Intercross: The Podcast

It’s been a challenging time to be part of a humanitarian organization in the U.S. The terms: foreign assistance aid and foreign aid have been discussed a lot lately. But, what do they really mean? Can humanitarian aid to help people affected by conflict and violence—the work we do at International Committee of the Red Cross—really meet an A...

Since the beginning of time, war has been used as a tool to resolve disagreements. While countless numbers of civilians die in war, the cost of war only gets more expensive each year. In this episode, we look at one of the only programs on the globe that brings together adversaries and allies to talk through ways to reduce the costs of war—i...

In this Digital Dilemmas 2.0: Deepfakes episode, we take a look at two poignant questions: “How do we distinguish truth from manipulation? Who owns the truth?“  

We tour a deepfake exhibit created by the ICRC and L'École Polytechnique Fédérale ...

In a country of more than 100 armed groups, the Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the most protracted and forgotten conflicts in the world. In the latest Intercross episode, we ask what the recent hostilities that started around December mean for the more than 4.5 million people who have been forced to flee their homes? And what is the ICRC’s response? In this episode, we hear from Francois Moreillon, ICRC's Head of Delegatio...

In 2017, a battle raged in Mosul, as Iraqi armed forces and their international supporters fought to dislodge Islamic State fighters from the city. Almost 2 million people—half of Mosul’s population--fled from the fighting. During the battle, over 9000 civilians were killed and more than 130,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. In the latest episode, we hear from the staff at one of the hospitals decimated by the fighting. Then we ...

Following the end of the Islamic State Group’s caliphate in Mosul, Iraq in 2017, hundreds of women and children were detained in facilities throughout Iraq and Syria, and left in a state of limbo, not knowing when or if they would be released and repatriated into third-party countries. In this episode, we meet one family that has at least partly managed to leave detention and the war behind them to find a home ...

While media images showed the initial destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam leaving thousands of homes underwater and civilians without electricity or clean drinking water, it wasn’t able to show the unexploded ordnances lurking under the surface, affecting untold numbers of people. Today go to the Kherson Region, which has been heavily impacted unexploded ordnances, and hear from civilians and a Ukrainian Red C...

Today, we have an archived episode for you from last year called “Inside the Central Tracing Agency.” It’s a 150-year-old division of the ICRC that today is a crucial resource for families searching for loved ones gone missing due to conflict, violence, natural disasters, or along the migration route.

 We hope to be back in the New Year with all new episodes for you. So stayed tuned and enj...

The level of armed violence in Haiti—akin to what we see in areas of conflict around the world—has had a direct and devastating impact on the population living in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince. For about the last two years, these neighborhoods have been living under protracted armed violence and suffer from the absence of basic services like safe drinking water, and emerg...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains sounds of an explosion and may be disturbing to some listeners. 

Digital dilemmas surrounding internet connectivity, artificial intelligence, and data surveillance are becoming more ubiquitous in our everyday lives as technology advances. It’s difficult to keep pace with those changes. But now picture yourself with one of these digital dilemmas in the ...

Welcome to the 2022 season of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Intercross: The Podcast. If you’re new to the podcast, our goal is to delve into the rules of war and takes you to the frontlines of some of the most inaccessible conflicts in the world, where the ICRC and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement work to neutrally and independently respond to emergencies.

Subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss an episod...

In this episode, we learn about the Ubumwe Community Center in Gisenyi, Rwanda, their motto, “disability is not inability,” and the importance of inclusion, especially in communities affected by violence. We first hear from one of the center’s student musicians about how the center’s music program has given him opportunities to perform for others. We then turn to Subhash Sinha, the ICRC’s Physical Rehabilitation Program Manager for...

Intense hostilities in Yemen have raged for more than seven years. The needs are severe and deepen by the minute with more than two-thirds of Yemen’s people in need of humanitarian assistance.  All, while essential services are on the brink of collapse and people are losing hope as the conflict appears to drag endlessly. In these past decades, the ICRC has been providing a wide array of humanitarian assistance including support to ...

Following the change of government in August 2021, most of the health workers in Afghanistan were no longer getting paid. Medicines were no longer available, and many health professionals deserted the country’s hospitals in search of incomes. As a result, patients were sometimes refused access to treatment and the overall healthcare system in the country was on the verge of coming to a full stop. In this episode, we ask, what does ...

Prolonged drought, conflict, global inflation, and now a shortage of grain due to the Ukraine conflict. Somalia is particularly hard hit. Over 7 million people are in urgent need of food and water—that’s half the country’s population and equal to the populations of Los Angeles and Chicago, combined. The numbers are unfathomable. They represent millions of human stories and life experiences that don’t make headlines.

Despite all of ...

Almost 40 years after the Falkland Islands/Malvinas conflict, we look back on the ICRC’s efforts to identify unknown soldiers. Figuring who these unknown soldiers were took decades to resolve. But in 2012, the ICRC received a request from the Argentine government to help identify their remains. Then in 2016 with the ICRC as a neutral intermediary, Argentina and the UK negotiated and signed an agreement known as the Humanitarian Pro...

In this episode, we tell the story of the more than 150-year-old Central Tracing Agency, a division of the ICRC that today is a crucial resource for families searching for loved ones gone missing due to conflict, violence, natural disasters, or along the migration route. We take you for a trip back in time to the foundations of the CTA in 1860 to understand how this history has made it what it is today. You’ll hear from Geneva Tour...

In this episode, we’re going to learn about how the ICRC works with what are known in Mexico as, colectivos, or groups of families and friends who unite to search for their missing loved ones and defend their rights. We speak with Beatriz Adriana Martinez about her husband, Juan Alvarez Gil’s disappearance in 2013, to understand what a family goes through when a loved one goes missing and how these colectivos support Beatriz and th...