Host Ira Glass plays recordings of a woman named Katia in Kyiv, dealing with the quotidian challenges of life — like taking the dog out to pee — in the middle of the war. (7 minutes)We found out about Katia from the podcast Vice News Reports, a show with a lot of great reporting on the war in Ukraine, plus stories that are unfolding all over the world.

Late at night on the evening Russia invaded Ukraine, Ira talks to two people who escaped to Lviv, near the Polish border: a woman we call Natalie, and the Ukraine Correspondent for The Economist, Richard Ensor. Natalie’s harrowing story about escaping Kyiv is not the sort of war story that makes you think, "I can't imagine what it'd be like to go through that.” In fact it’s just the opposite.