For today’s two-part episode, we focus our attention on the Middle East. Our first guest is Trita Parsi, who offers an overview of current Iran–US relations. In the second segment, Michael Zweig gives updates from his recent trip to Baghdad for the Iraqi Social Forum.

Trita Parsi teaches at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. He is the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council. He is the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel, and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007), A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran (Yale University Press, 2012), and Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017). He is a frequent guest and commentator for a number of broadcast and print outlets, including CNN, PBS NewsHour, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, and Democracy Now.

Michael Zweig is emeritus professor of economics at Stony Brook University in New York, where he was the founder and director of the Center for Study of Working Class Life. In 2005–2006, he served as executive producer of Meeting Face to Face: The Iraq–U.S. Labor Solidarity Tour. He wrote, produced, and directed Why Are We In Afghanistan? in 2009.