After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the country's new leaders — religious and political — promised to redistribute the country's wealth and made moves to make Iran independent from western influence and business interests. In the decades since, Iran's economy completely transformed, and it is closer to what Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin describe as a "mafia state," where fealty to various factions is baked into the country's political economy. In their new book Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran they trace the massive changes Iran's political economy has undergone since the revolution, and they speak to us today about this history, how average Iranians navigate everyday cronyism, how Iranian leaders treated the country's burgeoning tech sector, and why the recent peace talks might not change all that much about how the country's economy currently operates. Read more: A New Age of Missiles Reshapes Battlefields Around The World [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-29/a-new-dawn-of-missiles-shapes-battlefields-from-ukraine-to-iran?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article] US War With Iran Set to Drag On for Months Over Hormuz Deadlock [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-29/us-war-with-iran-looks-set-to-drag-on-for-months-over-hormuz-deadlock?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article] Only http://Bloomberg.com [http://Bloomberg.com] subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at  bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots [https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots?in_source=oddlotspodcast] Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter [http://bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots] Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots [https://discord.gg/oddlots] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.