How can we take what we've learned about Cuban history and integrate it into our normal lives? What are clear steps we can take to avoid groupthink? How do ordinary Cubans demonstrate resilience and grit? And what are some inventive solutions they've come up with to survive? What lessons can be learned from leadership errors in the 1960s? We'll talk about all of this and more in today's episode, Humanizing History, Lessons Learned from Cuba.
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So this is my 50th episode of Wiser World. And last month, March 2025, I hit my third year anniversary of the podcast, which is kind of exciting. And I feel like it's basically taken me three years of research and podcasting. then years of teaching world history in school before that to kind of figure out what I want to say. And I guess I kind of feel like I'm moving into level two of Wiser World with this episode.
And the whole point of why I started this podcast was to learn with and to teach history to people who forgot or never learned world history in the first place. People who wanted to become more equipped to understand our increasingly globalized community. recognize the context behind modern international current events. And I recognize that most people over the age of 30, at least here in the United States, likely didn't learn too much world history. And if they did,
they typically learned a more European-centric world history. At least that was my education before I went to college and I deliberately started seeking out other areas of the world that were not covered. And in the last 50 episodes, I'm proud of the work we've done to shine a light on many countries that don't get covered in most traditional history classes. I really do believe that in order for us to communicate and cooperate effectively in this.
really divided world, I think it really helps to have at least a foundational level of understanding about people, where they come from, their culture, their background, their history. I really believe it matters. And I want to continue making those episodes just like I have been. Those 101 series, those Know Before You Go episodes, all of that.
But I want to do a better job at talking about how to take that historical knowledge and apply it to a personal, ordinary, average life and do good with it. Because learning facts is great, but the facts... don't really always change us. So what does?
And I think that I've largely left out that application of the history and the personal process that I go through as I study these places for months or even years. What I learn from people, their stories, how I make it part of myself. And I think I would be doing an injustice to... of this history if i didn't do a better job at openly talking about that what that looks like for me so i'm going to start doing it now with cuba
And hopefully I can continue to do that with countries that we cover in the future. It's kind of like my last stamp on a 101 series, my final thoughts. So how do I turn historical knowledge into personal practice? I think there's a bit of an art, a bit of a skill to it. I think it's going to look different for every person. But for me, I think there are three major steps. The first is that I have to do reflection.
Usually that comes in the form of asking myself, what does this reveal about human nature? And what does this reveal about me? If I'm uncomfortable with something, I'm like, oh man, what does this say about me? And then to integrate it by letting those thoughts that come to my mind. guide my values and my choices. And then I let that inform how I treat other people through action. So it's reflection, integration, and action.
I really especially like the word integration. And I have about five hours worth of thoughts on Cuba. I could talk about it for a long time, but I have narrowed it down to three philosophical-ish lessons that I have learned from Cuba. Cubans that I've integrated into my life. And I hope it just gives you some food for thought about what you think. You can agree with me. You can disagree with me. But I'm just hoping that it's food for thought. So let's get into it. Let's start with number one.
The first life lesson that I feel is really important to learn from Cuba is groupthink and how to avoid groupthink. I briefly touched on this in part three, but you remember that I share the Bay of Pigs invasion story and how, from the United States perspective, it was an utter miserable failure and I think there's something to be learned from this and while university classes I think it was a psychology class I took we spent hours on it but I want to just spend a minute or two
on groupthink and just give us something to chew on. The concept of groupthink was defined by Irving Janus in 1972, so not long after Bay of Pigs. And he says, quote, that people engage in when they're deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, where the members striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."
A lot of big words there. In other words, you're in a small tight-knit group and you want unity more than anything. And so usually poor decisions are made. And there are eight key symptoms that Janice... explains, that go with groupthink. So we're going to just talk about those eight symptoms really quickly. You are welcome to look this up as well as you think about it. The first is an illusion of invulnerability. Group members and groupthink.
believe that they're untouchable or they can't fail. And thus they become overconfident. The thought is, we thought this through, like nothing can go wrong here. That's the idea of the illusion of invulnerability. The second symptom is collective rationalization. So members of this group are going to dismiss warnings. They're going to rationalize away the red flags. And they're going to think, oh, yeah, sure, there are risks.
They're exaggerated risks. It's not that big of a deal. The third symptom is a belief in the inherent morality of the group. Ooh, I think this one's important. So the group is seeing itself as morally superior. which can justify risky or unethical decisions like, hey, we're the good guys. What we're doing has to be right. The fourth symptom is stereotyping of outsiders. So this is taking opposing groups or critics and seeing them as weak, stupid, or ill-intentioned. And this...
also makes it so that the group is not as willing to listen to outside input. They just don't understand how the world works. I don't know what their problem is. The fifth symptom is... direct pressure on anybody who dissents. So anyone who voices doubt is going to be pressured to conform. Why are you always so negative? What's your problem? Right? Sometimes dissent is seen as disloyalty. And so there's pressure on dissenters to just shut up and be quiet. The sixth symptom is self-censorship.
This comes when members start withholding their doubts or concerns because they just don't want to be excluded or they want to avoid conflict. And then later on, they're like, oh, I had a bad feeling about it, but I just didn't want to rock the boat. The seventh symptom is an illusion of unanimity. So this is an illusion that everybody agrees. So silence is taken as agreement. Or there's like a false sense of consensus. No one objected.
So we're all on board, right? The eighth symptom and last symptom is called mind guards. And these are people in the group who kind of take it upon themselves to protect the group from anybody who is dissenting. So it's like, oh, don't say that. Don't say that to the boss. He doesn't need your distraction right now.
Now, I'm sure that many of us can think of a time when a group got together. And even though there are multiple brains in the room, and so you think things are going well, it's almost like together, everybody has half a brain. I kind of have to laugh at this because I say this about my sons all the time. Individually, they each have a full brain. But sometimes when they get together, they act like collectively they have half a brain.
And working together is powerful and important. I'm not putting down group work. We need each other. But I also think it's important that we understand group things so that we can avoid the sometimes negative consequences. And I think it's especially important to teach this concept to teenagers, young adults, because you can have some pretty serious consequences.
from experiencing and buying into groupthink, sometimes very dangerous and risky things happen. I mean, the Bay of Pigs is an exceptional example of this, right? So here are some ideas for how to avoid groupthink. The first is to encourage open debate. and encourage dissent. And one of the ways you can do that is you can assign a devil's advocate. You can assign someone in the group to poke holes in everything that you decide collectively.
Another way you can do it is, or to avoid it, excuse me, is to bring in outside opinions. So bring in people that are not a part of the group, that have not been a part of the deliberations, and see what they have to say. Another idea for avoiding groupthink is that leaders should withhold their opinions at first.
So don't just come right out of the gate with the leader saying, this is what I think, because it makes everybody else in the group feel a little bit more uncomfortable to say, I don't actually agree. Another idea is to break the group up into subgroups to generate independent ideas on their own. These are just a few ideas, but you could see how all of those methods are a great way to avoid groupthink. And I would also want to add that you have to be brave.
especially if something potentially dangerous is going on, you just have to be brave and just speak up because the consequences can be way worse than being a social outcast. While I'm not saying that I'm sad or glad that the Bay of Pigs invasion didn't work, that's not what I'm saying. I just do think that we can take something away from that, that we can learn that is very applicable and to just average.
average situations that we're in where we have to work together in groups, which happen all of the time. So that's my first takeaway, is just avoiding groupthink and thinking about that more critically in our interactions and groups. Hello, my name is Matt. And I'm McKinley. We are the father-son team that brings you History Dispatches. History Dispatches is a short daily history show where we talk about topics from all over the world.
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The second major lesson I have learned from Cuba is probably the most obvious one, but it is how resilient and creative Cubans can be. And all of the high-level policies that we've talked about in parts one, two, and three of Cuba... They affected and still affect real people and transform their lives. And Anthony De Palma put this really well. He says, quote, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking about huge events like revolutions on a grand scale.
and forgetting that real people are involved, that what happens on history-changing levels seeps down to local streets and utterly transforms the lives of not only presidents and generals, but sassy eight-year-old girls, end of quote. I really like the way he puts that. And with all of the economic challenges that Cuba has faced and its limited access to new materials, Cuba has...
really fostered a culture of resourcefulness and creativity and ingenuity that I think is really important in a world where most of us can honestly just open our phones, click a button, and the item we ordered can be at our door in as little as a few hours. I mean, it's really crazy. And I feel like I have changed quite a lot from studying Cuban history. I've changed in the way I repurpose things.
I'm trying to do a better job at upcycling the resources that I already have. And I want to share a few stories that really inspired me. The first is from the book, The Cubans by Anthony De Palma. And he writes about a woman named Kari. And she wants to start her own business in the early days when the market was just opening slightly. You remember that from part three? And she knew that Cuban women care a lot about the crib sheets that they...
that they have for their newborns' beds, for their newborns' cribs. In fact, it's a tradition in Cuba for women to buy these fancy crib sheets called La Canastilla. And these tiny little bed sheets sometimes have like...
shiny piping. They have cartoon characters. There's mosquito netting. It's a really special thing. But with the economy being down, buying these crib sheets... was difficult for most women so she decided that there was an opening in the market for her and so she decided to go out and find and buy
old hotel sheets. And she would cut out the stains and the worn spots, and then she started to sew. And she learned that she could finish about three crib sheets in a day, and then she could sell them for about $4 each. And then she started taking sewing classes on how to use her very old sewing machine better. And then she met other women and they'd go out together and they'd go hunt for these old sheets.
Then she started branching out into taking old jeans and resewing them together to make women's skirts. And in time, she was able to make this little textile business that kept her afloat. And I really admire her ingenuity and creativity and just the grit to make it happen. Cuba is now known for upcycling and giving new life to old fabric. People in Cuba regularly give each other their old clothes and then they alter it to fit whatever the current fashion is. And Michael Thoss says, quote,
on the internet. Opening a shop usually takes too long because of all the bureaucracy and also costs a huge amount of money. For this reason, Cubans, like small business owners worldwide, use the internet to sell things. Whilst they are not able to reach markets like the USA or Europe,
directly because of the U.S. embargo, a simple export trick allows them to circumvent this. Friends and family take individual items with them in their suitcases on holidays abroad to Europe or to the USA and then sell them directly from there. Now, I learned that the government actually doesn't mind this at all because they're happy with currency coming into the country. People get really, really creative. The average Cuban gets somewhere around $25 to $50 a month to live on.
As a result, people have to create a second life out of everything. He goes on to say, quote, End of quote. This has made me think a little bit more critically about what I do with my clothing, my old clothing. Do I upcycle it, recycle it, how I can buy less, use more of what I have? Not only is this better for the earth, it's better for my bank account, but it's also been kind of fun to be a little bit more creative and think more about the Cuban experience as I...
shop. Another example of Cuban ingenuity that's really struck me, I read about in an Associated Press article that came out recently in March 2025. And they talk about how a small boat in Cuba can cost around $35,000. And the average monthly salary in Cuba is $25 to $50. And so it's just not possible for most people to buy a small boat in Cuba. And so to be able to fish, which they use for dinner to feed their families, or if they have extra.
be able to sell to make a little extra money. Fishermen have been building these little makeshift rafts called corchos or corks to fish. And they are essentially sheets of white polyfoam that are pressed by aluminum rods, and they're only five by six feet. That's two meters by one and a half meters.
really small sheets of white polyfoam. So they're kind of like these little white corks that have just enough room for one man and some fishing rods and maybe some hooks and pliers and oars. And they'll row themselves out to sea. And they will fish. And I just think that that ingenuity to figure out a way to feed your family or to make an extra buck by fishing.
I just think it's extraordinary. And the article talks about these men working together. They don't fish alone. They have this community that does it together. I just really admire that. I also read an article about an entire class of cars in Cuba called Frankensteins that are basically assembled from scraps from all makes and models of Russian and American cars. The Frankensteins. Another example of ingenuity are lawnmowers.
that are made from everything except actual lawnmower parts. One man used a Soviet-made washing machine motor and capacitor and then attached the wooden housing from a dresser drawer. to make a lawnmower with a machete blade attached to the motor shaft. And the four wheels were made from children's strollers. And then a light switch from a house turned it on and off. And this lawnmower cut grass for more than 20 years.
Also, artists and musicians have used random scraps to maintain instruments to create music.
Artists use recycled materials almost constantly in their work in Cuba. And then Cuban neighborhoods have taken vacant lots and they've created... these organic urban gardens that help with the food scarcity problem and all of the gardens are filled with composted matter so they don't need synthetic fertilizers and obviously I'm very frustrated and sad that Cubans have to live with a level of privation that many of us have never experienced.
And I'm also very inspired by their ingenuity. And I see them as masters of dramatic invention. And I think there's a lot to respect there on a human-to-human level and something that I can learn. And it's just something to think about. All right, the third and last thing I want to share, and there's still so much more I could talk about, but I'm going to end with the Cuban Missile Crisis and what that has taught me about treating people and about...
the type of leadership style that I want to have. And Dr. Ada Ferrer says, quote, power is in part about the right to speak. It is even more so about who gets to be heard. End of quote. It's a really powerful quote. And I think it's very powerful in light of how leadership handled the Cuban Missile Crisis from just a person-to-person lens. Now, to be clear, I was not in the room where this happened. I was not involved in these negotiations. I wasn't even live.
And I don't want to sound like I know everything because I don't. And I have no idea that I would, I have no clue if I would have done anything differently had I been in this pressure cooker. of a moment. But hindsight is 20-20, and I find it fascinating how Khrushchev and Kennedy did not consult Fidel Castro in their final negotiations that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He didn't find out about that whole negotiation, you know, where the U.S. pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviets promised to remove the missiles. He didn't find out about that until after the fact. In fact, he said in 1968 in an interview, he said, quote, we were not consulted.
We were not even informed. We learned about it the same way the rest of the world did, from the radio, end of quote. And you'll remember from part three that Fidel Castro was furious. He was humiliated. And humiliation... often leads to anger and fury, and that's what happened here. Now, I'm no Fidel Castro expert, and maybe they did this for a particular reason that I don't know about, but I would venture to say that it did not help.
Fidel have a more positive view, especially of the United States. And I'd venture to guess that it is one of the main reasons why his anti-Yankee opinions probably grew stronger after this event. And it's just caused me to think a little bit more about local leadership, whether that's a business. churches, schools, community institutions, PTOs, PTAs. I mean, many of us lead out in one way or another, even in just our families.
And it's caused me to think more about how we can prevent future problems by making sure that the right people are in the room when we're making a decision. And James Clear said something that has really struck me. He says, quote, the people who are affected by the decisions should be involved in the decisions. The people who are affected by the decisions should be involved in the decisions. Now. The critic in me recognizes that this quote does not work for all situations.
But I think what it's showing here is that including the right people for the moment makes a huge difference because when you exclude people and decisions that impact them, it usually leads to more resistance and a poorer outcome in the long run. And an example of this that I've experienced in... education as a former middle school teacher. I know I and my team...
We were always really bothered when we get this top-down mandate from state government that clearly no teacher was involved in making. We'd get this direction or this curriculum fix or whatever that would send us rolling our eyes thinking there is no way this would actually work in a classroom.
with actual living children, actual living teachers. Clearly no one who works with children was involved in making this decision. And we would laugh about it. And I know if you're a teacher or a parent who's been involved in a school, you know what I'm talking about. And I think that this concept can apply to families. If you want to have your kids on board with your screen time or phone policy, perhaps consider bringing them into the conversation. You don't have to.
give them everything they want. But including people and asking their feedback, especially if the decision is going to affect them, is likely going to lead to better acceptance in the long run. And I just think there are many, many ways to apply this lesson in real life. But I just think it's a good rule of thumb to include those who will be affected in those decisions. And it just makes me wonder.
what U.S. and Cuban relations may have been like had Fidel not been so demoralized by his exclusion. I wonder if we'd still have an embargo today. Maybe so. But I do think it would have led to less... less heat of emotions, and possibly better long-term policy for Cubans and Americans as a result. All right.
I'm going to stop there, but Cubans and Cuban history has taught me so much as I've studied them. I hope some of my thoughts today are jumping off points for you to think about what you've learned, how you might apply it regularly into your life. Do you agree? Do you disagree? I'm just grateful to be able to think about it. This has been really fun for me to consider.
along the way, what I'm learning and how I'm applying it to my life. And I hope it's just some food for thought for you. I'll be sharing some resources on Patreon at patreon.com slash wiserworldpodcast. I have to go check it out if you'd like to learn more about Cuba.
or any of the other episodes that we have covered so far. I'll be back soon with more on the world. I'm grateful to do this, and thank you for supporting me on Patreon. And until next time, thank you for listening, learning, sharing the podcast, and let's go make the world a little wild. Weiser.