AI Summary
5 min read🎙️ The Speakers & Context
- The Format: Host-led narrative with embedded interviews and expert analysis.
- The Key Players:
- Hosts: Nick Fountain and Mary Childs (Planet Money NPR), blending on-the-ground reporting with economic history for accessible geopolitics.
- Eyewitness: Ali (pseudonym), Iranian expatriate tracking domestic changes and protests firsthand.
- Evaleila Pesaran, Cambridge political economist and author on Iran's post-revolution economy; credible via archival research and family ties to pre-revolution central banking.
- Asfandyar Batmanghelidj (Yar), Iran-West Asia think tank researcher; expert on sanctions via personal visits, academic work on smuggling, and policy analysis.
- The Vibe: Reflective and investigative, dissecting sanctions' long-arc failures with historical nuance amid live tensions.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Ali's Recent Visit to Iran and Protests**
- 2 (06:20) **Episode Overview: Sanctions' Role in Iran's Turmoil**
- 3 (07:40) **What Are Sanctions and US-Iran History**
- 4 (09:00) **Moment 1: Post-1979 Revolution and First Sanctions**
- 5 (17:00) **Moment 2: 1990s Economic Opening Despite Sanctions**
- 6 (22:30) **Moment 3: 2010s Comprehensive Sanctions and Nuclear Deal**
- 7 (26:20) **Sanctions' Unintended Consequences and Flaws**
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Book tour tickets and details here.
The recent protests in Iran are about so many things. Human rights, corruption, freedom. But this time – they are also motivated by economic hardship. Hardship caused, in part, by US sanctions.Â
The US has been sanctioning Iran in one way or another for 47 years. But sanctions, as a tool, only work some of the time, and US sanctions on Iran have not always conformed to what experts consider best practices.
On today’s episode: What did US sanctions do to Iran's economy? How did they feed into the latest protests and crackdown in Iran? Sanctions are supposed to avert war, but how different from war are they?
To learn more about the protests in Iran and the country’s history, check out our great friends at Throughline:
Iran Protests Explained
Iran and the U.S., Part One: Four Days In August
Iran and the U.S., Part Two: Rules of Engagement
Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani’s Iran
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Jimmy Keeley. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark.Â
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
The recent protests in Iran are about so many things. Human rights, corruption, freedom. But this time – they are also motivated by economic hardship. Hardship caused, in part, by US sanctions.Â
The US has been sanctioning Iran in one way or another for 47 years. But sanctions, as a tool, only work some of the time, and US sanctions on Iran have not always conformed to what experts consider best practices.
On today’s episode: What did US sanctions do to Iran's economy? How did they feed into the latest protests and crackdown in Iran? Sanctions are supposed to avert war, but how different from war are they?
To learn more about the protests in Iran and the country’s history, check out our great friends at Throughline:
Iran Protests Explained
Iran and the U.S., Part One: Four Days In August
Iran and the U.S., Part Two: Rules of Engagement
Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani’s Iran
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Jimmy Keeley. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark.Â
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
More from this podcast
Planet Money →