Dr. Liliana Stern on Growing Up in the USSR

Tags: Media and Culture, Socialism, Strategy

11/10/2017 Liliana V. Stern

Dr. Liliana Stern, associate professor of economics at Auburn University, joins Jeff Deist in studio to discuss the realities of life under communism. Growing up in Ukraine, Dr. Stern experienced privations that would be unthinkable to her undergraduate students. Even today, hot running water remains a rationed luxury in the region.

But if recent polls are correct, many of her students don’t understand at all the horrors of collectivism. And they sometimes scoff at her terrifying depiction of what “single-payer” healthcare really means. Dr. Stern considers it her life’s work to make Americans understand how good they’ve got it under (relative) capitalism, and to save young people from profound ahistorical ignorance.

You don’t want to miss this show—and be sure to listen for her description of Ukrainian dentistry without anesthesia.

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