Joining this week’s episode of Press the Button  [1]to discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and all things nuclear from Iran to China to Russia is Founder and Host of the foreign policy podcast Black Diplomats Terrell Jermaine Starr. 

The theme binding the several topics of this interview is the missing context that many Americans have in their perspective of Iran and North Korea, which is why Black Diplomats created and will soon be releasing a new series entitled “Iran in Context,” featuring Iranian experts to provide nuance and a perspective of humanity to the region which is often vilified. 

“Iran is talked about in mainstream media with little to virtually no context,” says Starr in this episode of Press the Button. “Iran is a country of more than 80 million people and the only ways that we’ve learned about this country have been through war. And what my series is going to do is to, episode by episode, learn a different aspect about this region.

The “Iran in Context” series brings podcast’s vision — to explore the intersection of safety, security, and diversity as well as countries beyond weapons, war, and the lenses which they are often viewed through — to life.

In April of 2021, Starr was awarded Ploughshares Fund’s Estrin Award, a grant named in honor of the late Ploughshares Fund Chair Emeritus Mary Lloyd Estrin. This award has helped Starr create and produce  “Iran in Context,” so listeners of Press the Button are likely to appreciate Starr’s series.  

As the United States continues to struggle in finding its way back to the JCPOA, Starr’s work will play a key role in fighting against the vilification of Iranians and North Koreans, having positive consequences for our shared futures. 

More about the Estrin Award

Mary Lloyd Estrin, who passed away in April of 2020 following a long illness [2], began serving on the Ploughshares Fund Board of Directors in 1999, and was board Chair from 2013 to 2018. The Estrin Family and friends recently established the Estrin Award Fund to provide seed grants to emergent, risk-taking, movement-building efforts that have the potential to transform the work of Ploughshares Fund. The Estrin Award Fund will support grassroots activists and new voices that highlight the intersectionality of the nuclear issue with other issues such as human rights, social justice, the environment, and women’s rights. To learn more about the inaugural recipient of this grant, Sunny Dooley, click here [3]. 

Ploughshares Fund awards grants to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, prevent the emergence of new nuclear states and build regional security where nuclear weapons exist. A complete list of grants is available to the public at: https://ploughshares.org/what-we-fund/our-grantees [4]. 

Photo: Terrell Jermaine Starr headshot