Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation

In this lesson, we go over the first half of Ahmad Shamlou's poem, Rāz.

In this lesson, we introduce the iconic Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou, and talk about his poem ‘Raz’ or راز, meaning ‘the secret’. Shamlou was born in 1925 in Rasht, and he died in 2000, after a few yea…

John Ghazvinian joins us to talk about his new book, America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present, a comprehensive new survey of the bilateral relationship, based on years of archival research in…

Yara Elmjouie is a Webby Award-wnning, James Beard-nominated video producer, journalist, and host at AJ+. He's also a great voice in the Iranian American community, creating engaging videos explainin…

In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, we learn the common terms for body. The word for 'body' in Persian is badan. In this unit of Chai and Conversation, we are learning several vocabulary words related to…

This Persian (Farsi) lesson is all about the wonderful words of sports- or varzesh in Persian. Varzesh literally means physical exercise, but it's the word used for sports as well. Many of the words …

In this Persian (Farsi) lesson, we learn the common terms for members of a family. Family in Persian is khānevādé. In this unit of Chai and Conversation, we are learning several vocabulary words rela…

Tehran Von Ghasri is a half African American, half Iranian comedian who reads and speaks Farsi fluently. Originally, I wanted to interview Tehran to ask him about being raised in a half Iranian famil…

In this lesson, Leyla and her husband Chris go over how to talk about emotions in the Persian language. This lesson is part of the vocabulary sprint series, so they go over several vocabulary words a…

This Raising Neem-Roonis interview features Shabnam Rezaei, cofounder of Big Bad Boo, an animation studio featuring cartoons with multicultural themes and diverse languages. Shabnam is the mother of …

In this conversation with Adib Khorram, young adult fiction writer, we get to hear about the experiences of growing up as a neem-Rooni. Adib was raised in Kansas City, Missouri by an Iranian father a…

In this Raising Neem-Roonis interview, we talk to the most well known Iranian-American comedian, Maz Jobrani. Maz is the father of two half Iranian, half Indian children, ages 9 and 11. He gives advi…

In this second Raising Neem-Roonis interview, we talk to Arash Karami, contributor to Al-Monitor and commentator on Iranian politics. We talk about the challenges of passing on the Persian language a…

Raising Neem-Roonis is our podcast series about the joys and challenges of raising half Iranian children, specifically when it comes to passing along language and culture. Our first interview the ser…