Framing the Iran conversation

Nathan pivots to Iran and the war, setting up questions about regime change, U.S. policy, and recent developments.

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Reza Aslan on why Iran is winning, and why the idea of nationalism may be the next great illusion to fall. | Subscribe to Futurology! https://linkin.bio/futurology/

What does it mean for a nation to fight a war it cannot win? Iranian scholar and author Reza Aslan joins Nathan Gardels to cut through four decades of American self-deception about Iran. In this episode, Aslan argues that the war in Iran has done exactly what decades of intelligence had predicted: silenced dissent, entrenched hardline power, and destroyed the slow-burning possibility of reform taking root in Iran. He makes the case that Iran is not an unhinged theocracy, but a completely rational actor facing a waning global superpower mired in a “cosmic war mentality.

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Mentioned in this Episode:

No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam — Reza Aslan (Book, 2005)

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth — Reza Aslan (Book, 2013)

God: A Human History — Reza Aslan (Book, 2017)