Wading Through History: From Tehran to Baghdad, Islam, Power, and the West’s Blind Spots.

(Interview with Harold Rhode)

by Ari Kalker

Imagine witnessing the 1979 Islamic Revolution from inside Iran, advising multiple U.S. Secretaries of Defense for nearly 28 years, and later wading through chest-deep sewage in war-torn Baghdad to rescue the most important collection of Iraqi Jewish history in existence.

That man is Dr. Harold Rhode.

In this extraordinary episode, Ari interviews one of the most uniquely informed minds on the Middle East from inside the system. Dr. Rhode offers a rare, unfiltered perspective on how Islam, language, culture, and history are consistently misunderstood by Western policymakers — with devastating consequences.

The episode opens with his gripping, step-by-step account of rescuing the Iraqi Jewish Archive under active war conditions, then dives into:

* Why Western ideas of “peace” fail in Islamic political culture

* How cultural and linguistic blind spots distort strategy

* Iran’s past, present, and future — from someone who lived the 1979 Revolution

Dr. Rhode holds a PhD in Islamic History from Columbia University and is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian (Farsi), and Turkish.