Trumanitarian
If you are passionate about all things humanitarian and you are looking for new answers, you will enjoy listening to Trumanitarian's smart, honest conversations
101. Secret Sauce

Humanitarian tech initiatives fail when they start with a "shiny object" rather than a defined problem. Solutions are imposed rather than developed based on actual needs. A âgraveyard of bad techâ is expanding. Should humanitarians just admit theyâre bad with technology?
During the International Red Cross Movement Conference in Geneva in October 2024, Host Lars Peter Nissen found a quiet corner to discuss pitfalls and opportunities in humanitarian tech with Heather Leason (Digital Innovation Lead at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) and Omar Abu Samra (Director of the Global Disaster Preparedness Center at the...
100. The Big Chill

Over the past week, the 90-day freeze of US foreign assistance has sent a shockwave through the humanitarian and development communities.
If you ask this weeks guests on Trumanitarian the crisis will not be over in three months - Harpinder Collacott, Michael Barnett, and Meg Sattler come to the conclusion that the consequences of the aid freeze will last for years. The real question is: as the old system fractures, what new models of humanitarian action will emerge?
Meanwhile, communities are not idly waiting for external interventions. Can aid evolve to truly support them in...
99. Wiser

Dr. Rola Hallam - a doctor, humanitarian, and Syrian advocate - joins host Lars Peter Nissen for a personal conversation on the resilience of humanity amidst chaos. Against the backdrop of Syriaâs profound suffering and the fall of the Assad regime, Dr. Rola shares her journey of healing, hope, and service.
She dismantles the idea of the untouchable hero humanitarian, laying bare the fragility and vulnerability of frontline workers. She recounts her burnout and her path to rebuilding through healing, spirituality, and psychedelics - moving from clever to wise.
Dr. Rola envisions a healing-centred ap...
98. Twelve-stepping Chaos

What happens when you mix cyber warfare, climate collapse, and humanitarian action with a dash of whiskey? You get Emerson Tan - a man who started as a hacker, turned humanitarian, and now designs fintech for the apocalypse.
Dive into chaos: how disasters, misinformation, and the climate crisis are forcing us to rethink everything from technology to social systems. Emerson explains why the difference between a war zone and a flood is six feet of water and how mutual aid and grassroots are bubbling up as antidotes to our crumbling centralised structures.
Along the way...
99. Twelve-Stepping Chaos

97. Humanitarianism 2.0

In an early episode this year, Dr. Hugo Slim warned that he would challenge the most fundamental humanitarian principle: humanity. This week, he does just that. As a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford and a policy advisor specializing in the ethics of war and humanitarian aid, Hugo brings a unique philosophical lens to the conversation, drawing on his doctorate in theology.
In this conversation, host Lars Peter challenges Hugo to assess the practicality and effectiveness of his landscape-based approach. Could it disrupt the established Western liberal framework of human rightsâand might that disruption be exactly what we...
96. Bureaucracy Engagement

This episode discusses 'community engagement': recent wins, as well as the continued struggle to move beyond tokenism to achieve meaningful change â and whether 'bureaucracy engagement' might better reflect the complexities of the engagement.
In this episode, Kristin Vestrheim (Moderator), Eminenur ĂÄąnar (Board Member), and Yakzan Shishakly (Board Member) discuss their network â the Interagency Community of Practice on Community Engagement in Displacement Response. They explore the consequences of treating community engagement as a narrow, technical problem ârather than a political one â and suggest more radical and integrative solutions to help shift power back to the people.
The forum...
95. A Night on Earth

In his 2021 book, Night on Earth, Davide Rodongo, professor of international history and politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute, writes about humanitarian action during the 20th century interwar period. âWhat they aimed to do was delusionalâ, he told Lars Peter. âThe reality is they did a few little good things in a few placesâŚAnd they aimed to civilize the entire Near East.â
According to Davide, historians often argue that the past teaches us nothing. And yet, his recounting of the humanitarian sectorâs inter-war period rhymes with the major themes we talk about on this podcast: localization...
94. Members Only

The Humanitarian Club - members only!
Is the humanitarian sector run by an elite network that controls the vast majority of resources and power within the sector, a closed circle that excludes outsiders? This week Trumanitarian welcomes Michael N. Barnett, Professor of international affairs and a leading scholar on humanitarianism. In one of his pieces âThe Humanitarian Clubâ (we love it), Barnett uses sociological and economic theory to describe humanitarianism as a club where the few hold the economic, symbolic, social, and cultural capital. It leaves outsiders in the cold and permits members to control pooled funds, infl...
93. Reenchantment

Simon Western, founder of the Eco-Leadership Institute, joins host Lars Peter Nissen, to explore how to bring some soul into the humanitarian space as they know it. And how the âhelpless helpingâ tendency currently plagues it. Simon draws on his experience from psychiatric nursing to corporate leadership, and explains how his eco-leadership model - rooted in ecosystemic thinking and mutualism - could re-enchant individuals and organisations, helping to break free from outdated, bureaucratic structures.
Simon argues that real transformation wonât come from top-down reforms but from the fringes - through leadership that disrupts and dismantles the bloate...