Foreign Correspondence

Terrence Edwards (@TerryReports) has gone deep on Mongolia. Moving there with the Peace Corps, he’s been in the country for more than a decade, braving 30 below temperatures in a yurt (ger) and runaway horses. He is Bloomberg’s point man for coordinating with Bloomberg TV Mongolia, a local affiliate in Mongolian languages, and does work for Bloomberg across all formats from serious text reporting on mines and politics to hilarious viral videos.

He talks about growing up in Long Island (9:52), making his own DIY journalism major and pursuing internships (14:34), his time in the Peace Corps showering only once ever two weeks (19:41), getting his foot in the door with journalism jobs in Ulaanbaatar (34:45), being Bloomberg’s jack of all trades (42:52), coordinating across the region on a story about coronavirus (47:41), and finally the Lightning Round (51:56).

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

Jake's story on Amazon rainforest wood - https://reut.rs/3aDwwkk

Terrence’s funny video story on staying in a yurt -  http://bit.ly/3aNEIP9

His story China’s Neighbors at Risk as Deadly Virus Continues to Spread - https://bloom.bg/3aEzox4

The Brazil Archive by The Intercept - http://bit.ly/331jWJ1

Hodinkee watch vlog - http://bit.ly/39ynS6v

Coffee vlogger James Hoffman - http://bit.ly/2Txbo9B

Chasing Cosby podcast - https://lat.ms/38xbi63

The Paycheck podcast - https://bloom.bg/2PXwpIh

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Stuart Lau (@stuartlauscmp) weaves his personal narrative together with the story of Hong Kong seamlessly. He touches on his beginnings in journalism that coincided with the first protests there since Tiananmen, pursuing a key official in the HK handover from the UK to China decades later, his inability as a Hong Konger to become a diplomat (much to the benefit of of the journalism industry), and much more. He also takes us to Cuba and Brussels but always with a bit of HK and China looming in the background. 

He talks about growing up the son of a Hong Kong native and a mainlander (5:40), his first inklings of journalism as he pursued a law degree (7:05), journalism school and getting his foot in the door of South China Morning Post (10:00), his SCMP days in Hong Kong covering a landmark court case and protests (22:22), a stint at BBC and his move to Brussels with SCMP (34:10), his story about Hong Kongers who migrated to Cuba in the 1950s (52:06), his role in the Panama Papers revelations (58:41), and finally the lightning round (1:04:17).

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

Stuart's "think piece" on the climate change summit - http://bit.ly/2wHNyPH

His story on Hong Kong migrants in Cuba - http://bit.ly/2wGvlSv

One of his Panama Papers stories - http://bit.ly/32il7Dv

Xinhua's English language website - http://bit.ly/2SSgsVy

New Yorker story on Iranian General Soleimani - http://bit.ly/32l3S4g

David Foster Wallace essay on porn - http://bit.ly/2PicZxr

Jeremy Bowen's "War Stories" - https://amzn.to/2uWEWUN

Jade Chen's 《時代的摺痕》- http://bit.ly/2VictmX

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Which path to take, editor or reporter? It’s a choice many journalists have to make at some point. Quartz India Editor Diksha Madhok (@dikshamadhok) tells us how she went from exercising influence through individual stories on issues like women in Indian society to shaping whole newsrooms and publications.

We discuss growing up in India and not becoming an engineer (3:47), going to Columbia j-school (9:18), her time with Reuters (13:10), joining Quartz and becoming an editor (18:11), being an editor vs being a reporter (24:00), her story about why few highly educated Indian women stay in the workforce (32:58), another story on Indian housewives in the United States (35:57), and finish with the lightning round (41:54). 

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

ThePrint - http://bit.ly/37crAkd

Diksha’s story about Indian women dropping out of the workforce - http://bit.ly/2ODG4mK

Her story about Indian housewives in the U.S. - http://bit.ly/2OFxVhB

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

NYT’s Smarter Living newsletter - https://nyti.ms/2tKs9nK

Indian journalist Shekhar Gupta on Twitter - http://bit.ly/2ScjjIA

NYT’s Ellen Barry on Twitter - http://bit.ly/379sazf

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A 20+ year career as a foreign correspondent in Japan, Brazil and China has given Jonathan time to reflect on the great responsibility and privilege of the job, but also the preposterousness of being tasked with summing up another country. Speaking to us while on sabbatical in the Amazon rainforest, Jonathan tells how he came to realize that the environment is the most important issue of our time and how that lead him to his current job as Global Environment Editor for The Guardian in London.

We talk about where he is in the Amazon (5:22), how he is the product of then-robust UK social welfare programs and went to Manchester University during the music boom there (9:45), his move to Japan and first steps/misteps into journalism (17:42), getting his foot in the door at The Guardian as a stringer in Japan (23:03), moving to China as a full-time correspondent (30:41), switching to Brazil in search of a break just as the country fell off the cliff (42:41), the jarring return to the UK after so many years abroad (49:20), de-ghetto-izing environmental reporting (54:52), The Guardian’s big feature series last year spotlighting The Polluters most responsible for historic greenhouse gas emissions (59:50), and finish on the lightning round (1:05:55).

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

Rainforest Journalism Fund - http://bit.ly/2tQ2ERV

Concrete: the most destructive material on earth - http://bit.ly/2GmjR8d

Jonathan's book When a Billion Chinese Jump - https://amzn.to/37u8Jlz

Opening story in The Polluters series in the Guardian - http://bit.ly/2NYijFK

Mongabay - http://bit.ly/38ByRv5

NYT story on methane leaks - https://nyti.ms/38Gne6c

Jonathan's story on North Korea air raid drill - http://bit.ly/3aF2Ofr

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Should correspondents abroad for international publications like Associated Press, Reuters, NYT, etc be foreigners or locals? Lynsey Chutel (@lynseychutel), a South African journalist who has been a staff reporter for Associated Press and startup website Quartz, can see both sides of the argument. But she also shares her frustration at a two-tiered system within many organizations that at its worst gives foreign parachute journalists massive benefits packages while reducing locals to stringers or fixers with no clear route to advance.

We talk about growing up under apartheid (6:30), her first steps into journalism (12:23), how applying to Columbia journalism school on a lark kept her in the industry when she was considering leaving (17:20), realizing the dream of working at the AP and covering things like the Oscar Pistorius trial (30:50), a Columbia Journalism Review article on hiring foreigners vs locals (41:45), her story on how Chinese companies copied Congolese fabric patterns and ultimately killed their local textile industry (54:15) and finish on the lightning round, including a new question on work-life balance (1:02:00).

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

Columbia Journalism Review's "Rethinking foreign reporting at the AP" - http://bit.ly/37KfjEb

Lynsey's story "China's role in the DR Congo's textile industry collapse - http://bit.ly/302fs37

theSkimm newsletter - http://bit.ly/39QaRG0

1619 podcast on Apple - https://apple.co/2tDskRr

Jill Lepore bio - http://bit.ly/2N4AsRL

Trailer for The Loudest Voice - http://bit.ly/2s2Y9T8

Howard French's "A Continent for the Taking" - https://amzn.to/2Fqt1Aa

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Ever wonder about the right formula for being an international freelancer? Kit Gillet (@kitgillet), a freelancer for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist and any number of magazines and newspapers, seems to have figured it out. He has reported from more countries than just about any other journalist I know, freelancing for the last eight years first in China and then in Romania. A willingness to go places where few other journalists go is certainly a key element to international freelance success as well as talent, ambition and maybe a bit of naivety.

We talk about his early years in the UK before moving to Sri Lanka and Vietnam (4:50), arriving in China by bus to start his journalism career working his way through a business magazine and the South China Morning Post (12:32), reviewing our shared connections and how we crossed paths in China at a fertile time for young journalists (21:33), his move to Romania and getting set up there (31:55), his “story that got away” on the mixed race children left behind by American GIs in the Vietnam war (43:35), reporting on voluntary crucifixion, cockfighting and cemetery dwellers in the Philippines (49:01), and end on the lightning round (56:55).

Note: The podcast will go on break for the holidays and return with new episodes in January.

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

Kit’s website, home to much of his work - http://bit.ly/2XIccZL

His story on cockfighting in the Philippines - http://bit.ly/37Bw7xQ

His story on cemetery dwellers in Manila - http://bit.ly/2XKxGp2

BBC podcast In Our Time - https://bbc.in/2se22V6

BBC program Desert Island Discs - https://bbc.in/34jdkp7

Border by Kapka Kassabova - https://amzn.to/33ho1qM

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh - https://amzn.to/2MRzo4s

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Man this is an American episode. There is cocaine, the military, refugees, the decline of the American newsroom, a one-room school house, steel mills, the list goes on. Lots of laughs too. I talked to Janet Morgan, editor of the Myrtle Beach Herald, a weekly newspaper in South Carolina. Janet has won copious awards for her photography and likes to spend a long time following her subjects. She walks us through a couple of those projects and her winding career through local newspapers.

We discuss her childhood in South Carolina (2:45), picking up photojournalism in college as a way to meet boys (5:26), a sketchy first job and working at a string of newspapers (7:08), covering the troops in the first Gulf War and Haitian refugees in Guantanamo (12:13), working at the newspaper The Sun News where we met (20:20), her story following the beleaguered Georgetown Steel Mill and its workers (39:40), documenting the last days of a one-room school house that served the Sandy Island community of slave descendants (47:01) and end on the lightning round (52:14).

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

Janet's photos and story on the Georgetown Steel Mill - http://bit.ly/2OfDC4S

Her photos of Ms Ruby one-room school house - http://bit.ly/2QpQloo

The Myrtle Beach Herald website - http://bit.ly/2NWtNdn

The Sun News website - http://bit.ly/2qjpijS

New York Times' 1619 project - https://nyti.ms/2rM3KN6

The Tattooist of Auschwitz - https://amzn.to/2pukYhq

Dorothea Lange photography from MoMA - https://mo.ma/32QehDJ

The Killing Fields on IMDb - https://imdb.to/2OjcC4t

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Capturing the perfect moment is essential for visual journalists. For two stories by Hélène Franchineau (instagram: @helene_fr), the critical images were moments of reunion. First, she tells the odyssey of Chinese migrant workers going home for Chinese New Year, the only chance to see their children and family each year. And then the story of a Uyghur man jailed in Turkey, likely under pressure from China. Hélène is a freelancer visual journalist based in Turkey but takes us through France, China and Africa. Her penchant for running marathons in unusual, and possibly dangerous, places is also discussed. 

Hélène talks about growing up in small town France where her China obsession began (8:20), her move to China and first journalism gigs (15:52), going to j-school in New York/Paris for a master's degree (18:51), getting a job at South China Morning Post in Hong Kong (24:28), moving to Beijing to work for the Associated Press (28:21), how she got from China to Turkey (32:15), her story on trafficking of adorable pangolins from Africa to China (37:52), her short doc about Chinese migrant workers returning home for the holidays (42:31) and a Uyghur man who is caught up in Turkey's efforts to please China (50:52). And, of course, the lightning round (56:58).

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

Foreign Correspondence on Youtube - http://bit.ly/foreignpodyoutube 

NGO World Vision's website - http://bit.ly/34pCbaA 

China culture website Shanghaiist - http://bit.ly/2qbFyTM

Hélène's story on pangolin trafficking - http://bit.ly/2pCguoN (video) http://bit.ly/2NCLqNR (text)

Story on Chinese migrants returning home - http://bit.ly/2pqCIu7 (video) http://bit.ly/34pP7x3 (text)

Her story about Uyghur man's arrest in Turkey - http://bit.ly/2Nysik7 

New Yorker's Evan Osnos on Twitter - http://bit.ly/2C2CqvY

BBC's From Our Own Correspondent podcast - https://bbc.in/34h0zLs

Photographer Lynsey Addario's website - http://bit.ly/2WCWkqW

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You've been reporting on Brazil for about six years and an old source gets in touch. The preacher tells you how bad things have gotten since the last time you saw him years back, when things were already stalling out for what was once billed as an oil boom town. A militia had taken over their small town, and people are disappearing. What do you do? Well, if your Bruce Douglas (@bruceecurb), you report the hell out of it. Bruce, an editor for Bloomberg in Brasilia, dusted off his reporting hat and got to the bottom of it. It's a story of years of reporting on Brazil really paying off.

Bruce discusses growing up in small town England (4:10), early journalism rumblings from starting a high school newspaper to interning at The Tico Times in Costa Rica (10:55), J-school and breaking into London journalism (16:50), a seven-year stint with the BBC radio (19:36), taking the plunge into foreign correspondence in Rio for the World Cup, Olympics and general political carnage (24:20), exiting freelancing for Brasilia and Bloomberg (35:41) and walking us through his story on the Rio militia/mafia (42:10). Of course, we end with the lightning round (53:40).

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

The Tico Times - http://bit.ly/2BkNJPZ

Latin American Newsletters - http://bit.ly/33EMaIE

BBC World Service radio - https://bbc.in/2MTrwgX

Bruce's Foreign Policy piece "The Kickback that Killed Brazil" - http://bit.ly/35KZQnm

His piece for Bloomberg on police extortion in Brazil - https://bloom.bg/33HKWfL

Guardian columnist Marina Hyde on Twitter - http://bit.ly/32qEABe

Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland on Twitter - http://bit.ly/2MTAjzJ

Spectator columnist Rod Liddle - http://bit.ly/35InZux

William Langewiesche on MH370 disappearance - http://bit.ly/32ugOEo

George Orwell essay A Hanging - http://bit.ly/31mUevV

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What was it like reporting on the Christchurch mosque attack? Charlotte Greenfield tells us how it felt to be there as someone from New Zealand and takes us inside her story examining how such an attack could happen. We also talk about her story from when she did a stint in Afghanistan on how US peace talks with the Taliban could be marginalizing Afghan women.

We talk about growing up in Wellington with a journalist step-father (3:55), studying law and journalism despite having no intention of becoming a lawyer (10:23), founding an NGO in Kenya (18:45) Columbia j-school (24:00), her start at Reuters in Indonesia (30:35), her story on the lack of hate crime tracking in New Zealand (46:50), her story on the Taliban negotiations (52:20) and what it was like to rush into the reporting on the Christchurch attack (57:15). Also, stick around for the lightning round (1:02:07).

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

Charlotte's story on "fixing" intersex children - http://bit.ly/2olxAGO

Her story on hate crimes in New Zealand - https://reut.rs/2AMTFkm

Her story on Afghan women's fears of Taliban return - https://reut.rs/2nlxWwR

The behind-the-scenes story on her Chirstchurch reporting - https://reut.rs/2Onzphi

Radio New Zealand - http://bit.ly/31UdAK4

The High Low on Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2o62wel

The Maori weekly magazine E-Tangata - http://bit.ly/2LNqVhC

Texas Monthly story on teen friends caught in school shooting - http://bit.ly/31Ph9Bn

Rukmini Callimachi on Twitter - http://bit.ly/2Vfw7hz

Veronica Guerin on IMDb - https://imdb.to/31W2HaQ

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