When America admired Iran, plus what are conservative environmentalists fighting for?

About this episode

The episode explores the historical relationship between the U.S. and Iran and the values of young Republican conservationists.

Historian and author John Ghazvinian argues that the past fifty years of hostility between the U.S. and Iran are an exception in a much longer relationship marked by fascination, cooperation, and mutual admiration. And an American journalist embeds with a group of young Republican conservationists, to try to pin down what they really value. Guests John Ghazvinian, historian, former journalist and author of America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present Gaby del Valle, journalist, article in Harper's Magazine about the American Conservation Coalition

People in this episode

Guests: John Ghazvinian, Gaby del Valle

Topics covered

• U.S.-Iran relations
• conservative environmentalism
• historical analysis
• political cooperation
• journalism

Keywords

• U.S. Iran relations
• conservative environmentalists
• John Ghazvinian
• Gaby del Valle
• political history
• environmental conservation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harper's Magazine

Books & works: America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present

More episodes of Late Night Live — Full program podcast

• 'Serbia's Iron Lady' unrepentant for war crimes, plus how humans read faces · June 11, 2026 · 55 min
• Saving the Sepik river, and remembering the Soweto uprising · June 10, 2026 · 55 min
• Ian Dunt's UK, America's 'masculinist' movement, and could Switzerland cap its population? · June 9, 2026 · 54 min
• Finishing La Sagrada Familia, plus why people still love Spam · June 8, 2026 · 55 min
• How Australia changed course on drug policy, and the forgotten boat people of East Timor · June 4, 2026 · 54 min
• Is Muskism the new Fordism? Plus, the maverick psychiatrist who studied life after death · June 3, 2026 · 55 min