Guillermo Galdos (part one) : This guy was shooting his gun.... And suddenly they hit him in the head, right in the forehead. And I remember thinking, what the hell am I doing here?
The Line of Fire with Ramita NavaiShow Notes
This week on The Line of Fire, Ramita’s guest is the Peruvian journalist and BAFTA-nominated documentary maker Guillermo Galdos. Guillermo is the Latin America correspondent at Channel 4 News and is known for his work investigating drug cartels.
In the first of a two-part interview, Guillermo describes how his family was forced to flee Peru, and why he gave up his safe newsroom job in London to cover conflicts in Latin America.
Guillermo discusses the risks of investigating drug cartels and how he has learnt to deal with some of the world’s most dangerous men - including hitmen.
He also speaks candidly about dealing with the violence around him, including the murders of many of his friends and colleagues, and how he turned to Amazonian tribes and the powerful hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca to heal his trauma. Show Notes: If you want to learn more about Guillermo’s work, check out his page on the Channel 4 News website. You can watch Guillermo’s film about the history of the Colombian conflict El Testigo on Netflix. Follow Guillermo on Twitter: @GuillermoGaldos Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Line of Fire with Ramita Navai
In the series finale of The Line of Fire, Ramita interviews Sebastian Junger, the number one New York Times bestselling author, multi award-winning journalist and Oscar-nominated documentary maker. Sebastian explains how he was inspired to become a journalist while researching dangerous jobs, and what drew him to conflict reporting. When he was covering the war in Bosnia, Sebastian’s first book The Perfect Storm became an instant best-seller, and Sebastian describes how retreating from the limelight to cover the war in Sierra Leone helped him cope with the pressures of overwhelming success. Sebastian discusses life-changing experiences, including the time he spent with the famed Afghan fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud and being embedded with a platoon of US soldiers in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, then considered one of the most dangerous postings in the US military. Sebastian shares his insights about the effects of witnessing violence and the worst of human nature, and about his decision to leave war reporting after the death of his close friend and collaborator Tim Hetherington who was killed while covering the Arab Spring in Libya in 2011. Show Notes: You can find all Sebastian’s books (including Freedom, Tribe, and The Perfect Storm) and films (including Restrepo) here: http://www.sebastianjunger.com/ Follow Sebastian on Twitter @sebastianjunger Follow Sebastian on Instagram @sebastianjungerofficial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on The Line of Fire, Ramita continues her conversation with the award-winning Peruvian journalist and documentary maker Guillermo Galdos.
Ramita interviews Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Africa’s most famous journalist whose work has been cited by former US President Barack Obama, calling Anas “a courageous journalist who risked his life to report the truth".
The second part of Ramita’s interview with Emmy and Robert F. Kennedy award-winning Iraqi journalist and documentary producer Mais Al-Bayaa.
Mais Al-Bayaa is an Emmy and Robert F. Kennedy award-winning Iraqi journalist and documentary producer. Mais has covered her home country and events in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In part one of this fascinating interview, Mais explains how her family were exiled by Saddam Hussein, the horrors of both Gulf wars and how she became a journalist by accident. We also hear what it was like to live on the ‘road of death’, and what happened when her father was kidnapped by a Shia militia.