Finding Humanity

Addressing gender injustice starts by investing into women leaders and women-led organizations in the human rights space. Despite the growing recognition that women’s rights are human rights, in 2021 less than one percent of Development Assistance Committee aid for gender equality went to women’s organizations.

In this episode we hear from two female leaders who are making it a priority to support women, especially those fighting for gender equality in the global south. We explore the disadvantages female leaders face in the human rights space, and examine the current state of gender rights around the world.

Featuring Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, Secretary General at CARE International and Latanya Mapp Frett, President and CEO at the Global Fund for Women in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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According to the United Nations, as of  2021, there were only 26 women serving as Heads of State or Government. Globally, only 21% of government ministers were women, with only 14 countries having achieved 50% or more women in cabinets.  If we don’t have more women and women of color in leadership, our policies won’t address their needs. Yet, at the current rate, gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years.

In this episode we learn how Antonia Novello made history as the first female and first Hispanic U.S. Surgeon General. We examine the barriers that are keeping women from reaching leadership roles in government, and explore how we can overcome them.

Featuring Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Antonia Novello and Nicole C. Mason, President and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research  in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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The world is increasingly determined by the way we design our technology. Yet, in the U.S.  Black and Indigenous women occupy less than 10 percent of positions in the fields of STEM –science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In this episode we hear from two women who founded organizations that teach girls the skills they need to pursue careers in STEM. We also go back to the history of this field, and examine why closing the gender gap in technology will lead to a more inclusive future.

Featuring Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin Founder of  Pearls Africa Foundation and Reshma Saujani Founder & CEO of Marshall Plan for Moms and Founder of  Girls Who Code in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Study after study shows that looking at idealized images of women in the media results in lower self-esteem, particularly for young women and girls.

Hoping to challenge what is perceived as beautiful, designer Carrie Hammer founded Role Models, Not Runway Models, a movement credited for kickstarting the body positive movement in the fashion and beauty industries.

In this episode we hear how Carrie made history by creating the first New York Fashion Week show that included a model in a wheelchair. We talk about the negative influences of social media and idealized body images in young women, and explore solutions to this issue.

Featuring Carrie Hammer, Fashion Designer and Founder of Role Models, Not Runway Models and Dr. Jennifer S. Mills, Psychologist and Associate Professor at York University in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Male athletes in most sports make significantly more than female athletes. One of the reasons for this pay gap is that men’s sports receive vastly more media coverage, television licenses, and sponsorship deals. However, even in cases where women’s sports are as popular, we have been slow to achieve equal pay.

In this episode, we hear from former basketball player Tajay Ashmeade about the ways in which her gender impacted her career. We examine the reasons behind the gender pay gap, highlight the progress achieved so far, and outline a way forward.

Featuring Tajay Ashmeade, CEO of Nurture SPRT and Dr. Richard Lapchick, Director, Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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To protect democracy, we must first protect journalists. Yet, women journalists experience approximately three times as many abusive comments on Twitter, compared to their male counterparts. In this episode, we examine the disadvantages female journalists around the world face. We also explain why we must recognize online harassment against women journalists as a threat to the freedom of the press.

Featuring Carla Minet, Executive Director at the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico and Elisa Lees Muñoz, Executive Director of the International Women's Media Foundation in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Investing in women and women-led companies is not only the right thing to do, it’s also good for business. Yet, women and women of color in particular continue to face disadvantages in the workplace. In 2021, only 2% of venture capital went to companies founded only by women and 15.6% to those with at least one woman on their founding teams. Women are also 30% less likely to be considered for a job position than men.

In this episode, we examine the ways in which women and women-led companies face disadvantages in the workplace,and we hear the stories of two powerful women working to change the landscape for women in business.

Featuring: Tiffany Pham, CEO and Founder of Mogul (one of the world's leading diversity recruitment companies) and Sarah Chen, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Beyond The Billion (launched as The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, which is a global consortium of investors that have pledged to invest over 1 billion towards women-founded companies), in conversation with Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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In the U.S., women of color hold only 4% of C-suite roles in media and entertainment. As a result, we rarely find their stories featured in films or T.V.

Growing up as a Muslim who wore a headscarf, Marya didn’t see herself represented on the screen. Yet, she found her way into Hollywood through a handful of pioneer women of color in the industry. As a vice-president at Walt Disney Studios, Marya is now advancing social change through diverse storytelling.

In this episode, we examine how stories shape and inform the world in which we live. We also explore how having women in leadership positions in media and entertainment is crucial in advancing diversity.

Featuring:

Marya Bangee, Vice President, Representation & Inclusion Strategies at The Walt Disney Studios

Dr. Shawn Andrews, Speaker, Consultant, Author, Professor

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From a young age, Selin Ozunaldim questioned gender stereotypes. When she was 17, her little brother told her that she didn’t need to worry about studying because she could always get married. Hearing her brother say that made Selin realize she had to do something to change this way of thinking in her community. Now 19, Selin is the youngest representative of the United Nations’ HeForShe movement in Turkey, a global effort to engage men and boys in the fight for gender equality. She also founded the first Girl Up Club and Girls Who Code in her country.

In this episode, we explore the important role that young women and girls have historically played in fighting for change, equality, and justice for all. We examine how teen advocates have come to the forefront on the global stage, the challenges they overcame to get there, and how technology has amplified their advocacy.

Featuring:

Selin Ozunaldim, National Gender Youth Activist for UN Women, HeForShe Advocate

Melissa Kilby, Executive Director, Girl Up at the United Nations Foundation

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Throughout history and across cultures, inspiring women and girls continue to break records and blaze trails—shattering glass ceilings while imagining and innovating the way forward.

On season 5 of the Finding Humanity podcast, we bring you powerful voices of women shaping history by overcoming innumerable challenges to achieve greatness. You’ll hear the inspirational stories of leaders in arts, entertainment, science, sports, politics, and beyond.

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BIG NEWS! Our podcast has just been nominated for this year’s Webby Awards! The show that you have supported since we launched in 2020, has been singled out as one of the five best podcasts in the world for Public Service and Activism.

In 1970, the New York Times published Milton Friedman's seminal essay, "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits." For more than half a century, Friedman’s doctrine of profit maximization helped accelerate the racial, economic, and environmental injustice we see today.

In our final episode of this special series, we discuss corporate solutions to our broken economic system. We examine stakeholder governance and its role in transforming the business community into a driver of positive change for people and the planet.

Featuring: Massimiliano Pogliani, CEO of Illycaffè, Leo Strine, Senior Fellow of the Harvard Program on Corporate Governance and former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, Jessica Yinka Thomas, President and Board Chair of B Academics, and Holly Ensign-Barstow, Director of Stakeholder Governance and Policy at B Lab.

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Replacing your smartphone every two and a half years is not uncommon. In fact, it’s by design.

The consumer electronics industry is fraught with unethical business practices, from planned obsolescence to the dark side of cobalt mining, to the 40 million tons of electronic waste that's generated each year. In this episode, we learn about Fairphone, a social enterprise that creates smartphones that are both repairable and built to last. We also share how the circular economy and “Right to Repair” movement is a win for consumers, companies, and the planet.

Featuring: Nathan Proctor, Senior Director of Right to Repair campaigns at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Joe Iles, Circular Design Programme Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Eva Gouwens, CEO of Fairphone, and Juan Pablo Larenas, Executive Director of B Lab Global.

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Each year, about a third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food loss and waste contributes to some of the most pressing health, environmental, and economic challenges of our day, accounting for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions and $1 trillion in economic losses annually. How can businesses innovate and help win the fight against food waste?

In this episode, we explore how global brands like Danone are contributing to aggressive targets aimed at reducing food waste. We also discuss how social impact companies, like Too Good to Go, are pushing for policy and behavioral change by building a movement of food waste warriors.

Featuring: Surbhi Martin, Vice President of Marketing at Danone North America, Philippe Schuler, Global Impact Manager at Too Good To Go, Maximo Torero, Chief Economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), and Juan Pablo Larenas, Executive Director of B Lab Global.

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What if businesses removed barriers to employment and gave job seekers a fair shot at self-sufficiency?

For the formerly incarcerated, unhoused, or people with limited education, getting a job can be extremely difficult. In 1982, Greyston Bakery piloted Open Hiring, a recruitment practice where simply putting your name on a list could get you hired — no work experience, background checks, resumes, or interviews.

Now adopted and scaled by companies like The Body Shop, Open Hiring continues to unleash human potential and uplift populations that have been historically excluded from the workforce. In this episode, we explore barriers to fair employment, the economic and social benefits of equitable hiring practices, and why inclusive hiring is a step towards tackling poverty, inequality, and other global challenges.

Featuring: Chidi King, Branch Chief, Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO), Joseph D. Kenner, President & CEO at Greyston, Antonia Tony-Fadipe, Inclusive Hiring Lead at The Body Shop and Juan Pablo Larenas, Executive Director of B Lab Global.

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Can businesses help solve the greatest societal challenges we face?

Historically, the business sector has accelerated social inequity, fueled human rights violations, and exacerbated climate change. With a global cultural shift underway, are businesses truly evolving from contributors to humanity’s biggest problems to drivers of positive change?

In this special series from Finding Humanity, we’ve partnered with B Lab to bring you honest conversations with leaders and policy experts who examine the role of the business community in addressing today’s pivotal challenges—from uplifting marginalized communities through Open Hiring®, to reducing the environmental damage of consumer products, to ending food waste that can alleviate the hunger of more than 820 million people.

Dan's wife Brittany Maynard sought adventure up until the very end. When it became clear that the brain tumor she'd been diagnosed with would ultimately take her life, Brittany chose to end things on her own terms.

Medical aid-in-dying, commonly known in the U.S. as "death with dignity," enables someone with a terminal illness to request a prescription for medication that will end their suffering. In the final episode of season 4, we explore end-of-life choices and the social and legal systems that either allow or prevent individuals from determining how they die.

Featuring Dan Diaz, an advocate for the legalization of medical aid in dying, Kim Callinan, CEO of the organization Compassion and Choices, and Dr. Rob Jonquiere, Executive Director of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.

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Ronald fell in love with television as a child, but as a queer, black boy from a Latinx household, representation was deeply lacking. In this episode, we focus on "colorism," or discrimination that occurs based on skin color, and how misrepresentations of people of color in the media often have real-life consequences.

Featuring Ronald Hinton, actor, writer, and founder of Shared Soil Productions, ReNika Moore, Racial Justice Program Director at the ACLU, and Dr. Mia White, professor of Environmental Studies at The New School.

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Kimi Ceridon and her sister never went without food growing up, but living paycheck-to-paycheck meant her parents constantly worried about how to pay for meals. What they did eat was often low-cost and low-quality food.

This is what experts call ‘food insecurity,’ an issue that has grown substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic to affect over 750 million people worldwide. In this episode, we dig into why so many people are unable to secure sufficient, safe, and nutritious food, and the stigma faced by those who experience food insecurity today.

Featuring Kimi Ceridon, a Massachusetts-based writer, Maximo Torero, Chief Economist of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and Clancy Harrison, Founder of the Food Dignity Movement and host of The Food Dignity Podcast.

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Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, joins hosts Mary Robinson and Hazami Barmada to discuss the persistent, global injustice that is violence against women.

1.3 billion women and girls around the world—equivalent to the entire combined populations of North America and Europe—have experienced violence at some point in their lives. This has significant political, economic, and cultural consequences. In this episode, global leaders unpack this critical issue and address what is needed to end violence against women and girls.

Together, we explore how to tackle this injustice and answer the questions: How does increasing access to justice better safeguard women’s rights? Why is feminist leadership vital in advancing gender equality? And what role do men play in ending violence against women and in challenging misogyny?

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Episode speakers: Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Founder of UN Women and Deputy Chair of The Elders; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chair of The Elders; and Hazami Barmada, Activist & Founder of the Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Addiction was common in the McDaid family. So when Carol, the youngest in her upper-middle-class household began using, the disease quickly took root. Carol sipped her first drink at age 12, and by 16 was using IV drugs. It wasn't until her drug use threatened her career that she decided to enter treatment.

One in every ten people in the U.S. experiences drug addiction, which is nearly the entire population of Texas. In this episode, we seek to understand the varied causes and consequences of drug abuse, and how new pharmaceuticals that came onto the market in the late-90s—prescription opioids—changed the landscape of addiction for an entire generation.

Featuring Carol McDaid, a D.C. lobbyist specializing in addiction and mental health policy, Diane Sevening, former President of the Association for Addiction Professionals and Assistant Professor at The University of South Dakota, and Marta Michelle Colon, Founder of BeGutsy, a national campaign that educates the Latinx community on the dangers of opioid use.

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Sherry Johnson grew up in Tampa, Florida as a member of the Pentecostal church. She was only 11-years-old when her mother married her off to a man nearly twice her age. She had already been a victim of years of sexual violence, abuse that resulted in her first pregnancy at age nine.

As many as 12 million underage girls are forced to marry each year, meaning more than 650 million women alive today were married as children. In this episode, we explore the many causes of child marriage, including gender inequality, generational tradition, poverty, and war. We expose the global nature of this issue and how the U.S.—a country without any federal laws prohibiting child marriage—continues to contribute to these statistics.

Featuring Sherry Johnson, Founder of the Svon Foundation, Princess Mabel van Oranje, Founder and Global Champion at Girls Not Brides, and Tannistha Datta, Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF.

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Juan Escalante's family immigrated to the U.S. from Venezuela when he was a child. It wasn't until he applied to college that he learned his family had overstayed their visa.

Every year, visa overstays outnumber those who enter the U.S. illegally. These same undocumented immigrants pay $11 billion in U.S. taxes annually. Nearly 3 in 4 are considered essential workers. In this episode, we reveal the barriers undocumented immigrants face when they attempt to work within the U.S. immigration system. We look into a system ripe with malpractice and burdensome bureaucracy—which can result in a single application taking up to 40 years to process.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from Juan Escalante, an immigration rights advocate, Angeline Chen, Senior Attorney at Clark Hill, and Rosa Velazquez, Lead Immigration Rights Advocate for Arkansas United.

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Trigger Warning: This episode discusses sexual violence.

Stephanie Mosley experienced sexual violence perpetrated by a schoolmate in college, then a football player at her alma mater, the University of Alabama. In spite of being blamed and called a liar, Stephanie ultimately decided to press charges — but her case was never prosecuted.

It is estimated that out of 1000 rapes, only 310 victims report the incident. Of these, only 25 are prosecuted. In this episode, we tackle weak enforcement mechanisms that fail to hold sexual violence perpetrators, how victims are silenced from reporting their case, and why survivors like Stephanie don’t get the justice they deserve.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from: Stephanie Mosley, Rape Survivor and Creator of The Antidote Conference, Jacqui Hunt, Global Lead, End Sexual Violence Campaign, at Equality Now, and Jane Manning, Director at Women's Equal Justice Project.

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As a teen, Leah Juliett sent nude photos to a boy who spent years requesting them. When the boy learned that Leah was gay and paying attention to other people, Leah became one of the millions of victims of revenge porn — more accurately known as nonconsensual pornography (NCP).

In this episode, Hazami Barmada explores where NCP is criminalized, the lack of regulation that prevents victims from getting justice, and what (little) recourse victims have in getting their life and dignity back.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from: Leah Juliett, Founder and Executive Director of March Against Revenge Porn; Elisa D'Amico, Chief Legal Officer of A4D and Co-Founder of Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project; and Dr. Kristen Zaleski, Clinical Director at the Mental Health Collective and Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California.

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Yanique Brandford had to skip school and go to the nearest shopping mart to buy herself period products. The price tag was $15, and she only had $8 in her bank account. Born from a single-parent household where money was tight, Yanique’s mom had to make sanitary pads out of cardboard, plastic, or newspaper. In this episode, Hazami Barmada tackles the “pink tax” and breaks down misconceptions around period poverty — a stigmatizing experience that happens even in the richest countries. We also examine paths towards safe and affordable menstrual products and why education is key in achieving period equity.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from: Yanique Brandford, Founder of Help A Girl Out, Laura Strausfeld, Attorney and Co-Founder of Period Equity, and Jennifer Gaines, Program Director at Alliance for Period Supplies

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Shon Hopwood is a serial robber who spent 11 years in federal prison. But when he walked out of prison in 2008, Shon couldn’t have predicted an incredulous twist: earning the title ‘Professor’ at Georgetown University while raising his young family.

While the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, there is little evidence to show that with more people in the prison system, crime rates are significantly reduced or that public safety is ensured. In this episode, we discuss the irony of the American criminal justice system. On the podcast, we explore if prisons are aimed to rehabilitate, the vicious cycle created by the prison industrial complex, and how one former inmate remarkably started his legal career within the four walls of prison.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from: Professor Shon Hopwood, Former Inmate and Associate Professor of Law, Georgetown University; Dr. Annahita Mahdavi West, Activist and Associate Professor at Long Beach City College; and Dr. Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Senior Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project.

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In solving the world’s most profound challenges like poverty, discrimination, and inequality, are we fixing the right problems?

In Season 4 of the Finding Humanity podcast, we examine the institutional, political, and legal systems that got us here. How do we reduce prison populations and move from punishment to rehabilitation? What are the biggest myths around food insecurity? How do our systems perpetuate racial injustice?

Through the lens of visceral human experiences, we will explore issues such as colorism, drug addiction, child marriage, and immigration. On the podcast, we will shine a light on failing systems — and tackle changes that will lead to more just solutions.

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Until the late 20th century, assimilation was the Brazilian government’s official indigenous policy. Native inhabitants were sometimes driven out of their communities and flown by plane to distant locations where they were dropped off; meanwhile, outsiders seized their land. In some cases, assimilation turned into extermination.

There are 370 million Indigenous people around the world. Although these groups are incredibly diverse, their human rights struggle is similar, no matter where they are.

In this episode, we unravel the ways in which “modernization” and “development” trample on the rights of indigenous people. We’ll learn about forced assimilation and practices of colonial-settlers that included ‘modern’ education, land theft, and physical violence. On the podcast, we share the story of Daiara Figueiroa-Tukano an indigenous activist and visual artist whose family and people endured a legacy of abuse and discrimination.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Michael Heckenberger, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida, and Kristen Carpenter, Professor of Law, at University of Colorado Law School.

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In 2004, Jonathan Hancock was assigned to the Second Battalion Fourth Marines, also known as the “Magnificent Bastards.” He was sent to Ramadi, then a stronghold for Saddam Hussein's followers and Al Qaeda leadership. Five years after deployment, Jonathan fell into a depression — a dark hole that he couldn’t get out of — and attempted to take his own life.

PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder is a mental health issue developed after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. In the general US population alone, an estimated 6.8% will experience PTSD at any point in their lives. That number is much higher among veterans, between 13 to 30%.

In this episode, we’ll unpack PTSD as it relates to veterans of war. How does one move past the guilt of hurting innocent lives? Is there such a thing as ‘just war’? Does traditional masculinity in the military impact the severity of PTSD symptoms? What can be done to provide more support to people impacted by war?

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Army Col. Dr. David M. Benedek, Professor & Chair, Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Dr. Elizabeth Neilson, PhD, Assistant Professor at Morehead State University.

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Victims of coercive control might not recognize their experience as domestic abuse. In the case of Ryan Hart, his mother was left with no choice but to stay with his father — who portrayed himself as a well-respected family man in their community. Ryan says that it was their father's gendered view of the world which ultimately led him to murder his daughter and wife of 25 years.

According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men worldwide experience some type of abuse.  And with the COVID-19 lockdown, reported numbers of intimate partner violence rose significantly.

In this episode, we’ll unpack domestic violence and its manifestations. We learn about coercive control and emotional abuse and why it’s extremely difficult to escape a manipulative partner. On the show, we share the unspeakable tragedy that befell the Hart family and how we can better advocate for domestic abuse victims and survivors.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Patricia Evans, Author and Founder of the Evans Interpersonal Communications Institute and John Hamel, Forensic and Clinical Social Worker and Researcher.

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From picking a new name to burning her belongings and spying on new members, Dr. Janja Lalich did not foresee how her life would dramatically change as a budding feminist in the 70s. Like many others, the Democratic Workers Party, a cult she joined through a study group, first appealed to her political interests.

Alternative religions and occult groups have been present throughout modern history. While the number of people in cults globally is unknown, experts estimate that there are up to 10,000 cults in the United States. Even though most cults are religious, cult is a term that doesn’t refer to religion at all. In this episode, we break down what cults are and how prevalent they are in our societies? We’ll look at the dangers of cults and how they swell into large, powerful groups. Without physical restraint of freedom, how do cults trap their members with mental shackles, fear, and abuse, and more importantly, what are effective ways to help members exit a group and not feel traumatized when they start to live again in the outside world?

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Dr. Janja Lalich, Professor Emerita of Sociology, California State University Chico and Founder of Cult Research and Information Center, Dr. Steven Hassan, Founding Director of Freedom of Mind Resource Center, and Dr. Suzanne Newcombe, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University and Honorary Director of Inform, King's College London.

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In 2008, Deependra Giri was promised a decent salary as a clerk in Qatar. Needing money to support his family, he left his home country Nepal — only to work an unpaid construction job and worse, live in squalid conditions.

Nearly 21 million people around the world are victims of forced labor, trapped in jobs that they are coerced to take. An estimated 600,000 victims are in the Middle East. In this episode, we explore the abusive system of forced labor. We look at global trends and factors that help perpetuate this industry. On the podcast, we also learn about ‘debt bondage’, how forced and migrant labor take place in our own communities, and ways to better protect the rights of workers.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, Professor and Founding Director of Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies, University of California at Davis and Mustafa Qadri, Founder and Executive Director of Equidem Research and Consulting.

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Born in Vietnam, Lynelle Long felt like an outsider as the only nonwhite child in her family and community in Victoria, Australia. As an adoptee, she spent her entire adult life fighting to understand and connect with her identity and her past — a basic fundamental human right that was taken from her.

While the accurate number is grossly underreported, the UN estimates that around 260,000 adoptions take place worldwide each year-- of them, roughly half are adopted into American families. When we hear about adoption, we often overlook the horrors of international and domestic scams that perpetuate the exploitation of children.

In this episode, we’ll unpack the financial incentives of international adoption systems that fuel the theft of children from their families. What are the hidden schemes that enable the kidnapping and sale of adoptees? How can we protect adoptees and adoptive families from abusive systems where they have no rights or support services?

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Julie G. Rosicky, Executive Director of International Social Service-USA and David Smolin, International Lawyer and Director of the Center for Children, Law and Ethics at Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.

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This is Part 2 of a two-part episode on extremism.

Jesse Morton was a drug-dealing groupie when he became fascinated with Islam — and converted to it. But, it wasn’t until the U.S. waged the ‘War on Terror’ after 9/11 when Jesse embraced a Salafi-jihadi ideology, an approach to jihadism also taken by groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

In this episode, we take a look inside the life of a reformed Muslim extremist. Here, Jesse shares how he leveraged new technologies to grow ‘Revolution Muslim’, a New York-based jihadist organization that was connected to a number of terrorism cases. On the show, we also talk about individual characteristics that make a person susceptible to recruitment, how kindness can lead to an extremist’s deradicalization, and what each of us can do to fight extremism.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director at The Soufan Center; and Jason Blazakis, Professor of Practice, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

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In 2007, Nelson Mandela founded The Elders with a mission of engaging with “global leaders and civil society at all levels to resolve conflict and address its root causes, to challenge injustice, and to promote ethical leadership and good governance”.

Across our special podcast series, we've explored these very issues and considered how and why Mandela's vision remains so important to tackling some of the world's intractable challenges, from nuclear threats to lack of access to justice and the accelerating impacts of climate change.

Widely regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist. Today, the reverberance of Nelson Mandela’s legacy is felt strongly all around the world.

In our final episode of this series, hosts Hazami Barmada and Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former UN High-Commissioner For Human Rights and Chair of The Elders) are joined by the Deputy Chair and co-Founder of The Elders, Graça Machel to recall Mandela's legacy.

Together, we ask: where do we draw a sense of hope and how do we find a way forward? Why is hope critical in galvanizing action and how can accountability transform hope into real change?

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This is Part 1 of a two-part episode on extremism.

The “great replacement” is a theory that white people are being systematically replaced around the world by nonwhites through events like mass migration, intermarriage, and declining white birth rates. While this may be an ideology adopted by white supremacists around the world, this initially wasn’t the case for Arno Michaelis, then a violent, drunken teen in the late 80s.

In this episode, we hear from a former white nationalist — from his recruitment into the Church of the Creator (now known as Creativity Movement) to becoming an advocate against racism and hatred. We also learn about how people are introduced to white supremacist ideologies, the conspiracy theories they hold on to, and the complexity of distinguishing a terrorist attack from a hate crime. More importantly, we highlight the power of kindness as a way out.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Dr. Cassie Miller, Senior Research Analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center; Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director, at The Soufan Center; and Jason Blazakis, Professor of Practice, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

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Born in Uttar Pradesh, a slum in India, Kinsu Kumar couldn’t make friends when he was young. While kids in his neighborhood went to school, Kinsu worked as a car cleaner and domestic helper to help his family earn a living. He was only 6 years old.

Worldwide 152 million are victims of child labor and almost half of them, 73 million, find themselves in hazardous working conditions. In this episode, we unravel the dangers and hidden costs of child labor. We identify factors that make child labor widespread, as well as the policies and systems needed to protect the rights of children. On the podcast, we will look at the moral dilemma parents face in choosing to escape the poverty trap for their families or build a better future for their children.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Soledad Herrero, India Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF; and Jason Judd, Executive Director at Cornell University New Conversations Project, School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

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Alex Sanchez’s recruitment into the notorious Los Angeles-based gang MS-13 can be largely attributed to three things: isolation, music, and domestic violence. Formed by children of refugees fleeing the US-funded violence in El Salvador, MS-13 makes up less than 1 percent of gang members in the US, which have approximately grown to 1.4 million.

In this episode, we dive into the dark world of gangs to better understand how politics and prison systems further fuel their violence. What are the social conditions that enable gangs to proliferate? Why are young people forced into gangs? How do these groups propel to notoriety and lives of crime? What can we actually do to address its root causes? On the podcast, we share Alex’s compelling journey — from an active member of MS-13 to an internationally recognized peacemaker who co-founded Homies Unidos, an organization that aims to end violence by working with at-risk youth, former gang members, and their families.

Justice is a fundamental human right, and is critical in ensuring that other human rights are upheld. When women and girls do not have access to justice, it undermines progress to achieving gender equality.

The Sustainable Development Goals agreed on by all countries in 2015 include specific goals to achieve gender equality and to provide access to justice for all, yet, five billion people around the world still do not have meaningful access to justice – most of whom are women and girls.

While progress has been made, no country in the world has yet achieved true gender equality and equal access to justice. In this episode, hosts Hazami Barmada and Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former UN High-Commissioner For Human Rights and Chair of The Elders) are joined by fellow Elder and pioneering human rights lawyer, Hina Jilani, to explore the intersection of access to justice and gender equality.

What is meaningful access to justice? How does it relate to advancing women and girl’s rights around the world, and what are the barriers hindering our progress? We unpack how global platforms such as the Beijing Declaration and the Generation Equality Forum help drive action and accountability for women’s rights, and better understand how we can build more political will to ensure gender equality is achieved.

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How does one get out of a vicious cycle of violence, hatred, or oppression? In Season 3 of Finding Humanity, we bring you stories of people trapped in environments where danger and trauma are hard to escape — and where often, self-identity is eradicated.  In each episode, we meet humans who are stuck in transit and follow their unique journeys in search of justice and freedom.

Will seeking help push them deeper into a more cruel reality? How do we see ourselves in their struggle for peace and dignity? In telling stories of people who are shut inside conditions of injustice, we will give listeners an opportunity to develop empathy with how difficult it is to ‘get out’.

On the podcast, you will hear from expert voices on issues including extremism, international adoption scams, gang and domestic violence, sex work, and forced labor.

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The United Nations was created in 1945, following the devastation of World War II. The opening lines of its founding charter commit its signatories to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. However, with more than 40 active conflicts around the world today, we ask: has the United Nations failed to live up to its aim of ensuring international peace and security?

In this episode, hosts Hazami Barmada and Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former UN High-Commissioner For Human Rights and Chair of The Elders) are joined by fellow Elder, veteran UN diplomat and current President of the International Peace Institute, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Together, we examine the role and function of the UN’s most influential body - the Security Council.

We dive into the Council’s functions and powers–and unpack its structural weaknesses. On the podcast, we’ll discuss reforms that could help the UN better prevent conflict and meet today’s global threats. We answer questions like: How does the veto power of some nations stand in the way of accountability? How can the structure of the UN Security Council better represent the power structures of the world today? How do we achieve a world with no conflict?

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While the world grapples with COVID-19 and the climate emergency, nuclear war remains a real and present danger to the future of humanity. So why is nobody talking about it?

Throughout the Cold War, nuclear confrontation was a threat that overshadowed everyone’s lives and was reflected in popular culture and debate. Today, we are confronted with the dangerous prospect of a new nuclear arms race, yet it is barely spoken about. Despite big reductions since the end of the Cold War, around 13,000 nuclear warheads are still in existence. These have a combined destructive capability of close to 100,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs. Worryingly, a large proportion of the total–nearly 4,000–remain operationally deployed. The weapons are still there, but where is the political debate and public scrutiny?

In this episode, hosts Hazami Barmada and Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former UN High-Commissioner For Human Rights and Chair of The Elders) are joined by a leading global nuclear expert, Joe Cirincione, to unpack the looming threat of big-scale mass destruction posed by nuclear weapons and efforts needed to eliminate future nuclear threats.

We look at the state of nuclear arms around the world. Who has them, who wants them, and why? What are the social, economic and political consequences of inaction on curbing a nuclear threat? Are nuclear non-proliferation and elimination policies effective? How can we curb the nuclear threat we’re facing and what are our best hopes for ultimately achieving a world free of nuclear weapons?

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After the shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his murderer, George Zimmerman, Alicia Garza created a Facebook post saying: "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter, Black Lives Matter." Growing up in a mixed-race household, Alicia’s understanding of race was influenced by her upbringing. In 2013, Alicia co-founded the Nobel Peace prize nominee Black Lives Matter movement, in response to incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people.

In this episode, we explore the legacies of racial inequality and how the struggle for racial justice has endured for centuries, in spite of the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. While slavery is known to have existed centuries before throughout the world, we unpack what makes slavery in America distinct and how the history of slavery still influences our present.

In our season 2 finale, we also dive into a key manifestation of systemic racism — the racial wealth gap — and how financial, educational, housing, employment, and other inequities between Black and white Americans cost the U.S. over $16 trillions of dollars in economic loss each year. On the podcast, we ask ourselves the difficult question posed by Martin Luther King: “Where do we go from here?”

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts:  Professor Clayborne Carson, Director, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University; and Christy Clark-Pujara, Associate Professor of History, Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Host: Hazami Barmada, Founder and CEO, Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Gro Brundtland on the COVID-19 Crisis and Why Universal Health Coverage is Crucial to Prevent Future Pandemics

COVID-19  has exposed the vulnerabilities of our inherently interconnected existence. Tens-of-millions of confirmed cases and more than 2 million COVID-19-related deaths have so far been confirmed globally – the pandemic has impacted nearly every country in the world. If the crisis has taught us anything, it is that no one is safe until everyone is safe. This is why more and more people are recognising the role Universal Health Coverage (UHC) could play in building resilient health systems and in promoting fairer, more inclusive societies.

In this episode, we ask, why is UHC a crucial component to the response to COVID-19, and what role does it have in future pandemic preparedness?

Co-hosts Hazami Barmada and Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders) discuss how COVID-19 has changed our perspective on UHC and on humanity’s relationship with nature itself. They are joined by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Elder, former Prime Minister of Norway and former Director-General of the World Health Organization.

What has COVID-19 taught us about under-investment in public health systems? Why is UHC a crucial part of pandemic preparedness? And how does health relate to wider issues such as conflict, poverty, and inequality?

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Wai Wai Nu was born in Rakhine State, located on the western coast of Myanmar where most Rohingya reside. A predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya are a Muslim minority in Myanmar who have been rendered stateless since 1982. Through the lens of a young woman whose family was imprisoned and displaced to internment camps, this episode unravels the ongoing conflict in Myanmar and the military crackdown on Rohingya civilians.

Ongoing violence against the Rohingya has resulted in the fastest refugee outflow since the Rwandan genocide, with over 742,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.

This episode dives into the problematic citizenship laws of Myanmar and the allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya, which many in the international community are calling a crime of genocide. On the podcast, we also discuss statelessness, its causes, and the important action required to prevent human rights abuses.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Ambassador David Scheffer, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Matthew Smith, CEO and Co-Founder at Fortify Rights.

The Elders Special Segment Guest: Ban Ki-moon, Former UN Secretary-General and Deputy Chair of The Elders.

Host: Hazami Barmada, Founder and CEO, Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Living in a small village in Nigeria, Blessing Okoedion was promised a job in Europe as a computer engineer— only to fall into the hands of human traffickers in Italy.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated 40.3 million people worldwide were trafficked in 2016. This crime earns profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers as a whole, with $99 billion coming from commercial sexual exploitation. While the majority of sexual trafficking happens in the Asia Pacific region, cases are present in every region of the world, with females constituting 99% of its victims.

In this episode, we follow Blessing’s journey — from an aspiring doctor to a woman forced into prostitution currently fighting for other victims and survivors. On the show, we talk about the challenges of combatting modern slavery, the solutions needed to address its root causes, and the support needed to advocate for victims.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts:   Katharine Bryant, Lead of European Engagement at the Walk Free Foundation and co-author of the Global Slavery Index, and Ilias Chatzis, Chief at the Human Trafficking and Migrant Section at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Elders Special Segment Guest: Graça Machel, International  Advocate for Women’s and Children’s Rights, and Founding Member of The Elders

Host: Hazami Barmada, Founder and CEO, Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Born in Pakistan, Barat Ali Batoor moved to Afghanistan as a photojournalist.  His parents fled the country in the early 70s because of the discrimination they experienced as Hazaras, an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan that has faced political, economic and social repression for more than a century.

In this episode, Barat takes us on his gripping journey — one that reached its apex when he documented the injustice done to the ‘Dancing Boys’ and the practice called ‘Bacha Bazi’ a tradition found across Afghanistan involving the sexual exploitation of boys.  He was forced to flee to find safety, like other journalists and whistleblowers who face threats to their life from exposing the wrongdoings of those in power.

On the show, we unpack the difference between a political asylum seeker and a refugee and better understand why two-thirds of the refugees in the world have been waiting roughly 20 years or more for their cases to be resolved. We also dive briefly into the experience of the Hazara population, historic context into the political instability in Afghanistan, and the danger attached to Barat’s work.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts:  Charu Lata Hogg, Executive Director of All Survivors Project, Niamatullah Ibrahimi, Lecturer at La Trobe University, and James Hathaway, Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at University of Michigan Law School.

The Elders Special Segment Guest: Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former United Nations Secretary-General.

Host: Hazami Barmada, CEO, Humanity Lab Foundation.

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Nursimangul Abdurashid and Mihrigul Tursun, two Uighur women, are risking their lives to share harrowing accounts of discrimination, death and torture suffered by the Uighur community in China.

In the province of Xinjiang in northwestern China, it’s been reported that at least one million Uighurs are detained in "re-education" camps — where Chinese authorities have committed human rights abuses against ethnic Uighur Muslims.

Despite making up less than 2% of the national population, Xinjiang’s prison population grew eightfold from 2016 to 2017, making up 21% of all arrests in China. Between 2017 to 2019, more than 80,000 Uighurs were forced to work in factories across China for little to no pay. Many argue that what the Uighurs are enduring is not simply a violation of human rights or even ethnic cleansing, but meets the United Nations definition of genocide.

But who are the Uighurs? And what actually happens in these re-education camps? In this episode, we answer these questions and unpack the complex history of the Xinjiang region. We discuss cultural intolerance and how an anti-Islamic rhetoric after 9/11 led to the Chinese government’s detention of ethnic Uighur Muslims.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Nury Turkel, Commissioner of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and James A Millward, Professor of Inter-Societal History at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

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