Episode Details

Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran from exile — using cassette tapes. His sermons were recorded, duplicated by hand, and smuggled into Iran by the thousands, creating an underground media network that bypassed state censorship entirely. The 1979 Islamic Revolution was the first revolution powered by consumer electronics, and the theocratic state Khomeini built from it reshaped the Middle East for generations.

This episode traces Khomeini from his clerical education through the exile years, the cassette tape revolution, the overthrow of the Shah, and the Islamic Republic that became one of the most consequential political experiments of the twentieth century.

• Khomeini's clerical career and the confrontation with the Shah that led to his exile
• The cassette tape strategy — smuggling sermons into Iran on consumer technology
• The 1979 revolution, the fall of the Shah, and the hostage crisis that defined Khomeini in Western eyes
• The Iran-Iraq War, the fatwa against Rushdie, and the theocratic state that outlived its founder