Hacking Hunger

Hacking Hunger episodes:

• 07.01.2020

  Episode 50: Inside the High-Tech Tool That Tracks Hunger Crises and Save Lives

  On this episode of Hacking Hunger, we spoke to Jonathan Rivers, who's team at the U.N. World Food Programme uses mobile technology to monitor food security in real time. He describes how this technology works, and the critical role it...

  
• 06.19.2020

  Episode 49: Creating an Anti-Poverty Movement with Clint Borgen

  A passion project that began one summer on a fishing boat, The Borgen Project is now a nationwide campaign with volunteers in 931 cities. It advocates, mobilizes and educates to improve the living conditions of people living on less...

  
• 06.16.2020

  Episode 48: Linking Hunger and War with Matthew Hollingworth

  Two years ago, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2417, a resolution recognizing the link between hunger and war. But two years later, too little has changed. For this episode, we sat down with Matthew Hollingworth, United Nations World...

  
• 06.11.2020

  Episode 47: Poverty, Policy and Pandemic with Johan Swinnen

  How much of an impact on developing economies will COVID-19 really have? Why will food systems change prevent dire impacts from happening in the future? On this episode of Hacking Hunger, we talk to Johan Swinnen, a top economist and...

  
• 05.13.2020

  Episode 46: “Everything Changed Overnight.” WFP USA CEO on Navigating a Global Crisis

  Three months after Barron Segar joined WFP USA as president and CEO, disaster struck. COVID-19 hit and uprooted life as we knew, forcing Barron and WFP USA leadership to reimagine many of their plans. Barron is no stranger to crisis,...

  
• 04.29.2020

  Episode 45: How Innovation Can Help Solve Hunger During a Pandemic

  As the COVID-19 spreads, innovation and technology is needed more to reach people in need. In this episode of Hacking Hunger, Bernhard Kowatsch, head of WFP's Innovation Accelerator, explains how the program is working to support WFP's pandemic response.

  
• 04.15.2020

  Episode 44: Food Tank, Food Systems and COVID-19: A Conversation with Dani Nierenberg

  Danielle Nierenberg is a world-renowned researcher, speaker and advocate, she’s spent her career fighting for food-systems change and is an expert on all things food and ag. On this episode, we talk to Danielle about her background, her current organization,...

  
• 03.27.2020

  Episode 43: COVID-19 and the 5 Major Threats it Poses to Global Food Security

  Every major outbreak in recent memory—Ebola, SARS, MERS—has had both direct and indirect negative impacts on food security. On this episode, we speak to Chase Sova, our senior director of policy and research, to learn what the experts are saying...

  
• 03.12.2020

  Episode 42: Inside the Lives of Women Living Through World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis

  Hunger is cruel to everyone, but it’s not completely blind. Women – especially in times of war, are more at risk to the suffering it bestows. Women are 60 percent more likely to suffer from hunger and its consequences. They...

  
• 02.20.2020

  Episode 41: How Can We End World Hunger? Travel Expert Rick Steves Visits Guatemala and Ethiopia to Explore Answers.

  Rick Steves is no stranger to exploration. The renown travel expert has built his career around investigating the nooks and crannies of Europe and sharing his discoveries with curious travelers. Recently, however, Rick ventured beyond Europe to explore one of...

  
• 02.06.2020

  Episode 40: Hunger, War and An American Dream

  In the early 1990s, Abdi Nor Iftin was a child. Just like other children across the globe, he loved playing outdoors, bickered with his brother and dreamed of being a Hollywood star. Unlike most other children, however, Abdi was starving...

  
• 12.18.2019

  Episode 39: On the Frontlines: A Yemeni Aid Worker on What It’s Like to Live Through the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis

  In the last few years, Mohammed Ghanim has become all too familiar with the struggles of war. A program officer for WFP, Mohammed lives and works in Yemen, site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. He is also from Yemen,...

  
• 11.22.2019

  Episode 38: It All Started With An Insight: How Feeding the World is at Your Fingertips

  ShareTheMeal is a WFP app that enables people to donate food with just a tap of their fingers. In episode 38 of Hacking Hunger, we sat down with Max Costa, head of ShareTheMeal, and Nishkam Mehta, a super user, to...

  
• 11.19.2019

  Episode 37: The Ebola Epidemic is Back. This is How Food Can Help End it.

  When Ebola spread through Western Africa in 2014, it killed more than 11,000 people. Now it’s back – and the Democratic Republic of Congo is at its epicenter in a critical phase. We spoke to Jacques David, WFP communications officer,...

  
• 10.08.2019

  Episode 36: Hunger and Rain: The Story of The Dry Corridor

  The tale of the Dry Corridor is one that’s becoming all too familiar. It’s one of extreme weather and desperation, hunger, drought and rain. The Dry Corridor is the nickname given to a region in Central America that’s been suffering...

  
• 09.03.2019

  Episode 35: Cold and Polluted: Working on the Front Lines of Climate Extremes

  For the fourth year in a row, hunger is on the rise globally. And one of the main reasons is climate change. The number of extreme climate-related disasters has doubled since the early 1990s, with an average of 213 of...

  
• 06.19.2019

  Episode 34: Witnessing an Apocalypse: An Aid Worker's Tale of Cyclone Idai

  On March 14, 2019, Cyclone Idai slammed into central Mozambique near the city of Beira. Its torrential winds and rains destroyed everything in its path, and left millions of people without the food, shelter and water they needed to survive....

  
• 05.21.2019

  Episode 33: Breastfeeding in Emergencies – Nourishing Women and Children in Cox’s Bazar

  Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is home to the world’s largest refugee camp. One million refugees live there – 80 percent are women and children. The camp is plagued by poor water, unsanitary conditions, and limited access to health services and...

  
• 03.20.2019

  Episode 32: The Magic of a Meal: How School Feeding Transforms

  Homegrown school feeding is not only transforming the lives of students, but entire communities. We sat down with Carmen Burbano de Lara, WFP director of school feeding, and Amy Blauman, who manages WFP’s homegrown school feeding program in Rwanda, to learn more. 

  
• 01.17.2019

  Episode 31: Of Food, Life and Death

  Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. WFP cameraman Marco Frattini recently traveled to the country to document the human impact of its four-year civil war. What he saw is something he’ll never forget. On our latest episode of Hacking...

  
• 10.18.2018

  Episode 30: A Nation on the Brink of Famine

  Years of conflict have pushed Yemen to the edge of famine. There are 8 million people in the country suffering from severe hunger, and intensifying violence could bring this number to 12 million. WFP’s Yemen Country Director, Stephen Anderson, talks...

  
• 06.25.2018

  Episode 29: A Storytellers Farewell

  In her final episode as host, M.J. Altman turns the mic over to three women in Guatemala, Chad and Jordan who share their own stories in their own languages as part of a unique project from the U.N. World Food...

  
• 05.31.2018

  Episode 28: Survival in the Sahel

  The Sahel of Africa has always been an unforgiving landscape, but now families in the region are facing two growing threats at the same time: Climate change and conflict. Boko Haram’s campaign of terror has displaced thousands of people as...

  
• 04.30.2018

  Episode 27: The Logistics of Hope

  Diko Amariah has been on both sides of humanitarian aid, first as a child refugee and now as an aid worker in South Sudan, where five years of conflict have pushed millions of people—especially women and girls—to the brink of...

  
• 03.15.2018

  Episode 26: One Father’s Reflections From Syria

  Escalating violence in Eastern Ghouta has dominated recent news coverage of the conflict in Syria as humanitarians struggle to reach families trapped without food. Jakob Kern has witnessed the turmoil firsthand as head of the U.N. World Food Programme’s operation...

  
• 02.14.2018

  Episode 25: Inside the World’s Largest Refugee Camp

  When violence in Myanmar sparked a mass exodus last August, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled for the border. Today, the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh has become the world’s largest refugee camp, hosting more than 1 million people....

  
• 12.13.2017

  Episode 24: Averting Catastrophe in Mozambique (Part 2)

  When a historic drought struck Mozambique last year, the nation’s farmers found themselves plunged into hunger. So how did the U.N. World Food Programme help pull the country back from the brink? On the last of a two-part series, M.J....

  
• 11.14.2017

  Episode 23: On the Brink in Mozambique (Part 1)

  A year ago, Mozambique was on the brink of disaster. Successive droughts meant the country’s farmers had almost nothing to harvest—or feed their families. In the first in a two-part series, M.J. takes you to the country’s urban streets and...

  
• 08.04.2017

  Episode 22: One Olympian’s Wake-Up Call in Uganda

  Good nutrition helped Natalie Coughlin earn the most Olympic medals of any female swimmer in U.S. history. But a recent trip to Uganda with World Food Program USA — where she met farmers, elementary students and refugees from South Sudan...

  
• 08.01.2017

  Episode 21: A Lifesaving Legacy Under Threat

  Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much these days, but hunger has always been different. For decades, Congress and the White House have worked together to feed families around the world. M.J. talks to former Senator Tom Daschle about why...

  
• 06.26.2017

  Episode 20: The Forgotten Food Waste Crisis

  In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, farmers can expect to lose nearly half of their harvest before it even leaves the farm. M.J. talks to the World Food Programme’s Brett Rierson about why — and how “tupperware for crops” could...

  
• 05.25.2017

  Episode 19: 24 Hours on the Border of War

  As conflict rages in neighboring South Sudan, Uganda’s leaders -- many of them former refugees themselves -- are welcoming thousands of people seeking refuge from the violence with food and opportunity. M.J. talks to WFP USA’s Erin Cochran about her...

  
• 03.11.2017

  Episode 18: The F-Word

  Famine paints an unspeakable picture: Families desperate for food, children dying of hunger, an urgent need for life-saving aid. The recent declaration of famine in South Sudan reveals the tragic consequences of war—and how the gradual collapse of a country...

  
• 02.10.2017

  Episode 17: A Love Story That Is Feeding the World

  Lovebirds Poonam Kaushal and Nishkaam Mehta are getting hitched this Valentine’s Day. Instead of throwing a big wedding, they teamed up with friends, family and perfect strangers to create an unconventional wedding gift using the world’s first hunger-fighting smartphone app....

  
• 01.27.2017

  Episode 16: How We Got to Season 2

  Season 1 of Hacking Hunger was an experiment that uncovered moments of joy, heartache and the unexpected. M.J. takes a look back at a few of her favorite interviews from Season 1 and shares what’s in store for Season 2 --...

  
• 12.16.2016

  Episode 15: Reuniting After Escaping ISIS

  The city of Mosul has become the latest frontline in the war against ISIS and hunger in Iraq. Tens of thousands of families have fled the violence, reuniting with food and loved ones after years of separation. M.J. talks to...

  
• 11.18.2016

  Episode 14: Inside a Syrian Kitchen

  Journalist Dalia Mortada may have been born and raised in the U.S., but she grew up in a Syrian kitchen. As a child, she savored aromas and flavors like orange blossom, tamarind syrup and cardamom -- tastes that would define...

  
• 11.04.2016

  Episode 13: Handing Over the Mic to Haitian Voices After Matthew

  When Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti last month, the storm ravaged its southern coast and left hundreds of thousands of families without food, shelter and clean water. But its devastation only tells part of the story. M.J. hands over the...

  
• 09.30.2016

  Episode 12: Mr. Mumo Goes to Washington

  For Peter Mumo, escaping a childhood of hunger and poverty in Kenya began with an empty bowl, a nervous excitement, and the delivery of his very first school meal. These simple meals and the encouragement of his parents would change...

  
• 09.16.2016

  Episode 11: Pinpointing Hunger with Mobile Phones

  When violence or natural disaster strikes vulnerable communities, good data on the hunger that often results can be hard to come by. For aid workers, knowing where food is scarce and how families are coping is crucial to alleviate suffering....

  
• 09.06.2016

  Episode 10: Empower a Woman, Feed a Generation

  If women farmers had the same access to resources like capital, markets and training as their male counterparts, the number of hungry people worldwide could drop by nearly 20 percent, according to the United Nations. M.J. talks to Lisa Curtis,...

  
• 08.18.2016

  Episode 9: Digging Into What Ends Up On Your Plate

  In an increasingly food-obsessed world, journalists and consumers alike are digging into the politics of what ends up on our plates. This global food chain means farmers and families at home and abroad are interconnected in new and complicated ways....

  
• 07.20.2016

  Episode 8: Seven Million Meals and Counting

  At a time when smartphone users outnumber the world’s hungry children by 20 to 1, humanitarian organizations are crowdsourcing creative ideas and solutions to harness technology in the fight against global hunger. That’s why some of the brightest minds in...

  
• 06.08.2016

  Episode 7: Breaking Through a Besieged Community in Syria

  In a besieged town in Syria earlier this year, families had been boiling grass to survive when word spread that the first delivery of food and medicine to reach the area in 18 months was on its way. But when this humanitarian convoy was...

  
• 05.12.2016

  Episode 6: Voices Rising From the Rubble in Nepal

  What's it like to live in a country with terrain that is both breathtakingly beautiful and incredibly dangerous? Few places exemplify this better than Nepal, and few people know this contrast as deeply as its local mountain porters after last...

  
• 03.18.2016

  Episode 5: The Zero Hunger Generation

  Millennials are the largest and most educated generation in the U.S. Today, they outnumber baby boomers by nearly 8 million people. And the United Nations has tasked this generation with tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time -...

  
• 02.19.2016

  Episode 4: A Slow-Motion Disaster in Ethiopia

  A historic drought is sweeping Ethiopia and more than 10 million people have been pushed into hunger. We talk with two humanitarians in Ethiopia—John Aylieff from the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) and Dianna Darsney de Salcedo from the U.S. Agency for International...

  
• 12.12.2015

  Episode 3: On the Front Lines of Hunger and War in Syria

  We speak with Dina el-Kassaby, one of the WFP's Communications Officers based in Cairo, about how the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have impacted ordinary families throughout the region.

  
• 11.24.2015

  Episode 2: Debunking hunger myths with WFP USA's Allan Jury

  In this segment of Hacking Hunger podcast, Allan Jury, WFP USA's Public Policy Vice President and food security "Yoda" debunks some of the pernicious myths about global hunger and explains how agencies like the World Food Programme are making progress. 

  
• 09.30.2015

  Episode 1: Journalist Roger Thurow on Hunger in a Post 9/11 World

  We're joined today by Roger Thurow, an award-winning journalist and author who has traveled across the globe reporting on food security, agriculture and humanitarian issues. We spoke to Roger about his experience in the field, how 9/11 led him to cover global...