Larissa Vassilian (born 17 June 1976) is a German journalist of German-Armenian descent. She became famous for her podcast ''"Schlaflos in München" (Sleepless in Munich)'', using the stage name Annik Rubens. The podcast had over 10,000 listeners daily, making her one of the most successful podcasters in the German language and winning a prestigious

Podcast Awards The People's Choice Podcast Awards, better known as the Podcast Awards, are global awards given annually to the best podcasts as voted by the general public. Founded in 2005 by Todd Cochrane of Podcast Connect Inc., the Podcast Awards changed han ...

in 2005 in the "Nonenglish" category. For German-language learners, she made another project called ''"Slow German"'' – a podcast on a variety of topics using clear slow pronunciation and with accompanying transcript. Vassilian was born in

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...

, West Germany, to an Armenian father (Rouben Vassilian) and a Bavarian mother (Sylvia Vassilian). She attended the Franz-Marc-Gymnasium school in

Markt Schwaben Markt Schwaben is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It lies roughly 23 km east of Munich on the northern edge of the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg. Neighbouring communities are Anzing, Forstinning, Pliening and Poing, (all in Ebersberg di ...

. After high school, from 1995 to 2003, she studied for a master's degree program in American cultural history, political science and ethnology at the

Ludwig-Maximilians University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

in Munich. In 2003 and 2004 she completed a correspondence course in freelance and feature writing from the London School of Journalism. She lives in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

References

External links

"Slow German" podcast
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vassilian, Larissa German journalists German women journalists 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists German podcasters People from Konstanz German people of Armenian descent Alumni of the London School of Journalism Living people 1976 births 20th-century German women 21st-century German women