Author

Gwen Thompkins

@MusicInsideOut

Gwen Thompkins, a 2011 Nieman Fellow, was East Africa correspondent for NPR from 2006 to 2010. Before that she was senior editor of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday” for 10 years. She now lives in New Orleans in a house where every room has a picture of Louis Armstrong.

The Jukebox in My Mind

The playlist in East Africa is full of surprises.

Wangari Maathai—A Reporter’s Remembrance

Wangari Maathai holds her Nobel Peace Prize and certificate in 2004. Maathai, a Kenyan ecologist, was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to have won the coveted prize.…