Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Editor of the Financial Times, former foreign correspondent covering the Arab Spring, and reporter who exposed the Wolf of Wall Street.
On the island
Eight records
I associate Genesis ... very much with teenaged angst. And two of my best friends, when I was a teenager growing up in Beirut, we had the Saturday afternoon sort of crying sessions where we would get together, talk about boys and, you know, our lives, our families. And, you know, one of us would end up crying. That was just kind of... There's plenty to cry about when you're a teenage girl. You just gotta let the hormones out sometimes. So the one I picked is misunderstanding.
I became quite obsessed with this song more recently when I heard my son, my youngest son, who's 16, play it on the piano. So I started listening to it and I loved it. And I think one of the reasons is because it is about sort of dancing as an escape. And I have always felt that dancing is an escape. I don't know whether that's a remnant of that period you mentioned in Lebanon, the sort of the the pre-Civil War, but Lebanon also knows how to have a good time despite everything and sometimes because of the instability and the war. And you know, I love dancing and so it really spoke to me.
it talks about, in a way, I mean, it never mentions the war, it's just about a trip on a bus. But to me, it is about the absurdity of living in war. Normality and abnormality sort of coexisting. And this is how, you know, we all experienced the war. We had our normal life that was really, really abnormal.
I associate this song with New York, which is where I went after university. I loved New York. It was a wonderful time to be sort of in your early 20s living in New York City. What more could you ask for? And so it was about feeling good.
my husband and I, just recently, in the last couple of years, discovered Xena, and it's one that we listen to all the time. I mean, we might listen to it like 10 times, and it reminds me of Algeria, and it reminds me of that time.
La'ou HaboukiFavourite
is a song that reminds me of my mom because she loved it. But it's also the lullaby that I've always sang to my children. It's not a very well-known Fayrouz song, but it's the one that I'm most attached to.
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
I made my eldest son learn on the guitar because I loved it and I wanted him to play it so that I could sing it. I'm totally tone deaf, I'm sorry to say, but we'd sit on his bed. Once he did, he indulged me and we'd sit on his bed and it was sort of a moment of bonding. It is Goodriddens by Green Day.
speaking of identity and immigration, Yusundur with Nene Cherry, it's one of... I love Yusundur. I've listened to him for a very long time and he, of course, the Senegalese and is very outspoken about racism. And this is seven seconds is about the first seven seconds of your life before you confront the world and the ugliness.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:14How often do you find yourself in the newsroom?
Every day, possibly every hour. And when they describe me as a hands-on, I don't know whether, I mean, that's their nice way of describing me because they also describe me as very interventionist. ... I can be too much, but there's nothing like running a big story.
Presenter asks
2:47Do you miss being on the ground, part of you?
Definitely, especially in moments of big crises like a possible revolution in Iran. I've covered other periods of unrest. But I can contribute differently today as well. So I'm reporting even if I'm not writing. I'm reporting and just running to the newsroom and telling other reporters what I just found or how I can help them. I see my job today as being sort of a support system for everybody else and I might be able to reach people that they can't reach.
Presenter asks
3:07What do you think is the biggest challenge for journalism today?
So I tend to think of it as three forces that are challenging journalism today. The first force is something we were used to, which is the freedom of the media is under threat. But the freedom of the media is now under threat in more countries and including in the US, frankly. I have to worry about my correspondence in the US in a way that I never used to. Related to that is that the truth itself is challenged today. ... And then you have all the economic headwinds and the technological headwinds. ... So I think that this is a pivotal time and it's an existential time for journalism and for the media industry.
The keepsakes
The book
David Fromkin
The book that I always recommend and that has sort of a personal connection to it because I've kind of lived the consequences of it is David Fromkins A Peace to End All Peace. It's a very ironic title and it's about the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern Middle East.
Presenter asks
6:55What are your memories of the city before the war broke out?
Well, I was very very young before the war broke out, and many of my memories of Beirut are very related to the war. But I have sort of snapshots in my head of picnics in the mountains with extended family. You know, my mother wearing this beautiful long green dress because my parents used to go to parties. And it was much later on that I knew that this was kind of the heyday of Lebanon, the Paris of the Middle East, the Switzerland of the Middle East. The thing I remember most is spending summers at my grandparents. You know, we call it the mountains. I mean, it's about 40 minutes from Beirut. So memories of childhood are very, very tied to that house, to the cat and the vine leaves. It's very sort of very basic. My memories are very, very basic of that time. It sounds peaceful, though, when you describe peacefulness. Very delicate. Yeah, happy. Very, very happy, very peaceful.
Presenter asks
8:08Tell me about your mother, Therese. How would you describe her?
My mother met my dad. She had a more important job than him. They worked in the same company and sort of lent him money at some point and that's how they got together. But then when she had children, she gave up work and she was the family was absolutely everything to her. And by family, I don't only mean, you know, my brothers and I, but my dad as well. We've always had this joke that dad is home. That means that my mom is peeling an apple because my dad loved to have apples when he got home. But she was just a very, very kind and very protective mother to the point where, you know, I mean, I remember I was, I don't know, maybe 30 years old. I go home on holiday and she'd still give me sort of spending money. I mean, I was totally independent. She'd still put it. Mom, I'm a war correspondent. Do you need spending money? And she'll put something in my pocket. She sounds wonderful. She was. Sadly, we lost her about 17 years ago. I'm sorry. I mean, she gave up working, as you say, when she had you. But she sounds like she was very determined that you would succeed. Oh, absolutely. She really drove me and wanted me to be absolutely independent. And you have to remember that when you grow up...
Presenter asks
17:36What memories does the Commodore Hotel conjure up for you?
I knew of all the stories where militiamen would go in to meet journalists and there was just something, I mean perhaps stupidly, but something quite romantic about being a war correspondent. And so I think that contributed to what I then started to think I wanted to do. ... To me it was adventure. It was a different way of looking at the situation that we were in, which was a situation of war and conflict. And these were people who sort of came and went and they were writing about us, but they weren't really stuck there. They weren't really living it.
“I've got this habit of always sleeping on the side of the bed that's closest to the door. I know that that's related to the way I grew up. I have to sleep in pajamas. I can't not sleep in pajamas. Like, I have to be ready every single day.”
“I also feel that I'm not afraid of war. So I really am fearless when it comes to war. I'm not afraid, and that has obviously helped me a lot in my job.”
“I didn't like the film. I thought the film was really really exaggerated as well.”
“I think that the way you address it is by refusing to do that. I firmly believe that you can be both Lebanese and British and be entirely committed, entirely loyal and entirely comfortable with that.”