How Iran's flagging economy inflamed its protests

The Indicator from Planet Money

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Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Editor's note: The United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran early Saturday, Feb. 28. For current coverage click here. For background context, the story below was published on Feb. 17, 2026.

According to activists, Iran has killed over 7,000 people as part of a crackdown on protesters. Why did protests engulf Iran in the first place? A big contributor: Its flagging economy, which has been in a tailspin for years. It’s a tinderbox.

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0:00.0	NPR. As we speak, U.S. Navy troops are in a state of waiting. They're telling their husbands,
0:16.7	wives, and children that they're going to be away from home for more months. That's because last
0:21.4	week, news broke that the U.S. government told a second aircraft carrier group to go to the Middle
0:26.3	East. President Trump is imploring Iran to make a deal on its nuclear weapons and missiles programs.
0:32.3	Iran's leadership is in a vulnerable position. This comes off the back of massive countrywide protests that swept
0:38.4	the nation around New Year's. They've mostly been quelled for now because of a bloody crackdown
0:42.8	by the Iranian government. So far, activists say that at least 7,000 protesters were killed.
0:49.1	There are many reasons for those huge protests, censorshipensorship, religious discrimination, corruption.
0:55.2	But the initial seed of these protests was economic.
0:58.5	It started with shopkeepers, frustrated with inflation and a currency collapse.
1:04.7	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
1:06.8	I'm Waylon Wong.
1:08.1	And I'm Darian Woods.
1:09.2	Today on the show, the economic roots of Iran's protests.
1:12.5	We speak with a small business owner in Tehran,
1:15.0	and we learn why Iran is in such an economic mess.
1:27.2	You come to the New Yorker Radio Hour for conversations that go deeper with people you really want to hear from, whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or Olivia Rodrigo, Liz Cheney, or the godfather of artificial intelligence, Jeffrey Hinton, or some of my extraordinarily well-informed colleagues
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