American Jihadi Endeavor Audio

It’s a good podcast. It helped me see that an American jihadist can be completely empty of anything interesting to say. I imagined I was going to learn why someone born in the US would end up as an Islamic terrorist. I did not learn anything. He idealized and romanticized terrorism, but there wasn’t anything truly interesting, or an aha moment when something made sense. And that’s because this American jihadist was an uninteresting person. I can understand why even the journalist gets tired of his relationship with him. He never gave him any interesting news/stories. I felt sorry for his mother and his sister. I hope his father realized he had some responsibility over his son’s radicalization. His father prohibited the mother from bringing their children to church, setting a fundamentalist and exclusionary approach to religion, instead of being tolerant and letting the children experience both religions and deciding by themselves. That kind of religious authoritarianism ended up radicalizing this guy. Although of course the main responsible for his destiny was only himself. There is absolutely nothing in the podcast to sparkle any empathy for him. But it’s a story worth telling and listening to.

A riveting story deftly told by a master storyteller. I’d previously watched and admired some of Putzel’s documentaries on Vice and Amazon but he is at his journalist best in the podcast medium. Our family has listened to each episode as it’s come out, and the first thing our teens ask when we load up for a ride is whether the next American Jihadi episode is out. The overlapping stories of Omar’s descent down the Al-Shabaab wormhole and Putzel’s efforts to report the story, and their resulting connection, gives the story an immediacy and intimacy you would never get from the headlines at the time. Also a deep sympathy for Omar’s personal journey. Well worth the listen.

Interesting story, well put together and reported. It seems a lot are blaming the podcast for the actions of the man they are reporting on. Christoff has a voice that is easy to listen to, he kept me engaged and wanting more.