A long interview with now 80-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev about the last days of the Soviet Union, his failures and why he won’t give up politics just yet.

From Weekly Filet #33, in August 2011.

“They were truly idiots”

Spiegel

💔 Some older links might be broken — that's the state of the web, sadly. If you find one, ping me.

The People vs. Goldman Sachs

Rolling Stone

Sadiq Khan Takes On Brexit and Terror

The New Yorker

There Is Only One Trump Scandal

The Atlantic

How Poland became a breeding ground for Europe’s far right

The Washington Post

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Making Sense of the Climate Crisis 41 links Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence 39 links All-time favourites 20 links The Stuff Our Modern World Runs On 13 links The Art of Thinking (Differently) 28 links Bingeworthy Podcasts & Episodes 36 links Stories, too good to put down 16 links

Book recommendations

2025 Book Club Books curious minds wished they discovered sooner Our most popular crowd-curated book recommendations thus far. Read the post →

Weekly Filet Book Club All recommendations from previous editions, at a glance. Find your next read → 📚 David's Bookshelf The books that shaped how I see the world and inform how I think and act. Browse the bookshelf →