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I'm Not a Monster

I'm Not a Monster

BBC Radio 5 Live
Sociedade e Cultura

Josh Baker enters a dangerous world of fear, greed and betrayal as he sets out to uncover the truth behind one of the biggest missing-person cases of our time - the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice.

Josh - creator of two of the BBC's most award-winning and widely listened-to investigative podcasts, I'm Not a Monster and The Shamima Begum Story - returns for his most ambitious chapter yet, in a major new series from BBC Radio 4 and NPR's Embedded.

This is not the retelling of a closed case. It is a real-time investigation into a disappearance that has remained unsolved for more than a decade, conducted in close contact with Austin's family.

What started out as a personal effort to help a mother find her son has turned into a multi-year journalistic investigation stretching from the corridors of power in Washington DC to the depths of the Syrian security state.

Austin Tice is a journalist, law student and former Marine officer, who vanished in Syria in 2012. Since then, competing stories have emerged about his fate. In some, he is alive - held in a cell and waiting to be rescued. In others, he was smuggled out of Syria and hidden away. In the darkest versions, he died long ago.

His disappearance has reached the highest levels of power - from presidents to popes - yet remarkably little is known about what happened to him.

Investigative journalists Josh Baker and Sara Obeidat begin following Austin's trail long before the fall of the Syrian regime. Then everything changes. The regime collapses, and the black box of Syria's intelligence state opens. Sources step forward, unprecedented leaks arrive and doors to secret bases that had been sealed for years open. Josh and Sara speak to spies, search secret prisons and track down alleged war criminals in hiding, uncovering information that has never been made public and making discoveries that generate international headlines. The audience follows every breakthrough as the investigation closes in on those who may know the truth - while Syria is transformed and powerful interests compete to shape what happens next.

Some claim Austin was working for the CIA. Others say he was simply a young journalist trying to make his name in war reporting.

His fate has become entangled in secret negotiations and geopolitical power struggles that are still unfolding. At the centre of it all is his mother, Debra Tice, who has never stopped searching for her son.

There are people who know exactly what happened to Austin.

Some of them do not want the truth to come out.

So where is Austin Tice?

34 - Where Is Austin Tice?: 2. A Black Box
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  • 34 - Where Is Austin Tice?: 2. A Black Box

    In the chaos after the Syrian regime’s downfall, the hunt for Austin Tice is on. Josh Baker and his fellow investigative journalist Sara Obeidat are in Damascus as bombs fall and gunfights break out. Armed with a list of locations where Austin may have been held, they race across the Syrian capital searching for any sign of him. They find horrifying evidence of detention and torture on an industrial scale. Then, after climbing across a five-storey drop to reach a hidden room, they get a breakthrough — a trove of material about Austin that was never meant to be found.

    Archive: Syria News; Al Jazeera; BBC; CBS; Fox; ABC; PBS; Al Arabiya; NBC.

    Writer and showrunner: Josh Baker Investigative producer: Sara Obeidat Series producer: Simon Maybin Field producing: Ouday Al Hussein Additional producing: Lucy Burns Open source intelligence: Thomas Bordeaux & Gabor Friesen Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Series editor: Clare Fordham Head of BBC News Long Form Audio: Emma Rippon BBC Radio 4 commissioning editor: Dan Clarke NPR producer: Monika Evstatieva NPR editors: Robert Little & Katie Simon NPR executive producer for Embedded: Irene Noguchi BBC World Service commissioning editor: Jon Manel Composer: Firas Abou Fakher Additional music: Karim Chehoury Theme music: Sam Slater Mix and sound design: Tom Brignell

    Thu, 10 Sep 2026
  • 33 - Where Is Austin Tice?: 1. "We Believe He’s Alive"

    Josh Baker investigates one of the biggest missing-person cases of our time. American journalist Austin Tice vanished in Syria, but the US president says he’s alive. For more than a decade Austin's mother Debra has been leading the search for her son. As Josh Baker and Sara Obeidat travel to Syria to help Austin’s mother’s search, a source gives Josh information that might unlock where he is - and a simple instruction: “Find Austin.”

    Archive: Houston Public Media; NBC; PBS; CNN; C-SPAN; MSNBC; The White House; BBC.

    Writer and showrunner: Josh Baker Investigative producer: Sara Obeidat Series producer: Simon Maybin Field producing: Ouday Al Hussein Additional producing: Lucy Burns Open source intelligence: Thomas Bordeaux & Gabor Friesen Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Series editor: Clare Fordham Head of BBC News Long Form Audio: Emma Rippon BBC Radio 4 commissioning editor: Dan Clarke NPR producer: Monika Evstatieva NPR editors: Robert Little & Katie Simon NPR executive producer for Embedded: Irene Noguchi BBC World Service commissioning editor: Jon Manel Composer: Firas Abou Fakher Additional music: Karim Chehoury Theme music: Sam Slater Mix and sound design: Tom Brignell

    Tue, 08 Sep 2026
  • 32 - Where Is Austin Tice?: Trailer

    Josh Baker enters a dangerous world of fear, greed and betrayal as he sets out to uncover the truth behind one of the biggest missing-person cases of our time - the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice.

    Archive: NBC; PBS; CNN.

    Writer and showrunner: Josh Baker Investigative producer: Sara Obeidat Series producer: Simon Maybin Field producing: Ouday Al Hussein Additional producing: Lucy Burns Open source intelligence: Thomas Bordeaux & Gabor Friesen Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Series editor: Clare Fordham Head of BBC News Long Form Audio: Emma Rippon BBC Radio 4 commissioning editor: Dan Clarke NPR producer: Monika Evstatieva NPR editors: Robert Little & Katie Simon NPR executive producer for Embedded: Irene Noguchi BBC World Service commissioning editor: Jon Manel Composer: Firas Abou Fakher Additional music: Karim Chehoury Theme music: Sam Slater Mix and sound design: Tom Brignell

    Tue, 01 Sep 2026
  • 30 - I'm Not A Monster: 11. Epilogue: The Wounds and the Scars

    What happened to the family Josh was staying with when the Islamic State group struck in 2016?

    I’m Not a Monster began after Josh was injured by an ISIS truck bomb in Mosul, Iraq. If it wasn’t for an old contact reaching out to see how he was doing, he may never have heard about Sam and Matthew.

    Now he returns to the Iraqi city and finds that while the fighting may be largely over, the people of Iraq are facing a different battle as a mental health crisis has taken hold.

    This episode includes descriptions of violence and some upsetting moments involving children.

    Reporter: Josh Baker Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green

    “I’m Not a Monster” is a collaboration between BBC Panorama and FRONTLINE (PBS) and is a BBC Long Form Audio production for BBC Sounds.

    Tue, 16 Nov 2021
  • 29 - I'm Not A Monster: 12. Those We Leave Behind

    In Northern Iraq, Josh finds out how two people you’ve been asking about are doing now.

    In 2014, the Islamic State group killed thousands of members of the Yazidi religious community and kidnapped and enslaved many, many more. Ayham and Saud were both taken from their families and ended up in Syria where they were eventually bought by Sam and her husband Moussa.

    Josh first met them just after they’d escaped ISIS with Sam and then made it back to Iraq. Now he returns to hear how they are doing today and what they want for their futures.

    This episode includes strong language and references to violence.

    Reporter: Josh Baker Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green Editor: Emma Rippon Sound engineer: Tom Brignell

    “I’m Not a Monster” is a collaboration between BBC Panorama and FRONTLINE (PBS) and is a BBC Long Form Audio production for BBC Sounds.

    Tue, 18 Jan 2022
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