From bad to awful: Trump’s four options in Iran
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the war in Iran progresses, none of the options available to Donald Trump looks good. We examine each of them. Thailand’s Buddhist monks are implicated in lots of lawless and dodgy behaviour—but clearing out the bad apples is more complicated than it seems. And gene-editing comes to the fruit bowl: we look at what science is serving up next.
Guests and host:
- Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent
- Alizée Jean-Baptiste, Asia senior podcasts producer
- Maria Lisik, news editor
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Iran war, Donald Trump
- Thailand, Buddhist monks
- gene-editing, fruit
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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. |
| 0:13.3 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:14.2 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:15.6 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:25.6 | Thank you. provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. Embezzlement, drunk driving, loan fraud, you wouldn't believe how naughty some of Thailand's |
| 0:31.5 | Buddhist monks are. We ask why getting rid of the monkhood's bad apples is so difficult. |
| 0:39.0 | And you know how awkward it is when you eat a cherry and then have nowhere to put the stone. |
| 0:44.1 | Well, such first world problems may never sour your day again. |
| 0:48.0 | Gene-edited fruit is coming to a basket near you. |
| 1:02.0 | Thank you. But first... |
| 1:07.0 | It remains hard to know what President Donald Trump is planning next in the Iran war, even more so. |
| 1:16.6 | On Friday, he said America's military goals had largely been met. |
| 1:20.6 | Straight of Ormuz, no problem. America doesn't use it. |
| 1:24.6 | By the next day, back on the socials and on the caps lock with one of his signature deadlines, |
| 1:30.6 | 48 hours for Iran to reopen the strait, or America would obliterate Iran's power plants. |
| 1:37.3 | Let's game this out. |
| 1:38.7 | What options does Mr. Trump have to put an end to his war? |
| 1:43.2 | We've had another weekend of missiles flying in every direction across the Middle East. |
| 1:49.6 | Greg Carlstrom is a Middle East correspondent for the economist. |
| 1:52.9 | There have been ongoing American and Israeli airstrikes in Iran, including in the capital. |
| 1:58.6 | More than 2,000 civilians have been killed over the course of the war, |
... |
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