While the United States is on the brink of military action in Iran, Iran itself may be on the brink of something far bigger. U.S. forces are repositioning. Allies are on alert. And in Tehran, a crippled regime already at war with its own people is threatening retaliation against the United States. In this urgent episode of The Iran Breakdown , Mark is joined again by Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh to break down what a U.S. strike would actually mean — militarily, strategically, and for the Ir...
Jan 14, 2026•31 min
Iran Breakdown -ers, we're pleased to introduce you to Generation Jihad , a podcast from FDD's Long War Journal hosted by Bill Roggio. It's January 12, 2026, day 16 of the Iran protests. Bill hosts Mark on Generation Jihad to discuss whether this is the moment. Iran protest resources We're tracking the Iran protests at fdd.org/iranprotests . If you're new to The Iran Breakdown , welcome. Mark's interview with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi should be your next watch. Follow FDD's Iran experts on X, li...
Jan 12, 2026•38 min
The strong-as-ever Iranian people are back on the streets, protesting against the weak-as-ever regime in the shadow of the 12-Day War. Recorded live on X Spaces on Thursday, January 8, 2026 as events unfolded, this episode of The Iran Breakdown brings you a real-time conversation with Mark Dubowitz, Behnam Ben Taleblu, and Janatan Sayeh as they assess what’s different about this protest wave, why fear inside Iran may be breaking, and how years of political repression, economic collapse, and envi...
Jan 09, 2026•36 min
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. Israel’s 12-day war with Iran upended years of assumptions and may have rewritten the rules of deterrence — but the aftermath could prove more dangerous than the war itself. As Tehran absorbs the shock of defeat, it now faces a stark choice: regroup, retaliate, or retreat. The regime’s next move will determine whether this war was a turning point — or merely an intermission. Retired Maj. Gen. Tal Kelman is one of Israel’s most accomplished fighter pilots a...
Dec 22, 2025•58 min•Season 2Ep. 14
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. We're bringing you another riveting episode from our sister podcast, Foreign Podicy , repackaged for Iran Breakdown followers: Behnam Ben Taleblu, Senior Director of FDD’s Iran Program, is joined by former senior U.S. intelligence official Norman Roule to assess Iran’s post–12-Day War reality, including the gap between regime propaganda and mounting internal pressure — and what this volatile moment might reveal about the Islamic Republic’s next moves....
Dec 16, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 13
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. With the regime reeling from military humiliation, economic decay, and growing defiance at home, Mark sits down with frontline journalist David Patrikarakos to cut through Tehran’s spin to explain what’s really happening inside the Islamic Republic. From the collapse of Iran’s nuclear prestige to the widening cracks in its coercive power, this conversation digs into what’s real, what’s collapsing, and what may come next. A weakened regime. A restless popul...
Nov 19, 2025•51 min•Season 2Ep. 12
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. Before new episodes of The Iran Breakdown return (soon!), we’re bringing you a riveting discussion from our sister podcast, Foreign Podicy, featuring FDD's Behnam Ben Taleblu in dialogue with Dr. Ali Ansari — one of the world’s foremost scholars of modern Iran. In a sweeping, incisive discussion, they trace the forces now reshaping the Islamic Republic after the 12-Day War: a regime struggling with a crisis of legitimacy, the weaponization of Iranian natio...
Nov 14, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 11
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. A new axis is rising — forged not in friendship but in shared hatred of the West. Putin and Khamenei have sealed a 20-year pact: Iranian drones rain over Ukraine, Russian diplomats shield Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, and together they’re plotting to shatter the U.S.-led order. Mark Dubowitz and Clifford D. May break down this dangerous alliance from imperial rivalries to today’s coordinated campaign to weaken America, divide its allies, and resurrect their ...
Oct 01, 2025•53 min•Season 2Ep. 10
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. One of America’s top sanctions experts, Miad Maleki, now a senior advisor at FDD, joins Mark Dubowitz to pull back the curtain on the Islamic Republic’s mafia state — a regime that controls every corner of the economy, launders terror money through “charities,” and weaponizes humanitarian channels to fund global terror. They break down how U.S. financial power crippled Tehran’s networks, why the myth of “moderating Iran through wealth” is a deadly illusion...
Sep 27, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 9
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. U.S.–Israeli coordination during the 12-Day War critically damaged Iran’s nuclear program and flipped deterrence on its head. Now, Israeli strikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar have sent shockwaves across the region — and a strong message to Tehran. Washington’s latest show of strength? The National Energy Dominance Council. Established by Trump and co-architected by today’s guest during his most recent White House tour, it ends decades of regime oil bl...
Sep 17, 2025•58 min•Season 2Ep. 8
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. One is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. The other is the world’s most powerful dictatorship and greatest long-term threat facing the United States. What happens when they join forces? Mark Dubowitz sits down with Craig Singleton (FDD) and Grant Rumley (Washington Institute, formerly FDD) to unpack the dragon–mullah alliance. From oil deals, weapons transfers, Belt and Road projects and AI-powered repression, to a strategy designed to undermine ...
Sep 03, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 7
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. Washington has wasted decades chasing pauses and half-measures. But as Mark Dubowitz and Brigadier General Jacob Nagel argue, the only answer to Iran’s nuclear blackmail is total dismantlement — no delay, no suspension, no enrichment, no deal that leaves Tehran’s program intact. From Israel’s 12-Day War against Iran’s nuclear and missile arsenal to the fatal flaws of the JCPOA, Mark and Jacob break down why time is running out, why negotiations can’t be tr...
Sep 03, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 6
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. Missiles cripple armies, but sanctions topple regimes. Juan Zarate, the strategist who pioneered U.S. financial warfare, joins Mark to break down how sanctions and isolation bled Iran’s economy and forced concessions—and how the dollar became Washington’s weapon of choice against Tehran, reshaping the regime’s choices and the future of American power. Together, they unpack how the US turned the global financial system into a battlefield, cutting off Iran’s...
Aug 20, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 5
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. What did the 12-Day War reveal about the Islamic Republic — and about us? Host Mark Dubowitz sits down with his FDD colleague Brad Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP), to break down what the 12-Day War taught us about American military and political power — how it’s wielded, where it’s failing, and what comes next. They map Iran’s battlefield failures and its deepening ties to Russia, China, and North Korea — the ...
Aug 06, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 4
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. In Part II of their conversation, Mark Dubowitz and Reuel Marc Gerecht dive into what the 12-Day War exposed about the Islamic Republic and why Iran’s leaders, even after decades of hostility, were caught flat-footed. From the failures of counterintelligence to the delusions of anti-Semitic ideology, they break down how the regime misjudged Israeli capabilities, misunderstood American politics, and underestimated both. Through his on-brand blending of spyc...
Aug 06, 2025•37 min•Season 2Ep. 3
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. Mark Dubowitz sits down with Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Iranian-targets officer in the CIA turned FDD resident scholar, to discuss the covert odyssey that is his career. From the origins of his fascination with Iran to what ultimately became an obsession — one that compelled him to smuggle himself into the country — they spend Part I of the conversation breaking down the hard-won insights that shaped Reuel’s expertise on the Islamic Republic. In Part II,...
Jul 23, 2025•46 min•Season 2Ep. 2
📺: Watch this episode on YouTube here. Mark Dubowitz is joined by former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney to break down the complex Saudi–Iran stalemate — from the 1979 Siege of Mecca and Khomeini’s revolution, which forced Riyadh into a hard-line Sunni revival and Tehran into expansionist zeal, to today’s regime-backed Houthis raining fire into Saudi Arabia from Yemen, with China’s covert diplomacy maintaining a brittle détente. Already fragile relations hang by a thread — and on...
Jul 23, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In the last week, U.S. and Israeli forces have hit the heart of the Islamic Republic’s power from Fordow and Natanz to Evin Prison and the Basij headquarters. Khamenei has gone dark. The Islamic Republic is on the defensive. But moments like this can go two ways: collapse or crackdown. Is this the moment the opposition seizes — or one the regime survives? Mehdi Parpanchi is one of the sharpest voices covering Iran today and the executive editor of Iran International, the 24/7 Persian-language ch...
Jun 25, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 16
The shadow war is over. This weekend, the United States took direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program for the first time, in a coordinated operation with Israel that targeted the regime’s most heavily fortified enrichment sites. The strikes were historic. The question now: Did they actually work? What was hit — and is anything still operational? Host Mark Dubowitz is joined by David Albright — president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security and one of t...
Jun 23, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Mossad strikes inside Iran. Top scientists and IRGC leaders are dead. Mark Dubowitz and Eyal Hulata, Israel’s former national security advisor and 23-year Mossad veteran, break down Israel’s boldest op yet—and what happens if the job isn’t finished. Our intro and outro music samples (with artist's permission) Liraz Charhi's single, "Roya" — check out the full version of the song and the meaning behind it here: https://youtu.be/1Ab4XFaWnOk?si=aIdBdvY1mkMiQPN9
Jun 18, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 14
To unpack the latest developments in Israel's ongoing operation against Iran's nuclear infrastructure, Chief Executive Mark Dubowitz hosts a special live edition of FDD's The Iran Breakdown with Israeli journalists Barak Ravid and Nadav Eyal.
Jun 15, 2025•53 min•Season 1Ep. 13
About the Episode In 2015 while serving in the Obama administration, Dan Shapiro supported the Iran nuclear deal. Mark Dubowitz led the fight to stop it. A decade later, Iran is a nuclear threshold state. The regime has enriched enough uranium for multiple bombs, deterrence has broken down, and Washington still hasn’t figured out how to stop a nuclear Iran. Today, Mark and Dan are in the same strategic corner—not because the politics have shifted but because reality has. And they're both asking ...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 12
About the Episode Mehdi Yahyanejad was raised in the Islamic Republic. Now, he's fighting it from the outside... with code. From founding the digital platform that helped power Iran’s Green Movement in 2009 to coordinating resistance through online activism, Mehdi has seen firsthand how technology empowers dissidents and fuels regime resistance. As the Islamic Republic faces external challenges coupled with internal decay, the regime is cracking. Mehdi and Mark discuss how the right digital tool...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 11
About the Episode Liraz Charhi is an Israeli artist with deep Iranian roots, and her voice is shaking the walls of the Islamic Republic. Known for her role on the hit Apple TV+ series Tehran, Liraz joins Mark Dubowitz to reveal how her art became real-life defiance: from secretly collaborating with Iranian women banned from singing, to recording underground albums across encrypted apps, and turning her song "Roya" — a song you're familiar with, as it's the theme music to this podcast series — in...
May 28, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 10
About the Episode Host Mark Dubowitz is joined by author Roya Hakakian to trace the Islamic Republic’s decades-long war on dissent — both inside Iran and across the globe. Roya shares her personal journey from a hopeful 12-year-old during the 1979 revolution to a refugee, writer, and fierce advocate for democracy. At the heart of their discussion is the Mykonos trial, the landmark 1997 case in Berlin that exposed Tehran’s direct role in assassinating Iranian dissidents on European soil and force...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 9
About the Episode Host Mark Dubowitz is joined by Behnam Ben Taleblu , senior director of FDD's Iran Program and author of Arsenal: Assessing Iran's Ballistic Missile Program , for a masterclass on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s expansive — and still growing — weapons arsenal and the central role it plays in Tehran’s broader military strategy. From the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile and drone programs, military doctrine, and global proliferation links with North Korea, China, and Russia — ...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 8
About the Episode In this episode of The Iran Breakdown, host Mark Dubowitz continues to expose and examine Tehran’s proxy wars. This time, we unravel Tehran’s relationship with the Houthis in Yemen; the Shi’a militias in Iraq; and Hamas in Gaza, specifically looking at the Regime’s hand in the October 7 attack against Israel. Admiral Mark Montgomery, Bill Roggio, and Beni Sabti, join Mark to scrutinize the Islamic Republic's weaponization of these militias to project power and carry out its age...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 7
About the Episode It's the world’s most dangerous nuclear standoff. Can President Trump get Iran to dismantle its nuclear program — or is Tehran just playing for time? In this episode of The Iran Breakdown , Mark sits down with award-winning journalist Barak Ravid for an insider’s look at the nuclear talks now underway in Oman. From enrichment red lines and snapback deadlines to Israel’s strategic calculus and Trump’s next move, Mark and Barak break down hard truths behind the headlines surround...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 4 min
About the Episode Hezbollah is not a rogue actor. It’s a tool of the Islamic Republic. That’s because Iran doesn’t just fund terror — it runs a global terror empire. And Hezbollah is the crown jewel. In this episode of The Iran Breakdown , host Mark Dubowitz sits down with Dr. Matthew Levitt, a top authority on Hezbollah and Iran’s proxy warfare, to break down how Hezbollah operates as Iran’s most powerful proxy; its deep involvement in terror plots, weapons trafficking, and criminal finance; th...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 7
About the Episode Mark Dubowitz sits down with journalist Jay Solomon to unpack the new round of U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations and trace the arc from Obama’s secret backchannels to Trump’s second shot at a deal — raising the question: are we about to do the fatally flawed, Obama-era JCPOA all over again? They unpack the early U.S. concessions that shaped the first deal, Iran’s global terror playbook, and what the new talks reveal about the regime’s leverage — and ours. They also discuss Iran’s ...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 6
