Current Affairs

Afshin Matin-Asgari, historian of Iran and author, offers a concise perspective as a participant in 1978 and scholar of Iran–U.S. relations. He traces the 1953 coup's legacy, explains how foreign strikes strengthen repression, outlines Iran’s nuclear trajectory, and discusses regional strategy and why Iranians must shape their own future.

A caravan of international volunteers is organizing to deliver medicines, solar panels, and generators to Cuba. The show digs into recent U.S. oil cutoffs, tightened sanctions, and long histories of intervention and embargo. Listeners hear about targeted attacks on Cuban medical missions and a global solidarity tradition rallying to break the siege.

Rania Khalek, Beirut-based journalist and host of Dispatches, reports from under bombardment. She describes life and mass displacement in Lebanon. She critiques U.S. political silence and media failures. She assesses regional escalation risks, Hezbollah and Iran’s role, and the normalization of collective punishment.

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Becca Rothfeld is a staff writer at The New Yorker, an editor at The Point, and the former nonfiction book critic at The Washington Post, where she wrote until the paper eliminated its books section amid sweeping layoffs. She explains why book reviews matter and how criticism can introduce readers to ideas they didn’t know interested them. Rothfeld also discusses the role of negative reviews, what it means for a book to be “instructively bad,” and why criticism should challenge rather than flatter its audience. She also argues that the growing use of AI risks degrading human thought, and reflects on beauty, “looksmaxing,” and the kind of intellectual and cultural life worth preserving. 📚 Becca's New Yorker Articles: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/becca-rothfeld 📚 Becca's Website: https://www.beccarothfeld.com/ 📚 Becca's Book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250849915/allthingsaretoosmall/ 0:00–5:41 What Happened to the Washington Post 5:41–13:08 Why Review Books 13:08–22:02 Reviewing “Bad” Books 22:02–39:20 AI and the Death of Thinking 39:20–45:46 Looksmaxing and Beauty 45:46–50:58 Favorite Book Reviews 🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 MERCH: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/ 🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Annelle Sheline is a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a former U.S. State Department official who resigned in protest over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. In this conversation with Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson, she discusses why she chose to resign while other senior officials—including former USAID administrator Samantha Power—remained in their positions. Sheline also examines how U.S. policy and unconditional support for Israel helped lead to the current war with Iran, the devastating human toll of the conflict, and why the erosion of international law could have dangerous consequences for the future of global order. 🌹 Annelle Sheline's New Republic Article: https://newrepublic.com/article/207300/trump-israel-madness-war-iran 🌹 Follow Annelle Sheline: https://x.com/AnnelleSheline 🌹 The Quincy Institute: https://quincyinst.org/ 0:00-18:25 Samantha Power's moral bankruptcy 18:25-28:21 How Biden policy led to this 28:21-33:48 Intentionally targeting civilians 33:48-43:41 Why we still need international law 🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 MERCH: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/ 🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Trita Parsi is the co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and one of the leading analysts of U.S.–Iran relations. In this conversation with Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson, he explains how the escalating U.S.–Israel war on Iran is affecting civilians, how sanctions and propaganda shaped the political climate leading up to the conflict, and why Israel and the United States may see the war very differently in strategic terms. Parsi also discusses why he believes the war is a mistake for Washington, how Trump ended up launching it, how the conflict might end, and how a very different path might have been possible if diplomacy had prevailed. 🌹 Trita Parsi's latest in Responsible Statecraft: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-war-trump-press/ 🌹 Follow Trita Parsi: https://x.com/tparsi 🌹 The Quincy Institute: https://quincyinst.org/ 0:00-7:08 The human toll of the war 7:08-9:49 Justifying the unjustifiable 9:49-12:45 What is Israel’s strategy? 12:45-14:51 America will pay the price for Israel 14:51-20:13 Why did Trump get the U.S. into this war? 20:13-23:02 How does this war end? 23:02-24:16 What is Europe doing? 24:16-29:23 How things could have been different 🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 MERCH: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/ 🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Trump's fake-anti-imperialism only works because Democrats refuse to embrace the real thing. 🌹 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/remember-when-people-thought-trump-was-anti-war 🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs 🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  Our media’s sanitized coverage obscures the human toll. Are we able to confront the full sickening evil of what the U.S. is doing?  🌹 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-iran-war-is-unfathomably-depraved  🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs  🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/

🦩 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  According to our elected leaders, we should be very scared of the possibility that Iran could get a nuclear bomb. But Israel already has them, and its government is increasingly unstable and belligerent.  🔥 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/wait-why-is-israel-allowed-to-have-nukes  🦩SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership  🦩 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/CurrentAffairs  🦩THE MYTH OF AMERICAN IDEALISM: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738224/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson/

Abby Martin, journalist and documentary filmmaker behind Earth's Greatest Enemy, explores how the U.S. military drives massive pollution and global harm. She discusses lifecycle emissions, naval war games' ocean damage, and how militarism diverts resources from climate solutions. The conversation highlights local resistance, veteran suffering, and the push for mass education and collective organizing.