Iranian diaspora debate with moral urgency.
Roqe frames Iranian diaspora conversation as a matter of urgency, not background interest. Recent episodes move between Iran Rises political roundtables, arguments over propaganda and diplomacy, and arts interviews shaped by exile and freedom of expression.
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Roqe is an Iranian diaspora show that speaks from inside a sustained argument about power, memory, and political legitimacy. Its recent episodes are dominated by the Iran Rises series, where the central question is not simply what governments are doing about Iran, but whether Iranians themselves are being erased from the debate. The tone is grave and insistent. Episodes often begin with a thesis, repeat it from several angles, and then invite guests into a conversation already charged with moral stakes. The show is especially focused on the Islamic Republic, the IRGC, censorship, executions, internet blackouts, foreign fighters, propaganda, and the political meaning of any proposed deal. It does not treat those issues as abstractions. It connects them to young Iranians in the streets, families living under surveillance, diaspora rallies, and the danger of outside commentators speaking over people whose communications have been cut off. War and diplomacy are present throughout. So are Donald Trump, Israel, Khamenei, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, and debates over succession, opposition leadership, negotiations, and regime survival. Roqe is skeptical of language that makes repression sound technical. Terms such as escalation, proportionality, regional balance, and de-escalation are repeatedly challenged when they appear to push human rights out of view. The show can be confrontational. It is also deeply shaped by diaspora memory, especially the feeling that narratives about Iran are often captured by states, media panels, or ideological camps before ordinary Iranians are heard. Recent guests include Lisa Daftari, Shahram Kholdi, Ali Hamedani, Shayan Sami'i, Sadeq Bigdeli, Behnam Taleblu, Andrew Ghalili, Dr. Kaveh Elahiyoun, Nazenin Ansari, Sepehr Vakil, and Bijan Kian. The range is not only geopolitical. An episode with Shabnam Tolouei turns toward film, theatre, exile, women, minorities, and freedom of expression, showing the cultural side of the same diaspora conversation. Roqe is best understood as an advocacy-minded editorial forum: serious, sometimes heated, and built for listeners who already care about Iran and want the argument made without polite distance.
Made for: Roqe is for listeners following Iran, the Iranian diaspora, human rights, exile politics, and the fight over who gets to define a national story. It best suits audiences comfortable with advocacy, strong framing, and long-form political conversation.
What sets it apart: Roqe stands apart by treating diaspora analysis, regime critique, and cultural exile as one continuous conversation. Its editorial force comes from refusing to let geopolitical language displace Iranians living under repression.
Conversations from, to, and about the Iranian diaspora.Roqe is hosted by Jian Ghomeshi.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Roqe connects Iranian political conflict to public memory, social trust and the competing narratives surrounding change.
Roqe gives Iranian politics a forceful, argument-led treatment. Jian Ghomeshi often begins with a pointed editorial before moving into extended guest conversations about the Islamic Republic, public dissent, foreign intervention and the uncertain path toward political change.
A forceful opening brief clears the geopolitical fog before you enter the guest analysis.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A pointed review of how Iran's human-rights struggle gets pulled into geopolitics.
The episode follows a movement whose moral center keeps getting pulled away from the people who started it. It begins with Iran's human-rights struggle in the streets, where many young Iranians pressed for dignity, rights, and freedom, then shows how the public conversation can…
A forceful look at outsourced repression, uneasy negotiations, and fragile diaspora unity.
Roqe treats reports of foreign fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere being brought into Iran as a measure of what the Islamic Republic can still summon when pressure rises at home.
A forceful war analysis anchored in the massacre and regime that came before it.
Iran Rises treats the recent war less as the whole story than as a force that has pushed an earlier atrocity out of view: a January massacre in which tens of thousands of civilians were killed over two days by a regime that remains in power.
A pointed Iran episode on blackouts, propaganda, Persian-language context, and the human cost behind contested history.
Rook Ep. 426 frames Iran's information blackout as a contest over who gets to define reality. It moves from censorship, fear, and unreliable public data into the question of who benefits when official narratives harden, then traces how those narratives travel through state…
A forceful discussion of Iran's opposition, foreign recognition, and the case for secular democracy.
Episode 425 of Rook begins with a sharp warning about how some Gen Z Canadians are reading Iran's Islamic Republic, setting a reported roughly one-in-five figure against the regime's executions of protesters, imprisonment of teenagers and journalists, criminalization of…
Carter's contested legacy comes through Iranian memory and a White House divided over revolution.
Jimmy Carter's death reopens a hard argument about Iran: how a president widely associated with integrity and Camp David remains a deeply contested figure for many Iranians.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi discusses his legacy, personal loss, and the future of Iran in a candid studio interview.
A passionate call to keep global attention on the protests inside Iran, urging the diaspora to avoid distractions and focus on supporting the uprising.
Jian Ghomeshi discusses four reasons why the Persian Gulf should not be renamed the Arabian Gulf, emphasizing historical and cultural significance for Iranians.
A poetic tribute to Iranian protesters, celebrating their courage and predicting the end of the regime.
This special edition of Roqe examines Jimmy Carter's legacy with Iran following his death at age 100.
A commentary on how the narrative of Iran's human rights struggle has been hijacked by geopolitical discourse, urging a refocus on the Iranian people.
Rook episode 430, "Iran Rises - The Illusion of Calm," frames a ceasefire period in Iran as a test of regime survival, foreign pressure, and civilian fear.
Rook episode 429, "Iran Rises: Regime Unchanged," opens by arguing that January's mass killing in Iran is being pushed out of view by war coverage and escalation talk.
This episode discusses the systematic disconnection of Iranians from the global internet during a critical moment of war and protest, arguing that this silencing distorts global understanding of Iranian public opinion.
Andrew Ghalili warns that a deal with the Islamic Republic regime would not end atrocities but instead protect the IRGC and enable further oppression, as exemplified by the recent execution of an 18-year-old.
Dr. Sepehr Vakil says the strongest false narrative is portraying the Islamic Republic and the IRGC as an anti-imperialist force for good.
Bijan Kian says the only acceptable outcome is a free, fair election based on four principles.
Interview with Iranian-French artist Shabnam Tolouei about her new film, career, and life in exile.