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

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/upstream-217600/teaser-cuba-pt-8-lessons-from-the-fall-of-the-ussr-w-helen-yaffe
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/upstream-217600/teaser-cuba-pt-8-lessons-from-the-fall-of-the-ussr-w-helen-yaffe.md
Podcast: [Upstream](https://stenobird.com/podcast/upstream-217600)
Published: 2026-05-26T16:54:00+00:00
Episode link: https://bb336368-b933-4b06-88b6-e51256ac6d81.libsyn.com/teaser-cuba-pt-8-lessons-from-the-fall-of-the-ussr-w-helen-yaffe
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bb336368-b933-4b06-88b6-e51256ac6d81/Upstream-Helen_Yaffe_Special_Period_TEASER.mp3?dest-id=3632352
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/upstream-217600/episodes/teaser-cuba-pt-8-lessons-from-the-fall-of-the-ussr-w-helen-yaffe
Duration seconds: 1069

## Resource

This is a free preview of the episode "Cuba Pt. 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 at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly 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 task: combating climate change." Our conversation begins with an introduction to Cuba's "special period", the period of economic crisis in Cuba which occurred as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Helen gives us some context on how closely entwined Cuba's economy was to its primary trading partner, the Soviet Union, before describing how this p…

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