Vincent Cochetel: I was held hostage for 317 days. Here's what I thought about…

--:--
Vincent Cochetel was held hostage for 317 days in 1998, while working for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees in Chechnya. For the first time, he recounts the experience — from what it was like to live in a dark, underground chamber, chained to his bed, to the unexpected conversations he had with his captors. With lyricism and power, he explains why he continues his work today. Since 2000, attacks on humanitarian aid workers have tripled — and he wonders what that rise may signal to the world.
18 Mar 2015 English United States Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Robert Muggah: How to protect fast-growing cities from failing

Worldwide, violence is on the decline, but in the crowded cities of the global south — cities like Aleppo, Bamako and Caracas — violence is actually accelerating, fueled by the drug trade, mass unemployment and civil unrest. Security researcher Robert Muggah turns our attention toward these “fragile cities,” super-fast-growing places…
16 Jan 2015 14 min

Robert Swan: Let's save the last pristine continent

2041 will be a pivotal year for our planet. That year will mark the end of a 50-year agreement to keep Antarctica, the Earth’s last pristine continent, free of exploitation. Explorer Robert Swan — the first person to walk both the North and South Poles — is on a mission…
16 Jan 2015 16 min

Jose Miguel Sokoloff: How we used Christmas lights to fight a war

Colombia is a country of exceptional beauty and promise, and it’s also a country where the F.A.R.C. guerrilla movement has incited violence for 50 years. “In my lifetime, I have never lived one day of peace in my country,” says Jose Miguel Sokoloff. This ad executive and his team saw…
10 Dec 2014 14 min

Kimberley Motley: How I defend the rule of law

Every human deserves protection under their country’s laws — even when that law is forgotten or ignored. Sharing three cases from her international legal practice, Kimberley Motley, an American litigator practicing in Afghanistan and elsewhere, shows how a country’s own laws can bring both justice and “justness”: using the law…
28 Oct 2014 15 min