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a white man in a tan suit crouches down and presents two gourds to a pair of Black children in traditional Nigerien dress — a boy wearing a long, cream-colored shirt and a girl in an orange dress with blue flowers embroidered on it;
U.S. Embassy Niamey on Facebook

Retired Ambassador Eric P. Whitaker, from Illinois to Niger

A conversation with retired U.S. Diplomat Eric P. Whitaker. Born in DeKalb and raised there and in North Aurora, Whitaker earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was also in the Marching Illini. Before joining the Foreign Service, he spent time in the Peace Corps in the Phillipines. His diplomatic postings include South Korea, Sudan, Iraq, Burkina Faso, and Niger, where he was ambassador from 2018 until his retirement in 2021.

a collage of two images: a man in a brown shirt wearing headphones and speaking into a microphone in a radio studio; and several men from The News Guild labor union demonstrating outside a fancy office building. They're holding up banners that read
Goldsmith: Christine Hatfield/IPM • Protesters: Courtesy of Rick Goldsmith/Stripped for Parts

Best of: Oscar-nominated filmmaker on the decline of newspapers

Rick Goldsmith is an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. His newest film, "Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink," examines how hedge funds and private equity firms are hollowing out America's newspapers. He stopped by our studios to talk about the film and the struggles of American journalism.

A version of this interview was originally broadcast April 1, 2025.

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