I'm Not a Monster
The multi award-winning series returns to investigate the divisive story of Shamima Begum. When three London school girls went missing in 2015, they generated global headlines. Investigative journalist Josh Baker travels from Bethnal Green to Syria to uncover what really happened.
Episodes
Introducing... I’m Not A Monster
An American mother living in the heart of the ISIS caliphate. Her husband an ISIS sniper. Her 10-year-old son forced to threaten the U.S. president in a propaganda video shown around the world. She claims she was tricked into taking her young children to war-torn Syria, but where does her account end and the truth begin? Over four years journalist Josh Baker unravels a dangerous story where nothin
Series 1: 1. I love you, I miss you
A suicide bombing in Iraq and a home video from inside the ISIS caliphate begin the search for a family trapped in Syria. A desperate plea arrives from an American woman who says she wants to escape the Islamic State group with her young children. This episode includes descriptions of violence and some upsetting scenes involving children.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Pro
Series 1: 2. Read between the lines
A man who says he’s a people smuggler offers to help the family, while a drive around a suburb in Indiana reveals their past. Sam’s father adds a new twist on who his daughter really is.This episode includes descriptions of violence and some upsetting moments involving children.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
Production assistant: Lucie Su
Series 1: 3. My name is Yusef
The Islamic State group forces Sam’s son Matthew to spread its propaganda. Josh searches the woods of Idaho looking for a man on an elk hunt. Then an obscure tweet leads him to Syria to try to find the family.If you know something that you think might help the investigation please email notamonster@bbc.com Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
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Series 1: 4. She’s like my mother
A young boy in the mountains of Northern Iraq makes Josh question what he knows about Sam. Then ten days searching war-torn Syria lead to an offer of help, but can it be trusted?This episode includes descriptions of violence and some upsetting moments involving children.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
Production assistant: Lucie Sullivan
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Series 1: 5. We had a great life
Josh is face-to-face with Sam after a year trying to track her down. On a military base in Syria, she begins to tell her side of the story. She says it all started as a family holiday.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
Production assistant: Lucie Sullivan
Composer: Sam Slater
Mixed By: Tom Brignell
Series Editor: Emma RipponCommissioning Exec
Series 1: 6. Now I’m calling the shots
A torture prison, buying slaves and a dramatic escape: Sam continues her account of her years in Raqqa.This episode includes references to sexual abuse, extreme violence and some upsetting moments involving children.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
Production assistant: Lucie Sullivan
Composer: Sam Slater
Mixed by: Rod Farquhar
Series Edito
Series 1: 7. On American soil
As Josh starts to uncover more about the family’s past, Sam tries to explain away some of the many discrepancies in her story. Then, a connection to the FBI raises new questions about her.If you know something that you think might help the investigation please email notamonster@bbc.comReporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
Production assistant: L
Series 1: 8. I take my book back
Josh retraces Sam’s steps in Syria and asks could she have been an ISIS supporter all along? He meets her old neighbours in Raqqa, visits the infamous torture prison where she says she was held and meets an Islamic State group member who knew her personally.This episode includes references to violence.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green
Produc
Series 1: 9. The rest be damned
After years of insisting she’s innocent, Sam pleads guilty and Moussa’s exes reveal more about the man that led her to Syria. Sam’s team claims she was “a wife under the thumb of her violently abusive and radical husband” but the prosecution says she has “credibility issues” and tells stories that serve her personally. So how long will she spend in prison?This episodes contains some upsetting mome
Series 1: 10. It’s all behind me now
Sam’s son Matthew was just seven when he was taken to Syria and the Islamic State group. He thought he’d never see America again. Now he’s back with his dad and talks of the “sweet relief” of being home.Josh finds out how he and Sam’s other children are doing now.This episode includes references to violence and some upsetting moments involving children.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker a
Series 1: Update
Josh is back with news of what to expect next and with a reminder of what we heard in I’m Not A Monster.Reporter: Josh Baker
Producers: Joe Kent and Max Green“I’m Not a Monster” is a collaboration between BBC Panorama and FRONTLINE (PBS) and is a BBC Radio Current Affairs production for BBC Sounds.
Series 1: 11. Epilogue - The wounds and the scars
What happened to the family Josh was staying with when the Islamic State group struck in 2016?I’m Not a Monster began after Josh was injured by an ISIS truck bomb in Mosul, Iraq. If it wasn’t for an old contact reaching out to see how he was doing, he may never have heard about Sam and Matthew.Now he returns to the Iraqi city and finds that while the fighting may be largely over, the people of Ira
Series 1: 12. Those we leave behind
In Northern Iraq, Josh finds out how two people you’ve been asking about are doing now.In 2014, the Islamic State group killed thousands of members of the Yazidi religious community and kidnapped and enslaved many, many more. Ayham and Saud were both taken from their families and ended up in Syria where they were eventually bought by Sam and her husband Moussa.Josh first met them just after they’d
Series 1: 13. Your questions answered
Since the series ended, so many of you have got in touch wanting to know more. With the help of criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw, Josh answers your questions.Presenters: Josh Baker and Dr Julia Shaw (host of the Bad People podcast on BBC Sounds)
Mixed by: Tom Brignell
Producer: Joe Kent
Production Co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Editor Emma Rippon“I’m Not a Monster” is a collaboration between BBC P
Introducing… The Shamima Begum Story
Investigating the story of Shamima Begum. At 15, she ran away from her London home with two school friends to join the terror group ISIS in war torn Syria. Now she wants to come back. It’s a tale that has gripped the world, but there are different ways to tell it.Josh Baker has been following the story since 2015 when Shamima Begum left for the Islamic State group. For Series 2 of I’m Not a Monst
Series 2: 1. It Felt Like a Dream
Three London schoolgirls disappear, heading for a war zone. Four years later only one emerges from the ashes of ISIS. Nobody knows what really happened to her. Josh Baker meets Shamima Begum in Syria to begin unpicking her story. Almost eight years earlier, he was filming in Shamima’s local mosque when news broke that she and her friends had gone missing, it made global headlines. He was there wh
Series 2: 2. The Point of No Return
Following Shamima Begum’s route reveals a dangerous Islamic State group smuggling network, but that’s not all. A local taxi firm isn’t what it seems and a gangster threatens to make Josh “disappear.” It all ends in an underground carpark with a stack of secret documents and a warning.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Field pro
Series 2: 3. Double Agent?
The man who smuggled Shamima Begum to Syria claims he was spying for Canada. What's the truth? And could she and her school friends have been stopped from reaching the Islamic State group?Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Field producers: Hussam Hammoud
Composer: Firas Abou Fakher
Theme music: Sam Slater and Gunni Tynes
Mix an
Series 2: 4. When You’re In Love
Friendship, propaganda and the promise of paradise - why Shamima Begum left London at 15 for the Islamic State group in war torn Syria. But how did she ignore the group’s brutal violence? And who convinced her to go?The feature length documentary, "The Shamima Begum Story", will be on BBC2 at 9pm on February 7th.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Josh Baker, Sara O
Series 2: 5. Empty Paper
Shamima Begum’s new life under ISIS isn’t what she expected. She says what she thought would be paradise is more like a prison. At just 15 years-old she finds herself trapped in an ISIS guesthouse, where the only way out is to get married. In his first interview since 2019, Islamic State group fighter Yago Reidjik reveals how he became her husband and what their life together was like.This episod
Series 2. 6. Father Figure
With her new husband in prison, Shamima Begum is left in the care of a stranger, but who is he? Josh travels to the heart of the former caliphate as he searches for clues and investigates what her life with the Islamic State group was like.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Composer: Firas Abou Fakher
Theme music: Sam Slater
Mi
Series 2: 7. Trapped
Someone close to Shamima Begum is looking for a way out of the so-called caliphate.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Composer: Firas Abou Fakher
Theme music: Sam Slater
Mix and sound design: Tom Brignell
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Series Editor: Jonathan Aspinwall
Head of Long Form Audio: Emma Rippon Commiss
Series 2: 8. No Plan B
Raqqa falls, the so-called caliphate crumbles and a pregnant Shamima Begum is desperate to come home.After she and her husband Yago walk out of the ashes of the Islamic State group, she’s discovered in a detention camp where she gives an interview that will change her life. Reporter: Josh Baker
Written by: Josh Baker and Joe Kent
Producers: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Composer: Firas Abo
Series 2: 9. State of Mind
No longer a vulnerable schoolgirl, but a seemingly unrepentant adult. Shamima Begum enrages the British public and ends up stuck in Syria.A series of media interviews come to shape how she’s perceived - with long lasting consequences.Reporter: Josh Baker
Written and produced by: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Composer: Firas Abou Fakher
Theme music: Sam Slater
Mix and sound design: Tom Brig
Series 2: A Message From Josh
Episode 10 will be available on Wednesday March 22nd
Series 2: 10. The World’s Unwanted
What happened to the girl Shamima Begum says convinced her to join the Islamic State group?Less than 24 hours before this episode was published ,we got the answer. Reporter: Josh Baker
Written and produced by: Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat and Joe Kent
Composer: Firas Abou Fakher
Theme music: Sam Slater
Mix and sound design: Tom Brignell
Production coordinators: Janet Staples and Helena Warwick-Cross
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Series 2. Our Live Show
What do you want to know about The Shamima Begum Story and the making of the podcast? Join us on Tuesday the 12th of September in London, as Josh answers your questions about the series, share more about how it was made and some extra things we’ve learnt about the story.Apply for FREE TICKETS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/shamima-begum
Email your questions: josh@bbc.co.uk
Series 2: Josh Baker Answers Listener Questions
Josh answers your questions about Shamima Begum and the making of the multi-award winning series.
Recorded in front of an audience at the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London, Naga Munchetty puts your questions to Josh including: what is it about this story that captures the imagination and curiosity of so many people? How did Josh keep safe while making the podcast? And, Should Shamima Begum be seen
Series 2: The Court Decides
Nine years to the day since Shamima Begum entered ISIS controlled Syria, she’ll find out whether she’s any closer to coming back to Britain. Josh is at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London to hear whether Begum’s lawyers have succeeded in arguing that the British government’s decision to take away her citizenship was unlawful.After she emerged from the remnants of the Islamic State group
