All right, everybody, as promised in this week’s episode, here’s that soundbyte from my buddy and Trojan Horse Affair co-reporter Hamza Syed that we want you to remix:

"Um, it's gonna be very easy to say this guy is a biased, activist, Birmingham, dangerous, brown guy, bearded, crazy, um, you know, irrational, um, completely just kind of, like, twisted the narrative, uh, to fit his agenda. You know? The classics." (Listen & Download)

Our editor Neil Drumming heard this line go by in one of our edits and thought it was ripe for a beat.

So have a go at it. Doesn’t have to be techno. Just something… danceable. Or funny... Make sure to tag us! @brihreed @kcrw

Speaking of Hamza — back when the Policy Exchange think-tank put out that 195-page report purporting to take down our investigative series with the New York Times — he did a pretty extensive Twitter thread taking it on point by point, if you’re interested in digging into that morass. 

Also, we didn’t have time to deep dive into the takedown of The Trojan Horse Affair in The Observer in this episode — which you are welcome to read for yourself, but I am curious what you make of it.

The Observer was sued for defamation over that column. A column claiming our reporting was wrong. Not by Hamza or me, but by a Muslim educator, Tahir Alam, who was a subject of our podcast and who Sonia Sodha also wrote about. (He dropped the case last year; I’m not sure why.)

Meanwhile, our series, which was like eight hours long and filled with tons of intensive reporting about all sorts of people who did not want us to publish it (and who threatened to sue us), was never sued. Especially in the UK, where libel cases are way easier to win than here. I’m proud that our reporting was so solid — personal opinions and all. 

Last thing! Our producer, Zach, is trying to set up some conversations between me and our staff and you all. If you have a question you want to ask us — about one of our episodes, about journalism, about truth, about something we have or haven’t covered — reply to this email or send us your thoughts: hey@placementtheory.com, and we’ll reach out to maybe invite you on the show.

Brian