Two high-achieving twenty-somethings quit their dream jobs, strapped everything they owned to two bikes, and pedaled into the kind of freedom most of us only fantasize about during a bad Monday meeting. Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austen weren’t reckless thrill seekers. They were planners, idealists, the type who believed the world was mostly kind. So when their round-the-world cycling trip carried them into the mountains of Tajikistan and straight into the path of an ISIS attack, their story became more than a headline. It became a brutal collision between world views.

I highly recommend William Elliott Hazelgrove’s book Evil on the Roof of the World: A Cycling Trip that Ended in Terror if you want to go even deeper into this story. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Roof-World-Cycling-Terror/dp/B0F78H5VST

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📷 Instagram: instagram.com/darkcitypod
🌎 Website: www.darkcitypodcast.com
✉️ Email: info@darkcitypodcast.com

📚 Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45026752
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/31/634373403/d-c-couple-killed-in-tajikistan-attack-were-biking-around-the-world-together
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/the-weekly/isis-bike-attack-tajikistan.html
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/biking/tajikistan-bike-murders-jay-austin-lauren-geoghegan/
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/american-cyclists-killed-isis-tajikistan/?scope=anon
https://www.simplycycling.org/

🎵 All music in this episode is sourced from Pixabay, with tracks including:
Mountain Wind by Siarhei Korbut
Peace of Mind – Calm Ambient Music by Clavier-Music
Bossa Nova Instrumental 01 by alanajordan
Ambient Background by playstarz_music
Seaside in Sorrow – Sad and Touching Soft Piano by HarumachiMusic
Desert Winds Meditation by NaturesEye
Midnight Whispers Creepy Dark Horror Background by TrenoX8
Piano Cinematic by The_Mountain
Inspirational Documentary Cinematic Piano by NotAIGenerated

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👏 Special thanks to our talented partners:
Paolo Sbrighi for Musical Composition (instagram.com/paulosbrighi/)
Mario Cintra for Logo Design (instagram.com/alacarala/)