AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We end today with some very sad news. Today we remember our dear colleague Simin Farkhondeh. She was the Democracy Now! education director for the last 13 years. She died on Monday after a battle with colon cancer.

Simin was an award-winning independent producer, lifelong educator and activist. She is survived by her partner of 20 years, Eric Hiltner, and their daughter AnaLouisa Minou Farkhondeh.

We’re going to go now to a clip, a clip of Simin speaking at the Allied Radio Conference in Detroit, before the pandemic, about her work at Democracy Now!

SIMIN FARKHONDEH: We have a broadcast from 8:00 to 9:00 live in New York City each day, each weekday. And my job is to do outreach to the education community, to colleges, high schools, middle schools, even elementary. And we have, at this time, over a thousand students that come through our studio.

So, what we do is, I talk to the teachers or professors. They will bring their students. So, let’s say a professor of philosophy or ethics or media studies, or a high school that is studying journalism or government, or an English class, a middle school. They will bring their students early in the morning at 7:30. We show them our control room. We show them all the crew that’s working, the producers, video producers, line producers, technical director, behind the scenes, and then we show them the studio, as well. Then they sit down.

At 8:00, the show starts, and they watch. In our green room, they watch the show both from what’s going on to the air and also what is happening in the studio. So, they see Amy Goodman, they see Juan González, and they see the show guests. They watch the show.

And after the show, we have a discussion about the show content and really try to demystify and deconstruct how media is made. And also we talk about the issues. You know, so we talk about: How is Democracy Now!, this independent media program, this news program, different from corporate media? How is it different from, say, CNN or ABC News and so forth?

AMY GOODMAN: When the pandemic hit in 2020, rather than closing up shop, because Simin would shepherd classes through, conduct wide-ranging discussions with fourth-graders, with graduate students in journalism, with journalists from other countries who would come through the United States, but she simply expanded to doing Zoom calls with classes around the world, reaching thousands of students.

Simin has been a longtime documentary filmmaker. She was a part of a group from Deep Dish TV and Paper Tiger TV that produced a series back in 1990 and 1991, before the Gulf War started, called The Gulf Crisis TV Project. This is Simin in one of those videos.

SIMIN FARKHONDEH: This series is made out of material sent to us by people all over the country who are currently speaking out against the U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf. Nationwide, people are raising questions, demanding information, organizing teach-ins, and finding out that they are a part of a major movement focused on peace in the Persian Gulf and the need to solve domestic problems.

AMY GOODMAN: Simin is survived by her partner of 20 years, Eric Hiltner, and her daughter AnaLouisa Minou Farkhondeh, who graduated from Beacon High School just a few weeks ago and now heads to Sarah Lawrence College. AnaLouisa, we will all be there for you now and forever.

I used to take long walks with Simin and our little pups, Zazu and Ziggy, through the Lower East Side. She particularly would take me to the gardens that she had fought so hard for, the community gardens of the Lower East Side, of which there are more than 100.

Simin will be so sorely missed here at Democracy Now!, but her legacy will inspire so many. Our deepest condolences to AnaLouisa, to Eric, to her dearest friends and community, which is so large, which is global. Simin taught at Hampshire College, at the School of Visual Arts, as her work appeared at the Whitney and so many other places. Simin, your life has had so much meaning and will continue to. Simin Minou Louisa Farkhondeh, presente!

That does it for our show. We thank everyone for being there for Simin and for Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!