The protests in Iran.
Tangle
Isaac Saul
4.7 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In late December, protesters in Tehran, Iran, took to the streets over rising costs and economic conditions in the country. Larger demonstrations erupted across Iran in the following days, with crowds gathering in major cities and provincial centers to protest economic conditions, government restrictions, and broader grievances with the country’s political system. Iranian authorities responded with a mix of violent suppression and internet disruptions; a spokesman for the Iranian government has claimed the unrest is driven in part by foreign interference. President Donald Trump said the United States supports the Iranian people’s right to protest and threatened Iran not to harm protesters, posting on social media on Friday, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. |
| 0:08.4 | Tangle. |
| 0:10.4 | Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. And welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of our take. I'm senior editor, Will Kayback. |
| 0:32.9 | We started off the week talking about the major story in the world, which was the U.S. operation over the weekend to capture and remove Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and bring him to the United States. |
| 0:46.2 | So we've naturally had a lot of discussion of topics involving foreign affairs and foreign policy, and that's going to continue today, because we are going to be breaking down |
| 0:55.6 | the protests in Iran. These are protests that broke out toward the end of last year and have continued |
| 1:02.1 | and escalated in recent days, and now President Trump is threatening that the United States |
| 1:07.3 | could become involved in some capacity. So we're going to be looking at the origins of the current protests, |
| 1:13.8 | some of the ways that they are similar and differ from past nationwide protests in Iran, |
| 1:19.6 | and the prospect for U.S. involvement in what that could mean for this issue as a whole. |
| 1:24.2 | Before we jump in, I want to flag our Friday edition this week. It's a bit of a tangled |
| 1:28.6 | tradition. The first Friday edition of January, we use that piece to reflect on our coverage from |
| 1:34.4 | the previous year. So we review our takes. We assess the things that we got right and wrong. And then we |
| 1:40.6 | give ourselves a letter grade. And at the end, we give a cumulative grade point average. |
| 1:46.3 | So this year, we're going to continue that tradition with the added element of reviewing some of the takes from writers on the staff other than Isaac, which will be a first for this year. |
| 1:56.5 | And as we have put this together, I can say it is a really fun and also a valuable exercise to do some reflecting on the past year and also take some of that analysis forward into our coverage of these issues in 2026. |
| 2:08.2 | So keep an eye out for that edition coming on Friday. |
| 2:11.7 | And if you are not a premium podcast listener, you will need to upgrade to get access to the full thing. |
| 2:16.7 | So if you're interested |
| 2:17.7 | in getting that full access, just make sure that you upgrade by Friday. All right, now I'm going to |
| 2:22.9 | pass it over to John to set the stage for today's topic and get into what people are saying |
| 2:27.5 | from across the political spectrum. And then I will be back with my take. John, over to you. Thanks, Will, and welcome, everybody. Here are |
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