Princeton graduate student Wang Xiyue sat down with Mike and Marshall to discuss how being held hostage in the notorious Evin prison in Iran changed his worldview. In 2016 the Iranian authorities convicted him, on trumped up charges, of spying, purely in order to use him as a bargaining chip. The experience changed not only his view of Iran but of the Progressives on American campuses who are incapable of acknowledging his experience.
About Counterbalance:
Counterbalance is a foreign policy podcast that embodies Hudson’s tradition of challenging conventional wisdom. The Trump era attacked the elite consensus regarding several key issues, including the rise of China, American policy toward the Middle East, and the compartmentalization of domestic and foreign policy. Many observers in the media and in establishment foreign policy circles are presenting the advent of a Biden presidency as a total repudiation of President Trump’s policies and a return to “normalcy.” But, regardless of how one feels about the Trump era or any of his specific policies, there is no turning back the clock. The elite foreign policy consensus will never be the same. Counterbalance will reckon with what’s next.