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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A Muslim-led coup last year triggered the violence in the majority-Christian country. But there's a deeper reason: resentment over diamonds and gold, mined by Christians and traded by Muslims. -
Christians who had been attacked by Muslim rebels are now carrying out a campaign of revenge that the United Nations says is "ethno-religious cleansing." Tens of thousands of Muslims are fleeing.
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Rescue efforts have been underway at an illegal gold mine near Johannesburg, where a group of miners were trapped by boulders they say were placed there by a gang of rivals. Some of the men refused rescue because those let out were being arrested by local police for their unauthorized excavations. Renee Montagne talks to David Smith, a reporter for Britain's Guardian newspaper in Johannesburg.
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Thousands of Muslims have resorted to hiding in mosques or even churches, afraid of being killed by Christian militias. Many are asking for help crossing the border, but the United Nations is hesitant to support the minority's exodus. -
Thousands of Muslims have been fleeing the capital of Central African Republic following vicious revenge attacks by Christians. French and African peacekeepers have mostly failed to stop the violence. -
Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold now serves as special envoy to the African Great Lakes, where millions have died and dozens of armed groups scramble to seize land and minerals. He is part of a team of diplomats trying to rid the region, mired in decades of war, of a dizzying array of militias. -
In Nairobi, four men are on trial for assisting the terrorists who stormed Westgate Mall in September in an attack that killed at least 67 people. On Tuesday, the judge and lawyers on both sides left the stuffy confines of the courtroom and took a field trip — back inside the mall itself. The prosecution said that the trip was necessary to understand how and where the attack was carried out. But the trip — and this trial — has also seemed like a search for closure, in a case that four months later still has so many unanswered questions.
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A dozen war heroes from South Sudan's long struggle for independence are now accused of launching a coup to overthrow the democracy they helped create. One of them, Peter Adwok Nyaba, was telling NPR's Gregory Warner about the political roots of the conflict when police came for him. -
The battle for the minor city of Bor was always about location. Bor is the capital of Jonglei State, providing a base from which to attack that region's oil fields. Bor is also just north of the capital Juba.
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Tell Me More chats with a global roundtable, about stories to watch this year in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Host Michel Martin speaks with NPR's East Africa correspondent Gregory Warner who is in Kenya; Fernando Espeulas of Univision; and Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center.
