Iran: The protests, the blackout and the narrative war

This past week, Iranian protesters were labelled “terrorists” and “saboteurs” by the state. That rhetoric was accompanied by an internet blackout and a surge in violence, with the death toll still unclear. Simultaneously, tensions between the United States and Iran escalated, raising the stakes in what has become one of the most serious political upheavals in the country in years. Contributors: Tohid Asadi – Correspondent, Al Jazeera English Narges Bajoghli – Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University Roxane Farmanfarmaian – Lecturer, University Of Cambridge Farzan Sabet – Managing Researcher, Global Governance Centre On our radar In the US, the shooting - in public - of a woman two weeks ago by immigration officers has spiralled into a case of outright lying that is remarkable even by the standards of the Trump administration. Ryan Kohls reports on how official accounts, allied media and even AI-generated spokespeople were deployed to defend the shooting. Cory Doctorow: The AI hype machine Artificial intelligence is routinely framed as unstoppable - a technology the world must adapt to, not question. But as companies invest hundreds of billions and the hype accelerates, scrutiny has fallen away. Cory Doctorow on who controls the story around AI and why past tech “revolutions” offer a warning. Featuring: Cory Doctorow – Author and activist

You can listen to Iran: The protests, the blackout and the narrative war online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Iran: The protests, the blackout and the narrative war is an episode from The Listening Post by Al Jazeera Podcasts.

This episode is 25:47 long.

This episode was published on Jan 17, 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 Listening Post when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.