Episode Details

Joanna Slater is a veteran journalist who served as the Washington Post India bureau chief based in New Delhi from 2018-2021. She was posted there during one of the most consequential periods in recent Indian history—covering the 2019 general elections, the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pegasus hacking revelations, and much more. 

This week on the show, Joanna joins Milan to talk about her tenure in New Delhi and what she learned on the job.

The two discuss Joanna’s long history with India, the constraints journalists face while carrying out their jobs, and what it was like to cover some of the biggest stories in recent years from the ground. Plus, the two discuss how Joanna met her future husband on the set of a Bollywood hit movie starring Aamir Khan and the India story that Joanna still dreams about.

1. “Niha Masih on Reporting on India’s COVID-19 Crisis,” Grand Tamasha, June 15, 2021.
2. Joanna Slater and Niha Masih, “The spyware is sold to governments to fight terrorism. In India, it was used to hack journalists and others,” Washington Post, July 19, 2021.
3. Joanna Slater and Shams Irfan, “Inside a Delhi hospital, oxygen runs fatally short as covid cases mount,” Washington Post, April 24, 2021.
4. Niha Masih and Joanna Slater, “

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