'Proof of Life': Vanishing into the Middle Eastern Underworld with Daniel Levin

In this episode, A'ndre and Ryan talk with Daniel Levin about his new book, Proof of Life: Twenty Days on the Hunt for Missing Person in the Middle East. Daniel recounts the thrilling, brutal, and real-life story of how he was tasked with finding a Westerner who had gone missing in Syria, navigating the Middle Eastern underworld to find this man whose story had largely been ignored by governments and those in power. The backdrop of hostage executions by ISIS in Syria and Iraq looms large over the story, but Daniel's journey to find this man takes him to meetings with sheikhs, drug dealers, and other powerful and seedy individuals, while encountering others who are of noble and honorable spirit and victims of circumstance, juxtaposing the significant dynamics that present itself in a region racked by conflict. Daniel, who is an armed-conflicts negotiator, gives us a deep insight into the war economy that has come to dominate parts of the Middle East, with a unique, on-the-ground perspective that is at times tragic but hopeful.