How the West Lost Iran: Oil, Coups, and the Road to Revolution - Part 1

Iran didn’t suddenly become the geopolitical flashpoint it is today, the roots go back decades. In this first part of a two-part series, we trace the economic and political history that reshaped Iran from the 1940s to the 1979 revolution. From Britain’s oil empire and the CIA-backed coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh to the rise of the Shah as America’s key ally in the Cold War, we explore how oil, empire, and superpower rivalry transformed Iran into a strategic battleground. Along the way we look at the choke points of global energy, the Suez crisis, the birth of the CIA’s regime-change playbook, and the corruption and inequality that ultimately ignited revolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to How the West Lost Iran: Oil, Coups, and the Road to Revolution - Part 1 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How the West Lost Iran: Oil, Coups, and the Road to Revolution - Part 1 is an episode from The David McWilliams Podcast by David McWilliams.

This episode is 46:58 long.

This episode was published on Mar 5, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The David McWilliams Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.