Cuba Analysis is a podcast hosted by Nina Blodau and Helen Yaffe that examines Cuban development from diverse perspectives – from ecology to economics and from science to society. We go beyond the headlines to explore this country of contradictions, using sources you never see and speaking to specialists you rarely hear from. On Cuba Analysis, we dissect facts, provide context, and get to the root of issues. We have honest conversations to uncover the real Cuba.

Biographies

Nina Blodau

Nina first visited Cuba as a child in 1989, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet bloc. She returned as a young adult in the 1990s during the Special Period and developed a rich and intimate relationship with the island, being inspired by the achievements of Cuba’s socialist development. As an activist for nearly three decades, she has campaigned in solidarity with Cuba in Ireland and internationally, attending events in Havana and Europe. She has studied Cuba’s sustainable development and is currently producing a documentary about urban agricultural cooperatives and their importance in local communities and in building fairer food systems. Nina returns to Cuba frequently.

Helen Yaffe

Helen first lived in Cuba as a teenager with her big sister from 1995-6, a moment of hardship and scarcity during the Special Period. Since then, she has campaigned in solidarity with Cuba, as well as studying the island as a student and later as an academic. She is now a Professor of Latin American Political Economy at the University of Glasgow. Her books include We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived

in a Post-Soviet World (Yale, 2020) and Che Guevara: the Economics of Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), which was based on her doctoral research. She has co-produced three documentaries, including Cuba’s Life Task: Combatting Climate Change (2021) which is on YouTube.