Foreign Correspondence

We prowl the halls of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team in the capable hands of Tim Cato (@tim_cato), a staff writer with The Athletic. Tim got into sports reporting as a 17-year-old fan, but now he’s seen too much and the fandom has melted away. Still, he loves his job reporting on the huge characters, power dynamics and colorful feature stories the NBA has to provide - even finding what’s interesting about banal sports cliches and taking a trip to Slovenia.

Publications featured: SB Nation, Mavs Moneyball, The Athletic

Countries featured: USA, Slovenia

Tim discusses getting into sports reporting at 17 as a way to go to basketball games (5:44), the strange internet beast that is/was SB Nation (10:19), going from exploited free labor to staffer at SB Nation (16:17), The Athletic making a splash on the national sports scene (23:24), a breakdown of what it’s really like reporting on a basketball team (27:19), cliche sports questions and answers (31:10), losing his sports fandom (40:14), the larger-than-life Mark Cuban (47:56), telling the story of Mavericks star Luka Dončić by going to Slovenia (55:17), and the lightning round (1:01:32).

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

Mavs Moneyball (yes it still exists) - https://bit.ly/3lecEcw

SB Nation - https://bit.ly/39igQWa

Tim’s story on cliche questions and answers - https://bit.ly/3fCQ9wk

A clip of Mark Cuban on a StairMaster - https://bit.ly/3l6xR7W

Tim’s story from Slovenia - https://bit.ly/364rXQA

D Magazine - https://bit.ly/39fYi8Y

Texas Monthly’s “What if they had an election and everyone came?” - https://bit.ly/3m7yoYH

Jane Mayer’s book Dark Money - https://amzn.to/3682GF7

Baxter Holmes’ stories via Longform.org - https://bit.ly/33gaEKq

Sam Anderson’s book Boom Town - https://amzn.to/33gaOBw

Two Writers Slinging Yang podcast - https://apple.co/3fMKhB7

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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Ode to a Grecian journ(alist). Family looms large in this episode with Joanna Kakissis (@joannakakissis), a correspondent in Athens for National Public Radio, whose Greek parents instilled in her the importance of their culture from a young age. She made a mark early in her career as part of a Pulitzer finalist newspaper reporting team before returning to her roots in Greece where she has reported for more than a decade.

Countries featured: Turkey, USA, Greece

Publications featured: The News & Observer, Boston Globe, Time magazine, The New York Times, NPR

Joanna discusses growing up as the only Greeks in small town North Dakota (4:43), her trajectory from college to NPR (16:12), her newspaper coverage of a hurricane in North Carolina that taught her not to exoticize her subjects (23:00), why she took a risk to cover the Athens Olympics for the Boston Globe and became a freelance foreign correspondent (28:46), her broader European coverage (35:00), a story that got away about a Syrian doctor in Germany who killed the piece for fear for his family (38:58), her series for NPR on Uighurs in Turkey (44:28) and the lightning round (54:45).

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

Joanna talks about covering the European migrant crisis - https://n.pr/3kAnokS

Part 1 of Joanna’s Uighur in Turkey series - https://n.pr/32GhJ6T

Part 2 - https://n.pr/3kw8X1e

Part 3 - https://n.pr/3eYpDxg

NPR’s Radiolab - https://bit.ly/36BmsaX

NPR’s Rough Translation podcast - https://n.pr/2ZXvzRo

NYT’s The Jungle Prince of Delhi - https://nyti.ms/39hXIUR

NYT Cooking mapo tofu recipe - https://nyti.ms/2IAUIuP

Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers - https://amzn.to/2UpGXSm

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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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

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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A very special election episode! Libby Nelson (@libbyanelson) talks to us about how she is approaching U.S. presidential election coverage as Senior Deputy Policy Editor at Vox. As you may well have guessed, covering this election has turned out to be very different than we could have predicted. Libby also talks about how she came to work for journalism startups, becoming one of Vox’s first few employees when the website was still just an idea. 

Countries featured: USA

Publications featured: The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Scranton Times-Tribune, Politico, Vox, The Daily Northwestern

Libby discusses being raised by two newspaper journalists in Kansas (5:05), burning out at Northwestern University's daily newspaper (11:52), interning at NYT at the depth of the financial crisis (21:53), transitioning from newspapers to the trades to startups (25:39), joining Vox when it was just an idea (39:12), become an editor (46:01), election coverage (48:17), the killer profile encapsulating Obama's education policy that never happened (57:42), her story about a conservative faction taking over a religious college in Georgia (1:04:19), working with reporters on a global story about healthcare (1:08:51) and finally the lightning round (1:14:24)

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

Libby’s story on a religious college takeover - https://bit.ly/375OY6t

Vox story on how healthcare works globally - https://bit.ly/3k0AwAq

In the Dark podcast - https://apple.co/2GYGUdc

Wind of Change podcast - https://apple.co/352Bg1y

NYT story on Trump’s taxes - https://nyti.ms/2SRuBlk

The Hour on IMDb - https://imdb.to/3drIYGo

Linda Greenhouse NYT stories - https://nyti.ms/3k0K8uT

Nina Totenberg NPR stories - https://n.pr/3nOoIU5

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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What’s this? There’s more? We talk in-depth about his job helping shape the visual language of The New York Times and his approach to video journalism, as well as an offbeat story set in North Korea that never quite happened.

Countries featured: North Korea, USA

Jonah's short doc about zoonotic diseases - https://nyti.ms/2F0fOkS

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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Gen X photo bum finds journalism, makes good. Well, ok, there’s about 15 more steps in the middle that leaves out. And like 60+ countries. Jonah Kessel (@jonah_kessel) is proof that the right camera can change someone’s life. Now at The New York Times, he is constantly trying to push the limits of what video and visuals can do, even when those limits are the visible spectrum of light. 

Countries featured: China, USA, Algeria, Hong Kong

Publications featured: Burlington Free Press, Tahoe Daily Tribune, La Voix de l'Oranie, Sawt Al Gharb ( صوت الغرب ), China Daily, The New York Times

Jonah discusses growing up in Vermont (6:24), dropping out of Tulane University to wander the U.S. for 3 years (9:58), going back to school for journalism...in three different countries (14:10), sweet-talking his way into a job at a Lake Tahoe newspaper (19:14), working in Algeria as a newspaper consultant (26:54), being recruited to redesign the China daily (29:32), the glory days freelancing and joining the NYT in not-so-old Beijing (35:28), an exit from China that was complicated in terms of his visa and medically (49:58), the insane plane-flying, ice-cold-camera-sensor shooting behind the groundbreaking NYT story about methane leaks (1:01:36) and the lightning round (1:11:13)

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

Jonah's first NYT piece on Zhao Liang (scroll half way down for video) - https://nyti.ms/33qmFNQ

Jonah’s NYT project on methane emissions - https://nyti.ms/33qV0wg

How he did the methane story - https://nyti.ms/3inP6jO

The Social Dilemma on Netflix - https://bit.ly/3d3bfTt

Nicholas Kristof on Twitter - https://bit.ly/2HKJtiX

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Amazon - https://amzn.to/2Spb2k2

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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A love story between Cuban spies. Jungle warfare in Central America. A military coup in Chile. A roller coaster relationship with Fidel Castro. Lucia Newman, Latin America Editor and a Senior Correspondent in Chile for Al Jazeera English, has seen and reported on it all over several decades covering the region, dodging more than a few bullets along the way. 

Countries featured: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Mexico, USA, Australia, Haiti

Publications featured: CNN, Al Jazeera

Lucia discusses how she covers all of Latin America during the pandemic (3:02), her childhood with a Chilean diplomat mother and American journalist father who made it all look so glamorous (9:55), moving back to Chile for college just as a military coup kicks off and forces her to hide out (12:43), a stint in Australia (19:08), working for CNN and others covering war in Central America (21:48), nine - often tense - years living in Cuba (37:34) revealing Cuban spies in the U.S. that earned her a portrayal in a Netflix movie (42:53), covering tragedy in Haiti (1:02:50), uncovering housing corruption in Cuba (1:06:02) and the lightning round (1:10:52).

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

Lucia’s latest reporting for Al Jazeera - https://bit.ly/32M0eCu

Her story on Iran in Venezuela - https://bit.ly/2HhkTGn

Her interview with Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez - https://bit.ly/33Ptd7Y

Wasp Network movie on Netflix - https://bit.ly/3cczrlQ

Jon Lee Anderson interview with Patricio Fernández (in Spanish) -  https://bit.ly/3iPc8B9

Propublica's Zero Tolerance series story on U.S. immigration - https://bit.ly/3cfNdV5

Interview with History by Oriana Fallaci - https://amzn.to/32LCDlj

How I Got that Story book - https://bit.ly/2ElUAOc

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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What do you do when there's a pandemic on, but you are a video journalist with no choice but to go out to capture the images you need? Atish Patel (@atishpatel, Insta: atishp) a videographer for Agence France-Presse discusses the calculations he makes when deciding whether to go out. He also talks about how being fired helped him to change his perspective and have more fun with his job.

Countries featured: India, UK, Russia, Rwanda

Publications featured: RT, Reuters, AFP, AP, Wall Street Journal

Atish discusses going into a hospital ICU to report on coronavirus (3:20), growing up in the UK and finding his way into a journalism post-grad program (10:08), moving to Russia to work in the very controlling environment of Kremlin mouthpiece RT (15:50), moving to India to work for Reuters with grand ambitions and getting fired (19:58), making it work in India as a freelancer (25:02), a trip to report on children of rape in Rwanda that didn't quite come together (31:55), his current work in India for AFP (39:48), covering naked holy men during the massive Kumbh Mela Hindu religious festival (42:24), his family's background in Africa and India (47:19) and the lightning round (50:52)

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

Atish's story on ICUs in India amid the pandemic - https://bit.ly/2EVWqFQ

Jake's story on world's largest wetland on fire - https://reut.rs/3lUEWtV

His story on fires in the Amazon rainforest - https://reut.rs/3jOrZA4

A clip of Atish's work on the Kumbh Mela religious festival - https://bit.ly/2QUUHD0

One of his story's on pollution - https://bit.ly/2F5GNeK

India's LiveMint - https://bit.ly/3i9X2Gg

The Breakfast Club radio show - https://ihr.fm/322j9Zp

CBC podcast Hunting Warhead - https://bit.ly/3m2ER7N

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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What insanity inspires 20,000 normal people to run 56 miles (90 kilometers) every year in South Africa? Ryan Lenora Brown (@ryanlenorabrown) tells us how Apartheid helped make this race a phenomenon. She talks about trying to tell stories that don’t revert to stereotypes of Africa, even as we ponder the ethics of white foreigners reporting on South Africa or Latin America.

Countries featured: South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Publications featured: Runner’s World, Christian Science Monitor

Ryan discusses venturing out for a story during the pandemic (4:57), how journalism helped her conquer her shyness (8:11), how the Fulbright program brought her to South Africa (12:17), becoming an intern churning out content for Chrisitian Science Monitor (14:38), giving up a fellowship in Asia to move to South Africa as a freelancer (20:50), what is the Christian Science Monitor anyway (36:06), the Eritrean soccer team defecting to Botswana (40:00), an anthropologist who bought beer on the WHO’s dime to help confront the Ebola crisis (43:24), the ultramarathon (50:47), how a racial reckoning has yet to come for foreign correspondents (57:27), and finally the lightning round (1:03:52)

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

Ryan’s story on the 99th day of South Africa’s pandemic - https://bit.ly/2FLCRjn

The Luce Fellowship - https://bit.ly/32ibZ1X

Ryan’s story Congo Ebola crisis: To fight disease, an anthropologist heals distrust - https://bit.ly/3gisT5P

Her article on the Comrades ultramarathon - https://bit.ly/2ErxTHU

Her story on the reading runner - https://bit.ly/2CQQvRj

South Africa’s Mail and Guardian - https://bit.ly/2QiaCe8

By the Book podcast - https://apple.co/3j3DiUC

WaPo’s The Lives Upended Around a $20 Cheeseburger - https://wapo.st/3lbs3eM

Ryan’s book A Native of Nowhere - https://amzn.to/2QjezPH

The Writers' Co-op podcast - https://apple.co/3hy2nqc

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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Bopha Phorn (@bophaphorn) tells of hunting down a Russian pedophile and fearing for her life as she reported on deforestation in Cambodia. The International Women’s Media Foundation has honored her brave reporting with its Courage in Journalism Award. Bopha now reports for Voice of America’s Khmer language edition, a rare source of unrestricted news as Cambodia increasingly stifles press freedoms.

Countries featured: Cambodia, USA

Publications featured: Cambodia Daily, Asian Correspondent, Associated Press, ABC News, Voice of America, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA)

Bopha discusses how seeing a movie at a pagoda as a child inspired her to be a journalist (5:42), how a string of unlikely connections led to her first internship at German wire service DPA (13:18), starting at the Cambodia Daily and grappling with the problems it created with her family (20:47), the harrowing story that led her to receive the IWMF's Courage in Journalism Award (32:44), moving to the U.S. to study, work for the AP and as a science journalist for ABC News (39:48), VOA's role in an increasingly restricted media environment (46:55), her "story that got away" about a Cambodian-American fraud scheme (50:34), her story on hunting down a Russian pedophile in Cambodia (53:21) and finally the lightning round (1:03:31).

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

Bopha’s english language work for VOA - https://bit.ly/3fFOR2f

Video of Bopha accepting the IWMF Courage in Journalism award - https://bit.ly/3kkmcDv

Bopha’s story tracking down Russian pedophile - https://bit.ly/3gFGIwb

Her story on the pedophile’s arrest - https://bit.ly/31C6tqC

Her story on the larger problem of pedophelia in Cambodia - https://bit.ly/30Gr91z

Rachel Aviv at The New Yorker - https://bit.ly/31qNMWM

Refinery29 video "The Dark Secret Behind Your Favorite Makeup Products" - https://bit.ly/3fF4Z3W

Associated Press story “One meal a day: Yemeni mothers try to feed their families” - https://bit.ly/2DBcSud

On Writing Well by William Zinsser - https://bit.ly/3gRM0EA

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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