544 Days the Podcast

For 544 days, National Press Club Member Jason Rezaian was held hostage in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Interrogated. Sealed off from the outside world. He was accused of being an American super spy, though his formal title was Washington Post Bureau Chief in Tehran.

Back home, his family and his newspaper were doing everything they could to raise the alarm about his detention. Meanwhile, the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the U.S. were dragging on. Pretty soon, it became clear that his fate depended on those talks.

544 Days is a Spotify Original podcast, produced by Gimlet, Crooked Media and A24 about a newspaper trying to get one of its own out of prison. Government officials torn between one citizen’s life and a whole region’s security. And a family dragged into the bizarre and sometimes hilarious world of high-stakes international diplomacy.

Upon its debut, 544 Days became one of the most popular podcasts on Spotify ranking #1 for News and #2 overall. Listen to the full series here.

Join us at the National Press Club for a special event sponsored by Crooked Media to hear select clips from the podcast with reactions, reflections, and in-depth context from panelists.

The live discussion will be moderated by Washington Post National Political Correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Mary Jordan and will include: Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post, and Jason’s mother, Mary Rezaian, who appears on the podcast having spent much time in Iran during Jason’s detainment. Also joining the speakers will be the editor of 544 Days, Alison MacAdam, formerly with National Public Radio where she won a Peabody Award for her work. Additional panelists to be added.