Episodes
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Bryan Curtis - The Ringer - Sports/Culture
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
An Editor-at-Large is not someone who is wanted for arrest by the police for crimes against journalism. Bryan Curtis (@bryancurtis) fills us in on what it means to be an Editor-at-Large for The Ringer, which includes hosting the popular media analysis podcast The Press Box.
Countries featured: USA
Publications featured: Nightline, The New Republic, Slate, The Daily Beast, The New York Times, Grantland, The Ringer
Bryan discusses how he started writing about sports in middle school upon realizing he’d never be a pro athlete (5:40), early internships at Nightline and The New Republic plus a first job at Slate (11:17), a huge opportunity at an ill-fated New York Times sports magazine (18:52), Tina Brown scoops him up for the launch of The Daily Beast (22:28), getting in on the ground level of Grantland and The Ringer (27:17), whether he is a “sports journalist” (35:17), how he started The Press Box podcast (38:00), his story on why the Oklahoma City Thunder players were so combative with reporters (48:30) and the lightning round featuring George Lucas (54:45).
Here are like to some of the things we talked about:
Bryan’s “The Old Guy’s Still Got It” story - https://bit.ly/2Up4aI3
His story on the OKC Thunder vs the media - https://bit.ly/3wMO1t5
BBC’s In Our Time podcast - https://apple.co/3irZt8u
Tom Junod’s “The Hero of Goodall Park” - https://es.pn/3z8zfyf
Bryan’s profile of George Lucas - https://nyti.ms/3etDrkp
Broadcast News on IMDb - https://imdb.to/3z951Lz
Humphrey Bogart’s Deadline U.S.A. on IMDb - https://imdb.to/3xPEt1E
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday Jul 04, 2021
Patrick St Michel - Music/Culture - Tokyo
Sunday Jul 04, 2021
Sunday Jul 04, 2021
Patrick St. Michel (@mbmelodies) isn’t a professional foreigner, he just plays one on TV. As a freelance music and pop culture journalist, Patrick will take us inside the world of J Pop, K Pop, Japanese baseball and convenience store food. And yes, he’s willing to go see your band play in Thailand on less than 24 hours notice.
Countries featured: Japan, USA, Thailand, South Korea
Publications featured: The Japan Times, The Atlantic, Pitchfork, Make Believe Melodies
Patrick discusses growing up in a town with more horses than people (6:13), founding the publication North by Northwestern in college (12:25), moving to Japan to teach English in a small town (22:52), starting a blog about Japanese music and breaking into journalism (31:04), the promise and peril of writing "Weird Japan" articles (43:28), his "story that got away" seeking to profile a Korean musician trying to become a crossover star (49:07), his profile of Japanese music legend Mariya Takeuchi (56:54), and finally the lightning round (1:03:31) featuring an unexpected trip to Thailand (1:09:27) and Japanese baseball (1:19:11).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Make Believe Melodies blog archive - https://bit.ly/3xgzhDQ
Bagel heads - https://bit.ly/3ycgJom
Patrick's Atlantic story on "Weird Japan" - https://bit.ly/3hALRaa
New Republic dissection of New Yorker's failed Weird Japan article - https://bit.ly/3hb6afA
Patrick's story on Korean Pop conquering Japan - https://bit.ly/3AoZWjQ
CL on wikipedia - https://bit.ly/2Umto9w
Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi - https://bit.ly/3xfFHmx
Patrick's profile of Takeuchi - https://bit.ly/2V52weF
Japan Times' Recultured podcast - https://bit.ly/3xfgby0
Dough Boys podcast - https://apple.co/3jFqgA5
The Atlantic's The War on Bollywood - https://bit.ly/3ym6OfS
Patrick's story about the band Slot Machine - https://bit.ly/3hy1XBB
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday Jun 20, 2021
Graham Earnshaw - China - Publisher
Sunday Jun 20, 2021
Sunday Jun 20, 2021
"Welcome to China, where nothing is allowed but everything is possible." Independent publisher Graham Earnshaw helped launch the careers of a generation of China journalists by giving them jobs at Reuters, Xinhua Finance or his own magazine China Economic Review. Working for Graham, host Jake Spring remembers a man surrounded in a mythology of old China adventures from earlier in his career. Now, Graham lays out on-the-record some of his wildest stories as one of the first Western journalists allowed into China as it opened up in 1979.
Countries featured: UK, Australia, China, Japan
Publications featured: Reuters, China Economic Review, Xinhua Finance, The Daily Telegraph
Graham discusses his upbringing in Australia as the son of a newspaperman (7:06), moving to China with Reuters in 1979 and immediately getting a big scoop on the Democracy Wall (10:31), China's attempts to surveil and control foreign journalists in the 1980s and how little it has changed since then (18:20), giving his minders the slip to witness a Tibetan sky burial (27:19), reporting from Tiananmen square in 1989 (37:46), getting out of journalism to run businesses like Xinhua Finance and China Economic Review (41:50), his hiring Jake and many other journalists to work at CER (53:42), his walk across China (59:50), the early days of live music and nightlife in China (1:06:03) and finally the lightning round (1:13:53).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Jonathan Kos-Read's novel The Eunuch - https://amzn.to/3q85YAE
Graham's account of a Tibetan sky burial - https://bit.ly/3xBeECe
His account of covering Tiananmen in 1989 - https://bit.ly/3cQfLWw
His book The Great Walk of China - https://amzn.to/3xzorZj
His music on Soundcloud - https://bit.ly/3cSRY8z
Jamil Anderlini's "Western companies succumb to Stockholm Syndrome" - https://on.ft.com/2SgtBum
Nick Macfie's novel Hadley - https://amzn.to/35ArTqC
George Morrison wiki bio - https://bit.ly/3wLyhY3
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Spotlight on the movie Spotlight - 50th episode special
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
"A love letter to journalists." A fitting description for the film Spotlight and possibly this podcast. For our 50th episode, we look back at the 2015 movie and hear views on the movie from eight past guests.
Guests in order of appearance:
Ep. 3 - Camilla Costa, BBC, London (@_camillacosta)
Ep. 9 - Brian Rosenthal, New York Times, New York (@brianmrosenthal)
Ep. 20 - Terrence Edwards, Bloomberg, Mongolia (@TerryReports)
Ep. 21 - Paul Schrodt, Freelance, Los Angeles (@paulschrodt)
Ep. 22 - Megha Rajagopalan, BuzzFeed News, London (@meghara)
Ep. 24 - Aarti Betigeri, Freelance, Australia (@pomegranitaa)
Ep. 27 - Ed Clowes, formerly The Telegraph (@EdClowes)
Ep. 38 - Joanna Kakissis, NPR, Greece (@joannakakissis)
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday May 23, 2021
Rhett Butler - Mongabay - Founder/EIC
Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021
Reporting in jungles isn't for the faint of heart. Rhett Butler, founder and editor-in-chief of environmental news website Mongabay, talks about getting stranded in a dangerous situation in Suriname, the many jungle diseases he has gotten, and some tips for getting phone signal in the rainforest. He also tells us the origins of Mongabay go back to books he started writing as a teenager and ended with an empire of sites in a dozen different languages.
Countries featured: Madagascar, Indonesia, Brazil, Suriname, Ecuador, USA
Publications featured: Mongabay
Rhett discusses his fascination with animals and tropical rainforests as a kid (5:32), writing books on tropical fish and rainforests as a teenage (8:32), quitting his day job to launch the Mongabay news service (16:12), running a news website and trying to find phone signal in the forest (22:00), launching Mongabay's Indonesian version as the site turned into a non-profit (25:11), trends in environmental news (37:45), a reporting trip in China that ran afoul of authorities (46:55), his story on Madagascar rosewood deforestation that led the president to call him a bastard (50:03) and the lightning round (57:22)
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Mongabay home page - https://www.mongabay.com
Donate to Mongabay - https://mongabay.org/donate/
Global Forest Watch - https://bit.ly/3hSePnR
Rhett's story on Madagascar rosewood - https://bit.ly/3v9p3Ed
Grist - https://bit.ly/3wvmM6K
Behind the Bastards podcast - https://apple.co/3fIRQc2
Bellingcat investigative journalism - https://bit.ly/3viBopy
The Killing Fields movie on IMDb - https://imdb.to/2OjcC4t
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Monday May 10, 2021
*Bonus* Alison Willmore talks about film criticism
Monday May 10, 2021
Monday May 10, 2021
Yes, sometimes film critics hurt people’s feelings. Alison Willmore (@alisonwillmore) will get into the nitty gritty of what it’s like to work as a critic from the demise of newspapers and the rise of the freelance critic to how New York mag has diversified its stable of critics.
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday May 09, 2021
Alison Willmore - Film Critic - New York magazine/Vulture
Sunday May 09, 2021
Sunday May 09, 2021
Zooming with Chloé Zhao - what could better typify the pandemic era? Alison Willmore (@alisonwillmore) takes us inside how she did her recent cover story for New York magazine about Zhao. We also hear about what it’s like to be a critic - from panning the remake of Mulan to championing foreign movies that get much less attention in the United States
Countries featured: USA, UK
Publications featured: IFC, IndieWire, BuzzFeed News, New York magazine, Vulture
Alison discusses growing up in the Bay Area with a Singaporean-Chinese mom and British dad (8:22), using Craigslist to get her first apartment and first job at IFC in New York (16:02), getting hired by IndieWire to launch a TV vertical (21:48), Apple Watches and cold hard cash at BuzzFeed News (24:50), the art of the bad movie review (32:48), Bacurau and foreign films (38:15), how being a critic changed how she views movies for pleasure (44:43), a dream assignment involving Martin Scorcese that came at the wrong time (49:10), reporting her profile of Chloé Zhao (51:39) and finally the lightning round (1:01:33).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Alison’s review of Nobody - https://bit.ly/3o1g6u3
Her essay on Asian American character actors - https://bit.ly/3f1Tc1r
Her interview with Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow - https://bit.ly/3uz5bdc
Her review of Mulan - https://bit.ly/3vY7dnP
Her top 10 movies of 2020 - https://bit.ly/2PZXsG8
Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation - https://bit.ly/2SxUmtT
Alison’s cover story on Chloé Zhao - https://bit.ly/3exJu85
Nick Pinkerton’s Substack - https://bit.ly/33tkNDe
Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day newsletter - https://bit.ly/3hcqQ7b
NYT story on anti-Asian hate crimes - https://nyti.ms/3f8bfDd
The Black Tapes podcast - https://bit.ly/3y7YLnQ
The collection that includes Justin M. Damiano - https://amzn.to/3nZhkG1
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Gerry Shih - Taipei, Taiwan - Washington Post
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
The podcast tradition of foreign correspondents getting ejected from countries continues. For Gerry Shih, China Correspondent for the Washington Post, there was the added twist of getting kicked out during a global pandemic. On the eve of his reassignment as WaPo’s India bureau chief, Gerry looks back at his time covering China, which he is convinced is now a bigger story than ever.
Countries featured: China, Tajikistan, USA, Mongolia
Publications featured: Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times
Gerry discusses his childhood between California, China and Illinois (6:35), a wakeup call to the realities of journalism on his first day as an NYT intern (14:50), working in the Reuters’ Beijing Bureau alongside Jake (19:45), jumping to AP where he reported some of the biggest stories about Uyghur persecution (25:38), getting kicked out of China with a raft of other American correspondents (33:54), the challenges of reporting on China from the outside (41:37), the importance of digging into big stories and not letting go (49:37), his story finding a secret Chinese military base in Tajikistan (53:40), and the lightning round (1:03:28).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Gerry’s story on China using U.S. computer chips to build weapons - https://wapo.st/3sMu5og
His scoop with a first look inside China’s Uyghur indoctrination camps - https://bit.ly/3ep7Uzc
Several of his other key Uyghur stories - https://bit.ly/32NuKuS
His story on a Chinese military outpost in Tajikistan - https://wapo.st/32M7Sfi
Fresh Air on NPR - https://n.pr/3xjc3gK
ESPN’s The Jump podcast - https://es.pn/2QXZ5UN
The Lowe Post NBA podcast - https://es.pn/2QWei8U
NYT story on Mexican woman who stalked her daughter’s killers - https://nyti.ms/3aUnbav
American Factory documentary on Netflix - https://bit.ly/2S2uaHG
Once Upon a Distant War book - https://amzn.to/3aCghq8
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Serena Dai - San Francisco Chronicle - Food
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
What do bagels and sexual harassment have in common? The food industry! Serena Dai (@ssdai), a senior features editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, has made her name by thinking and writing about all things food - emphasis on ALL THINGS - from the hilarious/inconsequential to the direly serious issues of sexual misconduct and racism. A local journalist in a previous life, she explains how food journalism is not so different considering you usually only eat the food immediately around you.
Countries featured: USA
Publications featured: Eater, DNAinfo, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, NU Intel
Serena discusses bagels (3:18), her start in high school and college journalism plus AP and NYmag internships (11:50), her first jobs at the Atlantic Wire and local journalism at DNAinfo (23:57), transitioning to food journalism with Eater New York (32:28), her philosophy on world building through food stories and restaurant reviews (40:21), her current job at the Chron (48:37), her appearance on David Chang's Ugly Delicious (52:35), a story about a miraculous fall while rock climbing and comfort circles (56:56), her story package on Chinese food in New York inspired by WeChat (1:04:25), and finally the lightning round (1:14:51).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
The original California bagel hot take - https://nyti.ms/3mBtVys
Serena’s hot take on bagels - https://bit.ly/3218ihy
The Ultimate Guide to Chinese Food in NYC - https://bit.ly/3d7bVJl
The Daigest newsletter - https://bit.ly/3dMU61a
Serena's episode of Ugly Delicious - https://bit.ly/3uFgAIb
Eater’s weekly newsletter from Amanda Kludt - https://bit.ly/3uKGSZN
The Family Meal newsletter - https://bit.ly/3saMFpA
From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy newsletter - https://bit.ly/3dWe1uH
Who Weekly podcast - https://bit.ly/3g08Qwd
Time to Say Goodbye podcast - https://apple.co/3mDxLXG
The Ringer’s Guide to Binge-Watching Survivor - https://bit.ly/3wLKBYH
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org
Sunday Mar 28, 2021
Fabiano Maisonnave - The Amazon - Folha de São Paulo
Sunday Mar 28, 2021
Sunday Mar 28, 2021
Deep in the jungle, Fabiano Maisonnave finds amazing stories to tell. He is the only correspondent for a major Brazilian newspaper to be based in the Amazon rainforest region. Long before he reported on remote Amazon tribes, Fabiano tells us about leaving his first assignment in farm country over death threats. He then sets off on a long period as a foreign correspondent, covering Latin America from all over the region, and later becoming Folha’s correspondent in Beijing.
Countries featured: Brazil, Venezuela, Honduras, China
Publications featured: Folha de S.Paulo
Fabiano discusses growing up in a closed community around a megadam project during the Brazilian dictatorship (7:45), his first job digging into corruption in Brazil’s farm country and being run out of town (15:10), reporting around Latin America, including a coup in Honduras that left him in close quarters with the ousted president (22:21), moving to China to report on everything from fake shoes to geopolitics (26:45), returning to Brazil to report on the Amazon (33:19), the story that got away about a political murder in the early 2000s (38:56), rooting out a corrupt businessman attempting to bribe indigenous to mine their territory (43:55), dangers and challenges of reporting in the rainforest and living in Manaus (49:09) and finally the lightning round (59:38).
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Jake’s story on the Brazilian military in the Amazon - https://reut.rs/3w0b0Se
Fabiano’s story on traditional runaway slave communities (English) - https://bit.ly/3tZkV8Y
Fabiano’s english language work on Climate Home - https://bit.ly/3cqKSbg
His story on a polluted waterfall (Portuguese) - https://bit.ly/3cqftpy
Fabiano’s story on Chinese knockoff shoes (Portuguese) - https://bit.ly/3lSSuXo
His story on attempts to bribe indigenous to mine their land (Portugese) - https://bit.ly/3conWcK
His story accompanying indigenous attempting to shut down illegal mines (Portuguese) - https://bit.ly/3tZ8Z6S
Amazonia Real (Portuguese) - https://bit.ly/39lkWMn
NYT Book Review podcast - https://apple.co/3fk1Bij
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo - https://amzn.to/2UpGXSm
Harry Hole by Jo Nesbo wiki - https://bit.ly/3lXnGVb
Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed - https://amzn.to/39jsgbz
Follow us on Twitter @foreignpod or on Facebook at facebook.com/foreignpod
Music: LoveChances (makaihbeats.net) by Makaih Beats
From: freemusicarchive.org