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Despite the enormity of the questions raised about Sam, the show’s scope is narrow, never leaving the family to attempt any big-picture histories of the Islamic State or the destruction of the larger region over the last two decades. Want our podcast reviews and episode recommendations in your inbox? Sign up here for our weekly newsletter.įrom its opening episode I’m Not A Monster is compelling and propulsive. Matthew was forced by his stepfather to appear in an ISIS video directly threatening President Trump and the US at large. Baker anchors much of the show to Matthew, Sam’s oldest and thus most-aware child. The podcast unfolds as both a retelling of the family’s time in Syria and an investigation into Sam’s involvement in her husband’s plot. The question that drives I’m Not A Monster is whether Sam supported ISIS at any point, and if not, whether she knew what her husband was planning.īaker’s reporting began when he heard word of an American family trapped behind Islamic State lines, and was put in contact with Sam’s sister, Lori, who was desperately trying to find a way to smuggle the family out of Syria from her home in South Bend.

Sam’s then husband, Moussa Elhassani, brought his family to Syria with the intention of joining the Islamic State. Over the course of 10 episodes, British journalist Josh Baker chronicles his multi-year inquiry into the life of Sam Sally, who traveled with her husband and children from Indiana to Raqqa, Syria in 2015.

This is the podcast world into which I’m Not A Monster was born. The embarrassment of the basic reporting errors was compounded by the fact that Caliphate was an enormous critical and popular success. As the Times itself admitted, Caliphate had underinvestigated the claims of its subject, Shehroze Chaudhry. As the new BBC Panorama and Frontline podcast unraveled the story of an Indiana woman who ended up inside ISIS territory with her children, the Times was concluding its investigation into the major reporting lapses that had fueled its podcast about a Canadian emigrant who supposedly became an ISIS executioner. Since I’m Not A Monster released its first episode in November 2020, the New York Times has retracted significant elements of its hit 2018 series Caliphate.

I am not a monster first contact review download free