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Part Two: The First Shah of Iran - Behind the Bastards | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Part Two: The First Shah of Iran

Behind the Bastards

Thu Mar 26 2026

Summary

Behind the Bastards – Part Two: The First Shah of Iran (March 26, 2026)

Podcast Overview

This episode, hosted by Robert Evans with guest physician and podcaster Kaveh Hoda, delves into the tumultuous rise of Reza Khan (later Reza Shah Pahlavi), the creation of modern Iran, and the role of brutal colonial powers and local strongmen in shaping Iran’s 20th-century fate. The discussion blends historical analysis with signature gallows humor, unpacking the complicated legacies of oil, empire, and autocracy.

Main Themes & Purpose

Colonial interference and resource extraction: The episode explores how British and Russian imperialism, backed by oil hunger, set the stage for coups and the rise of strongmen in Persia.
The ascent of Reza Khan: Chronicling Khan’s journey from illiterate Cossack stable boy to war minister and ultimately Shah, the show investigates both his cunning and brutality.
Modernization at gunpoint: The hosts unpack how “reform” under Reza Shah—and the British—often meant violence, forced assimilation, and enduring trauma for Iran’s diverse peoples.
Long shadows: They trace how Reza Shah’s actions laid groundwork for subsequent dictators, revolutions, and the complicated legacy of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Colonial Context: Russia, Britain, and the Persian Chessboard

After the Russian Revolution, Persia (modern Iran) becomes a battleground where Britain seeks to protect oil interests and block Bolshevik advances ([05:22]).
Britain and White Russian forces “see Persia as a great springboard” to support the anti-Bolshevik White Army in Russia ([05:22]).
The Persian central government under the Quajar Shahs is impotent, failing to control the military or territory; local tribal leaders wield real power ([06:30]–[12:41]).
Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, later BP) sidesteps the Persian government, striking direct deals with tribal khans, building its own segregated company towns, and importing Indian laborers without any oversight ([12:11]–[13:15]).

“They never looked at Persians as real people... This colonial mindset never goes away.”
– Kaveh Hoda ([13:06])

2. Humiliation, Resistance, and British Manipulation

Stories of direct affront: British oil executives refuse to even hire Persians for skilled positions and introduce segregated fountains “not for Iranians” ([14:29]).
“Everything is for the oil. None of this is for the benefit of regular Persians.”

– Robert Evans ([17:07])

The British government, desperate to secure oil and reduce the cost of occupation, issues loans to Persia that are paid back through direct taxation, fueling intense local resentment ([18:19]).
Secret treaties between Russia and Britain, revealed by the Bolsheviks, further inflame Persian suspicions that they are pawns sold “for a song” ([18:50]).

3. The Rise of Machine Gun Reza

During the political chaos, Reza Khan, a Cossack officer, comes to the attention of British Field Marshal Ironside, who greenlights his bid for a coup as long as the puppet Shah stays on the throne ([30:29]).
Reza Khan expertly “charms every British guy he meets,” leveraging social intelligence to collect power despite his lack of formal education ([25:13], [26:07]).
The hosts compare his crude but effective style to modern power brokers like Donald Trump: “He’s incredibly intelligent socially... And that’s all that matters in Persian politics at this point in time.”

– Robert Evans ([25:13]–[26:07])

Reza Khan leads a 600-strong column to seize Tehran, encountering little resistance—depicted both as bold opportunism and as a British-backed maneuver ([31:29]).

4. Nation-Building, Branding, and Brutality

After a series of consolidations and political maneuvering, Reza becomes war minister, then prime minister, before finally engineering his own coronation as Shah ([39:26]).
Reza Shah chooses the surname “Pahlavi,” invoking ancient Persian glory in a “very clever public relations stunt” ([42:10], [43:23]).
The British plan the Shah’s coronation, modeling it on the coronation of King George V; scenes are described of “heaps of uncut emeralds... uniforms sewn with diamonds... two crowns like great heretic tiaras” while the country still reeled from a devastating famine ([47:43]).

“We plunged our hands up to the wrist in the heaps of uncut emeralds and let the pearls run through our fingers. We forgot the Persia of today.”
– Robert quoting Vita Sackville-West ([49:54])

5. Reza Shah’s Rule: Modernization, Ethnic Cleansing, and State Violence

During his reign, Reza Shah embarks on forced “modernization”: bans on traditional dress, severe press restrictions, construction of state institutions, and cult of personality ([57:12]).
Women are banned from wearing traditional clothing, “beaten and even taken into custody” if they fail to adopt Western dress ([57:12]–[58:34]).
Reza’s drive for unitary power leads to ethnic cleansing of minority groups such as the Lur people (graphic accounts of mass executions and atrocities, [54:10]).
Allies and political rivals are systematically eliminated—often “murdered humiliatingly at his behest” ([61:20]).

6. Foreign Policy and Downfall

Reza Shah’s resentment at British control over Iranian oil grows, but his efforts to play the Germans against the British and Soviets backfire ([66:14]).
By World War II, Reza Shah is so enamored of Germany that nearly half of Iran’s trade is with the Nazi Reich; he is forced to abdicate when Allies invade to secure supply lines ([67:44]–[69:39]).
The Shah abdicates in bitter defeat, dying in South African exile, while his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is enthroned—a harbinger of the next era of turmoil ([69:39]–[71:20]).

Notable Quotes & Moments

On Colonial Attitude:
“They never looked at Persians as real people... That colonial mindset never goes away.”
– Kaveh Hoda ([13:06])
On Reza’s Social Intelligence:
“He is very good at making every British guy he meets love him. And that’s all that matters in Persian politics at this point in time.”
– Robert Evans ([26:07])
On Persians and Punctuality:
“He’s accused, often angrily, of bringing the concept of punctuality to Persia—that like Iranians didn’t give a shit what time it was before Reza.”
– Robert Evans ([51:14])
On Modernization by Force:
“If they did not do so [give up traditional dress], they were beaten and even taken into custody... Many women stopped going to public places to avoid harassment and became involuntary prisoners within their own homes.”
– Robert reading Alavi and Singh ([57:12])
Ethnic Cleansing Atrocity:
“The colonel started betting on how far these headless men could run. Every man, woman and child had been killed. Not a living soul was left.”
– Quoting William Douglas ([54:10])
On the Shah’s Branding:
“Pahlavi was great branding… Changing the name… Good at branding, especially the father.”
– Kaveh Hoda ([43:23])
On Oil Company Transformation:
“APOC … will eventually be renamed … British Petroleum. That’s right, baby. These motherfuckers. They were always evil.”
– Robert Evans ([65:19]–[65:45])

Noteworthy Timestamps

[05:22]: Background on post-WWI Persia: British and Russian intervention, Cossacks’ shifting role.
[12:11]: Segregation and exploitation by Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
[16:58]: Introduction and rise of Reza Khan, “Machine Gun Reza.”
[26:07]: Robert’s analogy of social intelligence, power, and authoritarianism.
[31:29]: British non-intervention as Reza stages his coup.
[39:26]: Reza accumulates near-total power, reluctant monarchy.
[47:43]: British-planned coronation, opulence amid famine.
[54:10]: Atrocities and ethnic cleansing against the Lur people.
[57:12]: Forced modernization, bans on traditional dress.
[65:19]: The rebranding of APOC to BP and continuation of resource exploitation.
[67:44]–[69:39]: Reza Shah’s miscalculation with Germany, abdication, and death in exile.

Tone & Style

The episode features irreverent yet incisive commentary—mixing dark humor with clear moral outrage. Key moments of levity come from the hosts’ banter about British names (“Tiny Ironside?”), Persian cultural quirks (“My people’s eyebrow game has been strong forever”—[34:34]), and personal asides about diaspora experiences.

Conclusion & Takeaways

Reza Shah’s regime, born of colonial intrigue and domestic brutality, left an indelible scar on Iran: forced “modernization,” the seeds of revolution, and the entrenchment of autocracy. The British, for their part, come out not only as kingmakers but as relentless exploiters whose legacy still lingers (BP!). As the episode closes, the hosts tease future explorations of the Pahlavi dynasty’s next, infamous act.

For More

Guest: Dr. Kaveh Hoda’s podcast, “House of Pod,” explores the intersection of medicine and culture with humor ([71:33]).
Further episodes: The show will continue charting the lineage, with future installments about Mohammad Reza Shah and Mossadegh.

Behind the Bastards: Unmasking tyrants, one revolting bastard at a time.

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Transcript

A (0:02)

Media. Welcome back to behind the Bastards, a podcast about the worst history in all of people, or people in all of history, whichever is accurate. I don't know. I randomly put words together based on a predictive text algorithm, much like an LLM, except for I use this collection of bones which. With runes inscribed on them. And that's how the podcast comes to you every week. Thousands of bones with runes inscribed on them that I pick at random. Great. Cabba, how would you like me to read some random bones that might be about the Shah? Or not?

B (0:44)

Let's do it. Let's roll the bones.

A (0:46)

But first, do you want to also welcome back to the show? Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say Kaveh's here. Sorry, yes.

B (0:52)

Thank you again for having me. My name is Kaveh Hoda. I am a physician, I'm a gastroenterologist and I'm also the host of a podcast called the House of Pod. It is a humor adjacent little medical podcast. We look at wellness grifters, we look at what the Maha community and the administration is doing to our current healthcare and have a little fun when we can with it. So you should check it out anywhere. You get your podcast after this. Listen to this. This is more important than afterwards. Listen to me. You'll probably like it or your money back.

A (1:25)

Have you done an episode about our mutual enemy yet?

B (1:28)

Which one? I feel like we have a number. RFK Jr. I've done a number on our show.

A (1:32)

No, no, no, no. Our mutual enemy that we talk about on the side often.

B (1:37)

We did talk about. Can I say his name? Is that okay?

A (1:39)

Of course.

B (1:40)

I don't like to give him more airtime than he needs, but Vinay Prasad, I like him. I like him. He doesn't like me. I have no problem with him. But he's been involved in a lot of aspects of medical. Our medical care recently in the country that I've disagreed with and talk about him recently in one of our more recent episodes. So yes, you can listen to the podcast and hear the episode is influence versus evidence. And we talk about kind of what's happening out there right now in our current healthcare administration.

A (2:11)

Excellent. Not a fan of his. It's mostly good, right?

B (2:15)

A (5:22)

So in the four years after the October Revolution in Russia, Persia had been the site of bloody and constant conflict between Britain and Russia. Again, there's this brief period in World War I where they're kind of fighting together against the Ottomans in Persia as opposed to fucking with each other. And then we've got our revolution and the Bolsheviks are fighting the whites and Britain goes right back to fighting Russia. Right now, I guess it's a little different in that they also have allies who are Russians in this case too. So they're not fighting all of the Russians, just most of the Russians. And basically the kind of broad strokes of this conflict are the Brits see Persia because they've already got a good base in the area and they get resources there, they have interests there, they have a lot of forces that they can get there. It's a great springboard. It also borders Russia, so it's a great springboard for them to use as a base from which to support the White army and the Russian Civil War, right? The Soviets, meanwhile, don't want Britain doing that because it's bad for them, right? So the Soviet Union annexes chunks of northern Persia and they create the Persian socialist Soviet Republic, right? There's like a. I mean, it's more complicated than that, right? There's. And obviously there's local and within, like Persians who are communists who are part of this and, like, want to. There's partisans and stuff. It's much more complicated than all that. But broadly speaking, you've got the Brits and the area they control in Persia that they want to use as a base to support the White army and Russia. And then you've got this chunk of northern Persia that is aligned with the ussr that is itself at least nominally Bolshevik that the Bolsheviks are using as a base, right? And there's fighting betwixt the two. Now, the quasars are still like that shot that that line of Shahs is still in control technically at the point at which all this is going on. But they fail to exert. They don't have any power, right? Like, the Shahs are useless in this conflict. They don't really have any ability to influence what the Russians are doing because the Bolsheviks had just killed their Tsar. So they're sure as hell not gonna listen to some Shah in Persia that they never respected to begin with. Meanwhile, the Shah, like, personally, the guy who is Shah now is that dude who was like 12 when he came to power and has been Ruled like a regent was running things. And there's like a triumvirate of guys who aren't the Shah, who are mostly running things in the Persian central government. And so during this period after World War I, the central government's like bleeding provinces, and big chunks of the army just kind of disappear into comical puffs of smoke because they didn't really want to be in the army. And when push came to shove, they're like, nah, I'm coming back home. No, no, thank you. So the only meaningful force opposing the Soviets are the Cossacks and the Cossack Brigade and their British backers. Again, it's a little more complicated than that, but that's the broad strokes now.

A (10:37)

Their other problem is they have to keep troops in Persia during this whole period of time. Like their own guys. The Cossacks alone can't hold shit. If they want to know that that oil is safe, they have to have their own dudes there. And that costs a lot of money. So in 1921, Great Britain's two main interests in Persia are stop it from falling to the communists. And if we didn't have to keep our soldiers here to do that, it would sure be great. Right? Those are their primary concerns. Now I want to take you back in time. I know, I just was talking about the Russian Civil War era to talk a little bit about how things within the oil company working in Persia evolved over the early 1900s up to 1921. Right. Because we didn't really talk about that so much in the last episode. And it does matter. So in 1909, that entrepreneur Darcy and the company that he partnered with had transferred their rights, basically had gotten in bed with another company because they needed more money to do the infrastructure necessary to get oil out of Persia. And this new company is called Anglo Persian Oil, or apoc. Apoc. Remember these names. It's going to be real interesting what happens to Anglo Persian oil in the modern era. Now, the way in which epoch functioned from 1909 to 1921 does a good job of showing how dysfunctional the central government of Persia was by this point. How bad the Quasar monarchy is at actually like governing the country. Because AIPAC doesn't deal with Tehran at all. They don't talk to the Shah. They ignore the capital completely because their oil wells and shit aren't near the capital. And their oil wells are in the territory of a bunch of like. There's a mix of like sheikhs and Bakhtari Khans, which are like different, like basically tribal level leaders who actually control the territory where they're drilling for oil and transporting oil. And so the oil company is like, why would we talk to Tehran? They don't have any power here. They can barely keep the capital. I'm gonna make deals with these local Guys, they have the guns and the labor force, right? The capital's not gonna do anything but take bribes from me.

A (31:41)

them, you know, but yes, he is that kid. That's how he gains power initially, right? Yeah. So Ironside is like, hey man, if you want to be in charge, just don't depose the shah. We'll back your play. And then he like goes, claps his hands together, wipes him off, and leaves the fucking country for Egypt. He's just gone, right? He sets up the dominoes and he fucking bounces. So not long after he leaves on February 20, Reza marches a column of 600 men, 600 Cossacks, towards the undefended capital. All other military forces and the local police were ordered to stay inside and keep their goddamn mouth shut. And the coup that follows isn't totally peaceful, but it's like a fairly minimal amount of bloodshed for a coup d'. Etat. Right? But it is a coup d'. Etat. Now, depending on which historians you like best, Reza Khan is either a bold opportunist who executes his own coup with a little help from his British. Beside their promise not to intervene, they don't do much other than not stop him. And the other way to look at this is that Reza is a total pawn of the Brits. A chess piece maneuvered into position by the Lord Ironside to block the reds and keep the Royal Navy fueled. I'd never want to argue for a reduced British culpability in all of this, but if Ironside was the mastermind here, he was a very hands off one. Because as soon as he leaves Iran for Egypt, he's grievously wounded in a plane crash and he's like recuperating in the hospital while the Khan overthrows the government and takes power. Right. Princeton historian Richard Ullman writes, it is idle to speculate upon whether or not he would eventually have come to power had Ironside not singled him out. But it is clear that Ironside and his British colleagues were largely instrumental in placing Reza Khan in a position to bring about the coup d'. Etat. And I think that's accurate. Rezakhan doesn't need much help from them other than backing out. Right. He's got the guys and the guns to do this. And he has a skill for building an army. He's going to very effectively get more guys and more guns because he doesn't have enough at the start of this to control much more than the capital. Right. Once he takes power in the capital, he still has a lot of shit to do. And there's a years long road before he becomes the Shah. He's not the Shah after this coup, he's technically the war minister for Persia, which is a new position that makes him the commander in chief of the military, but also lets him basically pick his own prime minister. And here's how he looks at the time, by the way. This is like how he looks when he's minister of war for the country. Great mustache. It must be said. Great hat. Everyone was wearing hats like that back then. I don't know why, but they do look. That one does look comfortable. I love it. I love a hat.

A (47:43)

Nope. So Vita and the wife of the head of the British legation literally sit down with books about the coronation of King George V. Cause Rez is like, Reza's people, I should say, are like, we gotta figure out how to coronate this guy. Cause this is kind of a new thing. Cause he's not being like the rest of the shahs. How should it look? And they leave it to the British people. Cause they're like, well, you know how kings and queens are supposed to take the throne? Right. You figure it out. And so these two women sit down with these books about the coronation of King George V. And they make notes about, oh, there's all these symbols of power that they handed him. There's all these swords and scepters and crowns and precious stones that mean all these things and have these fancy names that are part of this whole process. And they kind of make their own version of it. For the coronation of the Shah. I want to read you a quote about this whole process of planning the coronation from a very British coup by Shireen Breisak. But as I read all this, I need you to remember that again, seven years earlier, about half the country died of famine. When we're talking about how obscene the display of wealth that this represents really is, as Vita Sackville west recalled, the linen bags vomited emeralds and pearls. The green baize vanished. The table became a sea of precious stones. The leather cases opened displaying jeweled scimitars, daggers mounted with rubies, buckles carved from a single emerald, ropes of enormous pearls. Then from the inner room came the file of servants again carrying uniforms sewn with diamonds, a cap with a tall aigrette secured by a diamond larger than the Mountain of Light. Two crowns like great heretic tiaras, barbaric diadems composed of pearl of the finest Orient. We plunged our hands up to the wrist in the heaps of uncut emeralds and let the pearls run through our fingers. We forgot the Persia of today. We were swept back to Akbar and the spoils of India. Soon orders went out to shops throughout Europe. But after the intercession of Lady Lorraine, Vita was given authority to order china, glass, cutlery and stationery from London royal purveyors. She commissioned red liveries for the palace modeled on those worn by the British legation servants. Apropos of the coronation, Vita Sackville west writes to her friend Gertrude Bell. She and Louise Lorraine have been very busy painting the throne room pink.

A (51:20)

But so it's noteworthy he shows up late as like a power move because he can, right, Quote. At last there was a stir. The doors were opened and the six year old Mohammad Reza replied, that's his son appeared in the hall. Behind him walked a procession of the 22 political dignitaries led by the prime Minister. They were carrying the many royal accoutrements necessary for the coronation. Three different crowns, a scepter, three swords belonging to past kings, and even a diamond studded royal bow and arrow. One of the swords belonged to Nadir Shah, a powerful king who united Iran and was reported to have been planning limits on the powers of the clergy. Nadir Shah was also alleged to have attempted a reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis. And he was Reza Shah's great hero. So he's kind of signaling some of what he's going to be trying to do, right, by what stuff they pick for this. So the Shah's son after he's crowned, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was pronounced Crown Prince initially. Now that Reza's the Shah, he promises a reign free of religious influence or internal strife. And he promises, quote, European style educational institutions, Westernized women active outside the home, and modern economic structures with state factories, communication networks, investment banks and department stores. In the words of historian Erevand Abrahemian. Right, he's saying we're gonna be a modern country like all those European countries, right? And you know, there's a lot of good stuff that sounds like in those promises, you know, cut the power of these religious tyrants, let women do more stuff. Sounds great. Roads sounds good. A lot of that stuff will in fact happen. Now first off, it's always debatable how much of this is actually how much of the good stuff that happens has anything to do with the Shah or is it just stuff he takes credit for? But the other thing that's important to know is that like what he does, he does by instituting the most direct one man rule possible. And this means cracking down on and in many cases eliminating all of the local leaders, the tribal leaders who had previously been friends to his British patrons, and doing so in a very brutal way. Ending internal strife means ending any fiction that Persia is a nation of many peoples. And so it was Reza Shah who officially changed the name of his country from Persia to Iran. Per the fair observer, Reza Shah's de tribalization and Persianization led to ethnic cleansing and genocide. William Douglas, a noted American judge, had the following to note about one community that fell fall of Reza Shah Lur after lur. That's the group of people, that's the ethnic group group like the tribe that he's going after. Lure after lure was beheaded again and again. The plate was heated red hot and slapped on the stump of a neck. The colonel started betting on how far these headless men could run. Every man, woman and child had been killed. Not a living soul was left. Wow. This is the kind of shit his soldiers are doing to wipe out any other groups that might be a threat to his power.

A (61:23)

No, that is very haunting. No, that sounds bleak. Yeah, horrible. Oh, I mean he likes cauterizing stuff. So we know that there's some fucked up shit going on here. By 1931 or so, the Shah is about as close to a total despot as one could be. But as cruel as he was to his own people, he was deeply aware of how fragile his hold on power remained. He had seen in action how little effort it took the British to help him onto his throne. Over the years though, he'd also grown increasingly paranoid about their plots. At the same time he was terrified of the ussr and he actually gives the Soviet Union a big chunk of what's today Turkmenistan in 1933 to try and buy them off and keep them happy. And he does the same same to British oil interests. He gives them like concedes a bunch of Iranian soil. He does this a few times and I think he does this to Turkey as well. He gives away a sizable chunk of his country in order to preserve his reign and try to like make friends with these foreign powers that he's hoping will help keep him on his throne. And this obviously pisses people off. He's literally giving away the country. Public authorities and the media were ordered to describe the Shah as a reformer who had modernized the country. He was given credit for reforms instituted by other past leaders like Amir Kabir, while his secret police punished anyone who spoke out about the darker side of the regime. Per Shireen Breisik, Reza Shah's whim was absolute. His memory extraordinary. His thirst to avenge proverbial, his skin gossamer. No elective constitutional system was allowed to grow roots under the Pahlavi's. Another break from Ataturk's example to the untraveled Shah. The concept of a free press was unfathomable. When Reza discovered that Iranians were still using postage stamps bearing the portrait of the deposed Ahmed Shah, he sent his troops to seize the entire supply. For some weeks, Iran remained stampless. And since the newly minted ones with Reza's portrait were slow in arriving from Holland, the old stamps had to be retrieved and circulated, albeit with the exiled shah's effigy blacked out.