Journey Through Music and Journalism: Challenges and Choices

The speaker reflects on their early music experiences as a means of escape from family struggles and the financial burden faced by their father. They discuss opting for journalism over writing novels due to financial reasons and compare the stability of journalism then versus its current precarious state. The chapter also covers the speaker's academic journey, including their struggles with Russian and French, and their diverse experiences in journalism, from interning at The Washington Post to teaching in Japan.