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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.
Radical Rudeness
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?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
44:2328/10/2020
The Loneliness Of The Climate Change Christian
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
36:5214/10/2020
How To Be An Anti-Casteist
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?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
32:4530/09/2020
Dream Boy And The Poison Fans
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 in morality and revenge, love and hate, and how these feelings are weaponized on the internet.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
36:5916/09/2020
New Season: School of Scandal... Coming Sept. 16
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
01:3909/09/2020
El Hilo: Walking To Venezuela
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 El Hilo, a new podcast from the makers of NPR's Radio Ambulante.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
29:2022/07/2020
Hello, Neighbor
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 everything — if the cocooners would let them.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
23:2508/07/2020
So Long, Black Pete
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 how Black Lives Matter may have helped change the holiday season in the Netherlands forever.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
30:1724/06/2020
The Global Legacy of George Floyd
Five personal stories from five continents on the global impact of George Floyd.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
29:1010/06/2020
From Niqab To N95
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 it wasn't.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
19:5727/05/2020
Hotel Corona
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
33:4213/05/2020
American Surrogate: 30 Months Later
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 crash course in transcontinental communication and the meaning of family. Now, in the middle of a pandemic, we check in with them.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
46:5029/04/2020
The Coronavirus Guilt Trip
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
26:3717/04/2020
WeChats From The Future
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 marriageLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
22:1102/04/2020
How Covid-19 Is Challenging Cultures
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
21:5019/03/2020
The Original Sin Of Li Jiabao
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 larger discussion about Taiwan's role as a haven for Chinese dissidents, and also raises questions about who he is as an individual and his motivations. Who is he, and can he be trusted?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
24:5526/02/2020
Rough Translation Presents: Throughline
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
51:0429/01/2020
Whose Ukraine Is It Anyway?
Please, take our survey! At a Ukrainian comedy competition founded by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, can humor unite a divided country?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
27:2504/12/2019
Ukraine: Race Against The Machine
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? Our host, Gregory Warner, reports from Kyiv.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
18:3220/11/2019
Mom In Translation
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 share your story, email [email protected] Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
26:4302/10/2019
Liberté, Égalité And French Fries
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 Translation, check out our previous episodes.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
43:3119/09/2019
When We Talk About Love
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
38:3404/09/2019
Brazil In Black And White: Update
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 Translation episode, with an update on how the election of an anti-affirmative action president is affecting the debate. If you want to see a photo of the medical school students: npr.org/roughtranslationLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
32:4421/08/2019
The Mind Of The Mark
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 author Maria Konnikova about how con-artists get inside the stories we all tell ourselves, about ourselves. Then we go to an international multimillion dollar scam in Costa Rica, where a master of the con meets his match... the IT guy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
34:2207/08/2019
What Would Jesus Drive?
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 when that nearly happened. We meet two evangelicals who made it their mission to bridge the divide between Christians and environmentalists. What happened, and why they say the best way to start conversations about the planet is with readings of the bible.For photos and links: www.npr.org/roughtranslationFollow us: twitter.com/roughlyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
34:4224/07/2019
When Failure Is A 4-Letter Word
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 mistakes. Links to more stories: http://npr.org/roughtranslationTell us your story: #ShareYourFailure (http://bit.ly/ShareYourFailure)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
28:1911/07/2019
The Search: Part 2
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 and sounds of war.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
44:2520/06/2019
The Search: Part 1
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. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
39:2312/06/2019
The Man Who Sedated Eichmann
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 children ask why.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
29:1429/05/2019
How to Speak Addiction
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
31:4915/05/2019
We Don't Say That
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 change that. (Note: This story contains strong language in English and French.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
41:3401/05/2019
D.I.Y. Mosul
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
38:1817/04/2019
Austenistan
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 warning: This episode has explicit language.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
46:0211/07/2018
War Poems
Taliban poetry. An Afghan cooking show. The US military needs a better weapon. Up comes the perfect person for the job.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
46:1803/07/2018
Intruders
A trashy daytime talk show in Argentina does the unthinkable. It becomes a forum for feminism. How this happened and what it changed.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
32:2329/06/2018
Ukraine vs. Fake News
Today, we revisit an episode from last season. Fake news from Russia helped spark a real war in Ukraine. What can Ukraine's fight against fake news teach the US?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
28:1727/06/2018
Ghana's Parent Trap
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
35:4220/06/2018
The Apology Broker
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
39:5313/06/2018
The Refugee's Dating Coach
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 his guide. (For photos of Sophia and Aktham: bit.ly/Roughly7)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
38:4525/09/2017
Om Alone In India
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 survey: npr.org/roughtranslationsurvey)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
31:1518/09/2017
Anna In Somalia
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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
30:2212/09/2017
American Surrogate
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. And the meaning of family.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
41:5505/09/2017
The Congo We Listen To
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.)Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
40:2128/08/2017
Brazil In Black And White
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?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
31:2614/08/2017