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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Protesters are marching against the president's plan for a third term. Some 100,000 refugees have fled. The fear is that one of the world's poorest countries could slip back into civil war. -
In Nairobi, people don't like getting into cabs driven by strangers. They prefer to call drivers they know or who their friends recommend. A new app assigns drivers a trust score based on social ties. -
In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled war and found a new home — and new opportunities — in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. -
It's a worldwide chain that lets "the blind become our eyes." But there's a difference in the new Nairobi branch: The servers themselves had never eaten in a restaurant before. -
An army general says he has overthrown the president of the tiny African nation. The apparent military coup follows weeks of unrest over the president's plan to be re-elected to a third term.
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War in Yemen has trapped hundreds of Americans there. We hear from two Yemeni-Americans, a mother and daughter from Michigan, as they arrive in nearby Djibouti, having fled the conflict. -
Some land routes are blocked and boats are scarce. As a result, many refugees who just arrived in the African nation of Djibouti are from Yemen's small professional class. -
Secretary of State John Kerry took a surprise trip to Somalia on Tuesday. The visit is a first for a U.S. secretary of state. For more on Kerry's visit, Steve Inskeep speaks with NPR's Gregory Warner.
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Kenya wants to shut down a sprawling Somali refugee camp it views as a vector for Islamist extremists. Refugee officials say shutting down the camp would violate international law.
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The fate of more than a quarter million Somali refugees hangs on an act of diplomacy. Secretary of State Kerry is in Kenya to discuss its threat to close the Dadaab refugee camp.
