In 1942, nine year-old Krishnan Gurumurthy fled to India from Burma with his family. It was just after the Japanese invasion, and they had just missed the final ferries out of Rangoon. So his family travelled by a treacherous land route -- a 1,500 mile journey that took over 42 days.Years later, Krishnan moved from India to the U.K., worked as a radiologist, and had a three kids: Krishnan, Geeta, and Ravi. Today, Ravi interviews his father about his journey from Burma to India and how his...

Glenna Gordon is a documentary photographer and photojournalist. She's been commissioned by the New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets. She’s photographed a range of subjects, from Muslim women writing romance novels in Boko Haram territory in Northern Nigeria to the American women of the alt-right. She’s also Grant Gordon’s older sister. This week, Grant interviews Glenna about her work in Nigeria, her current project documenting the alt-right, and...

The cruel irony of climate change is that it disproportionately impacts those who have contributed least to global warming—the world’s poorest and most marginalized groups. For Mary Robinson—former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, president of the Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate Justice, and the former, first female President of Ireland—rectifying these injustices is an essential part of the international effort to address climate change. This week, Ravi and Mary Robinson discuss the...

Although cross-border displacement affects local communities, international efforts to address it typically take place at the highest levels. How can affected communities make their voices heard in these intergovernmental negotiations?This week, Ravi and Grant sit down with Walter Kaelin, Envoy of the Chair at the Platform on Disaster Displacement and former Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. Kaelin has been at the forefront of...

As climate change causes rapid and large-scale migration, countries already facing environmental challenges become increasingly vulnerable to instability and humanitarian crisis. Sherri Goodman, Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center and former U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security, describes climate change as a threat multiplier. This week she joins Grant and Ravi to discuss how climate change is linked to conflicts happening now, and what it might lead to in the...

An estimated 26 million people a year were internally displaced by disasters and hazards between 2008 and 2015. These numbers will just get worse as climate change exacerbates the effects of natural disasters, increasing both internal and cross-border displacement.That is why we are releasing a series of episodes this season focusing on climate change. This week we kick off our series with Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law...

Throughout our series on refugee resettlement, we’ve referenced Canada’s system of private sponsorship as an overall success - but how does it actually work? And what can other countries learn from it as they build their own resettlement infrastructures? This week, Grant and Ravi get a close-up view of Canada’s resettlement system with Ahmed Hussen, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship for the Government of Canada. Minister Hussen provides insight into the history of...

This week in our series on refugee resettlement, we take a closer look at the process of resettlement in the U.S. with Dauda Balubwila, a caseworker for the International Rescue Committee in Boise, Idaho. Dauda works with resettled refugees from the moment they arrive in Boise; he meets them at the airport, takes them to their first apartments, and then guides them through their first few months in the U.S. He provides valuable insight about the process of resettlement and its most pressing...

In January 2019, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar became the first ever Somali-American member of Congress. Rep. Omar was resettled in the U.S. as a teenager, and since then has watched the topic of resettlement become increasingly polarized in U.S. politics. This week, Grant and Ravi interview Rep. Omar about her personal experience resettling in the U.S., and what needs to change in the U.S. system.Displaced is a production by the International Rescue Committee and Vox Media. You can read more...

Imagine a world where every refugee who needs to be resettled receives that opportunity. What would it take? Today there are 1.4 million refugees who have no chance of returning to their homes or integrating into their countries of first asylum. For them, resettlement is the only option. But that option is under threat around the world - in 2019, U.S. refugee admissions alone are at a historic low due to a cap set by the Trump administration. In the first episode of a new series on global...

In October 2015, US airstrikes destroyed a trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières. 42 people were killed. Following the attack, MSF International President Dr. Joanne Liu testified before the UN Security Council and captured the attention of an international audience.In the final episode of our series examining the future of war, Grant and Ravi welcome Dr. Joanne Liu to Displaced to discuss the attack, how the conduct of war is changing, and why civilians...

Radhya Almutawakel started human rights work in 2004; as she criticized the unfolding war in Yemen in a local newspaper, families of those who had been detained reached out to her for help. Now, Radhya is the co-founder and chairperson of the Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, which documents human rights violations by all parties of the conflict in Yemen. This week, Ravi and Grant talk to Radhya about the challenge of documenting famine as a tool of war, the future of the conflict in...

This week, Ravi and Grant turn to Loren DeJonge Schulman and Erin Simpson to discuss how technology is changing war and what that means for humanitarians. Both Loren and Erin have years of experience working in the defense industry - so not only are they experts on this issue, they also provide a unique view on how militaries around the world are actually thinking about and implementing technologies like autonomous weapons, AI, and cyberwarfare. Loren and Erin are two of the three co-hosts of...

Yemen. Afghanistan. U.S.-Chinese tensions. The International Crisis Group (ICG) ranks these conflicts as the top three to watch in 2019. To kickoff season two of Displaced, Robert Malley, president and CEO of the ICG, explains why these conflicts top the list, and what they say about the changing geopolitical order and the future of war.Displaced is produced by the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. Find our show notes here. Get in touch with us...

At Displaced we examine the causes and consequences of the global refugee crisis. And this season, we're going even deeper. Each of our episodes will focus on one of the three top issues humanitarians face today: the future of war, refugee resettlement, and climate change and displacement.Season two launches January 22nd. Don't miss an episode - subscribe to Displaced now. If you're new to Displaced, start listening with our conversations with Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and...

Pulitzer prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen is the guest on this episode of Displaced, and talks to Grant and Ravi about his background, and the traumatic experience of being separated from his parents when he was 4 years old. He goes on to talk about the role of trauma in shaping the lives of refugees, and how that has informed his own work. They discuss the label 'refugee', and the place of refugees in America in this current moment. This is the last episode of Displaced in season 1....

Ann Mei Chang talks to Ravi and Grant about her new book, ‘Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good.’ Her career spans both the private and public sector: she led USAID’s first-ever innovation hub, the Global Development Lab, and she spent almost a decade as senior engineering director at Google, before she left Silicon Valley for the State Department, where she was a senior advisor for women and technology. Ann Mei Chang shares her lessons learned through this journey,...

Ravi talks to David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee - and a long-time friend and colleague - during a special event recorded with a live audience at the New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility in New York City.  Their wide-ranging conversation focuses on the politics of the refugee crisis: what a political solution looks like in Yemen; how to negotiate with states to keep borders open and widen rights to work; and whether the refugee crisis...

In order to solve any given problem, an understanding of its root cause is the first step. But when those roots are tangled up with other factors - a whole set of interrelated causes and contexts, they all have to be taken into account to design an effective solution. And if ‘everything is everything’, where should we begin in trying to solve complex problems in areas like health and education? Patrick Fine is CEO of FHI 360, and explains what ‘integrated development’ looks like in his...

The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration operates with a 3 million dollar budget, and combines aid with diplomacy. Anne Richard served as the former Assistant Secretary of State for PRM from 2012 to 2017, and in this episode she talks about her experiences during those years, including how she worked with countries to accept more refugees, and implemented changes to refugee policy here in the U.S. under President Obama. She also discusses how those changes are being reversed or rolled...

Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a sharp reduction in the number of refugees the U.S. would take in over the next year: 30,000. Grant and Ravi talk to IRC colleague Nazanin Ash for some context on this dramatic shift. Nazanin is Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, and discusses the current administration’s approach to refugee admissions, and how it contrasts not just to previous administrations, but also to public support for...

Stefan Dercon is professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, and is the former chief economist at the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK, where he was involved in political discussions about how to shape aid. This episode is a deep dive into the financing model of humanitarian response, and how insurance instruments could change that model, and potentially reshape how we respond to crises. Displaced is produced by the Vox Media Podcast Network in...

Almost a quarter of the world’s population now live in some form of fragility, and we talk often about fragile states and fragile contexts - but what does the term mean? Nancy Lindborg is the president of the United States Institute of Peace, and she explains why the definition of fragility matters so much to shaping foreign policy and humanitarian response.  Displaced is produced by the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with the International Rescue Committee.  Find our show notes...

This episode looks at how humanitarian response works - the rules of the game, the players, their incentives - and how these elements impact lives of displaced people. Jeremy Konydyk calls this the ‘humanitarian business model,’ and as senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development and former director of USAID’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, he has unique insight on that model and its flaws. He offers potential solutions, and also shares his experiences on leading the...