3min chapter

The general and specific threats: Iran

Economist Podcasts

CHAPTER

Intro

This chapter delves into the rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran following the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, examining its immediate aftermath and implications for regional stability. It captures the reactions from Iranian citizens and officials, framed within the historical context of U.S.-Iran relations and the potential shifts in their future interactions.

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Transcript

Episode notes

Speaker 2

Yeah, I definitely practice my segments in the mirror or with my wife, live audience to give feedback multiple times before debuting them on the podcast. That's crazy. This will be very different than the normal episode in that regard.

Speaker 1

As you say, that's weird though because that one segment when you thought it was going to be 20 minutes and it took like two hours, I would have thought that in your preparation, you would have had some trials where it took more than 20 minutes.

Speaker 2

Yeah, no. So actually being completely honest, here's a weird thing about me that not many people know, but now all of our listeners will know. I can't rehearse things before delivering them. Like literally can't. I don't know if this is just like a neurological thing, maybe some sort of like very idiosyncratic speech disorder, but generally I can talk just fine. But if I know on like a predetermined basis, exactly the words that need to come out of my mouth, like reading a line without without like any room for improvisation, I just can't. Yeah. It's like a like a severe stammer that I just can't get over. And so I have to just have a very loose outline and all of the words just like come off the dome or just like actually just read like reading words aloud. If I practice something and I just have in my head the precise words and order that they need to come out, they will not exit my mouth.

Speaker 1

I don't think that's weird at all. I'm exactly the same way. I'm nice. And like I've had situations where people close to me like, no, I have a big presentation coming up and they're like, you know what, as a favor, I will volunteer. You can just give me the presentation before you do it for real. And I'm like, I'm absolutely not going to do that. And they say why? And I say, because I care about myself and I want to do well. Yeah. If I plant in my head that there is a very specific sequence of words that should occur, I spend the entire talk trying to find my way to them and it's ruined. Yeah. Like you just got to let it flow. So yeah, there's some free public speaking tips.