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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.

  • The village of Boto in the Ethiopian highlands was selling some of the cheapest coffee in Ethiopia, the notorious "Jimma 5." Now it's selling a bean coveted by specialty U.S. roasters, and has built a road with some of the proceeds.
    How An Ethiopian Bean Became The Cinderella Of Coffee
    Gregory Warner
    Some of the worst-paid farmers in Ethiopia were able to get their bean to the specialty coffee ball and sell to top U.S. roasters like Stumptown. But it only happened after the growers got organized and attracted the attention of coffee prospectors from the U.S.
  • The Mathare Valley, shown here in an aerial map, is one of the largest and oldest slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Residents are using hand-held GPS devices to map the area, which comprises 13 villages and is home to nearly 200,000 people.
    In Kenya, Using Tech To Put An 'Invisible' Slum On The Map
    Gregory Warner
    A billion people worldwide live in slums, largely invisible to city services and governments — but not to satellites. A global movement is putting mapping technology in the hands of slum dwellers to persuade governments and the residents themselves to see these shadow cities in a whole new light. NPR's Gregory Warner visits one slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
  • People walk down a market street in Eastleigh, a predominantly Muslim Somali neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009. The neighborhood has come under scrutiny as the U.S. cracks down on terrorism financing.
    Fighting Stream Of Terrorist Capital, Kenya Cracks Down On Somali Businesses
    Gregory Warner
    U.S. counterterrorism efforts include choking off the flow of cash to extremists and urging friendly countries to help. But in places like the Nairobi neighborhood of Eastleigh, where Somali refugees have flocked, it's hard to distinguish between tainted money and honest cash.