Episode 182: Sulome Anderson

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Sulome Anderson was in utero when her father, the journalist Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Beirut. She met him for the first time as a six year old, when he was finally released by his Hezbollah linked captors.

Her book The Hostage’s Daughter investigates the circumstances of her father’s kidnapping and also serves as a memoir of her own experience dealing with her trauma and the trauma of her family.  The book was published about 18 months ago to critical acclaim — and it’s since been optioned for a movie.

In our conversation Sulome discusses what it was like to write and report this book. She also opens up about the impact her father’s kidnapping had on her childhood and adolescence, and she describes the catharsis she experienced after having interviewed one of her dad’s kidnappers for this book.

We kick off discussing something a little different: Sulome has been working as a freelance journalist in the Middle East for many years and she was recently the subject of an article in the Colombia Journalism Review that describes the challenges of working as a freelance foreign affairs journalist in a world obsessed with Trump.