The Iran Podcast

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Mani Mostofi, Director of Miaan Group, about the recent execution of Ruhollah Zam, the international mechanism of human rights, and how to hold abusers accountable. *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Sina Azodi from the Atlantic Council about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the history of continuity in the country’s nuclear program since it started under the Shah and continued under the Islamic Republic. *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Azadeh Zamirirad, Deputy Head of Middle East and Africa at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, about Europe’s role in diplomacy between Iran and the US, how the Europeans helped nuclear negotiations succeed in the past and what they can do to help deescalate tensions and restart diplomacy between Tehran and Washington. *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American author and journalist, about contemporary Iranian politics. He was born in a diplomatic family before the 1979 revolution in Iran, attended school in Europe, and now lives in New York. He has written three books on Iran; The Ayatollah Begs to Differ (2008), The Ayatollahs’ Democracy (2010), and The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay (2013). *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with John Ghazvinian, Executive Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania, about the history of US-Iran relations over the past few centuries since 1720, and how the two countries went from mutual admiration and close ties to mutual hatred.  *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Murtaza Hussain from The Intercept and Eli Clifton from Responsible Statecraft about a State Department project called IRAN DISINFO that attacked journalists and academics who were critical of Trump's Iran policy, as well as a fake online persona called Heshmat Alavi that is run by the MEK and has been retweeted by Donald Trump. *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy Director at Project South, about Donald Trump’s Travel Ban on Iranians and other nations, how political tensions between Washington and Tehran impact Iranians living in and traveling to the US, and FBI’s surveillance of Iranians and other Muslim communities in the US. *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. Music by 127.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Nahid Siamdoust, visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard University, about music after the 1979 revolution in Iran through the Iran-Iraq war, the post-war era of pop music, political music inspired by the 2009 green movement, and today's musicians in the diaspora, in memory of legendary Iranian singer the late Mohammadreza Shajarian. (Music by Shajarian, Koveitipoor, Shabpareh, Parnaz&Ashkan). *This episode was made possible with support from Heinrich Boll Foundation. 

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Joe Cirincione, nuclear policy expert and former President of Ploughshares Fund, about the Iran nuclear deal as part of the global nonproliferation movement, why the JCPOA was a good deal, and how a potential Biden administration can revive this agreement.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Asieh Namdar, a news anchor at CGTN America and a former anchor at CNN, about immigrating to the U.S. as a child in the height of the 1979 revolution and the hostage crisis in Iran, being one of the first Iranian-Americans on television, and dealing with toxic attacks on journalists online. (Music by 127)