Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation

In the fourth part of our discussion of Attar's Conference of the Birds, Leyla is joined by Omid Arabian of the YOUniversal Center as the birds set out in dread on a road no one has ever returned from — and after a lifetime of travel, only one in a thousand arrives.

For the full lesson — including the guide, the Persian text, and a printable version — visit https://chaiandconversation.com/culture/attars-conference-...

In the third part of our discussion of Attar's Conference of the Birds, Leyla is joined by Omid Arabian of the YOUniversal Center as hundreds of thousands of birds set out on the road — only to falter at the edge of the wilderness — and the Hoopoe lays out the seven valleys that lie between them and the Simorgh.

For the full lesson — including the guide, the Persian text, and a printable version — visit https...

In the second part of our discussion of Attar's Conference of the Birds, Leyla is joined by Omid Arabian of the YOUniversal Center as the Hoopoe finally names the king the birds have been seeking — the Simorgh, near to them though they are far from it — and warns them how long the road ahead will be.

For the full lesson — including the guide, the Persian text, and a printable version — visit https://chaiandco...

In this lesson, Leyla is joined by Omid Arabian of the YOUniversal Center for an overview of Attar's Conference of the Birds. Working through selected verses from across the poem, they trace the birds' journey from their first gathering to the moment thirty birds discover what they have been seeking all along.

For the full lesson — including Omid's complete verse-by-verse guide, the Persian text, and a printable version &mdash...

In this episode, Leyla sits down with Sasha von Oldershausen — an Iranian American journalist on the news and politics team at Texas Monthly, and soon to be the New York Times' first-ever Texas culture reporter.

This conversation is a little different from most episodes of Growing Up Irooni: it centers on a single, remarkable story. In her Texas Monthly article "The West Texas Days of the Exiled Prince Who Wants to Lead Iran,"...

In this episode, Leyla sits down with Yasmin Khan — the acclaimed British-Iranian-Pakistani food writer, activist, and author of *The Saffron Tales*, *Zaitoun*, *Ripe Figs*, and her newest cookbook, *Sabzi: The Beautiful World of Persian Vegetarian Cooking*.

Yasmin takes us back to her childhood in Birmingham, where her mother — a Gilaki nutritionist from a small town near the Caspian Sea — organized an Iranian com...

In this episode, Leyla sits down with Hamid Rahmanian — the Iranian-American artist, filmmaker, and visionary behind some of the most ambitious Shahnameh projects of our time, including the illustrated Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings, the touring live productions Feathers of Fire and Song of the North, and most recently Rostam: Tales from the Shahnameh, a beautifully illustrated edition for younger readers.

Hamid take...

In this episode, Leyla sits down with Danesh Nosirvan — the Iranian-American creator known online for identifying perpetrators of public harm and holding them accountable through the court of public opinion. What began as a comedy career took an unexpected turn in 2021, when a single video calling out a child abuser went viral and reshaped the trajectory of his work entirely.

Danesh shares the story of his family's arrival in ...