Podcast Series: Comprehending The Global Appeal Of ISIS

The militant group ISIS might have been largely defeated, but its ideology remains. That's why it's so important to really understand what renders it so appealing to such a large amount of people, and to find out why a couple of years ago thousands of citizens from all around the world decided to leave their lives behind and join the terror group.

The New York Times is trying to do just that with a new podcast series by foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi and producer Andy Mills. Both have joined forces to try to dig as deep as possible into the terrorists' mentality.

The audio documentary “Caliphate" looks back into the reporting of Callimachi, who covers ISIS and Al Qaeda for the New York Times. Thanks to her trips to Iraq, including to the front lines in the battle for Mosul, she has been able to collect internal documents that expose how brutal and meticulous the terror group was.

The first episode of the series focuses on the reporter's perspective. Through her memories, we get a glimpse of how ISIS functioned, especially when it comes to using social media as a communication tool.

Callimachi tracked the Islamist militants' activity across different online platforms. She also makes the most out of Instagram as it enables her to connect with a person who somehow managed, after being in Syria, to get back to Canada.

The documentary might not add anything new to the ISIS story because it's based on former information reported by the journalist. However, it's very interesting not only due to the fact that it's available now in a different format, but also because it gives us the chance to reconstruct the steps and methods followed by Callimachi to report on this extremely dangerous issue.