The Iran Nobody in Washington Wanted to Listen To

Jeff Schechtman 03/06/26Iran didn’t ask for regime change. It asked for bread. How a protest movement got hijacked — and turned into a war nobody planned for.And the man who saw all of this coming has been saying so, loudly and at personal cost, for 20 years.My guest on this very recent WhoWhatWhy podcast is Hooman Majd, the grandson of an ayatollah, the son of a diplomat who served the shah, a contributor to NBC News and The New Yorker, and the author of four books on modern Iran — most recently the memoir Minister Without Portfolio. He has spent his career as the voice in the room insisting that Iran is always more complicated than Washington wants to believe. He has never been more right, and the moment has never been more dangerous. Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe