Journalist and author Michael Scott Moore discusses his memoir, The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast. Incorporating personal narrative and investigative journalism, this book explores foreign policy, religious extremism, and the costs of survival. In January 2012, Moore traveled to the Horn of Africa to write about piracy and ways to end it. In a twist of fate, Moore was kidnapped and subsequently held captive by Somali pirates. In September 2014, after 977 days in captivity, he walked free when his ransom was put together by the help of several U.S. and German institutions, friends, colleagues, and his mother. In this book, Moore also observes the economics and history of piracy, the effects of post-colonialism, the politics of hostage negotiation and ransom, and the various faces of Islam, ultimately placing his ordeal in the context of the larger political and historical issues currently at play in East Africa.      

On July 23 at 7 pm Michael Scott Moore will be at The Half King (505 W. 23rd Street).  

This segment is guest hosted by Jenna Flanagan.