Episode Nine: A Voice from Kyiv

Margo Gontar is many things: a journalist, artist, musician, co-founder of StopFake.org, and in 2017, Kyiv Post named her one of Ukraine’s Top 30 Under 30. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Margo has leveraged social media to educate people outside of Ukraine about life under bombardment. If you’re one of the tens of thousands of people who follow Margo on X or Threads or Substack, you’ve seen that her social media usage takes many forms: her weekly lessons in Ukrainian swearing for eager students all over the world; her middle-of-the-night missives from hallways and other shelters that demonstrate the physical and emotional toll of russia’s missiles and bombs; her photos from late-night bars where Ukrainians gather to converse and drink and dance, even under bombardment; her effortless takedowns of the russian trolls who inevitably spread their lies and vitriol in her comments; her love for her city of Kyiv – which she immortalised in a song she released in 2025 called My K.Y.I.V., the vibe for which evokes Bjork and Tori Amos – and her love for that world-famous Ukrainian coffee.In this fascinating and far-reaching episode, Margo speaks with Sabrina about why she started sharing her experiences with the world, the toll this sharing has taken on her heart and art, and what she wants the world to know about her Kyiv.