This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. NPR's Kelly is taking on a lot of roles in her career in public radio until recently she was a regular cohost on all things considered and presently investigates and host a podcast called embedded. It is her work as a front-line correspondent that will get most of the attention at the upcoming rider symposium. She will be part of a panel discussing the untold stories of reporters who cover conflict and take questions from students who may want to follow in her footsteps. Joining me is Kelly McEvers . Welcome to the program. >> Thank you. >> You covered the Middle East during the Arab spring and cover the war in Syria. Had a transition back from that atmosphere to cover domestic stories? >> You don't. You just sort of resigned yourself to the fact that it's going to be hard and long transition. You do stuff like get a deck built and finish it by hand so you can work out your frustrations while you're on the ground doing stuff. You take up ocean swimming and the important thing for me is that you realize that there are stories here in the U.S. that are just as important as the stories in the Middle East. That was probably the most important thing that happened. The opioid crisis, gun violence and police shootings. These things that affect people every day. When I realize how important those stories were, that's when I was able to settle in. >> There is a difference. What would you say it takes to be a great war correspondent different from City Hall reporter? >> There is a difference. Like to push back against this idea that it is the Joyland thing and then you get back to the states and there is no adrenaline. I was never a bang bang reporter following the explosions. For me, it was always about trying to tell stories. Whether that was like hanging back and talking to the women in the village who were holding the whole battle together or trying to pick a character who is experiencing thing that stings over time. Those of the stories that I thought were important. I will say we did go to the front lines a couple of times. So being back in the U.S., I think it's a combination of a few things. I still like to go to hard places. It might not be City Hall but sometimes City Hall is a hard place. It's an intense situation when you people yelling at the LAPD and people yelling back. Reporting on the streets of skid Row here in LA is no joke. The thing that finds it together is curiosity. I was curious about why the war started. And what kept them going every day. Is the same exact thing. Why did this opioid crisis happen? Why was there and I JV -- HIV outbreak? How did that happen? It's following those questions in your mind. >> You produce an entire documentary about what it's like to report on a conflict diary of a bad year. I'm wondering are war reporters getting more reflective about the risks that they put themselves in? >> I hope so. After that documentary came out so many people got in touch with me. Most of them were women. I think as this becomes a more equal playing field, it might have something to do with the fact that were getting more reflective. I will say that when I was covering Syria all the other best reporters who were covering Syria say for -- except for a couple were women. So we talked about it. The men talked about it also. I think we are getting to a place where you don't have to cover it up and pretend like everything is fine. >> Your podcast embedded start out as a way to take a new story that might seem far removed from our daily lives and then taking us there. How has your podcast changed? Period -- >> A lot of journalists felt this all hands on deck. This is a new administration and this is a president who does not have a lot of experience as a public servant. Who is this person and who are the people around him? Rather than going out to the world to these hard places, we decided to embed ourselves in the stories of President Donald Trump. The stories of how we got to where he is and the stories of some of the people who he works with. So we just that we've got resources and we've got curiosity and we know how to tell a story. We should be telling stories about the most important thing of the day, which is this new administration that people have strong feelings about. We went back into the public record and at the beginning everyone was saying not more President Donald Trump stories. It was not the daily news of the day. We were like let's go back into the record and just tell stories about the print tents, about a golf course, about one of his buildings. When you tell a story like that, you learn. >> When you come down here to San Diego and speak at the symposium what are you going to tell the students? >> People always ask what would you tell your daughter if she wants a report from a war zone? I say if it's something you want to do, do it but you have to be very careful. I worked for ever as a freelancer overseas. I never worked as a war zone freelancer. It's a chance for young people to get into this business. Doing it in a war zone, you have to be really careful. You want -- you don't want to be in a bad spot and be on your own. Also like to it for the right reasons. Do it because you care and because you are curious and you think you have something to offer. Don't do it out of ambition. I don't know if that's the best thing to send you into a dangerous place. >> I've been speaking with Kelly McEvers , host of the podcast embedded. She will take part in a panel discussion on conflict at the Writer Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University tomorrow afternoon. Kelly, thank you. >> Thank you for having me.
NPR’s Kelly McEvers has taken on a lot of roles in her career in public radio. Until recently, she was a regular co-host on All Things Considered, and hosts the NPR podcast “Embedded.” But it is her work as a front-line war correspondent covering the Arab Spring and Syrian conflict that will get most of the attention at Thursday’s Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University.
McEvers will be part of a panel discussing the untold stories of reporters who cover conflict and she will take questions from students who may want to follow in her footsteps. Her main advice for aspiring war reporters is to avoid taking freelance jobs in a war zone where you could be in danger without support. But she also wants students to think about why they want to risk their lives.
"Do it for the right reasons. Do it because you care and because you’re curious and you think you have something to offer the story,” McEvers said. “Don’t do it simply out of ambition.”
McEvers produced a documentary about her experiences as a war correspondent in 2013, “Diary of a Bad Year.” She said what helped her adjust to reporting back in the U.S. was the realization that there are stories here, like the opioid crisis and gun violence, that are just as important as the stories she was telling in the Middle East.
“I still like to go to hard places and there are a lot of hard places in the United States,” she said. “The thing that binds it all together is curiosity. What are you curious about?”
McEvers will be joined on the panel by KPBS Fronteras reporter Jean Guerrero, Reveal co-host Al Letson, and Iraq veteran and writer Brooke King.
McEvers joins KPBS Midday Edition on Wednesday with more about her experiences covering conflict abroad and switching gears to cover President Trump on “Embedded.”
