Major Influence: Extremism on the Rise, Creating Fiction out of Reality

On today’s show: Eliza Griswold talks about the roots of extremism in Africa and how American Special Forces are dealing with organizations like Boko Haram. Akhil Sharma joins us for this month’s Leonard Lopate Show Book Club to talk about his novel, Family Life. We’ll get a preview of four radio plays based on James Joyce’s Dubliners that will be performed in the Jerome L. Greene Space. Plus, a look at how Middle Eastern nations like Saudi Arabia and Turkey are playing a role in the rise of the insurgent group ISIS in Iraq. And find out how a Soviet era medical technique of injecting certain kinds of bacteria could help wean us off of our dependence on antibiotics.