Meet the woman who calls war zones home
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
A listener production. Hey, it's Sasha Barbagat. Welcome to The Weekend Briefing, where we chat with the humans behind the headlines. And my guest today truly epitomises that. Lise Doucette is a proud Arcadian woman who was born in a small town in Canada and went on to become the BBC's chief international correspondent. a role she's still in today, having just the other week returned from reporting in Iran. She's spent her career on the ground in some of the most dangerous and infamous war zones, ranging from Damascus to Tehran, the Ivory Coast to Gaza, and dozens more in between. But she'll be the first to tell you that there's a lot more to these places than the conflicts they become known for. Not only is she insanely well-respected for her work, but she is also a kind, genuine and warm person.
It is easy to see why people want to talk to her. Our chat covers everything from her new book, which takes place inside the walls of Afghanistan's first luxury hotel, a place she lived in for almost a whole year, to the importance of truth in journalism, to how to make a home wherever you are, even in the midst of bombs and wars. A little later in the show is The Weekend List with Helen Smith, where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat and listen to. But first, here is my chat with the incredible Lise Doucette. Lise Doucette, thank you so much for joining us on The Weekend Briefing.
It is really nice to see you in Sydney, Sasha. There's a little variation there.
Who is Lyse Doucet and what is her background?
And in this bright yellow studio. It's really nice. It really makes you pay attention.
Yeah. I don't know about the yellow, but we live with it. Sunshine of journalism. Oh, beautiful. Okay, well. I think this first question might, I don't know if you're going to love it, but we know that you have an incredible, impressive career spanning four decades and you're extremely revered in the journalism world. You're an icon. You're legendary.
We're journalists. We're journalists. We shouldn't
I know, but I think the work you do and the respect people have for that work is very well storied. But I'd like to start off with something that people might not know about you. What is something that you'd like to be remembered for outside of your work?
Ooh, that is a very interesting question. People, when I first started working for the BBC, and obviously I don't have a British accent, people would say, where's that Lisa Doucette from? Where are her parents from? And to this day, people come up to me and ask, and some people assume I'm Irish. I have an Irish colleague at the BBC, Orla Guerin, and I get complimented on her work and she gets complimented on mine. And you're looking at me thinking, you don't sound very Irish. But I come from the east coast of Canada. My name, Lise Doucette, is very French. So my ancestry is your listeners may not know the story of the Acadians, but you may know Louisiana, Cajun music, Cajun history. Well, my French ancestry is Acadian, the people who were expelled by the British in 1755.
So, you know, us British and us Canadians, we all have our tangled and tortuous tales of our history with the United Kingdom. On my mother's side, it's an Irish ancestry. And I come from the part of Canada where there's both a lot of Irish and Scottish, which explains why my accent is a little bit different from the other side of Canada, which is a more flat kind of probably closer.
What challenges has Lyse faced while reporting in war zones?
Dare I whisper closer to the American accent. We like to say we're different from the United States. And I'm 100% Canadian. I only have a Canadian passport. And fun facts, people at the BBC sometimes make fun of me as I grew up in a curling family. You probably don't have curling in Australia. Yeah. It's become very popular now in the Winter Olympics. You're saying, oh, yeah, you had to cover the throwing granite stones, rocks down the ice. And it's starting to gain a bit of respect in the United Kingdom. It used to be some of my British colleagues would say, oh, Lise, what about that curling sport? Is it really a sport? And it is a sport, intellectual as well as physical.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:36
2
Who is Lyse Doucet and what is her background?
1:36–3:28
3
What challenges has Lyse faced while reporting in war zones?
3:28–38:51
4
How does Lyse define 'home' in the context of her career?
38:51–45:43
5
What insights does Lyse share about her book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul?
45:43–47:13
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Briefing
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