As the Trump administration tries to strike a deal curtailing Iran's nuclear program, I turned to Dr. Sharona Mazalian Levi, an Iran expert and proud Persian Jew, to try to take us past the headlines and political elites to the conditions and hopes of ordinary Iranians.

Dr. Mazalian paints a dire picture. Desperate shortages of clean water, electricity and gas, a collapsed currency, a third of the population under the poverty line, an oppressive religious police, the highest rate of executions in the world, severe air pollution and environmental degradation -- and a regime more interested in exporting its "revolution" than tackling any of these problems.

Iran, one of the most energy-rich places on Earth, is "a poor nation in a rich country."

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A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur

Episode 11: Iran is imploding - A conversation with Dr. Sharona Mazalian Levi

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Episode 11: Iran is imploding - A conversation with Dr. Sharona Mazalian Levi