Iran Explained
This is an independent, non-partisan podcast for discussing Iran-related topics, hosted by Saman Askari, an Iranian-American professional from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Episodes
On this episode, Saman Askari speaks with Dr. Hamidreza Azizi, a Visiting Fellow at SWP Berlin and one of the most closely followed analysts of the Iran war, about where the conflict stands on Day 38. The conversation covers how the Islamic Republic has proven more resilient than the U.S. and Israel anticipated, what lessons the regime drew from the 12-day war last year, and why Trump's unpredictability may be ...
In this episode, Saman Askari reads his latest Substack essay on how Iran’s crisis is being misframed through debates about foreign intervention. The piece centers the mass killing of unarmed protesters by the Islamic Republic and argues that much Western commentary has obscured that reality by prioritizing abstract geopolitical narratives over the lived experience of repression inside Iran.
Drawing on Iran’s history...
On this episode, Saman Askari reads a piece he wrote on his Substack called Iran’s Radicalized Opposition and the Cycle of Ruin. The essay examines the current state of the Iranian opposition in light of the recent regime crackdown and growing fears of war. It traces how the trauma of what has happened recently has reshaped opposition discourse, fueling polarization, purity tests, and the concentration of authority ...
This is a brief emergency episode where Saman Askari shares his thoughts on the current situation in Iran. He does an examination of the desperation behind the protests, the limits of outside intervention, and the hard realities facing the opposition. This episode looks at what happens when a population no longer sees a future within the system it is living under.
In 1979, Iran underwent one of the 20th century’s most consequential revolutions. What began as a wave of protests against a monarchy transformed the country into an Islamic Republic that would reshape its identity and place in the world.
In this episode, Saman Askari traces the arc of power, from the rise of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to the return of Ruhollah Khomeini, and unpacks the forces that fueled the uprising: ra...
After a long hiatus, Talk Iran is back. In this new episode, Saman Askari takes us on a deep dive into the life and legacy of Cyrus the Great—the founder of the Persian Empire. He explores his rise, his wars against Croesus of Lydia and Babylon, the famous Cyrus Cylinder, and the myths that surround him. Was he truly the world’s first champion of human rights—or is that a modern projection onto an ancient conqueror?...
In this episode, I speak with John Ghazvinian, an author, historian and a former journalist. He's considered a foremost expert on US-Iran relations and has written a comprehensive book about the subject.
John and I start off by talking about his book and the relationship between the US and Iran, going all the way back to the 1720’s up until the current times.
In the first half of the episode, we look a...
In this episode, I speak again with a previous guest, Dr. Amir Afkhami, a health policy expert, historian and trained physician. This episode is all about COVID-19! Early in the episode, we discuss the nature of this coronavirus and how it affects the body. Then, we get into the subject of Iran and how the country became one of the epicenters of the disease, its government’s response, the historical parallels with I...
In this episode, I speak with Afshon Ostovar, a historian, author and a foremost expert on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Afshon and I cover a lot of ground. We start by talking about the historical context around the IRGC, when and how it was started, its role in the Iran-Iraq war, how the organization evolved through the years, how it is different than Iran’s regular military, its Quds Force and the...
In this episode, I speak with Naz Deravian, a cookbook author and Persian food expert. Naz and I discuss her background, her transition into the culinary world, the magic of tahdig and Iranian rice, regional varieties and diversity of Iranian cuisine, spiciness of Persian food or rather the lack thereof and of course kabab! As a warning, you’re going to get really really hungry if you already aren’t!
In this episode, I speak with Amir Akhami, a psychiatrist and a historian of medicine, about the history of cholera in Iran. We talk about his multi-disciplinary career and how his various areas of knowledge converge in his work. We discuss what Cholera is, its history starting in the 19th century and its role in the history of Iran in particular, from a medical, social and political perspective. He takes us through...
In this episode, I speak with Narges Bajoghli, an award-winning anthropologist, filmmaker, writer and an Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. We mostly talk about the topics in her upcoming book titled 'Iran Reframed,' which is about the state-controlled media in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We discuss what it means to be pro-regi...
In this episode, I speak with Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, a historian and a Senior Lecturer at King's College London. We talk about what he calls 'dislocative nationalism', a sort of Iranian nationalism that was deliberately devised and disseminated, starting in the 19th century. He outlines the founding of dislocative nationalism and how it aimed to cast Iran’s pre-Islamic period as the nation’s golden age, i...
I'm ending Season 1 of talk iran with this short update episode. Stay tuned for Season 2 starting in April!
In this episode, I speak with Lior Sternfeld, a social historian of the modern Middle East with a particular interest in the histories of the Jewish populations of the region. Lior and I talk about the 2,700-year history of the Iranian Jewish population focusing mostly on the 20th century and the misperceptions of the lives of Jews in Iran. We further talk about how Iranian Jews became a prominent community within I...
In this episode, I speak with Bahman Kalbasi, the New York and United Nations Correspondent for BBC Persian. He and I talk about the recent US sanctions against Iran and the reports of related shortages in food and medicine coming out of that country, how the tension between the US and Iran may unfold, the various Iranian opposition movements in exile and whether they have mobilizing potential, the Jamal Khashoggi m...
In this episode, I speak with Florida State Representative Anna V. Eskamani, the first ever Iranian-American to be elected to the Florida legislature and one of only a handful of Iranian-Americans to ever be elected to public office in the US. She and I talk about her historic win, her family background and why she decided to run, why Iranian-Americans have shied away from running for public office in the US, nation...
In this episode, I speak with Yara Elmjouie, an Iranian-American video producer and presenter at AJ+. He and I talk about his time in Iran as a freelance journalist, his background and how he became a video producer, the video making process, Iranian politics and the sanctions, the Iranian-American identity and whether to identify as Persian or Iranian and many other topics.
In this episode, I speak with Armin Navabi, an Iranian-Canadian ex-Muslim atheist, secular activist, author and podcaster. Armin and I talk about his experience as a child growing up in Iran and becoming indoctrinated in the Shia Muslim faith, a fateful suicide attempt, how he left religion and started the Atheist Republic online community, the operations of Atheist Republic, atheism and anti-Islamic sentiment in Ir...
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Eskandar Sadeghi, a political and intellectual historian of modern Iran and the Middle East. My conversation with him mostly revolves around Iran’s post-revolutionary reform movement. We further discuss the ascent of Ayatollah Khamenei to become Iran’s Supreme Leader after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, the obstacles to reform within the Iranian...
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