{"podcast":{"title":"The Intercept Briefing","slug":"the-intercept-briefing-951534","podcast_index_feed_id":951534,"rss_url":"https://rss.acast.com/intercepted-with-jeremy-scahill","website_url":"https://theintercept.com/podcasts","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/61b775cb169562bbade950d2/1760635288941-f6a6d5ae-4bcb-4b70-8ea6-88ec7090c7dc.jpeg","author":"The Intercept","episode_count":404,"summary":"Cut through the noise with The Intercept’s reporters as they tackle the most urgent issues of the moment. The Briefing is a weekly podcast delivering news, incisive political analysis and deep investigative reporting, hosted by The Intercept’s journalists and contributors including Jessica Washington, Akela Lacy, and Jordan Uhl. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T14:18:03.081390+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534"},"episode":{"title":"Protests and Power Plays: From Tehran to the Arctic Circle","slug":"protests-and-power-plays-from-tehran-to-the-arctic-circle","published_at":"2026-01-23T10:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534/protests-and-power-plays-from-tehran-to-the-arctic-circle","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534","url":"https://theintercept.com/2026/01/23/podcast-iran-protests-greenland/","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/f5b64019-68c3-57d4-b70b-043e63e5cbf6/e/6972743f6982fb7698e70656/media.mp3","summary":"The people of Iran are in the midst of one of the country’s biggest uprisings — and harshest government crackdowns — since the Iranian Revolution.  It started with shopkeepers in bazaars closing their doors at the end of December in protest of the plummeting Iranian rial and economic distress. But demonstrations soon spread to universities and across the country to every single province. Working-class Iranians wanted relief — both from the inflation crisis and U.S sanctions. This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Akela Lacy speaks with Hooman Majd , an Iranian American writer and journalist, who explains what sparked the protests and the government’s brutal response.  “I don't think in the history of Iran, even during the Islamic Revolution, have we seen this number of fatalities.” says Majd. “The death toll is staggering. Really, because that death toll is staggering, what's happened is there are no more protests. And that's where we are right now. No more protest, heavy security on the streets. Massive security on the streets, on every corner. It isn't martial law. But it feels like martial law to people living there.” The path forward is unclear, Majd says. But a few things are certain. “The idea is no to shah, no to an ayatollah, no to theocracy. Let's just, finally, after 120 years of demonstrating — which is what the Iranians have been doing since 1906 — after 120 years of looking for democracy, can we just do that? Can we just get a democracy? That is probably the biggest sentiment in Iran: wanting a democratic rule, wanting the repression to end, wanting better relations with the rest of the world so these sanctions can be lifted.” Some people inside and outside Iran have called on President Donald Trump to intervene. The idea that the U.S. sh…","meta_description":"The people of Iran are in the midst of one of the country’s biggest uprisings — and harshest government crackdowns — since the Iranian Revolution. I…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2960,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-intercept-briefing-951534/episodes/protests-and-power-plays-from-tehran-to-the-arctic-circle/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534/protests-and-power-plays-from-tehran-to-the-arctic-circle.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}