My Secret Journey to the War America Can't Escape

Introducing "Behind the Lines", a Mother Jones Podcast series featuring senior reporter Shane Bauer’s exclusive, on-the-ground reporting in Syria. A year in the making, this series contains never-before-heard audio from one of the 21st century’s bloodiest conflicts, including an interview with the first American woman charged with terrorism-related crimes for joining her husband in ISIS territory. Bauer takes listeners inside an abandoned ISIS prison; hunts for clues about a devastating US-led air strikes; and travels to a battlefront where a proxy battle between superpowers is fueled by oil and gas fields. Episode One goes  to the bombed-out city of Raqqa, the former ISIS stronghold, where forensics teams conduct the harrowing work of uncovering thousands of bodies from the rubble. The city was liberated in 2017 following an intensive four-month siege and bombardment by US-led forces as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive escalation of the war against ISIS in Syria. By early 2018, when Bauer visited, as much as 80 percent of the city’s buildings had been destroyed or damaged; Amnesty International called it “the most destroyed city in modern times.” Bauer follows the heartbreaking daily routine of 16 rescuers with no more lives to save; now their grim task is retrieving bodies throughout the city.  In this episode, Bauer talks about why he embarked on this risky trip into Syria and discusses the shifting web of combatants that makes the war so difficult to comprehend. Our podcast series is being released at the same time as an in-depth package on MotherJones.com presenting Bauer’s in-depth report and riveting videos from behind the lines. For more, visit: motherjones.com/syria. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices