There are decades where nothing happens, the saying goes, and weeks where decades happen. Marco Werman, the host of GBH and PRX’s radio program The World, which now celebrates its 30th year, is well acquainted with both.
On the heels of his tenure in the Peace Corps in 1987, he set out to start his journalistic career in revolutionary Burkina Faso. Having picked up freelance work for the Associated Press (AP), he was excited to report on the West African nation and its leader, Thomas Sankara.
Within four weeks, Werman found himself huddled on the floor of a colleague’s house as bullets zig-zagged in the military base down the street. The nascent reporter’s first beat was upended by a military coup that saw the president deposed and assassinated. Quite an introduction to the business.
“The next day,” Werman says, “all the AP wanted to know was how many had died. Suddenly, I was in bylines in a thousand papers.”
Fast forward to 1995 and Werman received a call from his former editor, Neil Curry, who was weighing an offer to be the executive producer of a new show. He explained the premise to Werman. “There’s nothing like it on the radio,” Werman remembers thinking. “Sure, shows covered international news, but only the big headlines. Something that connects Americans to the rest of the world could be a great idea,” he figured. “The next thing I knew, I was in the lineup.”
The first person hired to the show, Werman picked up his radio chops — talking dispatches, interviewing, making packages — along the way. In 2013, he became the full-time host of The World, and today, it is public radio’s longest-running daily global news program. Along the way, seminal moments such as his time in Burkina Faso have shaped the way Werman and the team at The World approach covering international news for a predominantly American audience.
“Over the years, we’ve shifted from thinking primarily about explaining what’s happening around the globe to wanting to hear directly from people impacted by news and policies,” he says. “Of course, we still need people to explain what’s going on, but we’re really committed to hearing the human voice. We want to be out in the field, hearing the ground truth.”
Nowadays, Werman works out of his studio in Southern California and is joined by his co-host, Carolyn Beeler, from GBH in Boston. Beeler, who joined the show in 2015 as a correspondent to cover the environment beat and was named the co-host in 2023, never had any doubts about her calling. “From a very young age — middle school, probably — I knew I wanted to be a journalist.” Beeler has reported from all seven continents, received two Edward R. Murrow Awards, and continues to cover events on the ground for The World — from the war in Ukraine to the first election in Bangladesh since the violent, autocratic clampdowns of the Hasina regime in 2024.
“Our goal as a show,” says Beeler, days before she leaves for Dhaka, “is to provide a holistic look at what’s happening around the world. It’s difficult because there’s so much urgent, devastating news, but we have to maintain a balance in our reporting. We have to show the whole breadth of what is happening in the world — which is mostly not war, famine, and genocide.”
“The spirit of the show from the beginning has been trying to help Americans understand their place in the world,” says Werman. “Physically, yes, but also how we relate to everyone else on the planet, from geopolitics to business, religion, or the arts. Like Carolyn said, we could do a show where we’re just covering conflict and death every day, but that doesn’t really reflect the world as it is.”
Longtime listeners of The World will remember countless segments on and interviews with musicians from around the globe — music being a shared passion of the two co-hosts. In fact, Werman even put together a playlist (one of many he’s made for the show) revisiting songs that have left a lasting impression in honor of The World's 30th anniversary.
The arts as a whole have long offered The World a compelling lens into the political dynamics of a given place. Take, for instance, Werman’s 2019 trip to Russia with former The World producer and native Russian speaker, Daniel Ofman. On it, they interviewed Russian hip-hop artists and explored their reticence to speak out about political matters.
Elsewhere, Beeler regards her interviews with a Ukrainian soldier as some of the most impactful journalism she’s done with The World. “We’ve been speaking to Andrii Shadrin, now a sergeant, since the full scale-invasion began four years ago,” she says. “When we first spoke to him, he was so full of vim and vigor, had so much anger and desire to take his country back. He just knew that they would soon defeat the Russians. It’s been so illuminating speaking with him over the years and seeing how the meat grinder — as he calls it — has taken its toll on him. It’s profound, hearing him talk about the friends he’s lost, the sacrifices he’d be willing to make to end the war.”
Both hosts maintain their coverage of the climate crisis is among their most important work. “Carolyn started [with us] for the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, and the environmental beat has grown in proportion to the problem of climate change on the planet.”
What makes The World so vital today is its unwavering commitment to providing a perspective that moves beyond the American bubble. In an increasingly interconnected and complex global landscape, we don't just report the headlines; we deliver the human context and the ground truth that Americans need to understand their own place and impact on the planet. Continuing this work is not a luxury — it's essential for fostering informed citizenship and a truly global outlook in a democracy.Tinku Ray, Executive Editor of "The World"
Beeler’s reporting has seen her embedded with scientists studying the rapidly melting Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica for two months, brought her to Pakistan to speak to people affected by the deadly floods of 2022, and beyond. She is uniquely positioned to bring her considerable experience to bear on stories of climate change, helping listeners grasp the magnitude of the issue on a scientific level, but also the immeasurable human cost that accompanies “the most important story of our time.”
As for why it’s particularly important to cover climate change as an international story, Werman and Beeler are of one mind. “We’re all interconnected,” she says, “the way we act has an impact on people all around the world, and vice versa. It’s the ultimate global story.”
Now celebrating a milestone 30th year of The World, the co-hosts are doing their best to steal a few proud glances back at their many years of important work amid the daily deluge of stories around the globe that require their coverage. The 30th anniversary show made for a special listen, and there are plans later in the year to feature archived material from the show’s lengthy run.
Both gifted at downplaying their work, Beeler and Werman are modest about their hopes for the show and its impact. “I’d like to think somewhere along the line, a story I reported was impactful in some way that changed things,” says Werman. “It’s hard to know when that happens, though.”
“I just hope our listeners continue to value and support what we do,” Beeler adds.
With the benefit of years of work to look back on, we asked Beeler and Werman some lightning round questions about their tenures on the show, highlights from their time on the road, and, of course, some travel tips.
What story are you most proud of from your time on The World?
MW: I was really proud of my story about going to Mali to meet Ali Farka Touré, the late guitarist. He had given up music, started a farm, and began irrigating rice and planting mango trees right on the Niger River. He vowed he was going to retire to help his village survive future droughts and he wasn’t joking.
CB: Along with my reporting from Thwaites Glacier, I would say my coverage of the massive floods in Pakistan. I spoke to people whose entire lives and livelihoods — all of their belongings — were swept away in those floods. I met people whose stories are going to stick with me my whole life. I was glad to be able to put their voices on the radio.
What’s your favorite recent(-ish) trip?
CB: I went to Brazil to cover wildfires there in 2024. I was in this small Indigenous community that was fighting a wildfire that was encroaching on their lands. It was really striking, because everybody there was talking about climate change and the impact this global problem had on their corner of the world.
What’s your favorite dish you’ve eaten while travelling?
MW: A sausage on a roll with this really spicy mustard in Copenhagen. Or the fufu that this Ghanaian family made me when I was in Nigeria. I was at the home of the musician Seun Kuti. He asked me, ‘We’re gonna have lunch, do you like fufu?’ I said, ‘I love fufu.’ It’s this pounded yam that you dip in a spicy soup with fish or [another protein]. It’s delicious. That was memorable. Along with the hot dog in Copenhagen.
CB: The food in Indonesia blew me away. It was so good. In rural Indonesia where there are no hotels, I was put up in the home of the best cook in town. I had something made with conch, coconut, and mango. It was just out of this world.
One piece of travel advice?
MW: Have a photocopy of your passport, and a photo of it on your phone.
CB: Always have snacks on you.
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Listen to The World Monday through Friday on GBH 89.7 at 3pm or anytime on YouTube, TheWorld.org, or your preferred podcast platform.
