The Other Latif: Bonus Episode!

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2020

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Other Latif

Radiolab’s Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he makes a bizarre and shocking discovery. He shares his name with another man: Abdul Latif Nasser, detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government paints a terrifying picture of The Other Latif as Al-Qaeda’s top explosives expert, and one of the most important advisors to Osama bin Laden. Nasser’s lawyer claims that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that he was never even in Al-Qaeda. This clash leads Radiolab’s Latif into a years-long investigation, picking apart evidence, attempting to separate fact from fiction, and trying to uncover what this man actually did or didn’t do. Along the way, Radiolab’s Latif reflects on American values and his own religious past, and wonders how his namesake, a fellow nerdy, suburban Muslim kid, may have gone down such a strikingly different path.

BONUS EPISODE

Since we released the first episode of The Other Latif, we’ve been contacted by many new sources. Which is great! But it also means we need a little extra time to cobble together Episodes 5 and 6. So while we wait, Jad and Latif chat about Abdul Latif’s response to the series, a character who fell out of episode 4, and a tiny moment in Latif’s youth that helped put him on the path he’s on now.

This episode was produced by Suzie Lechtenberg and Latif Nasser. Editing by Jad Abumrad and Soren Wheeler. With help from Sarah Qari.

Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC.
0:19.8	Hey everybody, it's Chad.
0:21.6	We are hard at work on the other Latif episode 5.
0:25.8	It's tied you over.
0:26.8	It's just going to be a few more days.
0:28.5	We wanted to give you a behind the scenes peak.
0:32.4	It's a little bit of a making up, a little bit of a director's cut, a little bit of a
0:36.4	glimpse into Latif's brain.
0:39.6	That would be our Latif.
0:41.9	Throughout the whole process of making the series, very often we will sit down in the studio
0:47.0	and just kind of like brain dump to each other as we call it.
0:50.3	And I want to play you a little bit of one of those conversations that Latif and I had
0:54.7	quite recently.
0:56.9	I hope you enjoy it.
0:57.9	The next episode of the series will be with you later this week.
1:02.0	But yeah, okay, so Latif, here we are, we're working on episode 5.
1:08.9	It's coming out later in the week.
1:12.2	Maybe it's a good time.
1:13.2	Well, we should say, if I can interrupt you.
1:15.2	Yeah, go, no, no, go, please.
1:16.4	Like we should say, because so many people who have been reaching out to me, they think
1:21.6	they're done.
	...

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