Podcasts by Rough Translation
How are the things we're talking about being talked about somewhere else in the world? Gregory Warner tells stories that follow familiar conversations into unfamiliar territory. At a time when the world seems small but it's as hard as ever to escape our echo chambers, Rough Translation takes you places.
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Hold the Sitar: The Making of the Love Commandos Theme Song from 2023-08-30T13:00:29
In this bonus episode of Love Commandos, Gregory Warner interviews musician John Ellis, who composed Rough Translation's original theme music in 2017, and songwriters Amira Gill and VASU, ...
ListenCalling It Quits from 2023-08-23T12:00:46
In Episode 5 of Love Commandos, couples seeking to shut down the Love Commandos' shelter band together for a risky plan. Want to hear bonus episodes of Love Commandos? Sign up for Embedded+ at ...
ListenForever Yours from 2023-08-16T12:00:53
On Episode 4 of Love Commandos, couples in the shelter feel pressured to stay indefinitely. We try to figure out why. Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a week before everyone els...
ListenThe Honeymoon from 2023-08-09T20:20
On Episode 3 of Love Commandos, stories of life inside the Love Commandos shelter begin to diverge as co-founder Sanjoy Sachdev shows a different side.Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a ...
ListenAfter The Wedding from 2023-08-02T16:21:38
On episode 2 of Love Commandos, an inter-caste couple in India hits a breaking point. They make one last-ditch phone call to try to stay together. Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a week...
ListenNew Season: Love Commandos. Starting Wednesday, July 26th. from 2023-07-21T06:00:56
They seemed like superheroes. In a country where arranged marriage is the norm, the Love Commandos promise to protect love couples and help them marry. But is this a group of protectors in...
ListenWhen We Talk About Love Stories from 2023-07-12T12:00:01
We leap into the gap between love stories and real life. And hear a sneak peek of Rough Translation's newest season! Subscribe here to Gregory's su...
ListenFan Favorites: How to Speak Bad English from 2023-05-10T22:00:57
Gregory talks "inside baseball" of American English. And we revisit an episode that sparked a lot of conversation among listeners in 2021–about the global pursuit of "good English" and what it take...
ListenFan Favorites: Dream Boy and the Poison Fans from 2023-04-26T21:30:37
The unlikely places that fandom can take us, and how to know when we've gone too far. This week, we revisit an episode from 2020. And don't forget to subscribe to Gregory's Listen
Fan Favorites: Anna in Somalia from 2023-04-12T20:15:35
Gregory tells a story about his first job out of college. And we revisit an episode from 2017. Also, what's your favorite Rough Translation episode? Let us know.
ListenThis Is Not A Goodbye from 2023-03-31T07:52:58
Our host Gregory Warner reads your tweets and drops some big news about Rough Translation. Subscribe to Gregory's Listen
Ukraine: The Handoff from 2023-02-03T15:00:05
We travel to Ukraine to follow a shipment of abortion pills, and discover a complicated conversation about pregnancy and choice in wartime. Part 2 of our collaboration with Radiolab.
ListenUkraine: Under The Counter from 2023-01-20T10:00:24
One weekend. An amateur smuggling operation. A wartime mission. The story, in collaboration with Radiolab.
ListenThe Cat Must Still Be Fed from 2022-08-03T22:21:06
A hyperlocal news site in Red Hook, N.Y. posts a job opening. A journalist in Ukraine applies. And what readers think of as "local news" is going to change dramatically.
ListenAlone@Work: Miles To Go Before I'm Me from 2022-07-13T16:18:40
726 miles in one day. Gas station sushi. Mysterious loading docks. We hit the road with two American women who found long-haul trucking as a means of escape and self-transformation.
ListenOurselves@Work: Home Is Where The Hustle Is from 2022-07-06T19:00:41
Nigerian novelist Chibundu Onuzo dreams of returning to Lagos, but she worries she'll struggle to adapt in the city of her birth, where the word "oppressor" is often used as a compliment. In this e...
ListenYou're@Work: The Right Persona for the Job from 2022-06-29T16:38:51
Who are you at work? In this episode, two stories of people who really commit to embodying their work selves. The result? New realms and new personalities.
ListenFailing@Work: Epic Fails&Failure Epics from 2022-06-22T17:00:57
Many of us think we can't share our stories of failure until we've reached success. Some Mexico City entrepreneurs started a club to change that, and the world took notice.
ListenStuck@Work: Your Country's Brand Is Escape, But You Can't from 2022-06-15T18:48:48
When Portugal forbade bosses from contacting employees after hours, international media jumped at the chance to cover the new law. Portuguese workers were oddly quiet. Why?
ListenLunching@Work: When Eating at Your Desk Is Forbidden from 2022-06-08T16:00:20
In 2021, France suspended a law that forbids eating lunch at work. We talk to an American teacher relieved to see it go and a French historian determined to bring it back.
ListenSlackers@Work: A Song for the Exhausted from 2022-06-01T20:15:13
A video ricochets across Chinese offices, and a scooter thief becomes an icon for brewing discontent. Why is a thief who says he's tired of working viewed by the Chinese state as such a threat?
ListenNew Season: @Work. Starting June 1. from 2022-05-25T04:00:16
We're back @Work. The new season of Rough Translation will tell surprising stories from workplaces and work cultures around the world.
ListenThe Good Russians from 2022-04-27T19:00:23
Hundreds of thousands of Russians are leaving Russia. They're facing an uncertain welcome abroad. Poet and writer Linor Goralik joins us to read from "Exodus 22," her uncomfortably frank conversati...
ListenThe Scarf and the Snuffbox from 2022-04-15T21:00:50
What can a blank piece of paper, four ballerinas, a scarf and snuff box mean in Russia? A conversation with Russian Anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova about how anti-war protestors resist the war i...
ListenLetter of Unhappiness from 2022-03-30T18:15:34
When Naira calls her parents back home in Russia to talk about the war in Ukraine, they treat her as an outsider and a threat. She finds a way to break through the propaganda wall, with inspiration...
ListenThe Culture Front from 2022-03-15T19:00:49
When protecting a language is used as justification for war, how can its speakers fight back? A conversation with Russian speakers of the diaspora who are rethinking their relationship to language,...
ListenFighting Words In Ukraine from 2022-03-02T20:09:57
Vladimir Putin joined the KGB at age 23. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy got his early training in a no less Soviet institution–the world of competitive comedy. We update our 2019 episode a...
ListenPresenting 'TED Radio Hour': Work, Play, Rest from 2022-02-16T13:00:13
The past few years have shaken the fundamental ways we live. It's... disorienting. But it's also an opportunity to reexamine how we spend our time. In this episode from TED Radio Hour, spe...
ListenMay We Have This Dance? from 2021-12-22T22:35:55
A jazz dance born in Harlem in the 1920s ends up in a tiny Swedish town. What happens when Black dancers try to bring the Lindy Hop home?
ListenMoms In Translation from 2021-12-15T10:00:13
An Irish journalist discovers she belongs in a place she's never been. A 6-year-old boy decides he's from another country. Stories about finding home far from home.
ListenTasting At A Distance from 2021-12-08T19:14
You can zoom around the world through sight and sound, but you can't taste at a distance, right? Stories about what happens when we try.
ListenHome/Front: Marla's List from 2021-07-10T00:30:04
Marla kept a detailed account of Iraqi civilians harmed by war. How did she recruit people in the U.S. military to help them? And what toll did it take on her?
Part 2 of the story of Marla ...
Home/Front: Marla's War from 2021-06-30T08:00:07
Marla Ruzicka didn't belong in a war zone. Nobody in Afghanistan knew what to make of her. Until Marla started to solve a problem that no one thought could be solved.
ListenHome/Front: Rebels In The Valley from 2021-06-23T08:00
Two worlds: dress uniforms and foosball tables. The military and Silicon Valley used to work hand in hand. Now, why won't big tech build them a new gonculator?
ListenHome/Front: Battle Borne from 2021-06-16T09:36:58
Alicia's situation raises questions about the VA's caregiver program. And a new diagnosis changes everything for Matt. How will Alicia and Matt start healing their respective wounds, borne out of d...
ListenHome/Front: Battle Lines from 2021-06-09T08:00:30
Alicia Lammers takes on the twin roles of wife and caregiver to her veteran husband. What happens when your husband becomes your official duty? Part 2 of the story of Matt and Alicia Lammers. You c...
ListenHome/Front: Battle Rattle from 2021-06-02T08:00:46
He's a veteran looking for love. She's a civilian who learns more about war than she ever imagined. Part 1 of the story of Matt and Alicia Lammers.
ListenHome/Front from 2021-05-26T08:00
Is it true that "you can't understand" if you've never been to war? In the first episode of our new season, we hear from people on opposing sides of a widening divide.
ListenWar Poems Revisited from 2021-05-05T19:02:49
As the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan, we look back at a time when Taliban poetry and a local cooking show became part of the war. And the U.S. had the perfect person to fight on that front.
ListenHow To Speak Bad English from 2021-04-21T22:08
Heather Hansen used to teach people to speak "perfect" English. Until she realized that so-called "bad English" might be a better way to communicate.
ListenLiberté, Égalité, French Fries... And Couscous from 2021-04-07T21:57:03
Our favorite McDonald's in Marseille, France has reached its afterlife. It took court cases, spray paint, and the slogan you know turned upside down (literally) to get there.
Listen"We Already Belong": A Conversation With R.O. Kwon from 2021-03-26T18:19:43
In the wake of the shootings in Atlanta, a Korean-American writer reconnects with her own family.
ListenWelcome To The Vaccination Club from 2021-03-10T22:04
Two very different approaches to wooing vaccine skeptics. And how a little FOMO can go a long way.
ListenRewriting The Travel Guidebook With Nanjala Nyabola from 2021-02-25T03:35
What happens when your guidebook isn't written with you in mind? Nanjala Nyabola on her new book: Travelling While Black.
ListenBoxing Back from 2021-02-10T22:01:53
Your stories and creative solutions to not quite fitting in.
ListenOur Boxes, Ourselves from 2021-01-27T21:59:21
From Montréal to Edinburgh, and from São Paulo to Taipei: your stories about belonging, or longing to just be.
ListenWe (Still) Don't Say That from 2020-12-16T17:09
France is the place where for decades you weren't supposed to talk about someone's blackness, unless you said it in English. Today, we're going to meet the people who took a very French approach to...
ListenPresenting 'It's Been A Minute': White Supremacy And Its Online Reach from 2020-12-09T19:17:35
For close to a year, Talia Lavin went undercover in white supremacist online communities, creating fake personas that would gain her access to the dark reaches of the internet normally off-limits t...
ListenWelcome To The New World from 2020-11-25T05:30
What can a young refugee who's survived a war teach a novelist about writing young adult adventure?
ListenAll Eyes On US from 2020-11-12T02:28
Just because you can't vote, doesn't mean you're not watching. We crisscross the globe to understand how people see their fates and fortunes in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. election.
ListenPresenting 'Louder Than A Riot': Lyrics On Trial from 2020-11-06T15:53:04
On this bonus drop, we feature an episode from the NPR podcast Louder Than A Riot called "Lyrics on Trial."
ListenRadical Rudeness from 2020-10-28T19:19:47
After a Ugandan scholar is suspended from her university job, she discovers a new tool for resistance: extreme public rudeness. Will it work against a strongman president?
ListenThe Loneliness Of The Climate Change Christian from 2020-10-14T22:21:45
What if more evangelical Christians in the United States fought climate change with the same spirit they bring to the issue of abortion? We go back to a surprisingly recent period when that happened.
ListenHow To Be An Anti-Casteist from 2020-09-30T21:30
How does India's caste system play out in the hiring practices of Silicon Valley? And what happens when dominant caste people in the U.S. grapple with their own inherited privilege for the first time?
ListenDream Boy And The Poison Fans from 2020-09-16T17:25
A Chinese idol had millions of fans who adored him for his kindness and good looks. Then, this February, one group of fans accused another of violating their image of him. What happens is a lesson ...
ListenNew Season: School of Scandal... Coming Sept. 16 from 2020-09-09T19:29:50
We're back with a special series, Rough Translation's "School of Scandal," stories about people around the world calling each other out and taking each other down to change the status quo.
ListenEl Hilo: Walking To Venezuela from 2020-07-22T19:50:50
One man's mission to get hundreds of his fellow Venezuelans back home from Ecuador in a pandemic, even if it means walking all 1,300 miles. This story was originally reported for Listen
Hello, Neighbor from 2020-07-08T19:58:29
Ireland's "cocooning" policy during the coronavirus lockdown asked people over age 70 to stay at home and not to leave for any reason. Suddenly, neighbors and strangers leapt to help them with ever...
ListenSo Long, Black Pete from 2020-06-24T20:27:22
Resolving conflict through consensus is a very Dutch tradition. But how do you compromise when it comes to racism? This week on Rough Translation, the controversial Dutch character Black Pete, and ...
ListenThe Global Legacy of George Floyd from 2020-06-10T17:53
Five personal stories from five continents on the global impact of George Floyd.
ListenFrom Niqab To N95 from 2020-05-27T17:36:53
The French republic "lives with her face uncovered," say the posters. But now face masks are mandatory. We look back at why covering your face in France used to be a sign of bad citizenship, until ...
ListenHotel Corona from 2020-05-13T21:12
One hundred and eighty recovering COVID-19 patients. One Jerusalem hotel. Secular, religious, Arabs, Jews, old, young. Their phones are out, they're recording. And the rest of Israel is... tuning in.
ListenAmerican Surrogate: 30 Months Later from 2020-04-29T20:06:58
Back in 2017, we brought you the story of a Chinese mom who hired an American surrogate to carry her baby. Each needed something from the other that was hard to admit. Their relationship became a c...
ListenThe Coronavirus Guilt Trip from 2020-04-17T10:02
Public shame is a powerful tool. But how useful is it when trying to curb a global pandemic? Shaming stories from South Korean chat rooms, a Pakistani street corner, and a Brooklyn grocery store.
ListenWeChats From The Future from 2020-04-02T02:00:39
She felt the urgency before her husband did. A story about the time lag between the arrival of the coronavirus in two different nations, and how that played out in a marriage
ListenHow Covid-19 Is Challenging Cultures from 2020-03-19T00:20:34
This week on Rough Translation, we check in with NPR international correspondents in China, Germany and Greece about the ways that culture shapes—and is reshaped by—responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ListenThe Original Sin Of Li Jiabao from 2020-02-26T20:22
A young Chinese exchange student in Taiwan with no history of activism posts a video criticizing China's president Xi Jinping on Twitter, then asks for asylum. His request for protection fuels a la...
ListenRough Translation Presents: Throughline from 2020-01-29T23:17:01
This week, we present the latest episode of NPR's Throughline, a look at the life and complicated legacy of the assassinated Iranian military leader, Qassem Soleimani.
ListenWhose Ukraine Is It Anyway? from 2019-12-04T23:25:42
Please, take our survey! At a Ukrainian comedy competition founded by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, can humor unite a di...
ListenUkraine: Race Against The Machine from 2019-11-20T22:39
In the country on the other side of the impeachment hearings... A comedian runs for president of Ukraine and wins in a landslide, with a parliamentary majority to pass any law he wants. So now what...
ListenPreview: Rough Translation In Ukraine from 2019-11-13T22:13:28
Listen to hear a preview of a special two-part episode about Ukraine, reported by Gregory Warner.
ListenMom In Translation from 2019-10-02T22:35:23
For our season finale, a listener's story: When a six-year-old boy adopts Tokyo as his new home, his American mom has to figure out where she belongs in her son's new life.
If you want to sh...
Liberté, Égalité And French Fries from 2019-09-19T02:50:47
What happens when the employees of a French McDonald's take the corporate philosophy so deeply to heart, that it actually becomes a problem for the company?
To listen to more Rough Translat...
When We Talk About Love from 2019-09-04T16:30:10
We visit a storytelling podcast from China that slips under the radar of China's government censors, and other international podcast stories about the search for love.
ListenBrazil In Black And White: Update from 2019-08-21T19:31:21
Two radically different ways of seeing race come into conflict in Brazil, provoking a national conversation about who is Black? And who is not Black enough? We revisit our first ever Rough Transla...
ListenThe Mind Of The Mark from 2019-08-07T04:01:41
If you're the kind of person who thinks you can't be conned, that assumption may make it harder for you to recognize when you actually are being scammed. We speak with professional poker player and...
ListenWhat Would Jesus Drive? from 2019-07-24T23:29
What if more evangelical Christians in the United States fought climate change with the same spirit they bring to the issue of abortion? In this episode, we go back to a surprisingly recent period ...
ListenWhen Failure Is A 4-Letter Word from 2019-07-11T03:05
On today's episode, entrepreneurs around the world are trying to redefine how their societies perceive failure, by doing the scariest thing possible: standing up in public and admitting their mista...
ListenThe Search: Part 2 from 2019-06-20T02:07:37
A fragile alliance begins to fracture, as a romantic photo of Kamaran resurfaces. Ahmed confronts his family. And Sebastian meets with ISIS.
* Note: This story contains strong language ...
The Search: Part 1 from 2019-06-12T04:01:37
When a journalist goes missing in Iraq, his friends and family have to figure out a rescue plan.
* Note: This story contains strong language and sounds of war.
The Man Who Sedated Eichmann from 2019-05-29T10:05
The capture of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann was one of Israel's proudest moments. But the doctor at the center of the spy operation refused to talk about his role — even with his family. Today, his ...
ListenHow to Speak Addiction from 2019-05-15T04:01:22
A daughter — and reporter — discovers an uncomfortable truth about her mother's alcoholism. She travels to the other side of the world to find out if there's a better way to treat addiction.
ListenWe Don't Say That from 2019-05-01T04:01
France is the place where for decades you weren't supposed to talk about someone's blackness, unless you said it in English. Today, we're going to meet the people who took a very French approach to...
ListenD.I.Y. Mosul from 2019-04-17T04:01
Fed up with government inaction, young people start rebuilding Mosul on their own. But in post-ISIS Iraq, volunteering can quickly become an act of rebellion.
ListenNew season: The Rebels. Starting April 17 from 2019-04-10T04:01:56
We've traveled far away to bring you stories that hit close to home. This season, we follow people who break the rules and challenge what's normal, wherever they are.
ListenAustenistan from 2018-07-11T08:29:47
Two sisters attempt to use a 19th century novelist to outwit modern Pakistani restrictions on women. And a war reporter discovers the power of drawing room comedy to understand her own family. (And...
ListenGhana's Parent Trap from 2018-06-20T04:57:20
Kids are starting school at younger and younger ages. This week, one country's bold experiment to change how it teaches young children. And why it had to hide that change from their parents.
ListenThe Apology Broker from 2018-06-13T04:59
We trace the journey of an apology, from Japan to the U.S., that got an unlikely broker. Along the way, she had to work out: what a sorry is, who it's for, and what makes it stick.
ListenComing June 13th from 2018-06-05T15:12:18
The award-winning podcast returns with five original stories about people trying to cross a bridge from one worldview to another, even when everyone's telling them you can't get there from here
ListenThe Refugee's Dating Coach from 2017-09-25T16:35
A Syrian refugee in Berlin hopes to find love but is stumped by German dating codes and is terrified of crossing the line between flirting and harassing. A professional 'flirt coach' steps in to be...
ListenOm Alone In India from 2017-09-18T05:51
A day of yoga in the US. A yoga war in India. A court case in California and why the Indian government is watching it. A story about the poses that bind us. (Tell us about yourself. Fill out our su...
ListenAnna In Somalia from 2017-09-11T21:20
A man is trapped in a remote prison. And he's trapped in his own mind. Until he hears a knock on the wall.... and words from another time and place.
ListenAmerican Surrogate from 2017-09-04T22:15
A Chinese mom hires an American surrogate to carry her baby. Each needs something from the other that is hard to admit. The next 9 months will be a crash course in transcontinental communication. A...
ListenThe Congo We Listen To from 2017-08-28T04:14
It made headlines worldwide: Hundreds of women raped in one Congolese village. But when one researcher arrives in town, something feels off. (Note: This episode contains descriptions of violence.)
ListenUkraine vs. Fake News from 2017-08-21T04:00
Fake news from Russia helped spark a real war in Ukraine. What can Ukraine's fight against fake news teach the US?
ListenBrazil In Black And White from 2017-08-14T04:00
Two radically different ways of seeing race come into sudden conflict in Brazil, provoking a national conversation about who is Black? And who is not Black enough?
ListenIntroducing Rough Translation from 2017-08-04T14:42
Travel with us. Each week we go to a new country to hear a story that says something about what's happening in the United States. Subscribe now.
ListenComing August 14th from 2017-08-04T14:42
Travel with us. Each week we go to a new country to hear a story that says something about what's happening in the United States. Subscribe now.
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