Iran Explained
Saman Askari
Publishing Details
About This Podcast
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.
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Recent Episodes
S4E5 Thoughts on Foreign Intervention in Iran
Send a textIn 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…
S4E4 Thoughts on the Iranian Opposition
Send a textOn 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…
S4E3 Thoughts on the Current Iranian Uprising
Send a textThis 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…
S4E2 1979: The Revolution
Send a textIn 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…
S4E1 Cyrus the Great: The Man Behind the Legend
Send a textAfter 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…
S3E1 A Conversation with John Ghazvinian
Send a textIn 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…
S2E6 Another Conversation with Amir Afkhami - COVID-19 Edition
Send a textIn 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,…
S2E5 A Conversation with Afshon Ostovar
Send a textIn 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…
S2E4 A Conversation with Naz Deravian
Send a textIn 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…
S2E3 A Coversation with Amir Afkhami
Send a textIn 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…
S2E2 A Conversation with Narges Bajoghli
Send a textIn 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…
S2E1 A Conversation with Reza Zia-Ebrahimi
Send a textIn 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…
S1E19 End of Season 1 Update
Send a textI'm ending Season 1 of talk iran with this short update episode. Stay tuned for Season 2 starting in April!Support the show
S1E18 A Conversation with Lior Sternfeld
Send a textIn 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…
S1E17 A Conversation with Bahman Kalbasi
Send a textIn 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…
S1E16 A Conversation with Anna Eskamani
Send a textIn 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…
S1E15 A Conversation with Yara Elmjouie
Send a textIn 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…
S1E14 A Conversation with Armin Navabi
Send a textIn 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…
S1E13 A Conversation with Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi
Send a textIn 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…
S1E12 A Conversation with Maral Karimi
Send a textIn 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…
Frequently Asked Questions
Iran Explained has published 30 episodes since July 2018, covering topics in History, News.
Iran Explained is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 months. Average episode length is 39m.
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