Gregory Warner
Gregory Warner is the host of NPR's Rough Translation, a podcast about how things we're talking about in the United States are being talked about in some other part of the world. Whether interviewing a Ukrainian debunker of Russian fake news, a Japanese apology broker navigating different cultural meanings of the word "sorry," or a German dating coach helping a Syrian refugee find love, Warner's storytelling approach takes us out of our echo chambers and leads us to question the way we talk about the world. Rough Translation has received the Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club and a Scripps Howard Award.
In his role as host, Warner draws on his own overseas experience. As NPR's East Africa correspondent, he covered the diverse issues and voices of a region that experienced unparalleled economic growth as well as a rising threat of global terrorism. Before joining NPR, he reported from conflict zones around the world as a freelancer. He climbed mountains with smugglers in Pakistan for This American Life, descended into illegal mineshafts in the Democratic Republic of Congo for Marketplace's "Working" series, and lugged his accordion across Afghanistan on the trail of the "Afghan Elvis" for Radiolab.
Warner has also worked as senior reporter for American Public Media's Marketplace, endeavoring to explain the economics of American health care. He's used puppets to illustrate the effects of Internet diagnostics on the doctor-patient relationship, and composed a Suessian poem to explain the correlation between health care job growth and national debt. His musical journey into the shadow world of medical coding won a Best News Feature award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival.
Warner has won a Peabody Award and awards from Edward R. Murrow, New York Festivals, AP, and PRNDI. He earned his degree in English from Yale University.
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Kenya will participate in the Venice Biennale, the prestigious art show that opens on May 9. But only two of the artists representing Kenya will be Kenyan. Most aren't even African — they're Chinese. -
Egypt was ready to go to war over Ethiopia's planned Renaissance Dam. A new agreement has ended the tension. But that doesn't mean everyone's a winner. -
Three spices that grow on the island of Zanzibar are so common they might be flavoring your morning cup of coffee. But vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg have very different origins. -
Like the famously curt broth ladler on Seinfeld, Addis Ababa's Chef Chane is known for serving up both delectable cuisine and insults. He says he learned his vaunted culinary skills in royal kitchens. -
A decade ago Kenya banned the practice of covering minibuses — called matatus — with wild images. The concern: window blockage. Now the art is making a comeback, and powerful bus owners are behind it. -
The movement's slow, strategic approach is a necessity in a country where one party controls almost every seat in parliament, journalists are routinely jailed and rallies are broken up by police.
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An island off the coast of Tanzania has one of the world's highest addiction rates. But the majority of its people, who are Muslims, are uneasy with the 12-step recovery program's Christian concepts. -
Dominic Ongwen is accused of forcing child soldiers to beat, maim and kill. Only he himself was once a victim — abducted by Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army as a 10-year-old walking home from school. -
Hundreds of kids in Nairobi protested the loss of their playground to a developer Monday. In the end, the children did what ordinary Kenyans are rarely able to do: defend a public space. -
The American citizen was one of two U.N. officials whom the government said had been abducted by 'negative forces not identified.'
