The International Criminal Court had a bad year. South Africa, Burundi and Gambia all took steps to leave the treaty that makes them part of the court. Some fear that the international body that brings justice to leaders who commit war crimes is under significant threat. On this week's podcast we speak to Kate Cronin-Furman, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

After South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011, the world’s youngest country has found it difficult to build a stable nation and a functional health system, leaving many mothers at risk for dying during pregnancy and children at risk for preventable diseases such as malaria and diarrhea.

The humanitarian fallout from Mosul is expected to be the worst of 2016. This is really saying something, given the scale of the Syrian crisis, and what’s happening in Yemen and South Sudan. As the battle rages on and humanitarian agencies have received, or are waiting to receive refugees, the media’s focus hasn’t been as much on the human side of the story.

For today’s podcast, we’re talking with Carolyn Miles, CEO and president of Save the Children USA, about the challenges children face around the world.

For today's Humanosphere podcast, we talk about food and agriculture with Nathanael Johnson, a writer for the entertaining and insightful environmental news website Grist.org.

For today’s Humanosphere podcast, we’re talking with Patrick Awuah, a Ghanaian who having done well in the United States – including a stint at Microsoft – has returned to his West African home to start its first liberal arts university.

For today’s Humanosphere podcast, we’re talking with a heroic young man from the Democratic Republic of Congo – Fred Bauma. We don’t use the word heroic at Humanosphere too often. Not that we don't regularly write about humanitarians who do important and self-sacrificing work aimed at helping those most in need. But the label 'hero' seems especially appropriate when applied to Bauma, a soft-spoken 26-year-old who some have dubbed Congo’s Mahatma Gandhi.

For today’s Humanosphere podcast, we are talking with Riyadh Lafta, an epidemiologist who focuses on violence and was one of the leading public health researchers who challenged the official U.S. government claims of low civilian casualties from the 2003 Iraq War.

For this week's podcast, Humanosphere takes a look at the current situation in Ethiopia with our guest, Hallelujah Lulie, a postgraduate at the London School of Economics and former journalist covering the political and security situation in the country.

For today's Humanosphere podcast, we are talking to Bernard (Bern) Guri, chairman of an organization in Accra, Ghana, called the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.