Where is Austin Tice? BBC and NPR team up for a podcast series examining one of the biggest missing person cases of our time

The BBC and NPR have announced Where is Austin Tice? A major new nine-part audio series for BBC Sounds and Radio 4, on RSS in the I’m Not A Monster Presents feed, and NPR’s Embedded debuting 8 September. This landmark production brings together two giants of public service journalism to examine one of the biggest missing person cases of our time.

Returning for his most ambitious chapter yet, Josh Baker — creator of two of the BBC’s most acclaimed investigative podcast series, I’m Not a Monster and The Shamima Begum Story — enters a world of fear, greed and betrayal. It’s an investigation that is years in the making.

While Josh’s previous series explored questions of guilt and culpability, Where is Austin Tice? sets out on a different kind of mission: to unravel a real-life missing-person case.

Journalist Austin Tice disappeared in Syria more than a decade ago. Today, he is one of the biggest missing person cases of our time. Some accounts have placed him alive in a cell, others that he was smuggled out of Syria, and in the most tragic he died long ago. His mother Debra insists her son is alive and has led a tireless campaign to bring Austin home — a campaign that continues to this day.

What begins as an effort to help a mother find her son has become a multi-year investigation stretching from the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., to the depths of the Syrian security state. Josh travels to Damascus with Austin’s mother Debra, speaks to spies, tracks down alleged war criminals and reaches people who may know the truth about what happened to Austin.

Teaming up with investigative journalist Sara Obeidat, Josh retraces Austin’s journey and follows new evidence as it emerges, uncovering secret material and testimony that has already generated global headlines. And there is more to come.

The audience experiences the investigation as it unfolds — as witnesses are found, evidence arrives and the search moves closer to those who may know the truth.

Josh and Sara’s investigation begins before the fall of then Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime forcibly disappeared more than 100,000 people. The regime’s collapse changes everything. Intelligence facilities open, secret records are found and Syrians who survived the security state can share what they had seen.

Their testimony places Austin’s disappearance within a wider Syrian story: one of tens of thousands of families still searching for missing relatives, survivors seeking justice and a country confronting the legacy of fear and secrecy.

Episode One of Where is Austin Tice? will be available on the I’m Not a Monster feed on BBC Sounds and the NPR Embedded feed via RSS from Tuesday 8 September. It will broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service from Wednesday 9 September.

Josh Baker says: “It was seeing Debra give a deeply heartfelt press conference that first drew me to Austin’s story. I hoped that the skills of our team might help her family find some of the answers they had been denied for so long.

“I could never have anticipated where the investigation would lead, or what it would demand of everyone involved. It is rare in journalism to have the chance to do work that might offer something tangible to a family while also showing the stark reality of the Syrian regime's brutal dictatorship.

“That possibility has driven us throughout — alongside a responsibility to the Syrians who trusted us with their stories and are still searching for answers about their own missing relatives.”

Daniel Clarke, BBC Radio 4 Factual Commissioning Editor, says: “Josh and Sara have established themselves as a formidable force in investigative journalism - and their uniquely immersive approach to audio storytelling takes the listener deep into the troubling world into which Austin disappeared, every step of the way. This outstanding series combines a deeply human story of a mother looking for her son with a remarkable investigation into the Syrian security state, leading to genuinely shocking - and important - discoveries.”

Katie Simon, Senior Supervising Editor at NPR’s Embedded, says: “When Josh and Sara first came to us with this story, we knew it was a rare opportunity to showcase immersive reporting about one of the most secretive regimes. The Austin Tice story gives us the chance to step into a once-hidden Syrian prison system and begin to piece together a play-by-play of Austin’s timeline from the moment he goes missing. It’s also a chance for two public media powerhouses to come together and make something new and meaningful in longform narrative journalism.”

The podcast is written, showrun and presented by Josh Baker and investigated and produced with Sara Obeidat. It is series-produced by Simon Maybin and produced by Lucy Burns, with Clare Fordham as series editor for BBC News Long Form Audio. It was commissioned by Daniel Clarke for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. BBC Studios is handling international distribution for the series.

At NPR, the podcast was edited by Robert Little, who leads NPR’s Investigations team and Embedded’s showrunner Katie Simon. It was produced by Monika Evstatieva. The Executive Producer for Embedded is Irene Noguchi.

LM5

Notes to Editors

I’m Not a Monster is the BBC’s most awarded narrative podcast series to date, with millions of listens across the world. Its honours include two Rose d’Or awards, the Grand Jury Prize at the New York Festivals Radio Awards, a Webby, an Ambie, a Rockie, an Edward R. Murrow Award and more. The film adaptation of Series 1 achieved an Emmy Nomination, and of Series 2 a BAFTA win.

The first series investigated the story of Sam Sally, an American mother who entered ISIS territory with her husband and children. Her husband became an ISIS sniper and her son was forced to appear in a propaganda video.

The second series, The Shamima Begum Story, examined one of Britain’s most divisive cases, exploring questions of identity, security, race, religion and gender.

Embedded is NPR's home for audio documentaries, bringing untold stories to light through deeply reported narrative series. We go to hidden corners of the headlines to explore what's been sealed off, undisclosed, or overlooked – and the people at the heart of those stories. For its work Embedded has received multiple Peabody nominations, National Headliner Awards, New York Radio Festival Awards, Online News Association Awards, Signal Awards and more. It shares an Edward R. Murrow Award with NPR’s Investigations team.