Released 23.06.23

The Conversation

In this final episode of Season One, Sophy and Jon Lee discuss his work as a foreign correspondent, author and staff writer for The New Yorker — a career that has seen him reporting from numerous conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Latin America has always featured strongly in his life.

They begin with his most recent assignment: Haiti, considering the blinkered view the international community takes towards countries it’s easier to overlook than engage with. They talk about the difficulties of modern journalism, and selling a story before you’ve even visited: ‘How do you turn a place that’s become white noise into something that’s worthy of a few minutes or hours of someone’s attention?’ asks Jon Lee.

They discuss singing to a reindeer, George Orwell and the foundations of modern reportage, as well as authors who blurred fact and fiction such as Ryszard Kapuśkiński and Bruce Chatwin. They delve into Jon Lee’s inspirations, including an early life filled with adventure — Liberia, Ethiopia, Alaska — and the ‘transgressive’ explorer Richard Burton. It can be an achingly lonely life, Jon Lee says, but when you’re working on your own, your senses come alive.

Jon Lee’s seminal work, Che Guevera: A Revolutionary Life, is published by Bantam Books. He is also the author on one of the most important books on modern Iraq: The Fall of Baghdad.