Hacking Hunger – Episode 29: A Storytellers Farewell

Published June 25, 2018

In her final episode as host of “Hacking Hunger,” M.J. Altman turns the mic over to three women in Guatemala, Chad and Jordan who share their own stories in their own languages as part of a unique project from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) – known as Storytellers.

“Along the way, I discovered that the stories I really wanted to share were the stories of people who’d experienced hunger first hand,” M.J. says, thinking back on her time recording and creating this podcast. “The farmer in Mozambique who’s changing the way she harvests food. The former refugee in South Sudan who now devotes her life to humanitarian logistics. The hurricane survivor in Haiti, getting by thanks to his neighbors’ generosity.”

Sharing these kinds of a stories is a pretty big ambition, and requires overcoming serious geographic constraints: these communities are hard to reach. It requires overcoming language barriers. And it requires overcoming basic tech issues: landlines and internet connections aren’t always the most reliable in these places. But M.J. always delivered.

Listen above for her final podcast, and for the voices of three people – like so many others she’s interviewed – whose stories everyone should hear.