Hi, it's Bob Safian. You've been hearing me as the host of rapid response in this feed for a few years now,

with short newsy interviews alongside the deeper dives of Masters of Scale. Well, I'm excited to share that rapid response is expanding into its own feed.

We'll be putting out shows twice a week, focusing on the urgent issues that business leaders are dealing with in real time.

So search for rapid response in your podcast player

and subscribe to make sure you get all our episodes.

I'll see you on the other side.

We were taken to those villages in an old rusty Russian car.

We had to go over railroad tracks on bridges and arrive in the committee being checked by the police there.

That's Monique Sternen, adjunct professor at Tufts University, who's an expert on nutrition and foreign aid. She's recounting how she and her late husband, Jerry, traveled to the remote farming villages

in Vietnam in the early 90s. Their mission to solve the plague of malnutrition and children.

Vietnam's economy was in terrible shape and children were paying the price.

Over 60% of the children were malnourished and many of them severely malnourished.

We were in a near-famine situation,

so what to do.

People trying to solve this problem were getting nowhere. Other relief agencies had failed over and over to make an impact.

When you have a high level of malnutrition, usually there's a relief agency that brings food

and the children get better.

But when the agency leaves, the children go back to being malnourished.

Monique and Jerry set out to find a sustainable solution.

They also knew that as outsiders they didn't have all the answers.

They partnered with a local women union and enlisted

their help in solving the mystery. Monique started with a specific series of questions.

...