Co-Anchor & Co-Managing Editor — PBS NewsHour

Amna Nawaz's Apple Watch: The First Journalist Into North Waziristan Now Co-Anchors the PBS NewsHour

She was the first foreign journalist to gain access to North Waziristan — then the global hub of Al Qaeda and the Taliban — while pregnant with her first daughter. She became the first Asian American and first Muslim American to moderate a U.S. presidential debate. In 2023, she became the first Muslim American woman to lead a national newscast. Amna Nawaz co-anchors the PBS NewsHour alongside Geoff Bennett. On her wrist: an Apple Watch — the device that monitors what a career like hers demands of a body.

Amna Nawaz — Apple Watch on wrist. Source: PBS NewsHour / YouTube

Amna Nawaz — co-anchor, PBS NewsHour; Emmy and Peabody Award winner

▶ Source: YouTube

Amna Nawaz began her journalism career as a Nightline Fellow at ABC News, and within weeks of starting her first job, the September 11 attacks happened. She was immediately put to work on one of the defining news events of the era — a beginning that, as she has noted, set the precedent for everything that followed. She moved to NBC News, where she became a foreign correspondent and the Islamabad Bureau Chief, reporting from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, and the surrounding region. In that role, she became the first foreign journalist to gain access to North Waziristan — then the recognised global headquarters of Al Qaeda and the Taliban — while she was pregnant with her first daughter. She also founded NBC's Asian America platform in 2014, building it from nothing into a multimedia journalism operation dedicated to covering America's fastest-growing and most diverse population.

She joined ABC News in 2015, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network's digital coverage of the 2016 presidential election, and hosting the documentary Roberts County: A Year in the Most Pro-Trump Town and the podcast series Uncomfortable — long-form conversations with thought leaders about the issues dividing American society. She joined PBS NewsHour in April 2018, and in December 2019 co-moderated the PBS NewsHour/Politico Democratic Presidential Primary Debate, becoming the first Asian American and first Muslim American in history to moderate a U.S. presidential debate. She won a Peabody Award for PBS NewsHour's series on global plastic pollution, and an Emmy Award for her broadcast journalism. She has also hosted three seasons of the primetime PBS series Beyond the Canvas, profiling leading artists, musicians, and creators.

Since January 2023, Nawaz has co-anchored the PBS NewsHour alongside Geoff Bennett, succeeding the legendary Judy Woodruff who anchored the programme for over a decade. In doing so, she became the first Muslim American woman to lead a national newscast in the United States. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service fellow, and serves as an NBC News and MSNBC contributor alongside her primary role at PBS.

"The first Asian American and Muslim American to moderate a presidential debate, and now the first Muslim American woman to lead a national newscast." — PBS NewsHour, on Amna Nawaz

Going First

The pattern in Amna Nawaz's career is consistent: she goes where others have not gone, does what has not been done before, and does it without making that the point. The North Waziristan access was a journalistic achievement — the first foreign journalist into the region that was then the acknowledged operational centre of Al Qaeda and the Taliban — and she reported it while pregnant. The 2019 presidential debate was a historic moment — the first ever moderated by an Asian American, the first ever moderated by a Muslim American — and she moderated it with the same composure she brings to a Tuesday evening broadcast. The PBS NewsHour co-anchor role is one of the most significant positions in American public journalism, and she assumed it in 2023 as the first Muslim American woman to lead a national newscast. None of these firsts appear to have been her primary motivation. They appear to be the by-product of a journalist who simply goes further than most people do.

The Quiet Device on the Informed Wrist

The Apple Watch is, among all the devices in the spot.watch Apple Watch series, the one that belongs most naturally to someone whose career has been defined by doing significant things without drawing unnecessary attention to the doing of them. It is not a watch that announces itself. It does not ask to be noticed. It monitors continuously, communicates efficiently, and improves over time without requiring the wearer to manage the process. The Apple Watch on Amna Nawaz's wrist at the PBS NewsHour anchor desk is on the wrist of a journalist who started her career covering the September 11 attacks in her first weeks on the job, reported from some of the most dangerous places on earth, and now leads one of the most trusted news programmes in the United States. The watch is the least remarkable thing in the picture.

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