This is a supplemental episode of our podcast series. While preparing for our most recent podcast, I (Ajay) came across a piece that Gideon Lewis-Kraus had written critiquing an article by Columbia Professor Hamid Dabashi which was, in turn, a critique of Azar Nafisi’s bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran. I was quite taken aback by Gideon’s piece both because (full-disclosure) Dabashi is my academic advisor, but far more importantly, because I agreed so vehemently with Dabashi’s original critique. As we are an institution that advocates transparency and open, critical dialogue, we thought the best thing to do was to record a brief, separate podcast in which Gideon and I were able to revisit this episode some six years later. What ensues, we hope, is an interesting discussion about politics, aesthetics, war, imperialism, writing-as-art, writing-as-industry, and a host of other issues. There is a brief Notations section after the jump. We hope you enjoy!