The Shawn Ryan Show
Shawn Ryan
Society & Culture
I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?
by BBC Sounds
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| Date | Pocket Casts |
|---|---|
| Oct 1 | #23 |
About the show
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?
Latest episodes
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Where Is Austin Tice?: Episode 8 is coming soon...
October 1, 2026 · 0 minJosh Baker with an update on the next episode.
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 7. The Escape
September 29, 2026 · 36 minWhen was the last time Austin was seen alive? Josh and Sara find the people who claim to know. Josh meets a man who says he interrogated Austin. Then two more witnesses are found. Each of them helps fill gaps in Austin’s story, and the…
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 6. A Meeting in Muscat
September 24, 2026 · 39 minJosh uncovers a hidden world of secret negotiations, backchannels, and high-level talks. And, after years of failed promises, Austin’s mother Debra decides to go to Syria herself - alone. She believes the US government could have done more…
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 5. The Video
September 22, 2026 · 31 minA video appears online titled: “Austin Tice Still Alive”. It shows Austin bound, blindfolded and terrified, surrounded by armed men. But as Josh and Sara dig deeper, the story begins to change. They uncover a trail that leads to the door…
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 4. The Driver
September 17, 2026 · 41 minJosh and Sara piece together Austin’s final route into Damascus. They find the farm where he celebrated his 31st birthday - the last place his mother spoke to him. Then comes an unprecedented discovery. For years, the story was that…
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 3. The American Journalist
September 15, 2026 · 31 minThe Austin Tice files begin to give up their secrets. Josh and Sara uncover names, locations and new leads about what happened to Austin Tice. But to understand them, they have to go back to the start - to Austin’s own journey through…
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 2. "A Black Box"
September 10, 2026 · 41 minIn 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…
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Where Is Austin Tice?: 1. "We Believe He’s Alive"
September 8, 2026 · 32 minJosh 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…