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Robert Wright's Nonzero

Anatomy of a Man-Made Famine | NonZero World feat. Alex de Waal

Robert Wright's Nonzero

Nonzero

News & Politics, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7618 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:30 Why Gaza’s famine is the "most intense" in decades 4:00 From food secure to starvation: How Gaza unraveled 7:26 Blinken's willful blindness to Israel's obstruction of aid 11:33 How the US muzzled its own famine warning system 15:05 The political power of the term "famine" 19:54 What starvation does to the body—and to society 24:38 The perverse logic of starvation as warfare 26:3 How the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation puts aid in Hamas's hands 29:33 Evaluating Israel's accusation against UNRWA 32:52 How many Gazans are dying of starvation? 36:19 What a real aid response would take now Recorded August 1, 2025. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Non-Zero World.

0:04.1

I'm your host, Connor Eccles.

0:08.6

Each week, I break down the latest developments in U.S. foreign policy and other global news,

0:14.3

and I interview a leading expert or activist.

0:17.0

To gain access to full-length episodes and other exclusive content,

0:27.1

become an NZN member today at Robert Wright's Non Zero Newsletter at NONZero.org.

0:31.6

Hey, Alex, how you doing?

0:39.1

It's actually not the right question to ask because in these miserable topics that we cover,

0:46.0

I feel bad that I actually have something to eat when I am perfectly safe and well.

0:51.9

Well, that is a good signal of the thing that we're talking about today, which is a very bad thing, of course, as you just noted. I'll go ahead and introduce

0:55.0

us and that topic that we are going to be diving into. I am Connor Eccles, the managing editor

1:01.4

of Non Zero and the host of this podcast, which is Non Zero World. And you are Alex Duwall,

1:08.6

the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts, and a long-time

1:13.7

expert in famines. Of course, the mass starvation event, the famine that we are going to be talking

1:19.3

about today is the unfolding tragedy happening in Gaza. And I want to jump into that in a second.

1:27.3

One note of housekeeping for listeners

1:28.8

before we get going. Nine Zero World will take off next week because I will be on vacation,

1:34.7

but we'll be back the following week. So for the main conversation, I think it'll be useful in a

1:40.1

second to do maybe a chronology of everything that's happened over the past. I mean,

1:45.7

it's almost 20-odd months now. But before we do that, I think getting a little bit of a sense

1:50.7

of where we're at today and how it compares to other crises would be helpful for listeners.

1:55.5

So you've described the situation in Gaza as, quote, the most intense starvation catastrophe of recent decades.

...

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