Goldster Conversations: Purpose, Passion, Grit

Michael Goldfarb is an author, broadcaster and podcaster with his hugely successful series the First Rough Draft of History. In a long and distinguished career as a foreign correspondent. Michael’s job was to explain crises and breaking stories to distant audiences and make sense of complex issues. This is why his career in journalism has been one of sketching out a draft of what historians can later hone into argument, narrative and drama. They have years. On deadline, journalists have minutes to try to get it right. But Michael is also that historian. In one book --  Emancipation: How liberating Europe's Jews from the ghetto led to revolution and renaissance – he shines a light on a chapter of Jewish history in Europe while, in his most recent podcasts, he and colleagues try to make sense of the catastrophe that has been unfolding in the Middle East.

Michael was born in New York, grew up in suburban Philadelphia and was once a New York cab driver to earn a living while trying to break into acting. He studied under Marlon Brando’s mentor Stella Adler but decided to abandon Broadway and Hollywood for the grittier world of journalism. On top of podcasting, he makes radio documentaries for the BBC. Join Michael Goldfarb on Goldster Purpose, Passion and Grit with Humphrey Hawksley at 12.00 London time, Tuesday December 5th2023.