Jad Abumrad / Chad (Radiolab host; primarily Jad Abumrad)

We didn't have any communication with anybody outside Cuba.

And everything that we received, it was the news that the government wanted to give to us.

He remembers listening to endless Fidel Castro speeches on the radio.

I remember when I was a kid in elementary school, all the time they were teaching us that Russia...

What's the big country in the world, the big economy, and everything that we would hope is to be like them.

It was a given that he would get in line every year to get his toy.

You know, I only got three toys every year.

Because of rationing?

Exactly.

And then every week, he and his folks would wake up, they would go to the nearest church.

To throw eggs at the church building.

Throw eggs at the church?

Why?

Because we didn't believe in God.

The government, they didn't believe in God, you know?

That's how you showed you were a good revolutionary and Vladimir was just being a good boy.

But when he turns 14, there comes a day when a friend takes him aside and shows him a video of Led Zeppelin.

I remember that day.

Do you remember what Led Zeppelin song it was?

Kashmir.