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We’ve now entered the second week of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Donald Trump’s War Secretary Pete Hegseth has boasted about the US military machine bringing “death and destruction” to the country.

Afshin Matin-Asgari joined Long Reads on Monday, March 9, to discuss the war. Afshin is a professor of Middle East history at California State University in Los Angeles. His most recent book is Axis of Empire: A History of Iran–US Relations.

Read Afshin’s coverage of the protests from January: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/iran-protests-khamenei-trump-israel

And an edited transcript of this podcast interview here: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/trump-iran-regime-war-israel

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.

Long Reads: Trump’s Nation-Breaking War w/ Afshin Matin-Asgari