A cabdriver in Tehran helped Ramtin Arablouei crystallize the idea.
“People in the West, they don’t remember anything,” the driver had told him, diagnosing the cultural divide between Iran and the United States. “And people in the East don’t forget anything.”
That inspired his mission when he and fellow NPR producer Rund Abdelfatah launched their history podcast, “Throughline,” in 2019: to help Americans remember. Their show explored the Sunni-Shia divide, the ruthless beginnings of the banana industry, the invention of race — the kinds of compelling but knotty stories that have fueled a booming market for podcasting among younger listeners.
