"The Trojan Horse Affair": A Podcast Review
- Nathaniel Wiley
- Feb 19, 2022
- 2 min read
*This article contains spoilers!*
This could be a big step in a media direction for Serial Productions! Partnering with the New York Times, they have created a fabulous podcast. A mystery involving incompleteness.

A mystery that has previously only been [officially] tackled by government officials in Birmingham and in the U.K. This podcast is truly captivating.
After its release on February 3rd, 2022, it has been a popular podcast, getting 4.5/5 stars on Apple Podcasts from 2.9K reviewers.
Brian Reed, a senior producer of This American Life, and the host of popular podcast S-town (also from Serial Productions), is a co-host of The Trojan Horse Affair, and who is considered by some to be the "teacher" in this situation, and Hamza Syed, who is considered the "student", is an investigative journalist from the U.K. who investigates a truly riveting mystery. Here's a little context according to the The New York Times.
"A strange letter appears on a city councillor’s desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the city’s schools. The plot has a code name: Operation Trojan Horse. The story soon explodes in the news and kicks off a national panic. By the time it all dies down, the government has launched multiple investigations, beefed up the country’s counterterrorism policy, revamped schools and banned people from education for the rest of their lives."
This podcast has a fantastic plot, and I think Hamza Syed couldn't have picked a more interesting mystery to solve. This so-called "Operation Trojan Horse" was devastating to Birmingham, UK, to many teachers, teaching staff, students, and people who practice the Islamic religion in Birmingham. Many, many people were mystified by this strange letter, but nobody ever investigated why. Why this letter appeared? Who wrote it? And other questions that were nagging at Hamza Syed's mind when he entered the world of investigative journalism. The tale of "Operation Trojan Horse" takes Brian Reed and Hamza Syed across multiple countries, and they are nearly brought to court by the government.
And most peculiar of all, it all seems to link back to a lawsuit of forgery of paperwork from Adderley Primary School. These two journalists do a fabulous job of answering all of these questions, in a way that is very different. Unlike podcasts like NY Times' The Daily, the hosts of The Trojan Horse Affair state their opinions on the matter very openly. And in some cases explicitly.
But what is truly remarkable about The Trojan Horse Affair, is that it shows Hamza Syed's development as a professional investigative journalist. He evolves from being very centered on one perspective of the mystery to being more open minded. From being very arrogant and sometimes disrespectful in interviews to being more aware of himself and the people around him.
Overall, I would highly recommend this podcast to anyone who loves a riveting mystery, and a good one, too. Give this podcast a try! You may learn to love it!
Works Cited:
“The Trojan Horse Affair.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html.
“The Trojan Horse Affair.” This American Life, 14 Feb. 2022, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/761/the-trojan-horse-affair.
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