As the Trump administration tries to strike a deal curtailing Iran's nuclear program, I turned to Dr. Sharona Mazalian Levi, an Iran expert and proud Persian Jew, to try to take us past the headlines and political elites to the conditions and hopes of ordinary Iranians.

Dr. Mazalian paints a dire picture. Desperate shortages of clean water, electricity and gas, a collapsed currency, a third of the population under the poverty line, an oppressive religious police, the highest rate of executions in the world, severe air pollution and environmental degradation -- and a regime more interested in exporting its "revolution" than tackling any of these problems.

Iran, one of the most energy-rich places on Earth, is "a poor nation in a rich country."

Today’s episode is sponsored by the Sapir, the quarterly journal edited by Pulitzer-prize-winning commentator Bret Stephens. If you’re in the US, you can get this excellent journal sent to you absolutely free by going to http://sapirjournal.org/AskHaviv. Please use the link. It helps the podcast if they know we sent you.

Sapir are initiating the Sapir Debates, a series of live debates on issues facing the Jewish people. The first debate will take place at 92NY on May 15 at 7 pm.

Former Obama chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel and former Trump special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt will debate the topic: “Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?”

To purchase tickets to the inaugural SAPIR debate, go to http://sapirjournal.org/sapirdebate.

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A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur