Ep 191 Famine: More than starvation

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we learned last week, starvation extends far beyond hunger and what a lack of food does to the human body. Similarly, famine is much more than a food shortage and starvation on a population-level scale. This week, we’re picking up where we left off last episode to explore the definitions, drivers, and many dimensions of famine. We trace famines throughout human history, asking how they have changed either in their incidence, severity, or cause. No two famines are exactly alike, but taking a bird’s eye view of patterns in famine over time gives us insight, especially into the famines of the past 100 years. We conclude the episode with a discussion of the ongoing famine in Gaza and other food insecurity crises in other regions of the world. Tune in for a broad overview of this heavy but incredibly important topic.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:06.3	Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over,
0:11.0	but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times.
0:16.2	It starts with a dream, a nature reserve and a spectacular new home.
0:20.6	But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it.
0:23.6	They sort of like nuts.
0:25.1	Until one night, everything spins out of control.
0:32.3	Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:41.2	The Girlfriends is back with a new season, and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly
0:46.1	Harnet. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she
0:52.0	fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law.
0:54.9	He goes, oh God, her in that jailhouse lawyer.
0:58.0	And became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her.
1:02.0	You're supposed to have been faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.
1:05.0	I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison.
1:09.8	The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.
1:12.4	Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:18.3	I must admit, I write this piece while starving.
1:21.8	Too hungry to think clearly, too weak to sit upright for long.
1:25.8	I do not feel ashamed because my starvation is deliberate.
1:28.9	"'I refuse my hunger even as it decays me.
1:31.9	"'I can survive no other way.
	...

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