NPR is just one of many media companies that’s announced layoffs this year. After the company announced it was facing a $30 million decline in revenue, it began layoffs and offered voluntary buyouts, leading to some of the largest staff reductions in NPR’s history. 

Three of NPR’s longest-serving foreign reporters – and household voices for public radio listeners for decades — were part of these staff departures: Deborah Amos, Julie McCarthy and Sylvia Poggioli. It struck me how much international reporting experience, history and knowledge was walking out the door of the network in such a short time, and I wanted to bring the three of them together to talk about their work, what it had been like to be among the first female foreign correspondents, and how their perspective on how journalism and international reporting has changed.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

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