The Iran Podcast

Who is Iran’s new reformist president, Dr Masoud Pezeshkian, and can he bring change? Negar Mortazavi speaks to Sina Toosi, Senior Nonresident Fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to NPR radio about the six candidates cleared to run in Iran’s upcoming presidential election. The snap election comes less than a month after former President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. The winner of the June 28 election will have to contend with a struggling economy, social discontent, and the ongoing challenge of U.S. sanctions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Will Iran change its nuclear strategy after the death of its president Ebrahim Raisi? Negar Mortazavi speaks to Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association and Sina Azodi of George Washington University. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf States Analytics and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, about the Israel-Hamas war and the GCC countries. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, about the Israel-Hamas war, US-Iran tensions, the Axis of Resistance, the influence of Arab countries, and the impact of this war in the Middle East on the upcoming US presidential elections. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Benjamin Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities in Washington. Friedman previously worked as a defense analyst at the Cato Institute and at the Center for Defense Information. He has edited three books on defense policy and strategy and has published academic essays in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and World Affairs. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Mehran Kamrava, Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar and director of the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Kamrava is the author of a number of books including Righteous Politics: Power and Resilience in Iran; A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis; Triumph and Despair: In Search of Iran's Islamic Republic; and, A Concise History of Revolution. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Matt Duss, Executive Vice President, and Sina Toosi, Senior Fellow, at the Center for International Policy, about the Israel-Hamas war, the Biden administration’s policy, and the role of Iran and its regional allies. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington DC. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Alex Vatanka about Iran’s domestic politics and mass protests, the crisis of legitimacy and the issue of leadership succession, Tehran’s deescalation with Washington and regional engagement with Arab rivals, and the continuous shift to the East towards Russia and China. Guest: Alex Vatanka, Director of Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, and author of “The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy, and Political Rivalry Since 1979”. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

A year has passed since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran. This panel discusses the current state of Iran’s domestic dissent, Tehran’s foreign policy and shift to the East, the prisoner swap and nuclear tensions with the US, and Iran’s engagement with its regional rivals. Negar Mortazavi joins Farnaz Fassihi from the New York Times, Kelsey Davenport from the Arms Control Association, Nader Hashemi from Georgetown University, and Barbara Slavin at the Stimson Center in Washington. (More details: www.stimson.org/event/iran-one-year-after-the-death-of-mahsa-amini/) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

In this episode we discuss Iran’s shift to the East towards big powers in Asia, mainly Russia and China, and engaging with regional rivals like Saudi Arabia, and most recently joining the BRICS, and what this all means in a shifting global order. Host Negar Mortazavi speaks to Nicole Grajewsky at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Mathieu Droin at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Washington and Tehran have reached a deal to swap prisoners and unblock Iran’s frozen assets in South Korea. Iran will release a number of American prisoners in exchange for the U.S. releasing a number of Iranian prisoners and unblocking $6 billion of Iranian funds to be used for humanitarian transactions. What does this agreement mean for each side? Will this be a prelude for more deescalation between Iran and the U.S.?  Negar Mortazavi speaks to Stephen Miles, the president of Win Without War, a coalition of organizations that work for a more peaceful and progressive U.S. foreign policy. He previously worked for the global campaigning organization Avaaz, was the Executive Director of the American Hellenic Council, and has worked on multiple federal, state, and local electoral campaigns. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Annie Tracy Samuel about the history and formation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the role of the guards after the revolution and during the Iran-Iraq war, and how the group has evolved into a prominent organization today that influences Iran’s foreign and security policies. Our guest is Annie Tracy Samuel, Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who specializes in the modern history of Iran and the Middle East. She is the author of The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War: Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Murtaza Hussain, a senior reporter at The Intercept and co-host of the Intercepted podcast, about Biden’s policy towards Iran and how he kept Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions that discourage even legal, humanitarian trade. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Zep Kalb at the department of sociology at UCLA about Iran’s labor movement and recent rounds of labor protests, and how the Iranian state relies on labor support, bargains with workers, and responds to labor protests. The Iran Podcast is fiscally sponsored by the Center for International Policy in Washington. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Bijan Khajehpour, a managing partner at EUNEPA based in Vienna and a leading analyst of Iranian political and economic affairs, about the current state of economy in Iran, record inflations, systemic corruption and mismanagement, domestic unrest, and international sanctions, and how they all impact the lives of everyday Iranians.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Rouzbeh Parsi, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm, about Europe-Iran relations in 2023, recent prisoner swaps between the two sides, how Russia’s attack on Ukraine has impacted Europe-Iran ties, and Iran’s continuous shift to the East and away from the West. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Our guest John Tirman, Executive Director of the MIT Center for International Studies and an expert on US-Iran relations, has passed away. We had the honor of hosting professor Tirman a few months before his passing to discuss his last book, Republics of Myth. Here is that conversation from May 2022. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, about the attack on Salman Rushdie, the Fatwa by Iran, and the response to the Satanic Verses across the Muslim world. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi discussed Iran nuclear negotiations discussion on The Newsmakers with Hassan Ahmadian at Tehran University and Ali Fathollahnejad at the American University of Beirut. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi joins a panel discussion at the University of Chicago’s Pearson Institute, about Iran’s foreign and domestic policies under the new hardline administration of Ebrahim Raisi, with Mahsa Rouhi, Vali Nasr, Pouya Alimagham and Ali Vaez. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

How are Iranians represented in Western media and cultural products? Iran Podcast host Negar Mortazavi joins a panel discussion with Assal Rad, Yahya Kamalipour, and Mehran Kamrava hosted by the Iranian Studies Program at the Arab Center. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi joins Tom Collina, policy director at Ploughshares Fund, on “Press The Button” podcast to discuss the future of Iran nuclear negotiations, the current stalemate in Vienna, and prospects for reaching an agreement. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Giorgio Cafiero, the CEO of Gulf State Analytics, about Iran’s relations with the GCC, US policy towards the region, the Abraham Accords, and the impact of the Ukraine war on the region. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics, about Afghanistan after the US withdrawal and under the Taliban, the fate of women peacemakers who were left behind. Sanam has two decades of experience as a peace strategist working globally on conflicts, crises and violent extremism with a mix of civil society, governments and the UN. She was appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours list for services to International peace building and Women’s Rights. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to John Tirman, Director of MIT Center for International Studies, about four decades of animosity between Iran and the United States, key historical events that have caused the enmity, and how the national narratives of the two countries put them at odds over the decades. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi moderates a panel discussion at George Washington University about Russia’s attack on l Ukraine and its implications on the Middle East Security Complex, with Alex Vatanka from MEI, Sina Azodi from GWU and Nicole Grajewski from Harvard. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

A number of Arab countries have normalized ties with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords. Negar Mortazavi joined a panel of experts to discuss Israeli-Arab cooperation, concerns over Iran, and the stalled Palestinian peace process with Omar Baddar, co-host of “This is Palestine” podcast, Paul Salem, President of the Middle East Institute, and Dan Arbell, a 25-year veteran of the Israeli Foreign Service, hosted by Nathan King on CGTN's "The Heat". Produced by Joshua Barlow. Music by 127. Logo art by Mina Jafari. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif about the current impasse in diplomacy between Tehran and Washington and a sequence of return to the nuclear deal; President Biden’s interest in follow-on negotiations on Iran’s missile program, regional presence and human rights; Iran’s fight against Covid19 and plans for mass vaccination; the IRGC shooting down of the Ukrainian plane last year; and whether Zarif will run for president. *This interview was recorded for Politico magazine on March 15, 2021. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Panel discussion in September on TRT World about the future of nuclear negotiations and prospects for reviving the JCPOA. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi joins the VOX Media podcast “Today, Explained” to discuss Iran’s detention of dual-national citizens as political pawns, with host Sean Rameshwaram and Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Azadeh Moaveni, Director of Gender and Conflict at the International Crisis Group, about online threats against female journalists who cover Iran, women’s rights and the golden years of reform, how US policy has impacted Iranian women, and feminist movements across the Middle East. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Iranian-American actor, Farshad Farahat, about his career in Hollywood and his political activism in support of peace and diplomacy between Iran and the United States. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi joins a panel discussion about the future of the nuclear deal and diplomacy between Tehran and Washington with Sussan Tahmasebi, Director of FEMENA, Jon Wolfstahl, senior advisor at Global Zero, and Eldar Mamedov, foreign policy adviser at the European Parliament. This discussion was moderated by Jamie Shea and hosted by Friends of Europe. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Iran Podcast host, Negar Mortazavi, joins a panel of foreign policy experts at the Arab Center in Washington, discussing US policy towards Iran and the future of the nuclear deal, with Barbara Slavin, Dalia Dassa Kaye, Ilan Goldenberg, and Mehran Kamrava. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Eldar Mamedov, senior foreign policy advisor at the European Parliament, about Europe’s relations with Iran in the Biden era and the negative impacts of Trump’s maximum pressure policy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Iran Podcast host Negar Mortazavi was a guest on another podcast "Spilling Chai" with Anushay Hossain, a journalist and author who is also based in Washington DC. They discussed the complexities of US-Iran relations, Negar's experience as a journalist covering diplomacy between Washington and Tehran, the difficulties of covering Iran from a distance and in exile, online trolling and cyber harassment of female journalists, and the Persian cultural practice of Tarof. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Iran Podcast's host Negar Mortazavi joins the "Beyond the Headlines" podcast with host Leila Gharagozlou and guest Adnan Tabatabai to discuss Iran's future under the new hardline president Ebrahim Raisi. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Mohammad Ali Kadivar, Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College, about water protests in Khuzestan province and why there is an ongoing wave of protests across Iran in the past few years. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Laura Rozen, journalist and member of the editorial board of Just Security, about the status of nuclear negotiations in Vienna and the past decade of diplomacy between Tehran and Washington. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Peyman Jafari, a historian at Princeton University, about recent strikes by oil and petrochemical workers across Iran, and the history of Iran’s labor movement from the Constitutional Revolution to the present. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Reza Sayah, journalist and filmmaker in Tehran, about Iran’s presidential elections, where the country will go under Raisi, and the fate of the nuclear deal and Iran’s engagement with the West. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

The June 18th presidential election will bring significant changes for Iran and its relations with the West. With a hardliner taking power in August, questions remain: Will Ebrahim Raisi change Iran’s foreign and domestic policies? What will be the prospects for continued engagement between Iran and the West? This is a special episode of the Iran Podcast recorded during a panel discussion featuring Negar Mortazavi, Bijan Khajehpour, Shervin Malekzadeh, and Sina Toossi, moderated by Sanam Shantyaei of France24 and hosted by the National Iranian American Council. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi talks to Tyler Cullis about four decades of U.S. sanctions on Iran, the effectiveness of this policy tool, the human cost of sanctions, and how the Iranian-Americna community and the civil society have been pushing back against sanctions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi talks to Sina Toosi about the upcoming presidential election in Iran, the mass disqualification of moderate and reformist candidates, and how the hardliner Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi is seen as the candidate set to win the race. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Foreign Policy magazine has a podcast called Foreign Policy Playlist, which picks the best podcasts from around the world and introduces them to their listeners. And our Iran Podcast was recently featured on Foreign Policy Playlist. Jonathan Tepperman, Editor at Large of Foreign Policy, talked to Negar Mortazavi about the Iran Podcast, then played one of our episodes: The Ayatollahs No Longer Differ, a conversation with Hooman Majd. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Terrell Starr, host of the Black Diplomats podcast, about US foreign policy and media. Then we will hear an episode of his podcast about Building Peace with Iran, where Negar Mortazavi was a guest. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Roya Khadjavi, a New York-based curator who showcases young and emerging artists from Iran. Roya talks about her mission to introduce new generations of Iranian artists to the West, and how US-Iran tensions impact her work and the life of these young artists. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Sima Shakhsari and Assal Rad about a new grassroots movement in the US against sanctions on Iran. A coalition of Iranian-American academics, activists, and artists is trying to pressure the Biden administration to lift sanctions on Iran. *Music by Aida Shahghasemi. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi talks to Borzou Daragahi, International Correspondent for The Independent who has been covering conflicts in the Middle East for two decades. They discuss the current impasse in US-Iran diplomacy, the war in Syria, corruption in Lebanon, rivalry between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and new friendships between Israel and Arab states of the Persian Gulf. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Mohsen Milani, Founding Executive Director of Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies at University of South Florida, about the 1979 revolution in Iran, America’s position towards the revolution and the significance of the hostage crisis, and today’s situation in Iran and similarities and differences with the years leading to 1979. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Nancy Gallagher, Director of the Center for International and Security Studies at University of Maryland, about Iranian public opinion on Covid19, economy, nuclear policy, regional security, and domestic politics, based on two in-depth surveys fielded in September-October 2020 and January-February 2021. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to John Glaser, director of foreign policy at the Cato Institute, about America's role in the world and the case for Restraint in US foreign policy that calls for reducing America's global military presence and decades of wars and armed intervention in the Middle East. (Interview was recorded on February 23) Producer: Joshua Barlow - Music: 127Band  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Fatemeh Keshavarz, Director of School of Languages and Cultures at University of Maryland, about the importance of people-to-people exchanges with Iran, the role of arts and culture in making bridges, how the poetry of Rumi and Hafez and other prominent Persian poets has lived on for centuries, and about her life growing up in the city of Shiraz. Music by 127Band --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Ambassador John Limbert, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and one of the last US diplomats to serve in Tehran where he was taken hostage in 1979. They discuss four decades of animosity between Tehran and Washington and how both sides have been wrestling with the ghosts of history. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Kelsey Davenport, Director of Nonproliferation at the Arms Control Association, about the current state of Iran’s nuclear program, the limits set by the JCPOA, Iran’s past nuclear activities, and the path forward for a full return to the Iran nuclear deal. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, about a progressive vision for US foreign policy towards the Middle East, two decades after 9/11 and the global war on terror. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Erica Moret about the effectiveness of sanctions as a foreign policy tool, the various different types of sanctions, and their humanitarian impact on targeted countries.  (Music by 127) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Michael Page from Human Rights Watch about the Ukraine International Flight PS752 that was shot down by IRGC missiles over Tehran on 8 January 2020, and the year-long fight for truth and justice. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theiranpodcast/support