Jul 3, 2026 · 1 hr 28 min · 11 segments
Something has shifted inside Tehran. Not because the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is about to disappear—but because members of Iran's establishment are openly debating ideas that would…
Mansour BorjiGuest
Behnam Ben TalebluGuest
Omid ShamsGuest
Negar MojtahediHost
Shahram KholdiGuest
Alex VatankaGuest
Maryam Sinaiee
How plausible, Behnam, do you think that is? And especially given Article 150 of Iran's constitution and this, of course, the IRGC being the you know, identity of the Islamic Republic there to to guard the Islamic revolution.
Let me zoom out before I zoom in and just say, as a young man in Washington, I have a lot of self-destructive habits.
He's actually very prolific in the somewhat new Iranian podcast space, which is very interestingly, largely a YouTube phenomenon rather than other social media that the regime has.
And it's a fascinating space because it's a – I don't want to use the word open in the liberal or democratic sense, but it's a more permissive environment for political debates.
I think in this podcast environment, there's a lot of trial balloons going on from various fractions of the regime.
And it's a real – It's a real proof that the Islamic Republic is trying to use everything it can to sustain itself.
And the debates, the personalities, the discourse, the quality, the content is drastically different than the stereotype someone in Washington might have of what Iranian hardline political elites think based on one or two images from the 1980s.
It is actually an indicator to me of a much more dangerous adversary because it's a much more competent and conversant adversary.
And I think Mehdi Kharatian's comments both on that podcast, Tamam Roch, as well as much more recently on this other podcast called Azad, which I think the audience should know about this Azad podcast, regardless of their political orientation, because Azad was the one that bragged about fostering the interview between Iranian President Aziz Shkian and American podcaster Taco Carlson just recently as well, I think last year or the year before.
So this is a fascinating space to watch, and therefore, like Alex said, there's lots of things that are said where it'd be really hard to put evidence to, but also they represent a vector of a debate that actually doesn't exist inside the country.
It doesn't exist among the facts on the ground, the political elite and the social forces behind that elite driving and making fractious domestic politics in Iran.
It is actually elite opinion and controlled elite opinion designed to put things into our debate.
You know, Kharatian also, I think within the same week or a week and a half of that podcast was on a different podcast, also Persian language one.
How plausible, Behnam, do you think that is? And especially given Article 150 of Iran's constitution and this, of course, the IRGC being the you know, identity of the Islamic Republic there to to guard the Islamic revolution.
Let me zoom out before I zoom in and just say, as a young man in Washington, I have a lot of self-destructive habits.
He's actually very prolific in the somewhat new Iranian podcast space, which is very interestingly, largely a YouTube phenomenon rather than other social media that the regime has.
And it's a fascinating space because it's a – I don't want to use the word open in the liberal or democratic sense, but it's a more permissive environment for political debates.
I think in this podcast environment, there's a lot of trial balloons going on from various fractions of the regime.
And it's a real – It's a real proof that the Islamic Republic is trying to use everything it can to sustain itself.
And the debates, the personalities, the discourse, the quality, the content is drastically different than the stereotype someone in Washington might have of what Iranian hardline political elites think based on one or two images from the 1980s.
It is actually an indicator to me of a much more dangerous adversary because it's a much more competent and conversant adversary.
And I think Mehdi Kharatian's comments both on that podcast, Tamam Roch, as well as much more recently on this other podcast called Azad, which I think the audience should know about this Azad podcast, regardless of their political orientation, because Azad was the one that bragged about fostering the interview between Iranian President Aziz Shkian and American podcaster Taco Carlson just recently as well, I think last year or the year before.
So this is a fascinating space to watch, and therefore, like Alex said, there's lots of things that are said where it'd be really hard to put evidence to, but also they represent a vector of a debate that actually doesn't exist inside the country.
It doesn't exist among the facts on the ground, the political elite and the social forces behind that elite driving and making fractious domestic politics in Iran.
It is actually elite opinion and controlled elite opinion designed to put things into our debate.
You know, Kharatian also, I think within the same week or a week and a half of that podcast was on a different podcast, also Persian language one.
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