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Globalization At Davos: What Happened?

Gregory Warner's radio studio at Davos, Switzerland during the World Economic Forum last week.
Gregory Warner
Gregory Warner's radio studio at Davos, Switzerland during the World Economic Forum last week.

The World Economic Forum sounds like it should be a gathering of nerdy people in discounted suits in a mid-range hotel in an off-season resort, all standing around drinking Two-Buck Chuck and discussing wonky things like cost-benefit analysis and market-driven incentives.

In fact, it's exactly the reverse. The WEF in Davos has become an annual event where the rich and famous descend on one of the most expensive winter resorts in the world, in the middle of the ski season. Heads of state rub shoulders with movie stars, sip on expensive champagne, and eat fancy hors d'oeuvres and pontificate in front of the paparazzi about their pet global issues of the day.

Or that's what it can seem like to outsiders. But it's that what really happens at Davos? We asked NPRs Gregory Warner, who's been hanging out there this last week.

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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.
Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.
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