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First job in the business: Helping an older friend hawk newspapers to passing motorists at a Cincinnati intersection. Years after that in the late 1970s, I worked part-time at several radio stations in southern Nevada while going to high school and college simultaneously.
Organizations I’ve reported for: An alphabet soup over the last 40 years, including freelancing for ABC, CBC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NHK, NPR and PBS, before becoming a staff correspondent for VOA.
Languages: Able to converse fluently in Japanese with sushi chefs and can give taxi directions in several languages, including Korean and Thai.
Best advice about journalism I’ve received: “Don’t stay in this business if you want to make money.”
My best advice to budding correspondents: “You’ll stumble onto your best stories by serendipity. So always carry around a high-quality discreet camera and have some method to jot accurate notes.”
While traveling, I always … Try to find one good restaurant and hotel I can recommend to colleagues.
My journalism heroes are Ambrose Bierce, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Lafcadio Hearn, Ryszard Kapuściński, Edward R. Murrow, Ernie Pyle and Neil Sheehan.
Dream job? The one I have right now.
Place I’m most eager to visit: Antarctica, even though I hate the cold.