Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 3/17/26: Top Iran Official Assassinated, WH Panic Over DropSite Report, Yanis Varoufakis on Iran War

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Krystal and Saagar discuss a top Iranian official assassinated, WH panic over DropSite report, Yanis Varoufakis on Iran war.    Yanis: https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis?s=20 Glenn: https://www.youtube.com/@GDiesen1    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. We've got a bunch of big guests in the show, and we've got a bunch of breaking news. So a top Iranian official reported killed. Trump is apparently getting rejected pretty much across the board in terms of his whole straight of Hormuz gambit. Jeremy Scahill is going to join with some important reporting about the negotiations, the lack

of negotiations, the Iranians still saying we have absolutely no interest in any sort of a ceasefire deal. Janus Verafakis is going to join to give us his perspective on how this is all going. We're going to take a look at the likely $100 billion. request for war funding and now that's going to go down to take a look at some public polling and how much the American public Democrats in particular have turned on Israel. Rachel Maddow is offering an absolutely abysmal and embarrassing take on the war, and Glenn Deeson is going to join us for the first time.

Very excited to speak with him. He'll give us a bit of a perspective on how the rest of the world is viewing what's going on here. Yes, before we get to that, we did get some shocking news overnight. Let's go and put this up here on the screen. We had no expectation of winning this, but it turns out that we did. iHeartRadio has called us the best political podcast. So wow, thank you very much. IHeartRadio. It's nice to be partnership with you. Again, we had no influence or whatever on the decision.

We had no idea really that it would happen. We lobbied no one. We lobbied no one. We had no clue. We were informed. We were nominated a few weeks ago. I was like, oh, that's cool. And then, yeah, apparently we won. Found out overnight from our representative. So thank you. Thank you. It's our first time winning, like, some sort of award for the show. So it's kind of cool. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, so thank you. Really, that's only me. possible by everybody here who was all, especially, I guess, listening to this podcast. So seriously, thank you to everybody's listening to this as a podcast. Share an episode with a friend. You can say is iHeartRadio is called Political Podcast. Also, for everybody who has signed up for our membership,

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I think that's good. Let's do the news. All right, let's do the news, shall we? So with all of that huge news breaking overnight, let's go. going to put this up here on the screen. Israel is now announcing that the top Iranian official Ali Larijani and the Basij commander were both killed overnight, according to the Israeli defense minister. They were separate strikes and part of a joint Israeli-American effort. So we have been, of course, tracking a little bit of Larjani since the war began. He's been issuing many of the security proclamations. The financial times here in the story about his death, quote, was one of the most powerful members of the Iranian regime, one of the key civilian

figures leading the Islamic Republic after the killing of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The defense ministers said he had been targeted and killed in an overnight strike. They warned that more assassinations and targeted killings would continue. This is being seen more as a regime collapse effort. Larjani was apparently a key figure in the crackdown on those protests that happened as well as this besieged commander. So this is trying to foment some sort of revolution. inside of the country. However, initial analysis actually shows that this is likely to increase the amount of control that the IRGC and the new Ayatollah will have because he no longer will have any competitors in the security establishment, and that Larjani himself was kind of more of an

independent power base, and this will roll up into the hardline command that has taken over the country. So you could see it a couple of different ways. First and foremost was, quote unquote, revenge, I guess, for the protesters. Same with trying to crack down on the internal security establishment of the country. But second, what is the follow-on effect? Very much like the killing of Kamani is more likely to centralize control into the new Ayatollah. And even if he is injured or he's being controlled, whoever is controlling him will now gain more stature, I think, inside of the country. That's kind of the initial political reaction. Some of the analysis has been going around. Yeah. And, you know, be interested to ask Jeremy about what he makes of this and the significance

and how much of a blow this is for the Iranians. A few things to say about this. Number one, clearly the Americans and Israelis are continuing to pursue this idea. If we just keep on taking out the leadership as they did with Hezbollah, as they did with Hamas, then eventually maybe this thing will crumble. We'll see if they're correct about that. So far, they have not been correct about that. That's what Trump thought would happen in the early days with taking on the Ayatollah, that the whole thing would just sort of collapse after the decapitation strikes. So, you know, the the way the system has been designed and, you know, prepared over decades is that even if the top leadership is taken out, they're still able to persist and able to continue governing the country.

So that's one piece. The other piece of Sagar alluded to, Larjani himself, a very, you know, interesting and contradictory figure. He was a, you know, studied philosophy and math in certain ways. This very, like, idealistic figure in other ways, this incredibly brutal and vicious figure, you was very involved in the crackdown on the protesters, also had been previously very involved in, like, the government propaganda efforts and some, you know, some pretty outrageous propaganda efforts coming from him. So, so in any case, he is taken off the field and we'll talk to

Jeremy about what that may mean going forward. At the same time, you know, we kept in covering Trump has gotten in over his head with the Strait of Hormuz. Apparently, reportedly, he didn't think Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. He thought this whole thing was. would be over in four days. He thought the Iranian government would completely collapse. Obviously, that did not happen. Not only did it not collapse, but they have in effect closed the Strait of Hormuz, at least for the ships that they want to close it for. The Iranians have continued to be able to export oil themselves. Yesterday, Scott Besson came out and said, we're allowing them to export their oil, as if this is, you know, really in our court at this point. They really have

taken control and called the shots in terms of what is going to go through the strait. So Trump making some interesting comments yesterday as he does about, you know, he's kind of all over the place. He's saying, oh, yeah, the coalition of these other countries is coming together. And then at the same time talking about how many countries are reluctant to join in the U.S. effort here for very understandable reasons. Let's go ahead and take a listen to A1. Numerous countries have told me they're on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it. And some are.

And some are countries that we've helped for many, many years. We've protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren't that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me. We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers, great soldiers protecting them from harm's way. And we have done a great job. And when we want to know, do you have any minesweepers? Well, would rather not get involved, sir.

I said, for you mean, for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor. Very few shots are going to be taken because they don't have many shots left. But they said, we'd rather not get involved. I just want the fake news, media and everybody else to remember that that was said because when, you know, I've been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries because I know that we'll protect them. And if ever needed, if we haven't needed help, they won't be there for us. I've just known that for a long period of time, just like I knew about the straight that it would be a weapon, which I predicted a long time ago.

So so far, we don't know of many countries that I think I saw one. Argentina, I believe, signed up and said they were willing to join after we effectively like, you know, rig their elections in favor of. or Malay, but in any case, the European nations have been, and uncharacteristically have found a backbone on here. And the reason is, because they're like, okay, you got yourself into this mess. And if you're going to be escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, you're effectively sitting ducks. I mean, this is not something to be done. It doesn't take a lot of military capability for the Iranians to be able to strike these tankers or whatever ships are trying

to escort them through there. So the Europeans thus far are like, yeah, no, I don't think so. Two reasons the Europeans don't want to do it. Number one, it's massively, massively politically unpopular in Europe. Kier Starrmer, who himself is a political joke, is putting out hype real videos about how he stood up to the big bad United States. And he's like, reform and conservatives wanted to drag us into war. And I stood up and I said, no, we're not. And by the way, that was cooler than the way that he did it. So like the five rendition, you have multiple other European leaders who are like, I don't want so part of this. The second is actually a bigger strategic question. They have to husband their resources.

because their population is getting hit by natural gas, by oil. But remember, they have Ukraine that they care a lot about. And right now, they have to decide specifically on the munitions front whether to continue buying their assets from the United States, passing them on to the war in Ukraine. They care a lot about the Russian front. There's already a fracturing in the political coalition within the EU. The Belgian prime minister came out yesterday and said,

look, guys, maybe we should just normalize relations with Russia. They're like, this isn't working anymore. I know. So the whole world. is moving on right now. So they have a ton of their own considerations on the continent, not to mention lack of political popularity. And their, you know, willingness to take casualties is way lower than the United States. They also, look, I mean, if you're like the Gulf countries, the Gulf countries were said there were some of the best allies of the United States. We

have defense cooperation agreements. They bought a ton of missiles from us. Well, they're furious right now over the lack of political and military defense from the United States. We're topping up Israel with new interceptors and new munitions. And for many of them, they feel as if they were thrust into this war through no choice of their own, or maybe, you know, their political leaders, the monarchs may have supported it, but the ordinary people, their economies, a lot of their investors and others, they're freaking out. And this clip, which we're about to show you, Trump, saying we had no idea that they were going to get hit isn't going to go over so well in the Middle East. Let's take A3 and take a listen. In the last two weeks, they weren't supposed to go

after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked. Nobody expected that. We were shocked except for every independent analyst on the war in Iran, including on this shit.

You could go and look back. Seriously, I mean, many of these streets of Parsley interviews that we've done have aged incredibly well over just the last call. couple of weeks. Canadian women are looking for more. More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce

the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope

you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast and IHeart Radio or wherever. you listen to your podcasts. Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic, Aquarian visionary.

Aquarius is all about freedom-loving and different perspectives. and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius are misunderstood. A son and Venus and Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms on different houses and different places, but just an embracing of the isness of it all.

If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year?

He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wag Ageddon change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishaps, scandals and sagas, both on the track and far away from it,

that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. By the way, what's the cost? Does anybody want to tell me? The real cost is not just all of the dead Iranian civilians, all the civilians in Israel, all of the civilians in Lebanon, all of these like poor migrant laborers who are getting struck or working in Kuwait or Dubai airport. It's also our own American soldiers who we owe the highest responsibility to. So let's go ahead and put A4 up there on the screen. As you guys can see in front of you, the number of U.S. troops wounded in Iran now surpasses 200 across seven different

countries. And I think that hits at home. This is not just one attack. That's what they try to sell it to you as. They're like, oh, it was just one attack on a tactical operation center. No, you have 200 troops who were wounded in seven different countries. You had a medical evacuation flight already from Saudi Arabia from that base or from the tactical operation center, which was hit. You have now seven different countries. 180 have thankfully been able to return to duty, but at least some 10 remain in critical condition. You have 13 Americans, which are now dead in the conflict,

the same number that were killed in Joe Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan. And that's just where things stand as of two to three weeks into the conflict. Remember that we have 2,500 U.S. Marines, which are now on their way to the Middle East. They'll be arriving sometime within the next week. A lot of eyes and ears open for potential ground operations. You have the 80-second airborne who's tactical. What was it? Their training exercise was canceled for potential deployment.

So this is just beginning at this point. No signs of an off-ramp, which is what we're going to talk to Jeremy about. Yeah. And we also learned yesterday, you know, that fire, the laundry fire on the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, which these sailors have been at sea already for like almost a year. They're going to break the record for the longest deployment on, you know, without any sort of a break in a long time. That fire, if we're even buying the official story at this point,

that this was a fire that started in the laundry room, they battled it for 30 hours. 600 sailors and crew members are now without their beds. So they're having to sleep on the floor or on tables. By the way, now there is no laundry facility on this aircraft carrier. So all of these thousands of sailors without the ability, I mean, this is not like life-threatening, but it sounds incredibly horrible and unpleasant after you've been at sea for all of these many months and keep getting extended and extended and

extended. And this is also the ship that was having all the toilet issues. So the whole thing, I mean, it sounds absolutely miserable and this whole thing is breaking down. And they also, you know, they completely undersold this fire from the beginning. And there were a bunch of these sailors that had to be treated for smoke inhalation. Like, this was a serious deal. So this is the sort of thing that you're doing. dealing with as well with this military and we've had, you know, all of these, you know, aircraft

have fallen out of the sky. I'm not really sure why. We're getting an official story. We're not really clear on whether that's accurate either. But, you know, yeah, there's already significant, certainly significant damage in terms of, you know, radars, bad battery systems, bases in the region. And we are now getting a little bit more of a glimpse into what the actual human toll is, which, again, is very different from what they told us.

You cannot believe these people on anything. They just lie routinely. Routinely, they lie about the most basic things, even things that they know will ultimately come out in the end. Yeah, so I spoke to somebody who would know. There's a former U.S. Navy served on board of aircraft carriers. Apparently, and I've talked about this a little bit, about why fire control is so important in the U.S. Navy.

Obviously, it's a ship, fire is bad, right? So one of the things is apparently when fire gets into ventilation, it makes it incredibly difficult to be able to put it out. And that's one of the reasons why it raged. So the official story may be correct, but the point actually remains. First of all, this is not ever supposed to happen. Like this is a disaster. It's almost certainly a result now of this prolonged deployment.

They will likely break the record for a post-Vietnam carrier deployment longest. So what is that? 50 years at some point. They are also being told on board that they are likely to extend at least until May. So it's already March 17. They've got a month and a half left to go. You have another carrier strike group. which is coming to relieve them of duty.

Obviously, these poor guys have been stuck out there. Just imagine, you know, toilets, laundry, fire. I mean, it's $600. I don't know if you've ever seen. I mean, I haven't seen a modern aircraft carrier. I've been on board, you know, some of the ones that are like museums, like in San Diego. It's not a comfortable environment to be living on board for 10 months. In the best of conditions.

In the best of, yeah, that's with decent food and pork calls and all those others. So it's not great from what we're learning so far. And these guys, I mean, these poor, poor service members, on top of, not to mention all of the, you know, it's not just that they're at sea, they're also supporting actual combat operations. So their tone tempo of like operation is probably much more, is much higher having to deal with this at home. Not all of these U.S. troops who have now been injured. I mean, it's already, this is a total nightmare. And it's very obvious that you can see inside of the way that the Trump administration is currently handling this, that they just don't know what to do. And they're trying and scrambling potentially, which is we're going to talk about here with Jeremy, about trying to get some sort of off ramp, like trying to open up negotiations on the Iranian side. But you've also got Israel, which is just like hovering over where they're obviously trying to do regime change. They're invading Lebanon. So every day the war goes on, it just continues to rage. Just this morning, we officially got the news.

Diesel is now $5 a gallon, right? So $5 a gallon, we all live that way under Biden. remember the grocery store inflation, every good in the country that's got to be trucked across. That's it. Boom. Diesel. Also, jet fuel. I think just like I said, Singapore is trading like $200 a barrel. Dubai airspace was just closed yesterday. Closed, like closed. I mean, one of the busiest airports in the world, right? And Qatar, there's a missile interception as of this morning. So it's not like things are turning down. Every day, they're like 95% capacity and all of that have been lowered. Part of the things that you have to pay attention is, let's say it's true, 95% capacity of Iran has gone down.

As we have all now seen with these drones, it only takes one cheap little drone to go into cripple critical oil infrastructure. It only takes one of these things to wipe out a $200 million, you know, radar balloon. I mean, and we've seen all this happen already. And remember, we still don't know the damage. The satellite companies, they're holding the images for two weeks. So two weeks from now, we're going to find out what things look like today. And I'm betting you, it's not nearly as rosy as the Pentagon is making it look like. Yeah, I really learned something about this on October 7th when, you know, these Israelis had built this multi, multi, multi, multi million dollar wall and security with these, you know, cameras that are trained on Gaza and automatic machine gun fire if anyone approaches.

And Hamas, which, you know, far fewer resources than the country of Iran has, was able with a cheap drone to go and take out the camera. and then they were able to break down the wall. Like, that's all it took. And, you know, come in with paragliders. Like, we are in a different era of warfare where, yes, like, you know, militarily, we have all of this capacity. And obviously, we're nuclear armed and they're not. And Israel's nuclear armed and they're not, et cetera.

And we can bomb them from the air relentlessly. We can target their top leaders and take them out over and over and over. Yes, we can do all of that. But the few things that have really made a difference in terms of tilting this in Iran's favor is the fact that, number one, they are willing to take so much more pain than we are. Number two, they understand, they thought about us and where all our vulnerabilities were much more, much more than Trump certainly thought about them and how they would react. And that's where those comments about, you know, oh, I had no idea. They would target the Gulf Arab nations. It's like, you didn't need a military planner to tell you that.

You could just have listened to them. They were broadcasting. This is our plan. This is how we will respond. This is the threat to you. Like, this is what we will do. But because he, you know, didn't bother to take any of this seriously, then he comes in. Oh, my God.

I can't believe they closed the straightforward. Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm dealing with this oil crisis. Oh, my God. I can't believe they're hitting our allies in the region. How did you not think any of this through? It truly is extraordinary. And let me go ahead and put Jeremy's reporting here up on the screen because it speaks to this as well and where they are in the total miscalculation, at least on Trump's part of how this would all go down.

So Iranian officials say that they have been ignoring. They have basically ghosted Wittkoff. He has been privately requesting for them to talk. Trump's special envoy has been texting Iran's foreign minister asking to start. start talks. Tehran says the war will end only when Iran believes it has established long-term deterrence. And so the story here is that Wiccoff is basically like, hey guys, let's check in, let's talk, let's have, you know, discussions. And they're like, no, because you haven't felt enough pain yet, which again is their strategy that they have been broadcasting and

that Trita Parsi told us was likely before this war ever started, that that was the way they're thinking about it. If we don't strike some sort of a blow and cause some significant pain for the Americans and the Israelis, we are just going to be subject to this cycle over and over and over again. So again, this is thoroughly, obviously predictable. Now, the Trump administration has planted a story with Barack Ravid and Axios saying, no, no, no, they reached out to us and we're the ones who aren't ready to deal. I will leave it to you to decide, dear viewer, whether DropSight and Jeremy Scahill are more credible reporters than Barack Ravid over at Axios, who just loves to take whatever the administration gives and running with it.

But, you know, Jeremy's sources are on the record, and the ones with Barack Ravid are anonymous. So all of that being said, we have Jeremy standing by to break down his reporting. So let's get to it. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark.

And in this podcast, we... We interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast and IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hi, this is Joe Wintersstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver.

The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom-loving and different perspectives, and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius are misunderstood. A son and Venus and Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places, but just an embracing of the isness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want to chart side view into how a leading artist

integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Why hasn't a woman formerly participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a dead? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wagageddon change the paddock forever?

That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip. A Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishap, scandals, and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joining us now is Jeremy Skahill, co-founder of DropSight News, great friend of the show. Good to see you, Jeremy. Thanks for having me back. So, Jeremy, we broke down a little bit of your reporting and the White House's denials via

Axios. Why don't you just break down more, if you can, about these alleged communications that Steve Wyckoff and the White House are denying happened and which the Iranians are saying, yeah, they keep reaching out to us and are basically leaving him on red this entire time. You know, I think it was on the third day of the Israeli U.S. bombing of Iran. I started hearing from Iranian officials who were telling me off the record at first. They were saying, it's interesting because a number of third countries have been sending messages to Iran saying that the Trump administration wants to start back-end talks about sort of endgame. And if Iran is interested in having some kind of dialogue.

And my understanding in that early stage was that Iran's political leadership had made a decision that they were not going to talk for one central reason, that they felt that the primary goal in this war was to send a message that the U.S. and Israel can't just bomb Iran every four months and pretend to be engaging in negotiations. And so, you know, they inform those third-party countries that Iran is not interested in talking. And then you started having Trump once he was informed of this,

and this is from the perspective of the Iranians, start saying openly, oh, the Iranians are begging us to talk. the Iranians want to make a deal. I'm not ready to talk to them yet. And then, you know, some days after that, so this was early last week, I was told by a senior Iranian official that Steve Whitkoff had sent WhatsApp messages to Iranian officials, including Abasarachi, the country's foreign minister. And I said, oh, I want to go to Whitkoff and ask him that. That's what I told the Iranians. And they said, well, you know, this is still off the record because we haven't figured out if we're going respond or how we're going to deal with with this. So I was, you know, I was sort of informed of

this for several days. And then I kept pushing the Iranian sources. And I said, I want to go to Whitkoff and ask him about this because Trump keeps saying over and over that the Iranians are begging him to talk. And the Iranian officials were saying, you know, do you, can you imagine Abbas Arachi, the foreign minister of Iran, like texting Steve Whitkoff, the guy who he was supposedly negotiating with when they turned around a bomb? He absolutely has not. And they said, in fact, we're just to figure out like what our diplomatic response is going to be to this. Do we tell him we're not ready or do we just ignore him? And they, what they ended up on was we're not going to respond to him at all. What they have done, though, is they've told, this is what they've told me, that

they've told third party countries that Iran's demands include a ceasefire that would apply to not only Iran, but to Lebanon and Iraq as well, that they want reparations for the damage that has been done in this war and that they want a UN Security Council resolution, but they still aren't at that point because they feel that the deterrence has not been established firmly enough yet to try to raise the costs so high that the U.S. wouldn't consider doing this again in a few months' time. So then the intermediaries from other countries go back and they've told this to Trump. And you know, you get some flashes of reality from Trump sometimes where he's saying, you know, When he says, you know, I think they want to talk, but they're not ready yet.

They're not just around the position. I think part of what he is revealing to the public there is that he's aware that Iran's position is we're not going to engage in a ceasefire right now. And so what happened yesterday was I go to the White House and I sent Steve Wickcalfel WhatsApp message because apparently that's his preferred way of communicating. And I asked, you know, I asked for comment on this. And typically when we go to the White House, they do give us comment, but it'll be, you know, sort of a copy and paste of whatever Trump's latest statement was. They'll say, I refer you to the president's remarks on this.

But in this case, they send this response that read like Trump had dictated it himself for his truth social feed, you know, calling dropside abhorrent and saying that we're carrying water for the Islamic, you know, terrorist regime and that we're engaging in what they called America last behavior. And the only reason that I think it wasn't Trump doing it is because there were no all caps in it. But other than that, it basically was like a true social post. And, you know, there's an old saying in journalism that, you know, you never know that a story is true until it's officially denied. And I think this is a case where they then freaked out about this because it's humiliating. And they go to one of their favorite journalist, Barack Ravid, and they spin the Alice in Wonderland upside down version of this. And it's like they could solve this in two seconds. Show Arachi's text messages where he's begging Steve Whitkoff to talk.

That would be my challenge to them. Okay, Steve Whitcliffe, let's see the text messages and put them out. Because what the Iranians are saying is there aren't any text messages for anyone to put out from their end. Yeah. Well, in the timeline there makes sense too because, you know, you said it was day three where Whitkoff starts reaching out like, hey guys, you up, question mark. And Trump reportedly thought this would be over in four days. So that would be the time period where they're like, all right, we, you know, we killed their leader and we've destroyed our their capabilities.

They have to be willing to capitulate now, right, right? And then, you know, are just completely ignored by them. I wanted to get your reaction, Jeremy, to this news that broke overnight that top Iranian official Ali Larjani and Bastage commander, Gullamraza Soleimani, were both killed overnight. This is according to Israel's defense minister, Katz, in separate strikes. you know, how significant of a blow, if confirmed, how significant of a blow is this to the Iranians? Yeah, I mean, I think it's significant that Israel cats came out and said this rather than it just being speculation or something in the media. But again, Iran has not confirmed this yet. I mean, Ali Larajani is one of the most important figures in Iran going back to the 1990s. And he was involved with nuclear negotiations going back to the 1990s. He's also a scholar of Kant, you know, a high. educated man. He recently was named as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,

which is the most important security apparatus in Iran. But he was, I think, viewed, and I've just been talking to sources in Iran, and they said, if confirmed, what this means is that the Israelis have assassinated one of the figures that would have been a more moderate voice in any discussions that lead to the end of this war or sort of what happens next? And there was some suspicion that I've heard that part of why the Israelis wanted to assassinate Ali Larajani was not just because of his role in the national security apparatus and this war, but also because Trump has been indicating that he may want to just try to make a deal with Iran and may not want to go all the way to completely smashing or dismantling the state.

So it's certainly significant. And I think that the pattern that we've seen is that when figures like Larajani or others who are considered in a more moderate camp, that when they're taken out, the people that replace them tend to take a much harder line. And so, you know, how this is going to impact things. I think this is Netanyahu hoping that another phase opens up where there's uprisings within Iran. We haven't seen any evidence of that yet. but I think the Israelis are very much pushing and hoping that that happens and trying to facilitate that happening. And I think it's also, to an extent, attempt to make sure that there aren't really going to be these kinds of figures around to talk toward the end of the war.

Very much like the Hamas strategy, right? Back in with Gaza. So very much of the playbook, we've all talked about it now a lot over the years. We do want to talk about Wiccoff. Let's put A8 up there on the screen. Apparently, Wiccoff is staunch supporter of Israel. I think we knew that, but apparently counts Miriam Aedelson as a dear friend. He is a custom pager gifted to him by Netanyahu and senior Mossad officials. I have to be honest, Jeremy, I think I misread Wickoff. So, Wickoff obviously, was one of those people who pressured Benjamin Netanyahu. Early on in the Trump administration, he pressured the ceasefire, seemed to be somewhat of a diplomat

or somebody who was diplomatic in the way that he shed some of the preexisting notions about way things should be able to happen, open to talking to anybody to Putin. I said, oh, wow, I appreciate that. I praised him a lot here. Is he showing us his true colors? Is he totally out of his depth? Is the way that the Iranians seem to play it? What's your understanding, having talked to the counterparties on the other side? I mean, I don't know, I don't know that you entirely got it wrong. And you and I talked about Wickcoff at that time when this first started. You know, I think Wickoff is also a manifestation of part of what's happened with Trump as well. In his first term as president, Trump was very nervous

about sort of waging a wider war against Iran. There was great consternation about the decision to assassinate Qasem Soleimani. The neocan wing of the Trump base or that administration was a minority player in the running of the administration. And then Trump 2.0 now, you have the Merriam-Aidelson Netanyahu wing of the MAGA movement that has literally purchased this part of American foreign policy. Trump is not an ideological person. He is a businessman.

I don't believe he's a religious man. I don't believe he believes in much of anything. And so he's sort of been purchased to an extent, bought in in other ways. And I think that he sets the tone for what Wickcoff is going to be. So when Trump was running for president this time, I think genuinely he was telling Whitkoff, you need to force Beebe to do this. And so when those are the deployment orders from Trump to his real estate buddy, I think Whitkoff was a key player in sort of, you know, pushing that Gaza deal through. At the same time, though,

you have Jared Kushner, who is an ideological religious figure that has a different level of connections to the entire Israel situation. And I think that Whitkoff has been radicalized immensely. It's not that he wasn't already a Zionist. It's not that he already didn't have some of these convictions. But I think that those tendencies within Whitkoff were brought out by this whole situation. and he was sort of radicalized to become a fanatical Zionist Israel Firster. And it's just, you know, it shows you what happens when you get put in this meat grinder of ideology. And Netanyahu's been doing this since the 1990s.

And they have really successfully played Whitkoff. And I think that Kushner has also successfully played both Whitkoff and Trump. Interesting. Jeremy, I wanted to know what you make of Trump's increasingly desperate efforts to convince U.S. allies to join him in some fool's errand of attempting to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It seems that, you know, among the many things, certainly he didn't anticipate. He seemed to not believe they would actually close the street. There's also been reporting that a lot of war planners thought that, yeah, it's possible they

close the Strait of Hormuz, but that would be very damaging to them as well. But it seems the Iranians have been able to not fully close the street, be able to pick and choose, this ship can come through. Our exports are going out to China. but if you're an ally of the U.S. or Israel, you're not coming through. You're not going to be able to do what you want to do here. So what do you make of how central this has become to the war effort? I mean, it's extremely central.

And I think, you know, Iran has been wargaming this for many years. In fact, weeks before this war happened, in the month of February, 2026, Iran did war games in the Strait of Hormuz that included operations aimed at shutting it down or attack. any, quote unquote, enemy vessels, military vessels that tried to come into the Strait of Hormuz. So, you know, we don't even have to back up that far. We can say that literally days before this war began, the Iranians were wargaming those types of scenarios in the Strait of Hormuz. I think that, you know, we have to connect this, though, Crystal, to the fact that the marine

expeditionary units are being deployed. That could be anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000 troops. These are sort of the 911 forces of the U.S. military. They may try to take this island, Khark Island, that they bombed repeatedly. 90% of Iran's oil passes through there. Trump says that he hasn't yet decided to bomb the actual oil that's on that island, but you could see discussion about trying to seize that as a territory. Trump's having an enormous difficult time getting any nations to agree to deploy.

The German chancellor, who, you know, has largely acted sort of like, like a poodle for Trump since he became the leader of Germany issued a statement yesterday and multiple German officials said we're not going to get involved with this. They said the Americans and Israelis didn't tell us about this beforehand. They said they didn't need us. So now all of a sudden they want us to go there. It's not a NATO mission. I think if the Trump administration wants to start attempting to escort ships through there,

you're going to be much closer to Iran's coastal territory. You're going to put yourself in range of short-range missile. and you have the possibility of many more Americans dying. I don't think the world really has an appetite for this at all. But, you know, we've seen, and you guys have reported on this, Trump doesn't seem to be fully listening to what military advisors are saying. And, you know, and I think that if they're contemplating putting boots on the ground, then Americans should brace for more coffins coming home draped in the American flag.

And it's shocking to say that you can't rule out that they're contemplating this right now. But it's real. It's true. And the neocon wing of the MAGA movement is in pole position right now in this White House. Very, very, very, very true. Jeremy, thank you, as always for joining us. Keep it up. Dropside news, link down in the description.

We appreciate you, man. Thanks for joining us. Thank you guys for all your work. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are at them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark.

And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about a Traology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men.

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Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Why hasn't a woman formerly participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age? What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wagageddon change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory.

I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on No Grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishap, scandals, and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more on the Iran War, we are joined this morning by Janus Farrafakis. He, of course, is an economist. He's a best-selling author.

He is a former Greek finance minister and also host of the podcast, the econoclast. Great to see you, sir. Good to see you. Very good to see you again. Yeah, of course. So just off the top here, your reaction to the purported goals to the best we know them of this war and how this all seems to be going. Well, it is going abysmally for Donald Trump, whatever his goals were, it is. It is a war that he started without much of a strategy regarding how he's going to end it.

This is not new, of course. It hacks back to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. There is a very long tradition of the United States pursuing its strategy of forever war on behalf of the military industrial complex. It works really very well for those who are selling guns and bombs and missiles. It doesn't work very well for the American people. It doesn't work at all well for the rest of the world. So on the altar of a forever war that suits the military industrial complex

and now the AI industrial complex or military complex, we are caught in a conundrum that is jeopardizing the well-being of the vast majority of the human species. And we have a Donald Trump who is slowly realizing that he has fallen headlong into a trap of his own making. My assessment is that Trump was actually winning on all fronts up until he made that ridiculous decision, essentially, to fall into Netanyahu's Trump, of fighting Netanyahu's war. And from now on, there is nothing can save Donald Trump politically. One of the things we wanted to talk to you about, Janus, in particular as your expertise

with respect to Europe, many of the other U.S. allies. We have been stunned already to see an almost total rejection by the United States' request for assistance in the Strait of Hormuz. Guys, we can go ahead and put B1 up here on the screen. We have a summary of all of the U.S. allies. Japan says it currently does not plan to dispatch naval vessels. We can go to the next one. Australia said it will not do so. South Korea says we will not do so.

The United Kingdom said they will not be drawn into a war with Iran. the European foreign ministers said they will discuss it but are not expected to expand its role. The Germans explicitly say they will not participate. The Danes saying that they're ahead of the EU meeting. It would be wise to keep an open mind. But as a small country, we are not a large maritime nation, but we don't expect to do so. Italy. And then of course, Greece as well says it will not engage in military operations.

It's pretty stunning to say that not even a single one of these people are willing to step up. I'm curious for your reaction as to why this time they're willing to stand up to the United States and what it means for the U.S. and for Europe. I wish you were right that they were standing up against the United States. They're simply refusing to send ships to a suicide mission, to a mission that is bound to fail. Because let's face it, even if all those naval vessels of every possible, you know, flag from Japan all the way to Norway, where to accumulate to amass at the state of Homoos. Well, this is a very asymmetrical situation.

The Iranians only need to send one or two drones past these vessels and they will succeed in what they are interested in, which is to make sure that the insurance costs of these vessels are so high that it's uneconomical for them even to try to pass the... the straits. But, you know, where I disagree, and I wish you were right, is that there, you know, are European leaders, the Japanese, the Canadians, the Australians, are standing up to the United States.

They're not doing no such thing. So, you know, take Chancellor Merz of Germany, a typical example of someone lacking the moral spine and the intelligence to oppose Donald Trump, Washington, D.C., On the one hand, he says, oh, we're not going to take part in this. Of course, they won't take part of this. But at the same time, he allows Rammstein, the largest American military base in Germany, to be used in order to bombard a United Nations member state and to therefore, you know, become complicit. Germany is complicit in the violation of international law.

The Brits are doing the same thing with their bases in Cyprus. the Arab states, you know, they still maintain the United States military on their ground and therefore they're opening themselves up to missile and drone attacks by Iran. My country, Greece, our pathetic government, sent a frigate and F-16s to Cyprus to do what? To protect the British sovereign ground of the Akrotiri base, which the United States has been using in order to attack. attack Iran illegally. So our governments are quite pathetic. Let me be very straightforward on this. On the one hand, they are complicit in the United States attack on Iran. They may not like it,

but they are complicit. They're choosing to be complicit in it. And on the other hand, they say, well, we're not going to say any vessels to achieve the unachievable. I'm curious for your view on the likely economic fallout. We can put B3 up on the screen. This was an analysis for the GCC member states. Goldman Sachs predicts that if this war goes on another two months, they're going to see massive falls in their GDP, Qatar, and Kuwait in particular. But obviously, there are global implications for the strait continuing to be more or less closed reverberations throughout all of the economies of the world.

What do you expect if this war continues to drag on as it appears likely to do, given that Iran has projected that they are nowhere near ready to pursue a ceasefire? Well, you don't need to be an economic genius to know that the Gulf states, their business model is finished. That the United States and Israel have killed it. They've killed their economies. And it's not something that has just been done now. Let's not forget that this has been happening now for five, six years. Remember when Trump, in the dying days of his first administration, took out a military commander of Iran, Soleimani. Soleimani was just about to meet his Saudi Arabian counterpart to strike a deal, a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. After that, you know, essentially what the Americans with the support and the egging on of Israel were trying to do was to stop a detent between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

That didn't work because a couple of years later, it was the United Arab Emirates that opened an embassy in Tehran. Later on, it was Qatar. It was even Saudi Arabia in 2003. Essentially, Israel has been at it now for five, six years. What do I mean by being at it? They've been trying to ensure that there's no detent between the... Emirates between the Gulf states and Iran. And that's the main reason why they entrapped Donald Trump into this attack on Iran

at the cost of decimating the business model of the Gulf states. Netanyahu has succeeded with the complicity, explicit thinking. I don't know whether it was something that Trump understood that he was doing, but nevertheless, he was playing the Netanyahu game of, wrecking both the deton between Iran and the Gulf states and the Gulf state economists. But since you're asking me about the economic implications, the economic implications awful in your own country. I mean, if you are a MAGA blue-collar worker driving 150 miles a day to go to your bullshit job in order to make ends meet and you have to pay these gas prices, you're destroyed. I mean, Trump came out the other day with an inane comment that the United States is a net oil and gas producer, which is true.

And therefore, he said, since, you know, we are a net exporter, if the price of fossil fuels goes up, will we make more money? Well, who are you to say that? Yes, who makes me? Have you asked your own base? Are they shareholders in Chevron? Are they shareholders in Exxon? They're not. They, you know, things were bad enough.

They elected you because of the. unaffordability crisis or affordability crisis, and now affordability has gone into the dustbin of history. And it's not just that. You know, last year, I was one of the commentators, economists, politicians, who were arguing that, you know, that his tariffs were not that big a deal, unlike other economists who were pulling the hair out. Maybe it's because I don't have much hair.

I wasn't pulling mine out over the tariffs. And the reason why those tariffs, and you remember the Liberation Day spasm in the stock markets, didn't last long, and very soon after that, markets were gung-ho again and they became bullish again. Well, the reason is because back then, the situation was very different to what it is now. The war that he has unleashed against Iran, even if it ends today, is going to have long-term effects. The damage is permanent. It is not temporary. Liberation Day. Remember last year you had in your country in the United States you had a massive

wave of investment due to AI. Well, this is going to be stamped now. Why? Because AI is very energy intense, very energy hungry. And with energy going through the roof, the AI investment spree is severely circumscribed. Then at the same, there's another. element to this. Last year, this time, around Liberation Day, if you remember, the Fed was in the process of cutting interstates, not as fast as Donald Trump wanted them, but they were cutting interstates. Well, now, with yields going through the roof, you know, 10-year bond yields in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Britain, in Britain, in Frankfurt, in Brussels, In Tokyo, all the West Central banks are either slowing down the rate at which they're cutting interest rates

or they're actually going to start increasing them. We already saw in Australia an increase in interest rates. So, you know, this is a perfect storm. You have energy going up, AI investment tapering, interest rates going up. As I said, even if the war stops today, which it can't because, you know, Donald Trump has no way of de-escalating. unless he opens the state of Hormuz, which the Iranians are never going to allow, because the Iranians, you know,

they felt an existential crisis. They were attacked, their leaders, whatever you may think of Hamani. He was the leader of a member state of the United Nations, and he was murdered by the Israelis and the Americans. And, you know, they are saying no. I mean, we're not going to let you come back at us. We are going to bring you down,

even if it means bringing down the Gulf states, even if it means damaging significantly, Bangladesh and India. You know, these are countries in South Korea. These are countries that rely on the natural gas and the oil that goes through the states of Hormuz. So, you know, Donald Trump, like George W. Bush before him, like LBJ in the 1960s, has been caught into a trap of his own making, and he doesn't know how to wriggle out of it. Giannis, you have described this previously as a breakdown in the neoliberal economic order. What do you see exactly the different pieces that make this happen?

Well, this breakdown goes back to 2008, the great financial collapse, to Lehman Brothers. You know, American-led dollarized capital is never recovered fully from 2008. You have to remember that between 2008 and the end of the pandemic in 2022, the central banks of the West, pumped out $35 trillion, that is $35,000 billion, that was quantitative easing, if you remember, while at the same time imposing austerity to the vast majority of people in the United States, in Europe, in Britain. So if you have this combination of austerity for the many, which depresses demand, and therefore in turn, the secondary effect is that it depresses investment in productive machines,

in, you know, real stuff. And at the same time, you print $35 trillion and you give it to the financiers who give it to big business that use it to buy back their own shares. So asset prices go up, but there's no investment. And the only people who invest in this world of ours, essentially are the Chinese on one hand

and big tech on the other, who are not producing anything except the power through, you know, Amazon.com and Uber and so on to reach deep into your pockets and take money out, which then is not invested into productive capacity. It is invested into more machines that create more power for the Jeff Bezos of the world to put their long arms deeply into your pocket.

You realize that this is not a sustainable macroeconomy. And the result is that, you know, we have stagnation in the West. The carnage that Donald Trump said he saw in the working classes of the United States, which was there. You know, he did have a point when he was raising this. Of course, now he's making it far worse. He invoked that sense of carnage amongst the blue-collar workers to get elected to the White House in order to enrich big tech

and the military complex and, you know, essentially promote the agenda of Benjamin Netanyahu and his forever wars in the Middle East. Let me get your reaction to something that Ray Dalio was writing about. So he says his reading of history and sense of what is happening now leads him to believe that if the U.S. were to lose in this way, in that way specifically being unable to take control, retake control of the Strait of Hermuz, there would be a significant risk that losing control of Hormuz

would be for the U.S. what the Suez Canal crisis was for Great Britain in 1956, and analogous defeats were for the Dutch Empire in the 18th century, in the Spanish Empire in the 17th century. The pattern of events that leads to the breakdown of empires is almost always the same. Do you see this war with Iran as existential for the U.S. Empire and the current existing world order? I think it's far-fetched to make such gross predictions at the moment. Let's not forget that we've had many prognostications in the past of the Department. of America's hegemony in the late 1960s when America, for the first time after the

1900s went from being a surplus country to being a deficit country. When Richard Nixon in August of 1971 blew up the Bretton Wood system, which was the pride and joy of American politicians and American finances and American diplomats and economists. Again, back then, in the late 60s, early 70s, people were procrastinating the end of American hegemony. America has lost almost every war that he has waged since Vietnam. Every war, you know, begins with claims of mission accomplished. And then very soon after that, ends up in a quagmire from which the United States extricates itself sometimes with, you know,

sometimes very ignominiously. Remember the helicopter departing from the American embassy inside? gone or similarly under Biden from Kabul. So let's not rush into conclusions. There's no doubt that I mean all empires at some point collapse or Wayne. It's true about all the empires that you mentioned, the Dutch Empire, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire. But, you know, the American Empire has shown a remarkable capacity to increase its hegemony at the same time as it is. depletes its soft power as well as its industry.

After 1971, we had a remarkable phenomenon. And this is the result of the Nixon shock of August 1971. America went deeper into the red. And the more into the red the United States went, both in terms of its trade deficits and its federal budget deficit, the more hegemonic it became. That has never happened before to any empire. Every empire that got into the red very soon after that,

waned and died. The United States because of the power, the exorbitant privilege of the dollar, because, you know, sometimes this is a paradox, but it ceases to be a paradox. Once we start looking into it,

people talk to me about de-dollarization and the way in which the dollar is going to be thrown off its throne. Well, you know, I ask them the question, okay, now, what is it that keeps the dollar hegemony today? And the answer is, it's enemies.

So, you know, China doesn't want to see the dollar being dethroned. Why? Because they have $4.5 trillion in savings. So, you know, if you had your savings in a Swiss bank account, would you want to see Swiss banks go under? No, you wouldn't. So, you know, the Chinese are the real adults in the room at the moment. And they're doing whatever it takes in order to stop Trump from destroying American hegemony.

Not because they are philanthropic towards the Americans, but because, you know, they have their savings in US dollars. for the time being. They are slowly shifting their savings away from it. Now, when a significant part of the world, including Saudi Arabia, including India and so on, shift their savings away from the dollar system, that's when the American Empire will start withering. Lastly, sir, from me on a different but related matter, Cuba is being threatened directly by Trump. He says, oh, I'm just going to take it. Their electrical grid has reportedly suffered a complete and total collapse, according to the country's power operator. Obviously, this puts thousands of people's lives at risk.

The island is effectively under a U.S.-led embargo doing to them somewhat of what we did in Gaza as well. What do you make of what is happening to Cuba right now, what we're doing to Cuba right now, and how this fits into whatever Trump's aims are around the world? the Trump administration is committing a crime and international violation of international law and basic moral standards by what it is doing to Cuba. Whatever you may think of the Cuban regime, it is clear, but given that it doesn't have any support from anywhere. Long gone are the days when Cuba could rely on the Soviet Union, China, Russia, they may pay lip service

to Cuba, the fact that the people of Cuba remain broadly in support of the system of government that they have, broadly in support with a lot of criticisms and a lot of moaning and groaning and so on.

But nevertheless, the fact that this regime is in Cuba is still there. Just goes to show that it does have still support The idea that somehow to go back to the pre-Castro era would be liberation, is an abomination. Remember that before Castro's revolution, Cuba was effectively annexed by the mafia,

you know, by prostitution, by drug cartels. And so starving a whole population in order to force them to overthrow a government that does have an inter-temporal support is just an awful abomination of a crime. Now, Gaza, of course, is going to stigmatize our generation independently of our politics.

In the next 100, 200 years, people will think of us as a generation which allowed the genocide in Gaza to continue, and to continue even after the supposed ceasefire, because it's going on as we speak now. By other means, through starvation, through denying them. You know, they're still operating on children

without anesthetics, because they're the early army does not allow, as we speak, anesthetics to go into Gaza. Unbelievable. Well, it may not take an economic genius to figure out some aspects here, like oil prices going up is going to be bad, but we're very fortunate and glad to have an economic genius to help us sort through these many things. Giannis Verifogas, thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you, sir. My pleasure. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn.

A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Good people. What's up? What's up? It's Questlove. Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation with an actress and producer, Jamie Lee Curtis, from routines to recovery, true lies, and a certain Jermaine Jackson music video. Jamie's real and raw, and it's something I really admire about her. I am so happy that I'm the head bitch in charge at 67, that I have the perspective that I have at my age to really be able to put, all of this into context.

Listen to the Questlove show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than no grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delight

decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.