Don’t blame non-readers, rethink book engageability: Podcaster
Over the past 15 years, podcasting and audiobook production have grown rapidly in Iran. Podcasters now create content in a wide range of subjects, from literature and cinema to remarkable events and, increasingly, science. In an age when an endless stream of new forms of entertainment competes relentlessly for attention, persuading people to read, or even listen to, science books can seem like a mission impossible. Yet Farhad Arkani, one of those podcasters, has made meaningful headway in a self-appointed mission to promote science through a Telegram channel called “Reading Books for Sapiens”. Arkani describes himself as “a 50-year-old child who is still curious and still amazed,” and that sense of wonder lies at the heart of everything he does. He learned to read and write before the age of four, and his fascination with storytelling and writing led him to publish his first book, a collection of science-fiction short stories, before he turned 18. He studied civil engineering at university but soon realized he needed to pursue what his restless mind had always been drawn to: literature, history, physics, cosmology and biology. His father was a veteran radio producer, and after graduating in the early 2000s, Arkani entered broadcasting himself, beginning as a writer and editor-in-chief before eventually becoming a presenter and producer. “Around then, I met Sara Sefati who would later become my wife. She was new to translation, just getting started. We worked on a few popular books that did well. From there, we built a life together,” he recalls. Throughout those years, as he puts it, he “wrote whenever he could, and kept translating and editing”. Nearly eight years have now passed since he launched the Telegram channel and podcast platforms that introduced his work to a wider audience. The project began with his audio reading of “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, an undertaking that opened the door to the world of podcasting. One of Arkani’s most striking qualities is his voice and his ability to turn written words into compelling audio. He reads as though he were the author himself. His tone, rhythm and delivery shift naturally with the text, drawing listeners into the language and ideas of a book and carrying them forward, step by step, without ever allowing the performance itself to overshadow the work. Along the way, Arkani met Professor Hamed Vahdati-Nasab, a leading archaeologist who earned his PhD in prehistoric anthropology from Arizona State University in Phoenix and now teaches at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran. Together with their friend Bahar Katouzi, they launched “Banafsh” (literally meaning purple in Persian), a podcast devoted to promoting science and, to some extent, pushing back against pseudoscience. Arkani considers Banafsh one of the proudest achievements of his life, citing its massive hits and the extraordinary responses it has received. “If you asked me today what my profession is, I probably wouldn’t have a precise answer,” Arkani says. “But if you asked what I love doing most, the answer is simple: learning, telling stories and inviting others on a journey that never truly ends.” Iran Daily sat down with Arkani for an exclusive interview that follows.
By Mostafa Shirmohammadi
Staff writer
IRAN DAILY: It has been about eight years since you launched “Reading Books for Sapiens” on Telegram, a channel whose name was inspired by one of the world’s best-known books. A quick look through the channel reveals audiobooks on prehistoric humans, evolution, evolutionary psychology, cosmology, astrophysics, the human brain, artificial intelligence and many other subjects. What motivated you to start this cultural campaign, especially in today’s fast-paced world and without any expectation of making money?
ARKANI: When I launched the channel, my goal wasn’t simply to produce audiobooks. I felt our society needed better tools for “thinking better” more than ever before. Every day we’re bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information, rumors, misconceptions and unfounded claims. To me, the best vaccine against that chaos is familiarizing oneself with the scientific way of thinking.
That’s why I’ve mostly chosen books that do more than present scientific facts. They change the way we look at the world. Whether they’re about evolution, the cosmos, cognitive science, AI, biology or human history, these books remind us how our species arrived where it is today, how our brains work, why we fall into cognitive traps and where we fit in the vast universe. In a sense, they’re lessons in intellectual humility and realistic thinking.
There was another reason as well. Not everyone has the time or patience to read a thick book, but almost everyone can listen while driving, walking or getting through everyday routines.
And no, this has never been a commercial venture, and it still isn’t. The greatest reward comes from messages I receive from listeners who tell me that after hearing a book or even a single episode, they’ve started looking at the world, humanity or even themselves differently. If my work has played even a small part in helping people become more curious, more critical and more committed to seeking the truth, then I feel my years have not been wasted.
How do you decide which books to turn into audiobooks? What draws you to this particular type of work?
Choosing a book has never been a random process for me. The first question I ask myself is, “Can this book change the way someone thinks?” If the answer is yes, there’s a good chance I’ll choose it. I always ask myself whether a listener will come away seeing the world just a little differently. If I believe they will, then I know it’s worth investing the time to edit and narrate it.
I say “edit and narrate” because I almost always revise the text before recording it. That alone is an incredibly time-consuming process.
My own interests inevitably play a role too. I honestly believe that if I don’t genuinely love a text or know it inside out, I shouldn’t, and probably can’t, bring it to life in audio form. That’s something I constantly tell students in my voice and presentation workshops: Know the text so well that it feels as if you wrote it yourself. Otherwise, the recording will sound flat and be difficult to follow.
Many people wonder what practical value there is in studying evolution. How does learning about a primate that lived two million years ago, or Homo sapiens wandering in mountains and plains 50,000 years ago, help people living today?
At first glance, studying creatures that lived millions of years ago may seem far removed from everyday life. But in fact, understanding our evolutionary past is one of the most practical ways to understand who we are today.
We are the product of billions of years of biological history, and many traits we still see in ourselves have their roots in that past, from the way fear and anger arise to our tendency toward tribalism, pattern-seeking, credulity, competition and cooperation.
Evolutionary psychology helps explain why the human mind, despite all the extraordinary advances in science and technology, remains vulnerable to cognitive biases, prejudice and erroneous beliefs. Once we recognize that our brains evolved to solve the problems of an ancient world, we become better equipped to understand their limitations and make more informed decisions.
But the importance of evolution goes beyond psychology. It gives us a much deeper sense of our place in nature, showing us that we’re not something apart from it or above other creatures. That view tempers our sense of exceptionalism, both humbling us and making human experience feel more precious, because we see that we’re the outcome of an insanely long and incredible journey.
One of the most fascinating themes explored in your audiobooks is evolutionary psychology. It certainly opened new ways of thinking for me. Could you explain a little about this branch of evolutionary science?
Evolutionary psychology is essentially an attempt to answer a simple but profound question: Why does the human mind work the way it does today? Just as our bodies are the product of millions of years of evolution, so too are our brains and many of our psychological tendencies.
Why, for example, are people generally more afraid of snakes and spiders than of cars or airplanes? Why are we so easily drawn to rumors, bad news or emotionally charged stories? Why do emotions such as jealousy and love, as well as cooperation, altruism and even tribalism, appear in virtually every culture? Evolutionary psychology seeks to explain these patterns not only through culture or upbringing, but through the evolutionary history of our species.
One point cannot be stressed enough. Evolutionary psychology does not argue that every behavior with an evolutionary origin is somehow “right” or “morally justified”. The fact that a particular trait may have helped our ancestors survive does not mean we should embrace it today. The discipline is fundamentally about explaining “why certain behaviors exist,” not about excusing or endorsing them.
Among all the scientific books you have narrated, why did you decide to record Mark Manson’s bestselling “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck,” especially in a translation that so faithfully captures the book’s brash, sometimes even rude tone?
The truth is, I’ve never confined myself exclusively to science books. As I mentioned earlier, my main criterion is whether a book can genuinely change the way people think or encourage them to see the world differently.
“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” draws heavily on psychological research as well as real-life experience, and what resonated with me was its central message: we simply cannot care deeply about everything, so we have to choose consciously where to give our attention and emotional energy.
As for the language, I believe that if you’re going to bring a book to an audience, you should remain as faithful as possible to its spirit, not just to its ideas. Manson deliberately writes in a sharp, witty, and sometimes even rude tone because he wants to jolt readers out of the clichés that dominate self-help books. Had that voice been toned down in translation or narration, a significant part of the book’s personality would have been lost.
This approach isn’t unprecedented either. Great figures such as Rumi occasionally employed equally bold and daring language when it served a literary purpose. The Persian translation by Ershad Nikkhah was exceptionally strong, so I found almost nothing that needed changing.
However, that doesn’t mean I believe this style of language belongs everywhere. Every book has its own voice and its own character, and this one demanded precisely that tone. One of my goals has always been to give listeners an experience that comes as close as possible to reading the original work.
Many of the books you feature share a strong philosophical undercurrent, raising questions about meaning, free will and humanity’s place in the universe. Having spent years narrating these works, do you think an evolutionary perspective answers the question of why we exist, or does it simply explain how we came to be?
Science, and evolutionary theory in particular, is far better equipped to explain how life came about than why it exists. Science shows us how life emerged, how it became increasingly complex and how human beings evolved into what we are today. But questions such as “What is the ultimate purpose of life?” or “Is there any purpose at all?” belong to philosophy rather than science.
People sometimes expect science to answer questions that lie outside its scope. It’s rather like trying to weigh an object with a thermometer. The tool simply isn’t designed for that task. In the same way, the scientific method cannot prove or disprove the existence of some overarching cosmic meaning.
That doesn’t mean science has nothing to contribute to our understanding of meaning. Quite the opposite. Learning about evolution, cosmology and the history of nature can profoundly reshape how we see ourselves. When we realize that every living creature on Earth is related to us, that every atom in our bodies was forged inside ancient stars, or that we inhabit an unimaginably vast universe, our perspective inevitably changes.
Science may not hand us a ready-made answer to the meaning of life, but it helps us ask deeper, more honest questions.
Personally, I don’t believe meaning is something waiting out there to be discovered. I think it’s something each of us creates consciously and responsibly through the way we choose to live. Science is an extraordinary tool for understanding reality, but the responsibility for creating meaning ultimately remains our own.
Over the past eight years you have probably built a remarkably diverse audience, from eager university students to people encountering evolutionary thought for the first time and experiencing what might be called an “existential shock”. What is the most memorable message you have ever received from a listener, and how did it reflect a change in the way that person saw the world?
Honestly, this is the hardest question for me to answer. Over the years, I have received so many extraordinary and deeply gratifying messages that, more than once, I thought about publishing them all together. But then I realized they might mean very little to anyone other than me! So, let me just say this: I have told some of the people who sent them more than once that when I read a message like that, I feel that if I were to die right now, I would have done what I was meant to do in this world — and I would want for nothing more.
Based on the feedback you have received, which audiobook has had the greatest impact on your audience? What made it resonate so strongly?
If I had to name just one, it would probably be “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, simply because that’s where everything began. That said, I don’t think Harari is an extraordinary scientist, nor do I consider Sapiens unparalleled on a global scale. His real gift is storytelling, and the human brain is wired to respond to a touching story.
What makes the book powerful isn’t that it delivers scientific facts. It reshapes the reader’s mental framework. After reading or listening to it, you no longer look at history, money, nations, human rights, or even yourself in quite the same way. Harari invites readers to revisit some of their most deeply held assumptions, and for many people, that’s a genuinely mind-blowing experience.
The book also bridges disciplines, drawing together evolutionary biology, anthropology, economics, psychology and history into a single narrative. And that interdisciplinary approach makes you feel like you’re not just memorizing a bunch of random facts, but putting together a much more coherent picture of humanity and the world.
To me, a truly lasting book isn’t one that simply adds to what we know. It’s one that changes how we see. For many people who follow my channel, Sapiens has done exactly that. The world is the same when they finish it, but they aren’t.
Suppose someone tells you, “I don’t have time to read or listen to science books.” What would you say to persuade them, without sounding preachy, to give it just one hour?
The first thing I’d say is that I actually agree with them! Modern life is genuinely busy, and many people struggle to find time to sit down with a book.
But if you look a little more closely, most of us have pockets of time that go unused: driving, walking, standing in line at the bank, doing household chores. Audiobooks are made for those moments.
I never ask people to change their habits overnight. I simply say, “Give it one hour.” Choose a book, or even an episode of our “Banafsh” podcast, based on what genuinely sparks your curiosity, not what someone else tells you to listen to. If, after an hour, you feel that it has added nothing to your perspective, feel free to set it aside.
I’ve seen it happen countless times. People who start with that single hour often end up looking for the next book, and then the next.
The most valuable asset anyone can work on is updating their mental model of the world. We routinely update our phones, our cars and our softwares, yet many of us go years carrying around the same assumptions and outdated beliefs.
As someone who has spent a lifetime reading and thinking about books, what do you believe it would take to encourage more people in Iran to read in an age dominated by social media, streaming platforms and endless digital entertainment? And beyond that, how do we steer readers toward books that genuinely change the way they think about life and the universe?
I think the first step is to stop blaming people. It’s easy to say, “People don’t read anymore.” It’s much harder to ask whether we’ve made books engaging, accessible and relevant in today’s world.
We’re competing with extraordinarily sophisticated rivals: social media, VOD platforms and video games, all designed with the help of psychologists, designers and increasingly intelligent algorithms to capture and hold our attention. Against that kind of competition, books can’t rely solely on their traditional form.
That’s why I believe we need new ways of bringing books to people. Audiobooks, podcasts, thoughtful conversations about books, high-quality summaries and smart use of digital media can all serve as gateways to the original text. The goal isn’t to replace books with social media. That isn’t realistic. The goal is to use those same platforms to lead people back to books.
More importantly, though, the real issue isn’t how much people read. It’s what they read and how they think. A society progresses not because its citizens become vacuum cleaners for information, but because they learn to think more clearly, ask better questions and become more willing to challenge their own beliefs.