Breaking History

What does it actually take to break a regime built on martyrdom?

Eli Lake sits down with Haviv Rettig Gur — host of Ask Haviv Anything and one of the deepest thinkers on the Middle East — to assess week five of the Iran war. They trace the ideological DNA of Iran’'s Islamic Republic from the Algerian National Liberation Front to Frantz Fanon to Ali Shariati, and explain why this is a regime designed to treat its own destruction as a form of victory. Plus: what a color revolution in Tehran could mean for Sunni Islamism, Hamas, and the future of the Palestinian question.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What drives someone from an ordinary background into extremism?

In this Breaking History special, journalist Jay Solomon joins Eli Lake to discuss his investigation into American extremist Calla Walsh. 

But this isn’t an isolated story. It echoes a pattern we’ve seen before.

Following the interview, we revisit our episode on “middle-class kids breaking bad,” exploring how individuals from stable, even privileged backgrounds have repeatedly been drawn into violent or extremist movements. We explore the tale of the Red Army Faction and how Ulrike Meinhof went from reporter to terrorist.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I joined The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, who has generously agreed to let us share the conversation here. Andrew and I go way back, and few people are as willing as he is to really go toe-to-toe over our disagreements—especially on Israel and America’s role in the world.

In our discussion, we cover a broad range of history and politics: from the Iran-Contra affair to the Oslo Accords, and the Second Intifada to Iraq, Iran, Hamas, and the current war in Gaza—along with my bar mitzvah speech about nuclear proliferation and early Zionist influences. Of course we bring it to the present day, debating the political, strategic, and moral stakes shaping Washington’s arguments about the war in Iran today. 

Take a listen, and you can find Andrew’s Substack here. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breaking History producer Poppy Damon sits down with Guardian security correspondent Jason Burke to unpack his new book, ⁠The Revolutionists⁠, a sweeping history of the 1970s wave of extremism that transformed global politics. From plane hijackings to hostage crises, Burke traces the radical figures and world leaders who shaped the modern age of terror. What does the 1970s tell us about 2026?

Go to https://surfshark.com/elideal or use code ELIDEAL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Iran’s regime faces mounting internal pressure, one name keeps resurfacing: Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah. But is he a viable future leader, or simply the most recognizable symbol of a free Iran? In this conversation, host Eli Lake and producer Poppy Damon unpack the strange political moment Pahlavi finds himself in—popular with many Iranians, yet viewed skeptically by parts of the opposition and treated cautiously by Washington. Can he unite the stakeholders to bring about democracy? Or is he likely to get in the way of a future without monarchs?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices