A man, a plan, Iran

On this week’s episode, Zack, Jenn, and Alex look at the economics behind Trump’s offer to sit down with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The Iranian economy is in trouble after the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, due to the impending threat of new sanctions; Trump hopes this will pressure the Iranians to come back to the negotiating table, but it might actually backfire. On Elsewhere, they talk about Google’s plan to move into China by building a censored search engine, and the ways tech giants are like mini states. Alex reveals his love of pistachios, Jenn expresses distaste for Bing, and Zack pinpoints the “Iranian carrot.” References! We played a clip from a recent Trump rally in Tampa, Florida. The full rally can be found here. Jenn read a quote from this Chicago Tribune article, which also goes deeper into the Iranian economy. Alex gave us a recap on America’s previous sanctions and the Iran nuclear deal. More details here. He also mentioned that the Iranian currency has dropped dramatically since 2012. In discussing the protests, the team referenced the Green Movement. Zack suggests this research on the effects of sanctions as further reading. The Intercept piece that broke the Google Project Dragonfly story. More on Google’s first go-round in China, and on Operation Aurora. Jenn ran through some censorship specifics. She gave the example of the Winnie the Pooh ban and, more recently, the crackdown on women calling out sexual assault. Alex mentioned that Google employees pushed back against Pentagon contracts. 

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