Finding Humanity

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. -- This episode is made possible with the support of Vodafone Americas Foundation. To learn more about their programs and how you can support their network of partners, visit vodafone-us.com -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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? -- This special series of Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media, in collaboration with The Elders. Subscribe, rate, and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and on Facebook @findinghumanitypod.

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and Facebook.

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. Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Dr. Charles Katz, Professor and Director at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University; and William Wheeler, Journalist and Author of "State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence." -- Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. Subscribe, rate, and leave us a review. For more information, visit findinghumanitypodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter @find_humanity and on Facebook @findinghumanitypod.