James Shaw

In the spring of 2008, I feared America was on the verge of war with Iran — and, believing that it’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them, I took my TV crew to Tehran to make “Rick Steves’ Iran,” a one-hour special that could (and would) only debut on PBS. Sadly, this special has become pertinent again today — and I hope you will invest an hour streaming it on the PBS app (or online at ricksteves.com/watch-iran), so you have a little honest context on the current situation and the 90 million Iranians involved. The news that Trump is flirting with the idea of bombing Iran breaks my heart. Why? Because, along with the humanity of the Israeli people — which I shared in my 2014 Holy Land special — I recognize the humanity of the Iranian people, who have lived under a brutal theocratic dictatorship since 1979. I remember the moment it dawned on me, in the nasty wake of 9/11 — watching American bombs light up the sky over Baghdad on the evening news — that I could do my country a service by producing a one-hour TV special on Iran, which I feared Bush might target next. I was painfully aware that what the average American knew about Iran, they learned from Ted Koppel during the hostage crisis (1979-1981) — in other words, almost nothing. The documentary was the most exciting, demanding, and gratifying script I had written. Rather than getting mired in politics, we simply humanized the Iranians by telling their story — the story of a society America knows almost nothing about, even though it’s constantly in our news... the story of a proud nation with a rich and complex heritage shaped by not living in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. If you want to be a savvier consumer of the news as Israel and Iran duke it out in 2025 and as the USA considers joining in, please educate yourself by watching this special. Shalom and Salam.