Aug 24, 2016

Threat Level

We begin with NPR's East Africa correspondent Gregory Warner, who takes us back to the 2013 terrorist attacks on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Warner reported on the attack as it happened, listening to eyewitness accounts, sorting out the facts, establishing the truth. But he's been been wrestling with it ever since as his friends and neighbors try not only to put their lives back together, but also try to piece together what really happened that day. 

Then, things get really murky as we try to fix a clear line between empty threats and concrete criminal plans. While working on The Bad Show, our then producer Pat Walters ran across some recordings that spooked him--partly because they seemed like they had to be a big joke ... and partly because, at the same time, they sounded so deadly serious. That uncertainty is precisely what makes this story feel so unnerving on the one hand, and weirdly ridiculous on the other, and we’re left wondering: when should we consider someone a threat?

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