Afshin Molavi is the author of Persian Pilgrimages: Journeys Across Iran (Norton, 2002), which was nominated for the Thomas Cook literary travel book of the year and described by Foreign Affairs as "a brilliant tableau of today's Iran." A former Dubai-based correspondent for the Reuters news agency and a regular contributor to The Washington Post from Iran, Mr. Molavi has covered the Middle East and Washington for a wide range of international publications. His articles and op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times, Smithsonian, National Geographic, BusinessWeek, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, The Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, the Journal of Commerce, and The Wilson Quarterly, among other publications. He comments regularly on Iran and the Middle East on CNN, the BBC, National Public Radio, and other broadcast outlets. Born in Iran, but raised and educated in the West, Mr. Molavi holds a master's degree in Middle East history and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He has also worked at the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector development arm of the World Bank.

As a Fellow at the New America Foundation, Mr. Molavi studies the links between economic development and democratization, with a special emphasis on the Middle East. He argues that the region's widespread economic failure represents the largest obstacle to regional democratization because it creates societies that have weak middle classes that are overly dependent on the state or susceptible to the utopian promises of undemocratic opposition forces. At New America, he will also examine the "New Silk Road" - the growing trade, cultural, diplomatic, and business ties between the Middle East and Asia. Mr. Molavi is also interested in issues related to global economic development, globalization and culture, and the economics of immigration.

Listening to Pink Floyd in Tehran (With or Without the Opium)

Starting with a simple story - a group of disaffected young people who gathered every week to listen to Pink Floyd in a Tehran apartment - world renown author and journalist Afshin Molavi tells the riveting story of contemporary Iran, torn between a revolution gone astray, a young population chafing under a repressive government and a looming conflict with the West over its nuclear program.

As the showdown between the United States and Iran heats up, it is imperative that we understand Iranian society beyond the headlines, and there is no better guide than Molavi, who was dubbed by the Washington Post "a culturally fluent interpreter" of the Middle East and named by the World Economic Forum in Davos as a Young Global Leader for the Future for his commentary and writings.

Interspersing an eclectic mix of music from Pink Floyd to the Persian pop diva, Googoosh, from American rappers to Bollywood crooners, Molavi takes the audience inside an Iran they have never seen, an Iran where 75% of the population said in a recent poll that they want relations with the United States, and where frustrated youth chafe under the restrictions of the Islamic Republic -- sometimes finding solace in melancholy-soaked lyrics of Pink Floyd.

Author of the critically acclaimed book, The Soul of Iran, dubbed by Foreign Affairs as "a brilliant tableau of today's Iran," Molavi has briefed heads of state on Iran, lectured at the world's leading institutions, and provided regular commentary on CNN, CNBC and the BBC.

This is a must-see (and hear) event that will inform and entertain on a subject vital to the future of our world.

The Iran Question

An intimate journey deep inside Iran's politics, culture, society, and its controversial nuclear program and showdown with the West with a highly acclaimed author and one of the world's foremost experts. Molavi has briefed two Secretaries of State, a British Prime Minister, and dozens of high-level policy-makers across the globe on the "Iran Question" that, according to Molavi, "hangs like a dark, mysterious cloud over the international order and the future of our world today."

The answer to the "Iran Question" will determine the future of businesses, industries, countries, regions, and our world. "It?s a question with multiple answers and wrapped in layers of misconceptions," Molavi notes. "But it is a question that is defining our generation and framing the world order for the future," he said.

This is a vital, timely, high-level discussion delivered in an engaging, candid, style by an author who has spent years on the ground in Iran as well as the major global capitals probing "the Iran Question."

A frequent commentator on CNN and the BBC, who was hailed by the World Economic Forum in Davos as a "leading emerging voice" on global affairs, Molavi is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Soul of Iran, described by Foreign Affairs as "a brilliant tableau of today's Iran," and hailed by CNN's Fareed Zakaria as "one the top two best books on contemporary Iran."