Follow the leader: Iran picks the son
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After Iran appoints a new supreme leader, what does the choice tell us about the resilience of the regime and how the war will progress? Scientific research in America has taken a battering in Donald Trump’s second term. And why British choirs face a shortage of tenor voices.
Guests and host:
- Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent
- Daniella Raz, US correspondent
- Joel Budd, Britain social affairs editor
- Rosie Blau, host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, oil prices
- Scientific research, National Science Foundation, renewable energy
- Tenors, choirs, Oxford University
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:10.3 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:13.9 | I'm your host, Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:15.8 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:25.4 | Thank you. we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. American science has taken a battering since Donald Trump took office over a year ago. |
| 0:31.0 | Now Republicans in Congress are beginning to fight back. |
| 0:36.1 | And there's something of a shortage of tenors at the moment, not ten-pound notes, but the |
| 0:40.6 | higher male voices in a choir. |
| 0:42.9 | Our correspondent looks for the key to the problem and asks whether ensembles may have |
| 0:47.2 | to change their tunes. |
| 1:02.0 | Thank you. But first... |
| 1:16.6 | Just over a week ago, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khomei was killed in joint U.S. air strikes. Now a new Supreme Leader has been picked. |
| 1:20.6 | Housratah Ayatollah al-Huzma, Siyid Mosh Tabah Khomeini. |
| 1:26.6 | Moshthaba Khomeini is the son of the last one, chosen by a panel of clerics as the battering of the country continues. |
| 1:37.3 | With assaults on oil and other energy facilities and an Iranian response in kind. |
| 1:46.6 | A new leader and a new phase of the Third Gulf War begins. |
| 1:51.5 | The choice of Moshtaba Khomeini as Iran's new supreme leader |
| 1:55.9 | is a signal of continuity rather than change. |
| 2:00.7 | Greg Kalsram, our Middle East correspondent, is in Riyadh this morning. |
| 2:05.5 | The regime intends it to show that it is still intact and it is not willing to bend. |
| 2:11.5 | But I think it's also going to be taken by many Iranians as a signal that their government is simply |
| 2:16.6 | incapable of any sort of change or |
... |
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