Rethink Fragility

Josep is a career humanitarian who's spent 20+ years with UNHCR working with refugees, and on forced displacement. But alongside there's something a bit unusual. That twigged for me personally when we met a few years back in Central Asia -- and he started speaking in Tajik to a local community, despite never having worked in the region. It turned out that alongside a half-dozen European languages he's also invested in Persian and Arabic, and that's kind of the key to this one. What does it take to listen respectfully, and understand, in contexts where you're necessarily an outsider? What does good judgment and decision-making look like in contexts that are often cartoonishly fast-paced? At bottom this is a conversation about professional honesty, and doing the best job you can manage, in complex environments. --- Episode notes: [02:20] Explaining the humanitarian profession to friends and family. Maintaining ties to home over 20+ years. [06:30] Pivoting from a degree in philosophy to international refug