Too Much Cairo, Exciting Vietnam War Author Interviews, and PR Pitch Calls
It didn’t feel like we were leaving Cairo so much as fleeing it...
I will be going into it in more detail in an upcoming piece, but suffice to say that in Egypt’s current authoritarian state where the government has locked up some 65,000 political prisoners—many of whom are journalists—paranoia rises fast when you’re a journalist interviewing activists on the censorship and jailing of artists and there are aggressive cops and undercover agents all over the place. While it was very likely (or maybe just possibly) all in our heads—“our” referring to my partner and I—the walls definitely started feeling like they were closing in by the final days in Cairo.
Stay tuned for my piece on the repression of artists in Egypt, which will be publishing in Index on Censorship soon.
Vietnam interview series for the Washington Post
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. pull-out from the Vietnam War, I’ve produced a series of interviews with some of the leading authors to write about the war. These will begin rolling out at the Washington Post over the coming weeks, and will include:
Tim O’Brien, author of the Things They Carried which has essentially become a modern classic.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer-winning novel the Sympathizer.
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of the bestseller the Mountains Sing as well as Dust Child, the latter of which comes out in March (and happens to be my favorite read of 2023 so far).
Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn, which is widely considered one of the greatest novels on the war.
My talks with each of these authors garnered a wealth of interesting material, much of which didn’t make it into the final edits of the interviews, so I will be releasing it here on my Substack. This will include discussions on the complex legacy of the war, suggestions for places to visit in Vietnam and the U.S. to connect with the history of the war, and insight into the political situation in Vietnam.
In the meantime, you can check out my guide to the war sites of Vietnam at the Daily Beast.
PR pitch calls: ebikes, camping, van life, fitness
I’m about to wrap up a solid year of travel and will return back to Seattle at the end of March to begin a round of gear testing for reviews that will appear in Popular Science, Runner’s World, Bicycling Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and the Manual. At the moment I’m looking for:
Ebikes, eMTBs, and general bike gear
Outdoor gear with an emphasis on sustainable camping gear
Van conversion equipment
Fitness gear, particularly trackers, sports watches, other techy wellness stuff, clothing, and supplements
Travel gear
PR folk, you know what to do! I’m at nickhilden@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading!
In the coming weeks I’ll be using my Substack to publish cohesive articles in addition to these newsletters. Topics will include:
Political repression in Egypt
What’s wrong with the Great Pyramids?
Lost Vietnam War author interviews
What I’ve learned by traveling through authoritarian countries
Stay tuned!