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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Iran’s New Nepo Ayatollah

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who is the new supreme leader of Iran, and how does he differ from his predecessor father?


Guest: Graeme Wood, staff writer at The Atlantic and a lecturer in political science at Yale.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

If you've been following the war in Iran, it's been a confusing week.

0:13.4

The United States goals are up in the air, which means it's also unclear how this war might end.

0:21.7

That uncertainty has made oil prices skyrocket

0:24.1

and left President Trump seeming to look for a way out.

0:28.3

Maybe.

0:29.7

In one 24-hour period, the president told a reporter at CBS

0:33.3

that the fighting was, quote, very complete.

0:37.0

Then he held a press conference where he said the

0:39.4

U.S. had not won enough and that will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.

0:47.6

Finally, Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegeseth, warned that the U.S. Israeli air campaign was

0:53.5

reaching its most intense phase yet.

0:58.8

Meanwhile, inside Iran, where the Supreme Leader was killed just a few days back,

1:03.8

clerics gathered to elect his replacement. The Supreme Leader is a unique figure,

1:10.1

in charge of Iran both spiritually and militarily.

1:13.6

And if Washington's goals seem uncertain, Tehran's goals do not.

1:18.7

The Iranian leadership for a long time has been very clear about certain points.

1:23.6

And the most important of those points are its undying enmity toward Israel and toward the United States.

1:30.0

So that is a real consistency of message that goes way back.

1:35.9

Graham Wood writes for the Atlantic.

1:38.0

I got him on the phone to help explain who Iran's new Supreme Leader is.

1:42.3

The new guy is named Mojtabakhaminenei, and he is the son of the previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

1:50.2

He's 56 years old.

...

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