Gerry Hadden started out in public radio at KPLU in Seattle in 1995. In the fall of 2000 National Public Radio sent him (along with colleague Aaron Schachter) to Los Angeles for four months. There he lived above an iguana-owning hippy named Gypsy and reported on police corruption and Jennifer Lopez's skimpy Grammy dress.

With the important news covered, NPR sent Hadden further south to Mexico City. From 2000 to 2004 he reported from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for the foreign desk. During that time he covered presidential elections in Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti and Nicaragua. He reported extensively on immigration, drug trafficking, and the varied cultures and characters of Latin America. He also traveled frequently to Cuba where he reported on the arts, the economy, daily life and above all the less-than-warm relations with that big country just 90 miles away. Four years after watching Jean Bertrande Aristide be sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president Hadden covered his flight from power amidst an armed rebellion.

In 2004 Hadden moved with his family back to his 'second home,' Spain. From Barcelona he covers Spain and Europe for The World, though his stories have taken him as far as Cape Verde, Istanbul and Kiev. Hadden says that besides driving a taxi in New York reporting for public radio is the most interesting job he's ever had.