January 16, 2026· 22 min

Lots More on the Protests and Financial Crisis in Iran

Maciej Wojtal

Orality

Model

60%

Mixed oral/literate (blogs, casual essays)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(653 words)

M:29%

HostJoe Weisenthal(621 words)

M:29%

GuestMaciej Wojtal(2,638 words)

M:29%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic46%

literally, completely, definitely

Engagement58%

you, our, your

Memory Aids100%

listen, now, like

Repetition100%

know (63x), it's (52x), like (40x)

Parallelism81%

And it's a sort of, like, beef..., So it's really green and then ..., And the thing I like about it ...

Sound Patterns64%

31 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"

Formulaic Phrases4%

i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging12%

may, quite, apparently

Passive Voice5%

is between, are educated, was driven

Abstract Nouns25%

investment, recommendation, business

Subordination10%

because, however, although

Sentence Length33%

Avg: 13.2 words/sentence

Word Complexity49%

investment, analyze, anticipate

Academic Markers0%

Impersonal Style42%

279 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style99%

literally, completely, apply

Description

One of the extraordinary elements of the civil unrest taking place in Iran is that it's almost impossible to know what's going on. There's a virtually complete news blackout, in part because of the government shutting down the internet. What this means in practice right now is that someone on the outside can't even know for sure whether the Iranian stock market has been trading lately, or whether it's been halted. And then of course there are bigger questions about the scale of the civil unrest and the government's response to it. On this episode of Lots More, we check in with recurring guest Maciej Wojtal, the founder and CIO of Amtelon Capital, one of the few international firms to have direct exposure to Iranian stocks. We talk about what he's been able to ascertain about the protests, why they're taking place, Iran's ongoing financial crisis, and why this round of civil unrest is different from before. READ MORE: How Iran Sanctions and a Currency Crash Triggered Mass Protests Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

← How to Make Money From the Booming Deman...Why the Tech World Is Going Crazy for Cl... →