Trumanitarian

This episode is a recording from the Start Network’s Assembly, which took place in October 2025. Lars Peter Nissen was invited to moderate a panel exploring what leadership looks like when success is contingent on the agency of others — when you cannot exercise direct control but must inspire, build rapport, and create the conditions for a group of individuals to deliver results.Rather than drawing on leaders from within the humanitarian sector, the panel brings together professionals from two very different fields — football management and musical theatre — to explore what their craft can teach humanitarians about leading through networks, trust, and collective action.Note: This episode was recorded live at the Start Network Assembly. The sound quality reflects the live setting.GuestsNatalie Brown: Board Director at Banbury United Football Club and the first Black female board member in UK football. Natalie has a background in media, marketing, and community development, and has worked with Arsenal, The Prince’s Trust, and Mind. She founded the #PlayBrave initiative to help women build confidence on and off the pitch.Huw Evans: Associate Musical Director on Oliver at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End. Huw is an accomplished conductor and multi-instrumentalist who has worked on shows including Much Ado About Nothing, Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma, and Come From Away. He trained at King’s College London.Moderated by Lars Peter Nissen, Director of ACAPS and host of Trumanitarian. Introduced by Lucy Puentes of the Start Network.Key ThemesBuilding from the ground up: Natalie shares how she rebuilt Banbury United’s women’s team after inheriting a fractured setup where the manager had left just before the season. After a disheartening first attempt, she “flipped the script” — launching open training sessions for women over 40, which rapidly grew into a multigenerational squad with players aged 16 to 66. Her approach centred on changing the narrative, leading with spirit, and building a movement rather than just a team.The duet between leading and following: Huw describes conducting as a constant negotiation between setting the tempo and following the performer. With 12 musicians split across three separate spaces, a 30-person cast, and four child actors rotating in the lead role, he conducts via camera monitors — relying on connection, adaptability, and trust rather than direct control. Leadership in live performance, he says, is about creating the conditions for harmony rather than forcing it.Trust, small gestures, and knowing people’s namesBoth panellists emphasise that trust is built through small, consistent actions. Huw takes pride in greeting every deputy musician before the show. Natalie describes how players joined her team simply because they liked who she was and what she stood for. Both draw a direct parallel to humanitarian coordination — where leading a cluster meeting of 50 strangers via camera is not so different from conducting an orchestra through a monitor.Releasing control: A recurring theme throughout the conversation is the difficulty — and necessity — of letting go. Huw describes the terrifying moment of relinquishing control in a live performance with 2,000 people watching. Natalie reflects on having built the women’s team so personally that she now needs to step back and let others carry the vision. Both see this as essential to sustainable leadership in networked settings.The power of diversity and emergence: Lars Peter draws the conversation toward metaphor, arguing that biology — not physics — offers the better model for thinking about networks. The emergent quality of a network, like a heart pumping blood from cells and valves, produces outcomes that are qualitatively different from the sum of the parts. Just as a football team needs more than 11 goalkeepers, or an orchestra more than 12 horn players, humanitarian networks need genuine diversity of skills and perspectives.Resilience and learning from mistakes: Huw shares a candid story of pressing the wrong button during a click track, causing pre-recorded and live children to sing out of sync. His advice: pick yourself up, stay calm, and keep going with integrity. Natalie talks about the power of small daily steps — just 15 minutes of focused effort each day — as a way to sustain momentum when things feel overwhelming.CreditsHost: Lars Peter NissenRecorded at: Start Network Assembly, October 2025Session title: Choreographing Chaos: Leadership in a World of NetworksPanel introduced by: Lucy Puentes, Start NetworkGet in touch: info@truemanitarian.orgSupport the podcast: Visit truemanitarian.org and click “Support the Pod”

As 2025 draws to a close, Trumanitarian host Lars Peter Nissen invites Meg Sattler, Adelina Kamal, and Thomas Byrnes to the Trumanitarian studio to reckon with a year that seems to have defied comprehension.The numbers tell one story: humanitarian funding has collapsed to 2016 levels, projected below $22.7 billion. This isn't a funding cycle dip but the structural unwinding of the post-Cold War peace dividend. As Western governments pivot from solidarity back to defence spending, a system built over decades is contracting in months—while the UN's humanitarian reset unfolds behind closed doors without clarity on what we're actually resetting toward.Yet within this contraction, something else stirs. Are local and resistance humanitarians – mutual aid - becoming the centre of gravity the system always claimed they should be? As the roof blows off the humanitarian house, do we patch a corner or rebuild entirely?

What is the role of cash distributions in the humanitarian reset? That is the question that Cate Turton, the Director of the Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) Network), Yolande Wright, the VP for Partnerships at GiveDirectly and Alessandro Bini the Director of the Somali Cash Consortium discuss with Lars Peter Nissen in this weeks episode.The conversation focuses on the current state and future potential of cash-based humanitarian assistance. The participants discusses the barriers and opportunities for further leveraging cash distributions in the humanitarian sector, particularly in light of the current resource constraints. Key topics included the evidence base for cash, the need to shift power and decision-making to affected populations, the challenges of integrating cash within the existing humanitarian coordination structures, and the role of localization in cash programming.Explore key insights from a high-level conversation on the future of humanitarian cash assistance. Learn about systemic barriers, localization, UN roles, and innovative cash delivery methods like lump-sum transfers.

In this special crossover episode, Lars Peter Nissen (Trumanitarian) and Carla Vitantonio (Living Decoloniality) sit down in Doha to explore the deep fault lines in humanitarian work — and why they’ve both turned to podcasting as a space for honest conversation.Carla unpacks the concept of decoloniality — the lingering structures, mindsets, and behaviors that survive long after formal colonialism ends. Together, they explore how power, bureaucracy, and hero narratives shape the humanitarian sector — and why we’re so often stuck tweaking language while avoiding the hard work of dismantling systems.They discuss the limits of reform, the danger of dressing failure as progress, and the need for new actors, voices, and institutional diversity. And they ask the question: If the big institutions can’t change, who can?These discussions extends too to podcasting and humanitarian events; how different formats, structure and diversity of people could create different reflections and outcomes. This is an episode about inquiry over certainty, and humility and small acts over heroism. Notes and Links: •⁠ ⁠The theory referred to in Carlas podcast: the theory of the colonial matrix of power by Aníbal Quijano•⁠ ⁠Living Decoloniality (Carlas podcast). The highlighted episodes: Episode with Michelle Lokot; Episode with Karishma Shafi; Episode with Themrise Khan •⁠ ⁠Trumanitarian episodes highlighted in the convo: Episode with Dr. Rola Hallam; Ukraine episode with Care SG); Episode with Themrise Khan

On December 8, Syria saw a major turning point: the fall of the Assad regime and the emergence of a new government. For the White Helmets, this moment opened the door to expand operations from 800 to over 4,600 communities—nationwide.In this episode, the White Helmet’s Chief of Programs, Ahmed Ekzayez, shares how the group has evolved from frontline rescue to tackling climate change, protecting human rights, and strengthening civil society, all while fending off disinformation and facing the USAID funding cuts.For Ahmed, success isn’t measured by project metrics—but by lives changed: “This isn’t a 9-to-5 job. This is our country.”

We are at a pivotal moment for the humanitarian sector. The freeze of US foreign aid, the dismantling of USAID and aid cuts from a number of the major donors has sent shockwaves through the system.But how do we move forward and strike the balance between ensuring continuity of lifesaving humanitarian assistance while addressing serious and well-known issues with the existing humanitarian system – do we opt for reform or disruption?Dominik Stillhart is the the Head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit and the Deputy Director of Swiss Development Cooperation and in this conversation with Lars Peter Nissen he speak directly to the need for changing the way we do business and finding a new way to work. The conversation was recorded on the last day of the 2025 Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) in Geneva and the sprawling ecosystem of actors at the conference serves as the point of departure for the conversation.You can support Trumanitarian financially through a one-off or a monthly contribution on our website.

The ethos of 'move fast and break things' doesn't work for humanitarians. If we break things, we break people. But technology is changing the nature of conflict. International Humanitarian Law cannot evolve to meet these challenges without input from the private tech actors shaping the battlefield. This week's guest, Philippe Stoll, Senior Techplomacy Delegate at the ICRC, works to connect humanitarians to tech entrepreneurs and other relevant minds over the dilemmas presented by new technologies in conflict.From biometric systems to the ethical risks of data misuse, Philippe shares how the ICRC is developing cautious, problem-driven tech policies aimed at protecting vulnerable populations. He also discusses his obsession with giving concrete meaning to abstract ideas and how immersive “Digital Dilemmas” installations can help tech developers and humanitarians understand each other's worlds. Questions about how to handle tech in conflict zones aren't going anywhere. For anyone interested in the future of humanitarianism, this conversation is essential.

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 ‘graveyard of bad tech’ is expanding. Should humanitarians just admit they’re 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 Leson (Digital Innovation Lead at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) and Omar Abou Samra (Director of the Global Disaster Preparedness Center at the American Red Cross). Heather and Omar believe in technology’s usefulness to the industry, but stress that it must be integrated into humanitarian work with the same rigor applied to non-digital interventions.This conversation is a call for better co-design between humanitarians and technologists to ensure impact measurement goes beyond vanity metrics like downloads. Heather and Omar pitch an approach similar to venture capital, where ineffective projects are shut down rather than endlessly sustained, and where human-centered design and cross-disciplinary collaboration are embraced. They discuss the secret sauce for better humanitarian tech, and that maybe it's time humanitarians to rethink their role—not as central actors, but as collaborators in a larger system.

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 Syria’s 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 approach for Syria (and beyond), one that empowers its people to dream and rebuild. And she calls for all of us to help make such futures realities. It's about embodying the change we want to see. Listen in – its deeply vulnerable and we hope you will love it as much as we do.

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 rights—and might that disruption be exactly what we need to confront impending climate-related humanitarian crises?Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at trumanitarianpod@gmail.com

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. “What they aimed to do was delusional”, he told Lars Peter. “The reality is they did a few little good things in a few places…And they aimed to civilize the entire Near East.”According to Davide, historians often argue that the past teaches us nothing. And yet, his recounting of the humanitarian sector’s inter-war period rhymes with the major themes we talk about on this podcast: localization, professionalism, paternalism and technology. Together, he and Lars Peter talk about what (and who) has changed, cracks in the humanitarian narrative, and how to tell the story right.Davide’s book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/night-on-earth/2BB5FC4E3AAE925C0AD6875F519BFD4BThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at trumanitarianpod@gmail.com

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 “helpless helping” 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 won’t come from top-down reforms but from the fringes - through leadership that disrupts and dismantles the bloated machinery from the edge. You’ll leave questioning the systems you work within and inspired by the potential of a more connected and dynamic energy. He inspires us to get to work, all of us, to push, alone but collectively, from the edges of our individual realities. Tune in for more insights and check out Simon’s podcast Edgy Ideas, as well as his blog on Helpless Helping.