Hermit state North Korea has to stay afloat somehow. As Financial Times reporter Don Weinland (@donweinland) found out, that means managing ships through Hong Kong. In this interview, we navigate the twists and turns that got Don from the deserts of Nevada to digging through shipping records for the UK’s premier financial newspaper. Unlike my first three guests who were journalists from early on, Don was a late comer to the industry. Bouncing around Asia for a decade, his story eventually takes us through four separate publications.

We discuss growing up (4:30), going to China (13:52), his start in journalism in Cambodia (25:12), some super inside baseball about working at China Economic Review (32:55), a stint at the South China Morning Post (48:32) and finally landing at the FT. That’s all before getting into North Korean shipping (56:07). And then we get a little looser in the lightening round (1:04:35).

Here are links to some of the things we talk about:

An explainer on Hutongs - http://bit.ly/2YuWSz2

FT story “North Korea’s opaque trading network keeps economy afloat” - https://on.ft.com/2XcL5Jn

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk - https://amzn.to/2XddAXk

New Yorker profile of Glenn Greenwald - http://bit.ly/323CeIu

Author Michael Lewis’ website - http://bit.ly/2YoZUoO

News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - https://amzn.to/2LprXRf

Bloomberg story on the Rio Tinto executive jailed in China - https://bloom.bg/2IZfUsd

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

From: freemusicarchive.org

CC BY NC