220 shed to being about Earth proves that the specific 00:13:58.220 --> 00:14:00.440 object doesn't matter as much as the feeling. 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:03.220 The shed was the poet's anchor. The Earth is 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:05.480 the cosmonaut's anchor. It makes you wonder what 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.740 the anthem will be when we actually go to Mars. 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:10.340 Will we still be listening to Grass by the Home? 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:13.100 Or will we have moved on to something else? I 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:14.960 wouldn't bet against Grass by the Home. It survived 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:17.580 40 years of radical change. It survived the fall 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:19.840 of the Soviet Union. It might survive the trip 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.799 to Mars. Although by then, maybe it'll be a deepfake 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.279 of a deepfake. Huh, probably. You know, going 00:14:26.279 --> 00:14:29.120 through this, I'm struck by how a simple creative 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:31.960 decision, that conversation between Magulia and 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:35.059 Paparekny changed history. If they had kept the 00:14:35.059 --> 00:14:37.100 cow's eyes, this song might have just been a 00:14:37.100 --> 00:14:39.019 forgotten folk tune. It would be a footnote. 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:42.580 Absolutely. It was that decision to elevate the 00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:44.899 theme, to take the rustic and make it cosmic, 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:48.100 that gave it longevity. They bridged the gap 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:51.320 between the past, the village, and the future, 00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:54.519 the rocket. That is a very hard thing to do in 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:56.669 art. Usually you have to pick one. You're either 00:14:56.669 --> 00:14:59.429 traditional or you are futuristic. This song 00:14:59.429 --> 00:15:01.889 manages to be both simultaneously. And that is 00:15:01.889 --> 00:15:03.669 why it works in Atomic Heart, and that is why 00:15:03.669 --> 00:15:06.009 it works for Roscosmos. It's the bridge. And 00:15:06.009 --> 00:15:07.889 it's why the imagery of the green grass is so 00:15:07.889 --> 00:15:10.789 potent. In Russian culture specifically, there's 00:15:10.789 --> 00:15:13.970 a deep connection to the land, to the soil. Taking 00:15:13.970 --> 00:15:16.990 that soil into the stars is the ultimate expression 00:15:16.990 --> 00:15:19.509 of identity. It's not just I miss my house, it's 00:15:19.509 --> 00:15:21.970 I miss the land itself. Exactly. It's elemental. 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:24.269 We are coming up on the end here, and I think 00:15:24.269 --> 00:15:26.610 we've successfully connected the dots from the 00:15:26.610 --> 00:15:29.289 cow shed to the cosmos. It's been a wild ride. 00:15:29.470 --> 00:15:31.730 It certainly has. Before we go, I want to bring 00:15:31.730 --> 00:15:33.850 it back to the listener, because we always say 00:15:33.850 --> 00:15:36.309 that these deep dives aren't just trivia. They 00:15:36.309 --> 00:15:38.970 are about how we see the world. Right. And I 00:15:38.970 --> 00:15:41.190 want to leave you with a question. We've talked 00:15:41.190 --> 00:15:43.590 about how these cosmonauts, surrounded by the 00:15:43.590 --> 00:15:46.330 marvels of the universe, just wanted to see the 00:15:46.330 --> 00:15:49.110 grass near their home. So the question is... 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:52.200 If you were out there... If you were on a three 00:15:52.200 --> 00:15:55.639 -year mission to Mars, surrounded by metal and 00:15:55.639 --> 00:15:59.620 plastic and screens, what is the one simple earthly 00:15:59.620 --> 00:16:01.899 thing you would miss the most? What is your grass? 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.639 Oh, man, it's a tough one. Is it the sound of 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:08.100 traffic? The taste of a fresh apple? The feeling 00:16:08.100 --> 00:16:11.080 of a dog's fur? Because I think the answer tells 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:13.200 you a lot about what actually matters to you 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:15.340 right now. That is a great question. For me, 00:16:15.379 --> 00:16:17.279 it might be the smell of coffee brewing. You 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:19.539 can't really simulate that in a vacuum. Or maybe 00:16:19.539 --> 00:16:21.840 just the sound of rain against a window. See? 00:16:22.419 --> 00:16:25.000 It's the little things. That's what grounds us. 00:16:25.259 --> 00:16:26.960 Well, on that note, we encourage you to go look 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.379 up the song, search for Trevo Doma, or just grasp 00:16:30.379 --> 00:16:33.120 by the home, watch the video, maybe even find 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:35.080 the deepfake if you want to laugh. It's worth 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:37.960 a listen. It's a catchy tune, even if you don't 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:40.929 speak Russian. The synth hook alone is worth 00:16:40.929 --> 00:16:42.529 it. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive. 00:16:42.690 --> 00:16:43.730 We'll see you on the next one.