Kit Gillet - Romania - Freelance

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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Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats

From: freemusicarchive.org

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