{"podcast":{"title":"The East is a Podcast","slug":"the-east-is-a-podcast-520166","podcast_index_feed_id":520166,"rss_url":"https://eastisapodcast.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://www.eastpodcast.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/f/c/b/0/fcb066b5c8162edda04421dee9605cbd/1500x1500.png","author":"East is a Podcast","episode_count":593,"summary":"A critical lens on the history of the present on West Asia and North Africa. Interviews with experts and archival mashups. Created by Sina Rahmani (twitter: @urorientalist)","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-east-is-a-podcast-520166"},"episode":{"title":"Iran Vs. The Declining Kayfabe Empire featuring Sina Rahmani & Kumars Salehi","slug":"iran-vs-the-declining-kayfabe-empire-featuring-sina-rahmani-kumars-salehi","published_at":"2026-03-16T03:13:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-east-is-a-podcast-520166/iran-vs-the-declining-kayfabe-empire-featuring-sina-rahmani-kumars-salehi","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-east-is-a-podcast-520166","url":"https://www.eastpodcast.com","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/eastisapodcast/Iran_Vs__The_Declining_Kayfabe_Empire_featuring_Sina_Rahmani__Kumars_Salehi.mp3?dest-id=831728","summary":"**I did an episode with comrads Jay from MAKC and Kumars from Delete Ur Account last week and forgot to post it! The episode explores the concept \"kayfabe\" in governing American cultural and political life** In this episode Sina Rahmani from The East is a Podcast & Kumars Salehi from Delete Your Account will join us to talk about the wrestling term \"kayfabe\" which is about maintaining the illusions that staged storylines and pre-determined matches are authentic, and that wrestlers are actually the characters they portray. We'll talk about this idea in relation to how the US Empire projects itself globally, and particularly in light of massive setbacks being faced by Israel & the US in their war on Iran and the Arab-Iranian region.","meta_description":"**I did an episode with comrads Jay from MAKC and Kumars from Delete Ur Account last week and forgot to post it! The episode explores the concept \"kayfabe…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":7763,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-east-is-a-podcast-520166/episodes/iran-vs-the-declining-kayfabe-empire-featuring-sina-rahmani-kumars-salehi/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-east-is-a-podcast-520166/iran-vs-the-declining-kayfabe-empire-featuring-sina-rahmani-kumars-salehi.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}