Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're

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I spoke to Michael Weiss, the senior editor at the Daily Beast, and co-author of a New York

Times Best Seller about the Islamic State, entitled ISIS Inside the Army of Terror. And we focus

primarily on ISIS and the Civil War in Syria. And as you'll hear, Michael is just a

fount of information on these topics. You might have to listen to this twice to get all the details

here. Unfortunately, we had a few audio issues with Skype, so you'll hear a few irregularities there.

But I think you'll agree by the end that listening to Michael talk about ISIS and the Syrian

Civil War has made you much smarter on these subjects. And you'll come away with a much clearer

sense of how complicated U.S. foreign policy and the war on terror now are. And now I give you Michael Weiss.

Well, I'm here with Michael Weiss from the Daily Beast. Michael, thanks for coming on the podcast.

Thanks for having me on Sam.

Listen, I know you as a writer and editor for the Beast, but once you tell me in our audience a

little bit more about you and how you come to know so much about the Middle East, which is I'm

sure going to be the bulk of what we talk about. What's your background and tell us about your

book on ISIS and all the rest? So my background is in journalism. I started writing about the

Middle East about 10 years ago, I think. Some of it was on the Israel-Palestine conflict, a lot of

...