A podcast with Charlotte McDonald-Gibson. Security laws imposed around the world to curb the spread of COVID-19 enabled the authorities to crackdown on militancy, which resulted in a brief respite from they type of terrorist attacks that had become all too familiar during the first two decades of this century.

But as author Charlotte McDonald-Gibson notes, the pandemic could lend itself to increased isolation and the same factors that have enabled groups like the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaida, and the now defunct Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia to find support from remote corners of the globe.

In her latest book, “Far Out: Encounters with Extremists,“ the veteran foreign correspondent chronicles the lives of eight people who succumbed to the influence of hardliners, and endured the wrath of an unforgiving society when seeking redemption. Listen here.