Brut McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. Matthew

Shrier is on his way home from Syria after spending months photographing the war going

on there. When, just 45 minutes from the safety of the Turkish border, he was taken prisoner

by the Al Nasser of Front, a branch of al-Qaeda in Syria. The next of the months, he was

starved and tortured in six different prison camps and he survived becoming the first

westerner to escape al-Qaeda. Today, he talks to the military about what he learned through

his experience. Today on the show, I talk to Matt about his book, The Dawn Prayer, which

details what he learned about how to survive a Syrian terrorist prison, as well as the

lessons he learned and what not to do from a fellow American with whom he was held captive.

Have the shows over, check out our show notes at a-wim.is slash dawn prayer.

Matt Shrier, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

So you just came out the book, The Dawn Prayer, or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian

Terrorist Prison. You were the first westerner to escape al-Qaeda from Syria. It's an incredible

story before we get to how you got captured to the escape. What were you doing in Syria

in 2012? Because you're not a military guy.

No, I'm not. I was there to do freelance photography. I was there about a month before visiting

the refugee camps. I was in Southern Turkey. I went into Syria for the first time to

survive. And then from there was Jordan where the Zatadi camp was. At the time, we're still

in. It was probably 150,000 people there.

And what was crazy, I mean, so this is not too long ago, but the Syrian conflict, as

I was reading the book, I was reminded how complex the conflict is. For those who aren't

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