How to get through the Strait of Hormuz

April 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Christian St. Clair, a production manager at Fantagraphics Books in Seattle, was tracking a shipment of two comic collections—Roberta Gregory's Bitchy and Adventures into Weird Worlds—printed in India and scheduled to arrive in the U.S. in early April. The books were supposed to travel on a bright pink container ship called the One Majesty. Then the war between the U.S. and Iran began, and Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Christian Googled the ship's name and discovered it had been attacked in the strait. The crew and cargo were safe, but the ship was stranded. For weeks, Christian watched the vessel's location update on marine tracking sites, its arrival date pushed back day after day, until finally the status changed to "location unknown."

How the Strait Became a Toll Booth

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What you'll learn

1 (01:03) **The Stakes of the Strait** - Introduces the show’s central question: how ships get through the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Iran conflict, and what it means for the global economy.
2 (06:02) **Ceasefire Confusion** - Explains the contradictory signals after President Trump’s ceasefire announcement, revealing that a toll system is in place for passage.
3 (07:00) **The Toll System Revealed** - Hamid Hussein, an Iranian oil industry spokesperson, explains the process for ships to get through the strait by paying a toll in cryptocurrency.
4 (11:23) **Can Hamid Help Christian?** - The host asks Hamid if he can assist with Christian’s stranded comic book ship, but the US destination blocks that path.
5 (12:24) **The Law of General Average** - Ryan Peterson, CEO of logistics company Flexport, explains a maritime law that could make Christian liable for damage to the pink ship.
6 (14:05) **The Bigger Picture: Freedom of Navigation** - Ryan Peterson and the host discuss how the Strait crisis challenges the US-led global order of free seas.
7 (16:16) **Post-Break Update: The Books Were Never on the Ship** - Christian reveals that his books were never loaded onto the One Majesty; they were still in India.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Ryan Peterson

Show Notes

The United States has been at war with Iran since February 28th. And for a month and a half, Iran’s main leverage over the U.S. has been their control over the Strait of Hormuz — a key global shipping route. Iran has attacked ships that try to pass without approval. And recently they’ve insinuated that one part of the Strait — the part near Oman — is not safe. Which means that captains had to go right by Iran’s shores to get through the Strait … effectively creating a chokepoint for the global economy.

On today’s show, a source inside Iran tells us how ships had been getting through the strait, and how the tollbooth Iran set up works. And we ask: What does this all mean for the global economy?

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This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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