Dr. Sarah Paine on Dwarkesh Patel: Why Glasnost Ended USSR

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 19, 2025

Duration

1h 54m

Channel

Dwarkesh Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

This is the final episode of the Sarah Paine lecture series, and it’s probably my favorite one. Sarah gives a “tour of the arguments” on what ultimately led to the Soviet Union’s collapse, diving into the role of the US, the Sino-Soviet border conflict, the oil bust, ethnic rebellions and even the Roman Catholic Church. As she points out, this is all particularly interesting as we find ourselves potentially at the beginning of another Cold War. As we wrap up this lecture series, I want to take a moment to thank Sarah for doing this with me. It has been such a pleasure. If you want more of her scholarship, I highly recommend checking out the books she’s written. You can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/S.-C.-M.-Paine/author/B001HCVOTG 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒

• Transcript: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/sarah-paine-cold-war
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dwarkesh-podcast/id1516093381?i=1000742025593
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5MF73tDb0Nw9Bt7O5oIsIV?si=04d739580dd14269

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

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• Gemini's Nano Banana Pro helped us make many of the visuals in this episode. For example, we used it to turn dense tables into clear charts so that’d it be easier to quickly understand the trends that Sarah discusses. You can try Nano Banana Pro now in the Gemini app. Go to https://gemini.google.com

To sponsor a future episode, visit https://dwarkesh.com/advertise. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 00:00:00 – Did Reagan single-handedly win the Cold War? 00:15:53 – Eastern Bloc uprisings & oil crisis 00:30:37 – Gorbachev's mistakes 00:37:33 – German unification and NATO expansion 00:48:31 – The Gulf War and the Cold War endgame 00:56:10 – How central planning survived so long 01:14:46 – Sarah's life in the USSR in 1988

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Narrator

  other

• Sarah Paine

  guest

• Dwarkesh Patel

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dwarkesh Podcast, featuring Narrator and Sarah Paine, Dr. Sarah Paine on Dwarkesh Patel: Why Glasnost Ended USSR explores why the Soviet Union Collapsed: Arms Races, Empires, and Economics Sarah Paine examines why the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, surveying both American-centric explanations (Reagan, presidential strategy, naval power) and internal Soviet weaknesses (empire management, nationalities, economic failure, bad leadership).

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