Listening to Radiolab on my Walk

 

In the Coronavirus era we are in now, I go for long walks every day. And when I walk, I usually listen to a podcast. My favorite podcasts include, in no particular order, The Daily, This American Life, Trump Inc., Ear Hustle, Death, Sex, and Money, and Bookworm. That is not an exhaustive list, by the way. I also like to sometimes listen to audiobooks instead of podcasts. But my usual walk involves one or more episodes of the podcasts I listed. And I tend to listen to one podcast for a while, suck it dry by listening, in serial fashion, to multiple episodes, and, then, move on to another podcast. 

The last few days I have been listening to Radiolab. Most recently, I started listening to a series of episodes called The Other Latif.

Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a bizarre and shocking discovery. He shares his name with another man: Abdul Latif Nasser, detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government paints a terrifying picture of The Other Latif as Al-Qaeda’s top explosives expert, and one of the most important advisors to Osama bin Laden. Nasser’s lawyer claims that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that he was never even in Al-Qaeda. This clash leads Radiolab’s Latif into a years-long investigation, picking apart evidence, attempting to separate fact from fiction, and trying to uncover what this man actually did or didn’t do. Along the way, Radiolab’s Latif reflects on American values and his own religious past, and wonders how his namesake, a fellow nerdy, suburban Muslim kid, may have gone down such a strikingly different path.

I have made it through the first three part of The Other Latif and I find it fascinating. 

The progenitor of the episode (pictured above), who's name is also Latif Nasser is the director of research at Radiolab and also the progenitor of the new Netflix program Connected. For more about Radiolab's Latif Naser, here is a good article about him from the New York Times. And this is his biostatement on the Radiolab page:

Latif Nasser is Director of Research at the award-winning New York Public Radio show Radiolab, where he has done stories on everything from snowflake photography to medieval robots to a polar bear who liked to have sex with grizzly bears. Earlier this year, he hosted the miniseries The Other Latif, about his Moroccan namesake who happens to be Detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay. 

In addition to his work in audio, Latif is the host and executive producer for the Netflix science documentary series, Connected.  He has also given two TED talks, and written for the Boston Globe Ideas section. He has a PhD from Harvard's History of Science department. You can read his manifesto about how to find stories here.