As a journalist, who you are matters. Freelance journalist Fariba Nawa (@faribanawa) tells how she learned this the hard way. But her identity, that early in her career may have hindered her, has turned into a strength. She has gone from refugee to a reporter who covers refugees. She is an Afghan American proud of her heritage who also struggles with its deep patriarchy. Now setting her sights on podcasting, she discusses launching On Spec podcast that seeks to lift up less-heard global stories.

Countries featured: Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, USA, Turkey

Publications featured: AFP, New Yorker, The Argus, Refinery29, PRI’s The World, Pacific News Service

Fariba discusses fleeing Afghanistan at age 9 (4:48), navigating her family with a deep writing tradition but rooted in a patriarchal Afghan community (15:42), a shaky experience trying to break into foreign reporting that takes her to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran (31:18), going to grad school at NYU just as 9/11 happens and thrusts her back into reporting on Afghanistan (40:12), getting kicked out of Pakistan (47:12), writing her book Opium Nation (53:22), her freelance work on feminism in Turkey and starting OnSpec podcast (1:10:52) and ends on the lightning round (1:19:02).

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

On Spec podcast - https://apple.co/3e4xA3q

Fariba’s book Opium Nation - https://amzn.to/3ovp5mS

Her TEDx talk - https://bit.ly/3oAHUFl

Her piece on the rise of divorce in Turkey - https://bit.ly/37WB5YG

Her Refinery29 on Afghan feminism - https://r29.co/383vGzp

Her story on a teenager raped by her smuggler - https://bit.ly/3jDSt71

Heavyweight podcast episode “Scott” - https://apple.co/2Jg5Y06

Jon Lee Anderson on Twitter - https://bit.ly/2TvA1mp

Kim Barker’s book Taliban Shuffle - https://amzn.to/35N1OnS

Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod

Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

From: freemusicarchive.org

CC BY NC