[TEASER] Cuba Ep. 8: Lessons from the Fall of the USSR w/ Helen Yaffe

[TEASER] Cuba Ep. 8: Lessons from the Fall of the USSR w/ Helen Yaffe

May 26, 2026 · 18 min

About this episode

The episode features a conversation with Helen Yaffe about the lessons Cuba learned from the economic crisis following the fall of the USSR.

This is a free preview of the episode "Cuba Ep. 8: Lessons from the Fall of the USSR w/ Helen Yaffe." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber, you'll get access to biweekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You'll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. In this episode, part 8 of our ongoing Cuba series, we're joined again by Helen Yaffe for a conversation exploring the lessons Cuba learned from the crisis brought on by the fall of the USSR—known as Cuba's "special period". Helen Yaffe is a professor of Latin American political economy at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World , and Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution . She is also the cohost of the Cuba Analysis podcast and the documentary "Cuba's life…

People in this episode

Guest: Helen Yaffe

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Glasgow, Cuba Analysis

Books & works: We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution, Cuba's life task: combating climate change

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