War Tribe

For the final episode of Season One of WAR TRIBE, Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Horyevoy wakes after a night spent sheltering in his basement during a Russian bombardment.From that vantage point, he reflects on what he’s learned working alongside international journalists — and the personal qualities he believes truly matter in a correspondent.Dmytro also explains why he prefers the term “Local Producer” over “Fixer”, and tells the story of how he persuaded his own mother to enter the same line of work in one of the most dangerous cities in Ukraine.

Wendy Smith’s story begins with a violent rupture: a motorbike crash that left her with a spinal injury and eight months in hospital, told she might never walk again. She ignored it. Walking out on crutches, she began a decades-long process of rebuilding—not just physically, but psychologically.Now working in Hostile Environment and Awareness Training (HEAT) for journalists—preparing reporters to operate in conflict zones and high-risk settings—Wendy applies that hard-won understanding in the field. In this episode of War Tribe, she reflects on 33 years spent interrogating the limits of the mind and body, and what it takes to stay functional when everything is under pressure.

My former colleague at Frontline News, combat cameraman Peter Jouvenal talks about the importance of the personal touch in finding stories.Peter shares how he made BBC correspondent John Simpson's famous 'liberation' of Kabul happen -- it was all down to a prosthetic leg he'd arranged for a key commander years before.He also discusses how he felt about being labelled a 'video smelly' -- a dismissive term staff reporters used for freelancers in Chechnya.

In this episode of War Tribe, we meet Eliot Higgins, the founder of the citizen journalist collective Bellingcat. He has changed the way conflict reporting is done in recent years. Eliot works with more traditional war reporters to investigate what really happened in high profile cases where the truth is disputed. He pioneered the verification of freely-available ‘open-source’ evidence drawn from social media. In this conversation, Eliot talks about how he investigated who was responsible for shooting down the Malaysian Airlines plane MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which Russia denied and blamed on Ukraine.

How do you freelance in a war zone?In this episode of War Tribe, I speak to journalist and author Jen Stout about reporting from Ukraine without the backing of a major organisation — and what that really involves on the ground. Her book Night Train to Odesa traces that experience, while her reporting has been shortlisted by Amnesty International and the Foreign Press Association.Picture Credit: Andrew CawleyAlso available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts#ukraine #podcast #war #reporting

For years now, BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson can't help seeing his young son in his mind's eye, as he reports on families suffering in war zones. Simpson says he's gloomy about journalism's future and argues that modern conflicts—especially Gaza—are increasingly closed to journalists, shaping what the world can see.

PAUL CONROY PHOTOGRAPHER PART 2What Paul looked for in a reporter when working with one; his unexpected Hollywood red-carpet period with Jamie Doran and Rosamund Pike; and why he and Marie Colvin decided to make the live broadcasts that killed her.The interview ends suddenly. Paul was unhurt, but a Russian airplane had dropped a couple of big glide bombs nearby. They took out all the power supply and communications in town.

The first two episodes feature an interview with the photographer Paul Conroy who has died, at home with family in Devon, of a heart attack.We thought it was important to put out this out as an extended recording in two parts, as a tribute to his unique contribution to conflict journalism.Paul was best known for his work with the Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin of course. And in this part, he talks about why they clicked as a team even though she didn’t much like photographers. Lindsey Hilsum and Channel Four News. How he made pictures of war relatable for a news consumer eating their breakfast and reading the paper. And why Paul found working under fire in the Donbas almost relaxing, compared to many other places he’d been. He spoke to me from his flat in Kramatorsk near the front line.Right at the end, when we were winding up, he mentioned the air raid sirens going off. Suddenly, the call went dead. He messaged a little later to say he was unhurt. What he called his ‘awful neighbours’ – the Russian military -- had taken out the town’s power and communications in a couple of big explosions.