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The New Humanitarian

The New Humanitarian

The New Humanitarian 100 Episodes Oct 8, 2026

The New Humanitarian brings you an inside look at the conflicts and natural disasters that leave millions of people in need each year, and the policies and people who respond to them. Join TNH's journalists in the aid policy hub of Geneva and in global hotspots to unpack the stories that are disrupting and shaping lives around the world.

Episodes

What Palestinians want for Gaza's future | Rethinking Humanitarianism
What Palestinians want for Gaza's future | Rethinking Humanitarianism Oct 8, 2026 45:47 Three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, the US-led Board of Peace is already trying to determine the strip's future reconstruction plans. But what about the more than two million Palestinians who call the Gaza Strip home? And the many more Palestinians living in the West Bank or exiled in the diaspora? Our editor Eric Reidy sets the scene for what's been happening since last year's so-called c
What we've learned about how change happens | Rethinking Humanitarianism
What we've learned about how change happens | Rethinking Humanitarianism Oct 2, 2026 01:12:14 The humanitarian system isn't short on identity crises, soul-searching, and reform promises. So why does a system so good at diagnosing its problems struggle to change? This final episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism and Start Network's collaborative series examines the financial and political roadblocks preventing change, why diversifying who humanitarians feel accountable to could lead to progr
Should humanitarianism return to its activist roots? | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Should humanitarianism return to its activist roots? | Rethinking Humanitarianism Sep 17, 2026 01:16:00 Can embracing activism inspire public support for aid, and rejuvenate humanitarianism itself? Today's guests explain why – and how – humanitarians should go from advocacy to activism. Chloé Fiona Ludden resigned from a United Nations job and joined activists aboard The Handala, one of the dozens of vessels that tried to break Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip.  "When we think about activism, it'
Will aid-for-hire become the new normal? | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Will aid-for-hire become the new normal? | Rethinking Humanitarianism Sep 10, 2026 38:43 In the previous episode, Fogbow CEO Brook Jerue questioned why the aid sector was so "infatuated" and critical of his company – a small private American firm delivering aid in high‑conflict contexts like South Sudan and Gaza. In this follow‑up discussion, Beatrice Lindstrom – co‑author of a recent policy brief on the rise of privatised, militarised, and politicised aid actors – puts Fogbow in the
The rise of privatised aid: A conversation with Fogbow | Rethinking Humanitarianism
The rise of privatised aid: A conversation with Fogbow | Rethinking Humanitarianism Sep 8, 2026 01:04:15 When private companies employ former military personnel and work with controversial political actors in the name of humanitarian aid, should they still follow humanitarian principles? And who holds them accountable? This episode tackles the rise of privatised, militarised, and politicised players in the humanitarian landscape. Guests Brook Jerue, CEO of Fogbow Key moments [06:31] – What makes Fogb
Grassroots aid is here to disturb the system | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Grassroots aid is here to disturb the system | Rethinking Humanitarianism Aug 27, 2026 01:23:00 For Fanta Toure, community-led crisis response efforts like mutual aid are not an emergent movement as some in the international aid system see it, but rather a return "to the way things are supposed to be". Toure, along with Hajooj Kuka of Sudan's emergency response rooms (ERRs) and Bashair Ahmed of Shabaka, joined co-host Christina Bennett to discuss the diversity of grassroots aid efforts, and
Somalia's plan to break free from aid dependence | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Somalia's plan to break free from aid dependence | Rethinking Humanitarianism Aug 20, 2026 48:25 For Abdihakim Ainte, a senior Somali government official, the international humanitarian system's sudden contraction has been both a "cataclysmic" shock – with devastating immediate consequences – and a reckoning that could ultimately accelerate Somalia's path towards greater self-reliance. Last week's episode explored how shifting power, money, and politics in traditional donor countries is resh
Will big donors "smell the coffee" or get left behind? | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Will big donors "smell the coffee" or get left behind? | Rethinking Humanitarianism Aug 13, 2026 49:28 Less than a year ago, Colum Wilson left his position at the helm of the humanitarian department in one of the world's largest donor governments. After more than two decades with the UK government, Wilson concludes that "the world's become a colder and crueller place where realpolitik tends to trump humanitarianism". In this second collaborative episode between Rethinking Humanitarianism and Start
Error and trial: What really makes the humanitarian system change? | Rethinking Humanitarianism
Error and trial: What really makes the humanitarian system change? | Rethinking Humanitarianism Aug 6, 2026 01:08:38 Humanitarianism evolves, whether the system is ready or not. This six-episode series explores how. Ben Ramalingam has spent 20 years thinking and writing about the complexity of the humanitarian system and what makes it shift. His conclusion? It changes the wrong way around. "We've tended to evolve not through trial and error, but through error and trial. So we respond to what goes wrong, we absor
Lessons on media ethics from the Middle East | Decolonise How?
Lessons on media ethics from the Middle East | Decolonise How? Jul 7, 2026 01:19:55 What are we getting right, what are we getting wrong, and how could we do better? A recent live webinar hosted by Patrick Gathara, with historian Assal Rad and media critic Sana Saeed, digs into the framing of the genocide and wars in the Middle East with the goal of drawing lessons that could be applicable to a wide range of crises. Decolonise How? is a new podcast by The New Humanitarian that ex
How to change reporting | Decolonise How?
How to change reporting | Decolonise How? Jun 23, 2026 39:20 We've diagnosed the problem. What comes next? On the podcast: what it takes to change how crises are spoken about in newsrooms and aid organisations. Researcher Jess Crombie and journalist Chika Oduah encourage "uncomfortable conversations" to confront colonial legacies.  "Really, what we're talking about is about acknowledging power and making efforts to undermine existing power structures," Crom
Event | Who owns the narrative?
Event | Who owns the narrative? Jun 19, 2026 01:05:21 Across newsrooms, stages, screens, and funding tables, there's a growing movement to reshape how migration and displacement are understood. So what does it look like when the people at the heart of these crises tell their own stories, and could it influence the systems that shape their lives? The New Humanitarian hosted a night of film and conversation with journalists, artists, and cultural funde

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