Iran: The Latest

Continue to find this podcast highly informative and broad ranging. My one disquiet - as typified by the Sanam Vakil (SV) interview in the latest episode - is that this podcast, like virtually all of the mainstream Western commentary, has a substantially higher engagement with the ‘It’s all going wrong for Trump’ narrative than it’s converse. Hence, the dialogue with SV authoritatively highlighted the challenges whilst either downplaying, or simply not considering, the fact(s) that: 1. the US (and Israel) has dealt an almighty blow to Iran’s military capabilities; 2. the internet in Iran is still disabled (hardly the sign of a confident regime); 3. the double blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is preventing the flow of now (surely) desperately needed external revenues into Iran; 4. The groundbreaking US-Israeli-Arab coalition reined against Iran. Time will, of course, reveal all! The above caveat aside, I continue to appreciate the insights afforded by this podcast.

As others have said, the hosts of the Iran: the Latest podcast wear their biases on their sleeve, leading to some tedious and uninformative pods. The episode with the arts therapist in Lebanon was excruciating to listen to.

…ditch the sneering American woman. The constant “up talk” Mean Girls-esque sarcastic tone of voice and barely disguised contempt whenever she mentions Trump is irritating, immature and off-putting. The English woman is only slightly better tbh, but she mostly keeps a lid on it

Very informative hosts and insightful on the Iran conflict. Very good. Thanks for doing this. It helps us mere mortals understand some parts of this drama.