News & Media
Last updated 11/2/2016
This page contains news and media items pertaining to The Audacious Ascetic.
In the News
"Spools of Propaganda," Dawn News, Karachi, Pakistan
October 2nd, 2016
BBC Radio 4: The bin Laden Tapes
Monday August 17th, 2015 8pm
BBC Security correspondent Gordon Corera speaks to Prof Flagg Miller from the University of California-Davis, who has spent more than a decade translating and analysing more than 1500 audio cassettes featuring sermons, speeches, songs and candid recordings of Arab-Afghan fighters, recorded between the 1960s up until the 9/11 attacks.
Vice News: What I Learned About al Qaeda from Analyzing the ‘Bin Laden’ Tapes
Monday, September 28th, 2015
A piece by Flagg Miller reviews surprising discoveries at the center of his book.
Book Review in Twentieth-Century Music (vol. 32(1))
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017
Musicologist Beau Bothwell consider’s the book’s contributions to music and sound studies.
This is Hell!
Sunday, October 31st, 2015
WNUR Chicago's Chuck Mertz interviews Prof Miller about the book’s insights about the power of the bin Laden story.
Was Osama bin Laden Really In Charge Of Al-Qa`ida Or A Convenient Western Boogeyman?
Thursday, November 26th, 2015
Kansas City’s KKFI Community Radio: Tell Somebody Host Margot Patterson boils The Audacious Ascetic down to critical key points.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Inside bin Laden’s Audio Library
Wednesday September 9th, 2015
Australian Late Night Live’s Andrew West asks Prof Flagg Miller about curiosities in the tape collection and what they reveal.
The Sunday Times (England)
Sunday October 4th, 2015
Read a book review by Catherine Philp.
Prospect Magazine (UK)
Sunday October 15th, 2015
Read a short book review by David Patrikarakos
Public Radio International’s The World
Wednesday October 21st, 2015
Listen to Marcus Werman talk with Flagg about “a story that remains to be told"
National Public Radio, On the Media
Listen to Bob Garfield's interview with professor Miller.
Public Radio International’s The World
Listen to Katy Clark's interview with professor Miller.
BBC World Service
Read Michael Hirst's BBC article "Analysing Bin Laden's jihadi poetry"
Chronicle of Higher Education
Read Thomas Bartlett's article "Before Martyrdom, Breakfast" in the Chronicle of Higher Education
Kirkus Book Review
About the Author
Flagg Miller is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis.
Trained as a linguistic anthropologist, his first book, The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audio-cassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen, examined how Yemenis have used traditional poetry and new media technologies to envision a productive relationship between tribalism and progressive Muslim reform.