Our guest for this episode of the J-Lab podcast is Christina Lamb, award-winning chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times. Christina has spent more than 30 years covering wars and conflicts around the world. She has written nine books, including one with Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban in northern Pakistan because of her campaign for girls to go to school.

Most recently, Christina has written a devastating account of rape in modern conflict, and her book, Our Bodies, Their Battlefield was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. In this episode, we discuss why it’s been so difficult to convince male editors to publish stories about the atrocities committed against women in wars and conflicts.

Christina offers advice on how to interview deeply traumatized people and shares her fears that our interest in foreign affairs has diminished in recent years. She also explains how she got her big break as a foreign correspondent and whether she is happier writing books or reporting for newspapers.

This podcast is brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.