National Public Radio’s new weekly podcast, Throughline, aims to provide historical context for the events that shape our world, and its debut program today offers just that — an overview of the origins of U.S.-Iran enmity.

The show features a narrative account of the August 1953 coup against Premier Mossadegh, a primer on Howard Baskerville, interviews with author Stephen Kinzer, Sanam Vakil of Chatham House, Dr. Ebrahim Norouzi of the Mossadegh Project, and author Roya Hakakian, along with the acoustical accompaniment of some of the sounds of the era.

Versions of Throughline, hosted and produced by Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah in Washington DC, will also air on NPR’s Morning Edition.


Summary: “It’s no secret that Iran and the U.S. have a history of animosity toward each other. But when and how did it begin? This week we look back at four days in August 1953, when the CIA orchestrated a coup of Iran’s elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.”