NPR’s roving national correspondent, Frank Langfitt, was in Asheville this week. He gave a talk to the World Affairs Council of Western North Carolina — and also made time to swing by the BPR studios to talk about his years as a foreign correspondent.
BPR’s Felicia Sonmez interviewed Langfitt. Below is a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity.
BPR: Can you give us an overview of the countries you’ve reported from during your nearly two decades abroad?
Well, I've counted it up — it's more than 50 countries and territories. And it's really every place from Cuba all the way to East Timor. I was in Africa for a year, so that was mostly Somalia and Sudan. Like you, I was in China, altogether, about a decade. And then I was in London at the beginning of Brexit and then worked in Europe and covered the first year of the war in Ukraine.
BPR: Your talk this week was called, “Eyewitness to History.” What are some of the most memorable stories you’ve covered?
I was a student of history in college. And I guess, becoming a journalist, at a certain point, I wanted to actually be there and see it as it happened. And so, I tried to position myself — sometimes through dumb luck — to be there when the world or country changed.
One of the things that I covered that was remarkable, of course, was Brexit. I arrived a week before the Brexit vote thinking I wasn't going to have that much to cover in London. I was coming out of Shanghai, so from, really, a much higher-profile beat in many ways. And then I wake up the next morning after the vote and find out everything has changed.
What I love about covering, frankly, a crisis like that — because it was a political crisis; no one was prepared for it — is people really open up and talk. Because nobody has a grasp of where a nation is going.
Same exact situation in Ukraine. I tried to position myself in Ukraine for the launch of the war, the full-scale invasion in 2022. I was there when it happened. And it was remarkable to see — well, what does a giant invasion look like in Europe, you know, not since ‘45? And you watch that country change. Every 24 hours, it was a different country.
BPR: You’re currently a national roving correspondent for NPR. What are some of the lessons you’ve learned abroad that you’re applying to your work now? And do you see any parallels between some of the events that, as you mentioned, these big stories that you’ve covered overseas and some of the things that are happening in the U.S. now?
To answer the first part of the question, there is nothing like great field reporting. And I remember in the 1990s in China [when] Chinese were not mobile. They didn't have much money. I would go to places they'd never even heard of. And we would come back to Beijing and then you would tell people what you were finding, and everyone was terribly curious: “What's happening out there? What are you hearing?” Because they didn't really know.
Here in the United States, there's now a political divide. People don't really talk to each other. People who live in Washington and New York do not go to small towns in Red America. I do. I'm a foreign correspondent in my own country. And I go down and I walk Main Street for 5 hours, hit “record,” and I just talk to people.
And what's interesting is I bring those stories back and I get somewhat of a similar reception sometimes from people in the big cities who are like, "I don't know what people think. What did you hear? What's going on?" What's amazing to me is this is exactly what I experienced in China in the 1990s, but it's the United States.
So I'm using all of those same sorts of techniques. And it's great to go to smaller places where reporters don't go, because people are very happy — generally speaking — that you came and you showed up. And there's nothing like just getting out there and talking and walking.
BPR: Obviously, you’ve seen a lot during your travels to dozens of countries. But is there anything that you’ve learned or experienced during your time here in Western North Carolina this week that’s been surprising or unexpected?
I wouldn't say surprising or unexpected, but I had a really great time speaking to the World Affairs Council. And what was great is to speak to so many people who are very well-traveled and very thoughtful and analytical. And I ended up actually interviewing some of them for a story that I'll be doing for NPR. So, I guess I got an appreciation for the intellectual life of Asheville in person. And so, I understood it a little bit better.
