PODCAST · news
Iran Explained
by Saman Askari
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
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The Latest on the Iran War with Hamidreza Azizi
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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Thoughts on Foreign Intervention in Iran
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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Thoughts on the Iranian Opposition
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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Thoughts on the Current Iranian Uprising
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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1979: The Revolution
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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Cyrus the Great: The Man Behind the Legend
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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A Conversation with John Ghazvinian
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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Another Conversation with Amir Afkhami - COVID-19 Edition
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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A Conversation with Afshon Ostovar
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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A Conversation with Naz Deravian
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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A Coversation with Amir Afkhami
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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A Conversation with Narges Bajoghli
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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A Conversation with Reza Zia-Ebrahimi
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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End of Season 1 Update
Send us Fan Mail I'm ending Season 1 of talk iran with this short update episode. Stay tuned for Season 2 starting in April! Support the show
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A Conversation with Lior Sternfeld
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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A Conversation with Bahman Kalbasi
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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A Conversation with Anna Eskamani
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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A Conversation with Yara Elmjouie
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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A Conversation with Armin Navabi
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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A Conversation with Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi
Send us Fan Mail 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...
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A Conversation with Maral Karimi
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Maral Karimi, the author of the book 'The Iranian Green Movement of 2009' and a PhD student at the University of Toronto. Besides the green movement and the concepts in her book, Maral and I discuss the overall state of the reform movement in Iran…
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A Conversation with Neda Maghbouleh
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Neda Maghbouleh, the author of the 2017 book 'The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race' and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. She and I talk about her background, race within the...
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A Conversation with Ervand Abrahamian
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Ervand Abrahamian, a world-renowned author and historian of Iran. We start our conversation talking about the reasons for the success of the clerical establishment in bringing about the Islamic revolution of 1979, and we also talk about the Persian...
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A Conversation with Anousheh Ansari
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Anousheh Ansari, the first ever person of Iranian descent to travel to space and the first female self-funded space traveler of any nationality. Anousheh and I talk about her spaceflight experience, her background and how her Iranian identity has...
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A Conversation with Hooman Majd
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American journalist and author. Hooman and I talk about the current level of support the Islamic Republic has inside Iran, the Iranian revolution and the current struggles of the Iranian people, democracy and secularism within...
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A Conversation with Vahid Yücesoy
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Vahid Yücesoy, a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Montreal. Vahid and I talk about his background, how he became disillusioned with the Iranian reform movement, the intentions and the role of the US in regards to Iran, Reza...
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A Conversation with Eli Lake
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Eli Lake, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. Eli and I talk about the recent US sanctions on Iran, the general role of the US and other external forces in shaping Iran’s future, how various historical events…
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A Conversation with Holly Dagres
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Holly Dagres, an Iranian-American Middle East analyst. Holly and I talk about her background, her time in Cairo, the recent protests in Iran, Reza Pahlavi and other alternatives to the Islamic Republic, and of course the Trump administration. Support...
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A Conversation with D. Parvaz
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with D. Parvaz, an Iranian-American journalist, who was wrongly imprisoned in Syria and Iran in 2011. We talk about her imprisonment, the potential of hardliners gaining more power in Iran, the approval of the release of 2009 opposition figures Mousavi…
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A Conversation with Barbara Slavin
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Barbara Slavin, a journalist and foreign policy expert who focuses on Iran. We talk about how she became interested in Iran, the Trump administration’s approach to Iran and the Mike Pompeo event, the Iran nuclear deal, potential pathways for change…
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A Conversation with Borzou Daragahi
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Borzou Daragahi, an award-winning journalist covering the Middle East and North Africa. We talk about the Trump administration and its recent war of words with Iran, Mike Pompeo addressing Iranian-Americans, the role of the Iranian diaspora in…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Saman Askari
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Iran Explained have?
Iran Explained currently has 31 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Iran Explained about?
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.
How often does Iran Explained release new episodes?
Iran Explained has 31 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Iran Explained?
You can listen to Iran Explained on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Iran Explained?
Iran Explained is created and hosted by Saman Askari.
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