Iran in 2009 - UC podcast review

University Channel Podcast (aka UChannel podcast) had professor Bulliet to commemorate the third decade of the Islamist Republic of Iran. Bulliet is the one who also arranged the controversial visit of Ahmedinijad to Columbia University last year. So, this promised to be a podcast one must listen to.

Professor Richard W. Bulliet turns out to be not the gifted speaker we regularly meet in this series. With faltering sentences, he seems a lecturer lost for words and uncertain of what to say. The only reason I persisted in listening was because of the subject. It is not so easy to hear about Iran and get it from a westerner with an unconventional perspective such as Bulliet's.

The point to take home is this: the stability of Iran is possibly in question and the key moment is likely to become the elections in 2009.

More UChannel:
The denials of yesterday,
Nuts and bolts of empire,
Islam meets Europe,
The rise and demise of Palestine,
Alan Johnston.