Witney W. Schneidman

I'm Gregory Berg, host of The Morning Show, which airs every weekday morning between 8 and 9 o'clock on WGTD FM 91.1. We are an affiliate of Wisconsin Public Radio and National Public Radio, broadcasting from the Kenosha campus of Gateway Technical College.

I'm very pleased and honored today to be speaking on the morning show with Witney Schneidman, who is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and someone who has devoted many, many years in the field of diplomacy, particularly in the continent of Africa.

And the continent of Africa has actually held a very strong and one might even say nearly a peculiar sort of fascination for Witney Schneidman for essentially all of his adult life.

And that is part of the story that he tells in a marvelous memoir called This African Idea, a memoir of discovery, diplomacy, and opportunity.

in which he recounts many of the experiences that he has had over the course of his long life as a diplomat, and really helps us come to a new understanding of the way in which so many of us misunderstand the continent of Africa, and in particular, the way in which most of us fail to grasp the enormous potential of that continent and its significance in the world, something routinely overlooked not only by average Americans, but by American officials and officials all around the world.

And then, of course, being a team player has always been important.

who i am um i as always really to be honest with you uncomfortable about being the story i wanted to tell the story you know here i am all these years later with my story that i'm telling i am the story i'm comfortable with that now but you know i had to learn i had to gain the self-confidence that what i was doing really mattered and it was real and it was making a difference i So those early lessons on the playing field, again, a little bit underperforming in my own estimation, sort of motivated me to be a high performer, to overcompensate for what I thought I didn't achieve in those earlier years.

For those of you just joining us, I'm speaking with Witney Schneidman, who has had a long and distinguished career as a US diplomat, primarily centered on the continent of Africa.