Growing Up Irooni: Danesh Nosirvan on Speaking Up When Our Parents Couldn't
Growing Up Irooni: Danesh Nosirvan on Speaking Up When Our Parents Couldn't
There's a particular kind of silence many of us grew up with- the silence of immigrant parents who chose not to make a scene, not to call attention, not to risk being noticed by the wrong person. For Danesh Nosirvan, that silence became the seed of something else entirely.
Today, Danesh is one of the most recognizable Iranian-American voices online, known for using his platform to identify people caught on video committing acts of harm and holding them accountable in the court of public opinion. But before the millions of followers, before the viral videos, before the lawsuits and the stalkers and the moral weight of it all, he was just a kid in Southern California watching his parents absorb small injustices in order to stay safe.
In this conversation, Leyla and Danesh trace the arc from there to here- from his family's escape after the revolution, to his early years as the only Iranian kid in his class teaching everyone about Nowruz, to the comedy career that quietly trained him for the work he does now. They talk through the hardest chapters of recent diaspora life: the unifying surge of the Mahsa Amini protests, the painful fracturing that followed October 7, and the ongoing question of how to hold moral clarity when our communities are being pulled in every direction.
Related Links
- Danesh Nosirvan on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/thatdaneshguy/
- Sarah Polley's memoir Run Towards the Danger
- Bonobo vs. Chimpanzee research — Frans de Waal's work is the most accessible entry point; his book Our Inner Ape is a great place to start
