217: Matthew Schrier | How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison

Matt Schrier is an American photographer who survived seven months as an Al-Qaeda captive in Syria before escaping, and the author of The Dawn Prayer: A Memoir.

What We Discuss with Matt Schrier:

• How Matt Schrier was captured by Al-Qaeda just 45 minutes away from the border on his way out of Syria in 2012.
• How making his captors laugh on day one of his captivity got him special treatment from a usually unforgiving crowd.
• What Matt did to survive and plan an escape in spite of an unhelpful, self-sabotaging cellmate.
• Why Matthew feels betrayed by the FBI and the US government for putting intelligence gathering over the safety of Americans imprisoned by terrorists.
• Why, even after becoming the first American to escape from Al-Qaeda and his feelings of betrayal from his own government, he has no regrets about going to Syria in the first place.
• And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/217

Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course!

Why do people keep resisting new things? That's the question the Pessimists Archive podcast tries to answer. Each episode travels back in time to the moment a new technology or innovation was introduced and explores why everyone was freaking out about it. Give Pessimists Archive a listen here!

Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.