Foreign Correspondence

The Taliban has interns. David Stout a correspondent in Pakistan for Agence France Presse (AFP) looked into the communications apparatus of the Islamic fundamentalist group, only to find it operates much like any media organization, unpaid interns and all. We also discuss how after growing up in small town New Mexico, Dave pingponged around Asia before landing in more-idyllic-than-you’d-expect Islamabad.

We talk about the situation in Kashmir (2:10), being raised in Hobbes, New Mexico (6:07), an early does of journalism rejection before finding his way in college (9:30), moving to Thailand/Vietnam and getting his start as a professional journalist (12:00), starting to work on the editing desk for AFP in Hong Kong (17:01), getting the gig in Pakistan (22:10), the story on Kung Fu in Hong Kong he couldn't quite bag (31:15), his story on the Taliban's media operations (34:05), and finish on the lightening round (39:20).

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

Dave's story on the Taliban's propaganda war - https://yhoo.it/2ktcSD4

Pakistani newspaper Dawn - http://bit.ly/2kMduEa

Lunch with the FT - https://on.ft.com/2muj4LR

"A Kingdom of Their Own" by Joshua Partlow - https://amzn.to/2mlp0qe

David Halberstam bio on Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/2msAf0i

A Year of Living Dangerously on IMDB - https://imdb.to/2m836Xl

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Brian Rosenthal (@brianmrosenthal) is proof that outstanding local journalism can get you places. *THE* place in fact - The New York Times. Brian walks us through the story that got him there, a bombshell of a report on how the state of Texas systematically denied special education to 250,000 children. That story was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and landed him at the Times. He's also the star of Episode 2 of Hulu/FX's The Weekly and he tells us how was first put onto that story. Hint: It involves Michael Cohen.

He discusses growing up as a twin in Indiana (3:40), going to Northwestern where we met (8:27), his long string of journalism internships (15:47), choosing to work at The Seattle Times over The Washington Post (22:53), moving to The Houston Chronicle (27:56), how he got onto and landed his big special education story (29:17), how that story blew up and got him to the NYT (44:03), his story on speculation and abuse of the taxi medallion system in New York (52:33), and job advice for young journalists (1:02:47). And we pick his brain in the lightening round (1:07:21). 

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

Jake on Front Burner podcast on the Amazon fires - http://bit.ly/2lC83aW

Brian on Ep. 2 (The Myth of the Medallion) of The Weekly - https://hulu.tv/2lBHKld

The Houston Chronicle series Denied about special education denials - http://bit.ly/2k4HMRZ

Part 1 of the NYT's investigation into the taxi industry - https://nyti.ms/2lEESUF

MLB Trade Rumors - http://bit.ly/2kxPzYP

An Unbelievable Story of Rape on ProPublica - http://bit.ly/2k9Yb7U

The Atlantic story on arriving late to the airport - http://bit.ly/2k5pOyN

Vice's "Charlottesville: Race and Terror" video - http://bit.ly/2lEw29g

Walt Bogdanich on Twitter - @waltbogdanich

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Strap in for a hero's journey through the world of Indonesian terrorism. Charlie Campbell (@charliecamp6ell) of Time magazine walks us through the series of strange turns that took him to that took him to a prison, the Ivy League for Jihadists before landing an interview with the first female suicide bomber (she was not successful and therefor alive). Charlie takes us all over Asia as he walks us through his career.

We discuss early days from family to his first taste of journalism in Buenos Aires (1:59), cutting his teeth in  blue collar London journalism (10:44), moving to Southeast Asia and reporting on Myanmar (17:34), becoming a Time magazine intern at 31 in Hong Kong (25:30), odds and ends of working at Time (31:10), the "story that got away" on human trafficking (41:06), his story about Islamic extremism in Indonesia(46:21), and end with the Lightning Round (59:50).

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

Time story on Indonesia’s First Female Suicide Bomber - http://bit.ly/2L6gowv

NYT interactive feature on how Notre Dame was saved - https://nyti.ms/2ziXpZY

The First Casualty by Phillip Knightley - https://amzn.to/2PbntBf

The Zanzibar Chest by Aiden Hartley - https://amzn.to/2L7iUCD

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Have you ever wondered what it's like for a journalist to work with sensitive sources who could get fired or go to jail? We get right into that with our guest Koh Gui Qing (@GQReuters) of Reuters in New York. After Singapore, Australia and China, her latest turn as an investigative reporter in New York was set in motion by an unexpected tip off and is "the kind of story that makes you fall off your chair," as Gui Qing would say. Since then, Gui Qing has become the go-to person you call when you need to send a reporter to investigate far-flung, high-stakes stories.

We discuss the hell of a week that she's had (2:00), growing up and studying in Singapore (6:30), joining Reuters and reporting on your home country (13:06), moving to Australia (18:31), the chaos and craziness in China (20:08), her special report on China quietly buying up radio stations around the world (24:37), her Pulitzer finalist story on Chinese students cheating their way through U.S. colleges (32:58), her investigation into a Chinese executive accused of rape in Minneapolis (38:17) and the infamous Lightening Round (45:07).

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

Exposed: China's covert global radio network - https://reut.rs/33qQcVS

This industry helps Chinese cheat their way into & through US colleges - https://reut.rs/2Z4Oavj

The night a Chinese billionaire was accused of rape in Minnesota - https://reut.rs/2yNhpUB

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin - https://amzn.to/2KDzHgr

NYTimes investigation into Trump's taxes - https://nyti.ms/31tulLx

Hiroshima by John Hersey - https://amzn.to/2OYSlVE

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

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Is being a news producer on Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minahj technically journalism? Who cares, it’s pretty f***ing cool. Our guest Meredith Clark (@MeredithLClark) hails from the same hometown as our host and guides us from McFarland, Wisconsin through her lengthy list of credits as a journalist taking us to some parts of the industry we have not been: fact-checking at Rolling Stone, opinionated political journalism, MSNBC, refinery29, Glamour magazine and more. Oh and don’t worry, we do talk about Eurovision too.

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

Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix: http://bit.ly/2Ooeqwl

The A.V. Club pop culture website: http://bit.ly/30W2O5d

Barry on HBO: https://itsh.bo/2On9vvu

Rosa Luxembark on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2OmF6hb

Nellie Bly on Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/2ZfKR13

"My four months as a private prison guard" by Shane Bauer: http://bit.ly/2GxWd9h

Shattered Glass on IMDb: https://imdb.to/32TSOLA

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Let’s talk about goons baby, let’s talk about goons and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things goons could be. Our guest this episode is Joseph Campbell (@detectivejoe88), a journalist for Reuters Video News in Beijing. Lugging around his camera to report the biggest news of the day, Joe has become an expert on the goons who seek (not very successfully) to intimidate him. But it’s not all serious. This is probably the most colorful interview to date: we discuss his features on dog cloning and people living in caves.

We discuss growing up in Indiana (4:30), studying in Japan in high school and traveling in Asia (12:25), sketchy border crossings (18:35), starting at Reuters and the evolution of China reporting (20:45), his story on cave dwellers in China (28:21), his story on dog cloning (36:10), dealing with goons (40:26), his planned move to Singapore (46:00), and THE LIGHTENING ROUND (48:52).

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

Joe's story/video on Chinese cave dwellers - https://reut.rs/2XXYrJ6

Joe's story/video on dog cloning - https://reut.rs/2JsvlcB

Battles of the New Republic by Prashant Jha - https://amzn.to/2xPxKY5

Crimetown podcast - http://bit.ly/2G7fjCM

Photojournalist Robert Capa on Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/30sS4ej

Ace in the Hole movie with Kirk Douglas on IMDB - https://imdb.to/32oXCIo

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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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Camilla Costa (@_camillacosta) is kind of a big deal. As a reporter for the BBC in Brazil, she broke the story of the Zika virus outbreak wide open. She's now just started as an data journalist for the BBC at the mothership in London, but has an extremely varied career before that. She's worked for Brazil's premier magazine and the top newspaper and had a streak of doing journalism for kids. We also discuss the cake scene from the movie Spotlight.

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

BBC video for the 100th anniversary of theory of relativity - http://bit.ly/31Dg2oJ

BBC article on Brazil's connection to the theory (portuguese) - https://bbc.in/2WRokdJ

BBC interactive on global migrants - https://bbc.in/2LKHFbd

Camilla's first BBC story on Zika (portuguese) - https://bbc.in/2HnBDZS

Lapham's Quarterly - http://bit.ly/lapquar

Allan Little - https://twitter.com/alittl

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Paul Carsten (@paulcarsten) covers Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, for Reuters news agency from the capital city of Abuja. Hailing from the north of England, we talk about how he got to Oxford, Beijing and ultimately Abuja. Paul talks about a piece he did in the run-up to the Nigerian election on a grisly Islamic State massacre of dozens of people, contradicting a government statement that only three people had died. Since he's an old friend, there are also some goofs to lighten the mood.

Any opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and do not reflect the views of Reuters news.

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

Reuters report on Islamic State attack - https://reut.rs/2VGB9qy

The Ringer - https://www.theringer.com/

Dissect podcast - https://dissectpodcast.com

Ben Taub - https://twitter.com/bentaub91

Dispatches by Michael Herr - https://amzn.to/2w37b0I

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Nomaan Merchant (@NomaanMerchant) covers immigration for the Associated Press in Houston, Texas. We discuss how he visited the Chicago Tribune in middle school, our shared experience as student journalists and how he ended up working for AP for a stint in China. He also walks us through his reporting a piece showing the human impact of an ICE immigration raid not just on those arrested but their families and the larger community they lived in. The piece was part of a package nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

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

AP investigation into sexual assault by police officers - bit.ly/appolice

AP exclusive analysis of China pouring $24 bln into golden visa - bit.ly/APgoldenvisa 

AP story on immigration raid, part of Pulitzer-nominated package - bit.ly/APiceraid

The Athletic - theathletic.com

Seymour Hersh, wikipedia bio - bit.ly/SHershwiki

Reporter: A Memoir by Seymour Hersh - bit.ly/ReporterSH

The Wire, Season 5 on HBO - bit.ly/hbowire5

The Houston Chronicle series Abuse of Faith - http://bit.ly/faithabuse

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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

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