Hey, this is Katie calling from Louisville, Kentucky. I'm sitting out on our porch with our new

4-day old baby catching up on politics from last week that we missed and enjoying an ice coffee.

This podcast was recorded at 1.08 p.m. on Wednesday, July 14th.

Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Okay, here's the show.

I love this. You know, I never have listened to more MPR and podcasts in my life than I did on maternity leave.

It's a great way to embrace your MPR self. I will concur with that.

I also concur with needing an ice coffee at this moment and talk.

It is still very hot out there and that hasn't changed yet.

Incredibly hot. Hey there. It's the MPR Politics podcast. Susan Davis, I cover Congress.

I'm Franco Adonias. I cover the White House and thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest in Cuba

against the country's communist government and Kerry con covers Cuba for MPR and she's back with us again. Hey, Kerry.

I hate to admit this, but when I was on maternity leave, there were no podcasts.

There was MPR, but there was MPR and I was an avid listener at the time.

Well, obviously we have a lot of US politics. We want to talk about when it comes to the situation in Cuba,

but before we get to the domestic side of this, what are these Cuban protests about?

I just want to stress that in all the time I've been covering Cuba, I have never seen anything like this.

This is extraordinary, unprecedented, every additive that you could think of.

This is just unprecedented times in Cuba.

This has been brewing for, you could say decades, but this summer hat in this last year has been particularly difficult

during the pandemic in Cuba, but the economic situation in Cuba has just been terrible.

During the Trump administration, the sanctions that were placed against Cuba were even tightened and tougher,

and so the economic situation has just been horrible. Food is scarce on the island.

...