Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:11Good morning, dear friends, I'm so glad it's
00:00:14Saturday, and I'm happy to be back in your friendly
00:00:18company. What was the Horizon program like this past week? We'll find out in
00:00:22the next half hour. My name is Alexander Zhemzhurov,
00:00:24let's go!
00:00:30September in Estonia is traditionally the month
00:00:32of sobriety. The state company
00:00:35Septa, that is, we don't drink in September, year after
00:00:39year calls for a month of abstaining from alcohol.
00:00:42However, on the streets of the capital, the idea of voluntary
00:00:46sobriety often evokes only a condescending
00:00:49smirk. Citizens find reasons to drink in
00:00:53abundance. There's currently a campaign: September, no alcohol. Have you not
00:00:57thought about joining? No, why? Well, September
00:01:001st was my birthday, Knowledge Day, yeah,
00:01:04that's it, and I'm
00:01:08already 61 this year, I don't care
00:01:12what's happening in this world, the main thing is to have peace
00:01:15of mind, that's it. Well, I'm
00:01:18such a person, sometimes I want to
00:01:21relax, and I don't drink, not
00:01:25ever. No, of course, sometimes I
00:01:27drink, but not today. Have you ever been to
00:01:31the Tallinn sobering center? Yes, I have, well,
00:01:35what, I don't hide it, but I don't really like it, but
00:01:38it's nice, they put you to sleep at 9:00, wake you up around
00:01:428:50 or 8:45,
00:01:45repeatedly. And how was it there? Not good at all, I
00:01:48didn't like it, why? Because it's bad to get caught.
00:01:52I was there, but I didn't like it, because
00:01:55the space is confined, you can't do what you want, you can't even go
00:01:58outside, if...
00:02:30In the admissions department, the first thing is a total inventory
00:02:33of belongings, the next door is the doctor's office,
00:02:37if blood pressure is off the charts or there's suspicion of
00:02:40a serious injury, an ambulance is called. If there's no threat
00:02:44to life, they send you straight to
00:02:46sobering up. Wow, but this is definitely some kind of
00:02:50prison, it might seem like a prison, but
00:02:54in reality it's not quite like that, in prison there are completely different
00:02:57requirements and conditions, and we have our own. So there
00:03:01is a difference, but yes, when we leave the doctor, we bring the
00:03:04person here and lead them to a cell,
00:03:08a cell. Conditions for intoxicated guests
00:03:11are noticeably ascetic. A washbasin, a toilet,
00:03:15a tiny window and no unnecessary
00:03:18furniture. You can only lie down on a special
00:03:21mattress. Ah, well, it looks clean,
00:03:24let's see how soft it is. Actually, quite a comfortable
00:03:27mattress. So, what?
00:03:30Let's climb in. This is how the client
00:03:33spends time until 12 o'clock, until they're completely
00:03:37sober. Overall, the conditions are good.
00:03:40A pass. The services of the Tallinn
00:03:43sobering center are completely free for
00:03:46residents, so some citizens
00:03:49use this service with enviable
00:03:51regularity.
00:03:56We joke among ourselves that if there's a loyalty program in retail.
00:04:42Under the influence of alcohol, a person often becomes
00:04:45the main threat to themselves.
00:04:47себя.
00:04:49Many people try to harm themselves or
00:04:52hang themselves here, they cling to this faucet, to any
00:04:56little thing. There were cases when they tightened their own shirt
00:05:00tightly around their throat. Unfortunately, after sobering up,
00:05:03they don't even remember why they did it. Such an incident
00:05:07happens stably
00:05:08once a month. Only for incomplete.
00:06:17Be healthy, happiness to you,
00:06:20good luck and live richly.
00:06:23The Tallinn sobering center was visited by Yulia Rostok and
00:06:27Vasily Zaretsky, specially for the Horizon
00:06:29program.
00:06:38How to become a model, and most importantly, is it worth it? We'll talk about this
00:06:42today. Our guest is Sophia Vender, welcome,
00:06:45glad to see you, hello. You were 16
00:06:49when you started your career. I'm afraid to ask how old you are today, because I think you look
00:06:53at least 18. How was it then and how different was that time from
00:06:57what we see today in 2026? When
00:07:00I was 16, that was 25 years ago. Let
00:07:04them calculate how old I am now.
00:07:07It wasn't like it is now, because back then mobile
00:07:10phones were just appearing, there were no...
00:07:42an agent who saw you and said: "Oh my god, we need
00:07:46this, this girl for Gucci," or I don't know, or do you submit your own
00:07:49portfolio, take pictures, then send them,
00:07:53how does this process look, where would you recommend
00:07:55starting? When I started
00:07:5825 years ago, it was for me a very accidental free
00:08:02trip to Tallinn, I'm from Kohtla-Järve, and my friend and I were just walking
00:08:07and went into a modeling agency, and my modeling
00:08:10career started like that. In principle, now that everyone
00:08:14knows so much about the modeling business, of course, there are already professional scouts who
00:08:18look on the streets and so on. For example, my daughter has already been found
00:08:22twice in a shopping center, offered to become a model. Aha, so
00:08:25today it's absolutely normal if someone
00:08:29approaches you and gives you their business card. So in reality, that's also how it's done. I've just heard
00:08:32stories that the best models were found almost
00:08:36at bus stops, somewhere, yes. That's really true,
00:08:40really true, because often... a model doesn't know that she's
00:08:43beautiful, she herself won't come to a modeling agency. These are
00:08:47girls who - a kind of, maybe even somewhat humble
00:08:50appearance, thin, tall, that's not
00:08:54quite what boys like, so in principle, future
00:08:57models don't even realize that they could potentially be models.
00:09:01Models seem, to girls who are in school and are a bit curvy,
00:09:05boys like them, they think, well, these are the kind of models there should be. But in
00:09:08fact, these are girls literally at bus stops, in shopping centers or somewhere? Who are
00:09:12thin, tall, and they don't
00:09:15have, I don't know, lips done, they shouldn't have
00:09:18them done or something like that, well, something
00:09:21natural and unusual that attracts - ah, well,
00:09:24are there any, I don't know, golden standards, proportions?
00:09:28I remember it used to be very important, 90,
00:09:3160, 90, today that no longer exists, or is there
00:09:35still some kind of, well, I don't know, golden ratio for models? I would say
00:09:3990-60-90, that's even a bit plump
00:09:42girl - now, of course, everyone is thin.
00:09:46In my time, now we had, we remember such a body
00:09:49positivity movement, it seemed that plus-size models appeared
00:09:53and so on, well, as that movement appeared, it also went
00:09:57away, everyone is still thin now, well, I understand that you've been working
00:10:01as a model your whole life, and not only that, but that's another
00:10:04conversation. How difficult is this job? From the outside, it seems
00:10:08like a beautiful life, I travel, I'm beautifully photographed, is that really
00:10:12true? How difficult is it to be a model? For me, at
00:10:15some point, it really became too difficult, I got tired, I got tired
00:10:18of dieting, I got tired of endless flying, I got tired of
00:10:22loneliness, that I was always alone, tired of... this unclear
00:10:25schedule, you don't know when you'll have work, when you'll have
00:10:29money, or you, for example, start working very
00:10:32actively, then you work, for example, for several months in a row, you have no
00:10:36rest, and for me, this imbalance with health, the fact
00:10:39that I don't have a normal social life, friends, because
00:10:42I constantly have to fly, constantly being in the metro, then on
00:10:46the bus, then in a taxi, then,
00:10:48constantly, I still, for example, don't like staying in hotels, because
00:10:52hotels for me are associated with the modeling business, that you're always... some
00:10:56presentation, you're flying somewhere, for example, a presentation in
00:11:00Shanghai was amazing,
00:11:02you fly, it seems like an amazing hotel, five-star, you work, but
00:11:06you're in the hotel alone, you don't even have anyone to share your joy with,
00:11:10look, I'm in a hotel, what a cool hotel or a cool event,
00:11:13I worked, and you fly back, for example, to another
00:11:16country or you go, maybe I'm talking about some trivial
00:11:19problems, but it's tiring, and you're always
00:11:22alone, and you're always waiting. What did you manage to encounter in your
00:11:26practice? Well, for example, I remember very
00:11:30well, it was a show,
00:11:33a loving one, they lined us up like this and
00:11:36said: "You, you have ugly legs," and I only had one
00:11:40pair of jeans for this show, "you're canceled, you're leaving," and the girl
00:11:44from the line, for example, she's standing there with 35 people, she goes home,
00:11:48such a disgrace in front of everyone, "you have an ugly face, get
00:11:51out of here," well, like that, well, this is very rude,
00:11:55such an attitude like a hanger, well, like a lifeless
00:11:59person, in principle, when you are, there are models now,
00:12:02when they are made up, touched, it's not a living person, they can pull
00:12:06their hair and so on, it's
00:12:09it's difficult, but it pays off in the end.
00:12:13How well do models earn, if
00:12:16we take, again, my case at 16, when I had no
00:12:20education, no experience, nothing, and I suddenly
00:12:23started earning, for example, more than my parents, that's a wow effect,
00:12:27right? So I think for all the girls who start at 14 or something, they
00:12:31suddenly earn a lot of money, compared to
00:12:33others, and without having an education, experience, nothing, except essentially
00:12:37appearance. So if money is the priority, then
00:12:40undoubtedly it's worth doing, and it gives
00:12:44you, for me it was a big leap into a different
00:12:47life altogether. But how long-term is modeling
00:12:51as a process, so to speak? If we talk about...
00:12:55how long can you work as a model? Is it for life or does this
00:12:59job end at a certain period of a person's
00:13:01life? Well, you can really do it until the very
00:13:05end, and the further along the easier it might be in some sense,
00:13:09because there's less competition. When you're
00:13:1114-16, everyone is thin
00:13:13and pretty,
00:13:15and there's a lot of competition. Well, and there's much more work accordingly. But there are also
00:13:18grandmothers seventy, eighty years old, and
00:13:22men, everyone. And I highly recommend to all
00:13:25my acquaintances, friends, of any appearance,
00:13:29any shape, I always say, for those who have a very strong urge,
00:13:32we have an amazing casting agency, and
00:13:36people of very different types
00:13:39and appearances are needed, and
00:13:43so on. People with tattoos and
00:13:46dreadlocks and with a bit of a belly,
00:13:50because advertisements are different. For example, some advertise beer,
00:13:53right, others...
00:14:10What do models do besides modeling work? I know that you made an excellent career as a lawyer,
00:14:14your friend is a chemist. What else do models do, what stories have
00:14:17you encountered in life? Those
00:14:20models who, so to speak, finish their career, or it's slower for them...
00:14:26at what speed does it move? For example, I continue to do this, but not
00:14:30as actively as before, of course, I'm not running to eight castings a day. Now
00:14:34I only do selective jobs. And
00:14:37my good model friends, with
00:14:41whom we started, one works as a psychologist with very difficult
00:14:44clients and handles it very
00:14:48well. Another opened a modeling agency
00:14:51and now acts as a modeling agent herself.
00:15:07Fossils of prehistoric marine animals lie right
00:15:11underfoot in the center of Tallinn, they are literally
00:15:14trampled every day by tourists who admire the beauty
00:15:17of the Town Hall. Minu isiklikult olen Tallinna
00:15:20vanalinnas.
00:15:25Imagine an ice cream cone, and this is its
00:15:29shell. Here, for example, on the slab, this fossil is clearly
00:15:32visible. These creatures inhabited the territory
00:15:36of Estonia for hundreds of millions of years. If
00:17:42you look closely, you can see tiny holes, in
00:17:45each of them lived a tiny creature. All this resembles a multi-apartment
00:17:50building, in which one family lived, although we don't know how
00:17:54harmoniously.
00:18:03Fossils are easier to find during rain, in damp conditions.
00:19:38obvious. Vladimir Kharchenko and Yury Zhiltsov looked for fossils in Tallinn,
00:19:42especially for the Horizon
00:19:43program.