Nov. 2, 2025

SP/FS BONUS: "This. Is. The. Voice. Of. America." (Steve Herman)

Show Notes

Steve Herman had a notion — already as a child, discovering the magical "SW" button on his grandmother's radio — that broadcasting somehow lay in his future. He began his career early and settled into a long tenure as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief with the Voice of America (VOA), eventually landing a position in the White House. Here, he outlines the history of the storied US soft power juggernaut along with a wealth of firsthand stories.

Steven L Herman was the Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and chief national correspondent. He is currently the executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy & Innovation and an assistant professor of practice at the University of Mississippi.

Herman spent more than a quarter of a century in Asia, mostly as a VOA bureau chief/correspondent. His travels have taken him to approximately 75 countries, which included on-scene reporting of wars, revolutions, demonstrations, elections and global leaders’ summits, as well as natural and nuclear disasters.

Herman is a former president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan and the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club. He previously served on the governing boards of
the American Foreign Service Association and the Overseas Press Club of America. He is currently completing a one-year term on the board of the National Press Club. Herman has been a JURIST journalist-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, a journalism fellow at the law school of Loyola Marymount University and a Kiplinger Fellow at Ohio University. He holds an M.A. in Liberal Arts with an emphasis on public diplomacy from Mountain State University.

To learn more about Steve, visit his Substack page HERE.