{"podcast":{"title":"Breaking History","slug":"breaking-history-7169277","podcast_index_feed_id":7169277,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/RUNMED1049146638","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/fc45207a-cc97-11ef-9841-8bd73a0be712/image/c49635d185aa38c7dcae7201e60493ef.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Free Press","episode_count":55,"summary":"Sometimes the news moves so fast, you have to look closely to know if you’ve seen it before. And that’s what this show is about. Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. We cover everything from LBJ and the Roman Republic to Donald Trump and the chaos at Columbia. This twice a month show from The Free Press delivers the best historians, authors, and reporters by mining the archives of human experience to figure out the present. George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Tune in to Breaking History to resist the repetition.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T18:18:43.811453+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277"},"episode":{"title":"Iran’s Favourite Washington Pundit","slug":"iran-s-favourite-washington-pundit","published_at":"2026-06-12T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277/iran-s-favourite-washington-pundit","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VOdNgcECFk0maZgOJbmx/traffic.megaphone.fm/CBS9772839198.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VOdNgcECFk0maZgOJbmx/traffic.megaphone.fm/CBS9772839198.mp3","summary":"Journalist Jay Solomon is back on the show this week to discuss his latest explosive investigation into Trita Parsi, the Iranian-born, Swedish-raised lobbyist who spent 20 years at the center of Washington’s foreign policy debate over Iran. Parsi built two influential organizations, cultivated powerful allies on both left and right, and consistently pushed a line on Iran that looked remarkably like the one coming out of Tehran’s foreign ministry. Now the Marco Rubio State Department is taking a serious look at his immigration status, and the organization Parsi co-founded, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, is mobilizing lawyers and foundation money to fight back. Jay and Eli trace the full arc of the story, from Iran’s post-9/11 influence operation to the leaked Iranian emails that blew the lid off the Iran Experts Initiative, which counted Parsi’s brother among its members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"Journalist Jay Solomon is back on the show this week to discuss his latest explosive investigation into Trita Parsi, the Iranian-born, Swedish-raised lobb…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2884,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/breaking-history-7169277/episodes/iran-s-favourite-washington-pundit/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/breaking-history-7169277/iran-s-favourite-washington-pundit.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}