We met Holly Dagres, a freelance Iran analyst and curator of The Iranist newsletter (subscribe if you haven't already!) to discuss possible implications of Trump's announcement on May 12th 2018, Telegram blockage in Iran, and some other current affairs issues. And to hear about being an American adolescent in Iran. She cracked us up!

Group Selfie by Holly Dagres in Ido's home studio

פסקה שבטח מעניינת רק אותי אבל סדר חייב להיות:

בד"כ פרקים איזוגיים הם על תרבות והיסטוריה, והפרקים הזוגיים מוקדשים לאקטואליה, אבל הפרק הזה היה חייב לעלות לפני 12 במאי, אז פרקים 14 ו-15 יהיו שני פרקי לא-אקטואליה רצופים, ואז נחזור לשגרה.

We talked about:

Holly's growing up in Tehran, with pink hair and black hejab.

Netanyahu's excellent show (which Holly calls "mediocre TED talk)

Trump threatening to blow the JCPOA (AKA Iran Nuclear Deal)

Telegram being blocked and Rouhani confronting the leadership about it (Hebrew subtitles).

This video is from January and I also shared it on the previous chapter, which was a Hebrew talk with Dr. Raz Zimmt. The following image is from a few days ago:

"I don't know why some people don't like cell phones, social networks and informed people. They say "if the people would be uninformed, we would sleep better at night". Ordibehesht 1st, 1397.

Hebrew broadcast from the Islamic Republic (by Hebrew speaking Arabs)

This episode's song:

Holly wanted the song Gol-e Yakh, "ice flower" (Chimonanthus, according to Wikipedia), but the podcast rules say it has to be Kiosk the band. So here's Gol-e Yakh for Holly:

And I picked Kiosk's song "it doesn't rain here, Morteza" from the album Outcome of Negotiations. The album name is closely related to the talk of the day, and I chose the song because it's May 7th and it didn't only rain today in Israel, but we even had hail!

Did you also fall in love with Holly Dagres?

then follow @HDagres on twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter The Iranist.

If you liked Ido, you will want to listen to his English podcast Lex Cybernetica at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and read what he writes in Room404.

If you liked this episode, please feel free to share and subscribe. I have English episodes on this podcast about once every 2 months, and you can recognize them by the English title.

If you want to fiscally express your appreciation for all the trouble I take for you, you can buy my books (right now only one is in English), recommend them to others, and/or find me a sponsor to adapt The Book of Esther Unmasked to Persian. You can invite each of us – Holly, Ido or me – for well-paid lectures (looking for a resident scholar, schuls?) or just buy me coffee.

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