Sunday morning, July 3, 2016, a suicide-truck bomb exploded in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad, ripping to shreds the lives of nearly 400 civilians. It was just days before the end of Ramadan and the feast of Eid al Fitr. Families were shopping for treats with which to break their holy fast. My colleague’s wife and relatives had been doing the same thing–had been in the shopping center nearly all day, deciding to go home only thirty minutes before the bomb detonated. In this podcast, I discuss what it’s like to be a native of Baghdad, and how one picks up the pieces after a horrific tragedy like this one.
