LISTEN + READ INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT HERE

In the latest episode of the CBS News podcast INTELLIGENCE MATTERS, host Michael Morell spoke with CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward, who shared anecdotes and personal reflections related to her memoir, “On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist.” Ward explained how the attacks on September 11, 2001, prompted her to pursue a career in broadcast journalism, and how she rose through the ranks to become an on-air correspondent. She detailed her experiences reporting from conflict zones in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, and what drove her to tell the stories of people living in war-torn areas. Ward also told Morell about her friendship with American journalist Austin Tice, as well as her efforts to search for Tice after his abduction in Syria in 2012.

CBS News’ INTELLIGENCE MATTERS is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever podcasts are available.

Excerpts from the latest episode:

• On pursuing journalism career after the 9/11 attacks: “I think as a linguist and as a sort of natural storyteller, I felt a very strong sense of calling. I felt that maybe my life could be better off serving a bigger cause in the name of trying to provide better communication between different cultures, different countries, but also the sense of trying to explain more to people at home as well what was going on in the rest of the world, because so often we know this as Americans, that the way we see ourselves and our ideals and our aspirations is not always the way the rest of the world sees us. And so, trying to kind of transcend that divide a little bit.”

• On engaging with people living in conflict zones: “[I]f there aren't people on the ground listening and engaging with civilians who are living in the crossfire in these terrible conflict zones, those voices don't get heard because the voices we usually hear are the soldiers, the militants, the geopolitics, the world leaders. And this brave elderly woman who just ripped out a roadside bomb and is screaming at someone to get it out of her neighborhood - that's not a voice that we hear from enough. And to this day, I think that inspires me to keep doing this job and reminds me of the value of having people on the ground.”

• On her friendship with Austin Tice: “[B]ecause he has a military background, I think [he] felt a little bit invincible. And as a freelancer, there's always a little bit of a danger because you don't have that editor every day saying, ‘You can't do this, you can't do that. You have to come back. That's too dangerous. That's too difficult.’ Austin didn't really have that. And so I noticed as our friendship went on over the course of a couple of months, he was taking more risks. He was doing things that I thought were really, really dangerous.”

CHEAT TWEET: NEW THIS WEEK: @clarissaward joins us to discuss her book “On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist” and her experiences reporting from Iraq to Syria.

Follow Michael Morell on Twitter at @MichaelJMorell and Intelligence Matters at @IntelMattersPod. Discover more CBS News podcasts at CBSAudio.com/podcasts.

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