How the War Has Reshaped Life in Iran
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
The reporter Cora Engelbrecht joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss what life is like for the people of Iran as war unfolds. They talk about Engelbrecht’s reporting, which is based on dispatches from a dissident in Tehran who maintained contact during an internet blackout, and about how his account reveals some of the challenges of daily life under bombardment from the U.S. and Israel—and under a government that continues to police dissent. They also explore how the conflict has complicated the hopes of many Iranians who once saw foreign intervention as a path to liberation, and the growing fear that, whatever the outcome of the war, everyday citizens will continue to bear the cost.
This week’s reading:
- “What the War Has Done to Iranians,” by Cora Engelbrecht
- “A Former Prisoner of the Iranian Regime Watches Trump’s War,” by Jason Rezaian
- “How Donald Trump May Have Sabotaged His Chances for a Deal with Iran,” by Isaac Chotiner
- “The Distant Promise of Iran’s Would-Be King,” by Azadeh Moaveni
- “Is Cuba Next?,” by Jon Lee Anderson
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Kora. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi. |
| 0:08.0 | Thank you so much for being here. |
| 0:09.0 | Thank you, Tyler. |
| 0:10.0 | Based on your conversations with people who are on the ground in Iran right now, |
| 0:15.0 | what do you think is the biggest misconception about what life has been like there since the war started? |
| 0:20.0 | Or is there something that |
| 0:21.1 | people would find kind of surprising given the rhetoric in the U.S. and from Trump? |
| 0:26.7 | I think what's been most surprising is the sustained level of hope that a lot of people still |
| 0:33.1 | have. It surprises me every day. When I hear from people who sound very scared when they're surviving from bombardments one day, |
| 0:40.3 | but then the next are still celebrating the death of Humane, the Supreme Leader, |
| 0:46.3 | and are talking about how they're hoping for the days when they can come back to the streets and protest again. |
| 0:52.3 | That's Cora Engelbrecht, who just wrote a piece for the New Yorker about what life has been |
| 0:57.9 | like for the Iranian people during the war. |
| 1:01.0 | Ever since war broke out in Iran and across the Middle East, so much of the coverage and conversation |
| 1:06.5 | has centered on the global effects of the conflict. |
| 1:09.6 | How the region has been destabilized, |
| 1:11.6 | why the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is threatening an international energy crisis, |
| 1:15.7 | or whether the American people approve of Donald Trump's handling of the war. |
| 1:20.1 | But something central has gotten lost in all of this, |
| 1:23.0 | which is how the Iranian people's daily lives are being affected by the U.S. and Israeli bombardments, |
| 1:28.3 | and how the Iranian regime is using the war as an excuse to crack down even harder on civilians. |
... |
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