Since the U.S.-ordered killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani over the weekend, a lot of Americans have been trying to make sense of what’s going on in Iran—and why the United States has escalated its involvement.

To get more context on U.S.–Iran relations and what comes next, for today’s episode Ali talks to political science professor Steven Brooke and local activist and organizer Shaadie Ali, who protested at the state capitol over the weekend with the Madison Democratic Socialists of America.

Steven Brooke is a professor of comparative politics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a faculty fellow at the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies and a non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative.

Shaadie Ali is a Palestinian American and Iraqi American working as an energy efficiency consultant in Madison. He organizes with the Madison Democratic Socialists of America and Free the 350 Bail Fund. He also serves on the board of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the national American Civil Liberties Union.

Cover photo: “Funeral of Iranian Qasem Soleimani in Ahvaz, Iran on 5 January 2020” from Tasnim News Agency by Ayoub Hosseinsangi, used under CC BY-SA 4.0