The Iran Podcast

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Hadi Ghaemi, founder and Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, about the execution of a young wrestler named Navid Afkari in Iran, ongoing protests against the government, how the state is using violence to crack down on protesters, and human rights violations in the Islamic Republic since the eve of the 1979 revolution.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, about political participation in the Trump era and why the largest Iranian-American grassroots organization decided to endorse Biden for President. (Music by 127)

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Sussan Tahmasebi, Iranian-American feminist and Director of FEMENA, about a Me Too moment in Iran as a large number of women and men on social media are breaking taboos and sharing stories of sexual abuse. (Music by 127)

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Behdad Esfahbod, an Iranian-Canadian computer engineer who has worked for Facebook and Google. Behdad was arrested on a personal trip to Iran and was pressured by the IRGC to spy for them. He was imprisoned and put in solitary confinement for one week and asked about internet freedom and activists outside Iran who work to help Iranian users circumvent government censorship in Iran.  *This special episode was recorded live on Instagram.

We speak with Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute on how Obama’s diplomacy with Iran succeeded, why Trump has not been able to bring Iran to the negotiating table, and how a Biden administration should engage with Iran.

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Michael Singh, Managing Director at the Washington Institute, about the Trump administration’s Iran policy and the future of the JCPOA under a second Trump term or a Biden presidency.  (Music by 127)

Negar Mortazavi speaks with Thomas Juneau, associate professor at the University of Ottawa and former analyst at Canada's Department of National Defence, about diplomatic relations between Iran and Canada over the past decades and key events that have impacted Ottawa's policy towards Tehran. (Music by 127)

Negar Mortazavi speaks to Narges Bajoghli, an anthropologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University, about how the Islamic Republic uses media to shape narratives in Iran and beyond its borders, how diaspora media provide competitive narratives, how American media cover Iran, and why Iran is still poorly understood in the US. (Music by 127)

We speak with Tara Sepehri Far, researcher at Human Rights Watch, about the three young men sentenced to death for November 2019 protests, the efficacy of online campaigns and domestic civil society organizations against the death penalty, the successful effort to reduce the executions for drug offenses, and the impact of sanctions on human rights.

Description: We speak to Yara Elmjouie, an award-winning journalist at Aljazeera, about growing up as an Iranian-American in a small town in California, how the 2009 Green Movement impacted his views on Iran, his television shows about food and social justice, and how US sanctions have led to American companies censoring the identities of Iranian-Americans.