What role does anthropology play in our understanding of humanitarian disasters? In this first episode of the Intersecting Vulnerabilities in Humanitarian Disasters miniseries, Ekatherina Zhukova, Researcher at Lund University in Sweden, and Alicia Sliwinski, Associate Professor of Global Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, discuss the tools anthropology offers in addressing issues regarding development, humanitarianism, and disasters. Zhukova and Sliwinski explore concepts such as moral economy, disaster vulnerability and the notion of the ‘gift’.