In this fifth episode, Adam Day speaks to Mara Revkin, National Security Law Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, about her research regarding the Islamic State, particular the "stayers" - those who decided to stay in Islamic State-controlled territory and who are now considered ISIS affiliates. What happens to the cooks and cleaners of ISIS, or those forced to pay taxes to them? Is there a likelihood of an ISIS resurgence? How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted these groups? Listen to find out.

In this fourth episode, Adam Day speaks to Fanar Haddad, Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute at the National University, about the battle against the Islamic State, tracing the formation of ISIS back to the Iraq War that began in 2003. They focus on the Popular Mobilization Units, paramilitary groups that sprung up in 2014 in local Iraqi communities to defend themselves against ISIS, and consider the role that the Popular Mobilization Units play in the Iraqi State today.

In this third episode, Adam Day speaks to Vanda Felbab-Brown, who regularly does fieldwork in Somalia, going to places where very few people from outside the region go, meeting with dozens of armed groups and militias around the country. One of the groups she’s most interested in is Al-Shabaab, a group that emerged as a radical youth wing of the Islamic Courts that controlled Mogadishu in 2006. It’s listed as a terrorist group and may have links to other terrorist groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria. In 2009, Al-Shabaab took over a lot of southern Somalia, taking over huge territories and ruling them with brutality and repression.

How are the Somali militias, particularly the darwish, battling against Al-Shabbab and what is the group's role in the country?