Reality Life With Kate Casey

Hostages (HBO) is a four-part docuseries on the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. The series covers the international crisis that erupted on November 4, 1979 — seven months after the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran — when a band of Iranian student activists stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in what was initially intended to be a symbolic two-day protest against American imperialism. However, the situation quickly escalated, leading the occupiers to take 52 members of the embassy staff hostage in a geopolitical showdown that would ultimately stretch to 444 days. John Ghazvinian, noted authority on the history of U.S. and Iran relations, and the author of America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present. He provides more background on the history of the two countries and the historical significance of the hostage crisis. He is the Executive Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  Marc Pana shares his family’s o