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Listening for the Heartbeat of Iran
May 26, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Free
Tara Kangarlou will be discussing the role of media and society in the U.S. and Iran, and her insights about the Iranian people and culture as the western media seems to highlight only a slim view of this country of 80 million people. Tara will be interviewed by Todd Schwartz, former Foreign Service officer with the United States and current Executive Director with the European American Chamber of Commerce Cincinnati.
More about Tara Kangarlou: She is an award-winning journalist who has reported, written, and produced breaking news, investigative pieces, and broadcast stories for NBC-LA, CNN, CNN International and Al Jazeera America. Her writing and reporting has also appeared in digital news outlets such as TIME, Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, and Al Monitor. She previously served as a fellow at the East West Institute, is a contributor to Al Jazeera, and a frequent commentator on various news outlets covering the MENA region and humanitarian issues worldwide.
In 2015, she led Al Jazeera America’s team with unprecedented access to report from inside Iran during the nuclear negotiations. In recent years, she has reported extensively from the Syrian border regions of Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan covering issues that impact Syrian refugees, host countries, and the Middle East at large. In 2016, she founded Art of Hope, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the psychosocial and mental health needs of refugees in Lebanon.
Her forthcoming book, The Heartbeat of Iran will be released on June 1st, and captures the heart and soul of a country that’s often seen through news headlines and a political fog that blurs the reality of life for millions of Iranians inside the country. Each chapter is an incredibly nuanced, textured, and intimate journey into the diversity of beliefs, struggles, and complexities of life in today’s Iran – all told through the real stories of its people. Tara was born and raised in Tehran and is fully bilingual in English and Farsi.
You can follow Tara at the handles below and pre-order her forthcoming book!
More about Todd Schwartz:He retired from the Foreign Service of the United States in September 2015 with the personal rank of Counselor (roughly equivalent to Brigadier General).
Mr. Schwartz joined the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer in 1987. His overseas postings included Germany, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Qatar, the Philippines, Kuwait (Counselor for Economic Affairs), Canada (Principal Officer in Winnipeg, Manitoba), and Iraq (Counselor for Economic Affairs). His assignments in Washington have included tours as Director for the Office of Iraq Economic Affairs, Director of the Office of Iran Affairs, and as an assessor with the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including three Superior Honor Awards, six Meritorious Honor Awards, and the Secretary’s Career Achievement Award.
Mr. Schwartz earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics at the Richard T. Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A father of four, he is married to the former Nancy Dye Sunderland of Dayton, Ohio. Nancy and Todd now reside in the Mount Washington area of Cincinnati.
