When journalist Jake Warren met Aimen Dean — a former Al Qaeda bomb-maker turned agent for the British intelligence service MI6, who happened to be super smart and deeply knowledgeable about Middle East politics — he knew he had hit storytelling pay dirt. So when Jake started his own podcasting company a few years later, he was determined to get Aimen behind the mic. But there were a couple of problems: the guy could talk for nine hours, and would sometimes get pretty deep in the weeds. So they brought in Thomas Small — an author, documentary film producer, Middle East scholar, and good friend of Aimen’s – to be co host.
The resulting podcast, CONFLICTED, from Jake’s company Message Heard, breaks down the complexities of history, religion and politics of the Middle East and puts them in a global context. The first season begins with 9/11 and focuses on the War on Terror and associated conflicts in the region. The second season is about the post-Cold War New World Order and how that era of US dominance affected the Middle East, and beyond. To the listener, it sounds like Thomas and Aimen are having a friendly conversation, sprinkled with Aimen’s often heart-stopping personal stories. But as you’ll hear, there’s lots of work that goes on behind the scenes to get to this place.
In this episode, join 3 Clips host and Marketing Showrunners founder Jay Acunzo as he talks with Jake Warren about the large and small choices that make CONFLICTED a success – not only with Middle East politics nerds, but among a general audience too.
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INSIDE THIS EPISODE:
CONFLICTED from Message Heard can be found here: https://messageheard.com/our-podcasts/conflicted, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Selections played on this episode of 3 Clips are from Season 1, Episode 2: The War on Terror: https://play.acast.com/s/conflicted/waronterror
Follow Jake Warren, founder of MessageHeard, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJakeWarren
Follow CONFLICTED on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
Listen to the podcast Undiscovered, hosted and reported by Jake Warren: https://messageheard.com/podcasts/undiscovered
Follow 3 Clips host Jay Acunzo on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/jayacunzo/
You can find all episodes of 3 Clips wherever you listen to podcasts, or by browsing the show’s home page at marketingshowrunners.com/podcast
Thanks for listening!
(3 Clips with Jay Acunzo is the official podcast of Marketing Showrunners, helping makers and marketers find and share their voices and make shows that make a difference. MSR offers free and paid education and entertainment to help you create podcasts and video shows that are central to both your brand and your audience’s lives.)
