In this episode, Rahmet Elfikhi exposes one of the most brutal realities of Sudan’s war: rape not as a byproduct of conflict, but as a deliberate, systematic weapon.

Her documentary, Land of Victims, forces into the open what is often hidden behind statistics and diplomatic language—survivors’ voices. Women, men, and children recount acts of violence carried out with chilling normalcy, in a conflict where the human body has become a battlefield. These are not isolated crimes. They are patterns.

The conversation confronts uncomfortable truths. Why is sexual violence so pervasive in Sudan’s war? How do stigma and culture silence survivors while shielding perpetrators? And why have global institutions, designed to prevent such atrocities, repeatedly failed to act?

Elfikhi also reveals the cost of telling these stories—the fear, the ethical dilemmas, and the emotional toll of documenting trauma at close range. Yet, amid the horror, there is defiance. Survivors speak, often at great personal risk, refusing to be erased.

EPISODE 17: How Honest is the Global Humanitarian Lottery? with Thomas Byrnes

In a world where crises seem endless and compassion sometimes feels exhausted, what does humanitarianism really mean today? In this episode, you may feel weary of hearing humanitarians lament funding shortages, but is the real story less about how much money exists and more about how the system chooses to use it? And if fatigue has set in, what truths have we stopped questioning?

The conversation turns to the financial architecture behind humanitarian action, a subject that quietly determines who gets help and who is left waiting. Host Mukesh Kapila speaks with Thomas Byrnes, a sharp observer and insider who has witnessed the machinery of aid up close. Is the humanitarian system broken, or is it functioning exactly as designed? And if the structure itself drives the outcomes, what does that mean for the millions whose survival depends on it?

From exchange rate losses in conflict zones to agencies competing for the same pool of funds, Byrnes has seen how incentives shape decisions that can carry life or death consequences. When organizations speak the language of collaboration but operate in a zero-sum environment, can true partnership exist? Has humanitarianism expanded so far beyond its original life-saving mandate that it now struggles to define its own boundaries? And when rhetoric and reality diverge, who holds the system accountable?

As wars intensify, disasters multiply, and resources tighten, difficult choices are no longer theoretical, they are operational. Who decides which crises are prioritized and which are quietly sidelined? Are we measuring real human need, or merely what the system believes it can afford to address? And perhaps the most unsettling question of all: if the money exists globally, is humanitarian aid treated as a moral obligation or simply an optional act of generosity?

EPISODE 15: Is Democracy Still Worth Defending? with Francesc Badia Dalmases

If only 7 percent of the world lives in a full democracy, is the model already failing? Is this model still worth defending if it cannot deliver justice, equality, and survival?

In this episode of Fading Causes, Mukesh Kapila sits down with veteran journalist Francesc Badia Dalmases to examine what happens when global crises slip from the headlines, not because they are resolved, but because the world has grown tired of looking at them.

Francesc has spent decades reporting from places where history rarely announces itself with a clear ending. Wars cool rather than conclude; humanitarian emergencies become permanent backdrops. Together, they trace how conflicts are reframed, downgraded, or quietly abandoned by international media and policymakers alike. When suffering becomes routine, does it cease to be news? And who decides when a crisis has outlived its moment?

What remains unresolved is whether AI will hollow out democratic agency or, paradoxically, force its reinvention. The Gen Z uprisings from Nairobi to Dhaka, from Belgrade to Seoul, may signal not the death of democracy, but a refusal to inherit one that feels rigged, remote and unresponsive. If technology is rewriting how power is contested, will democracy adapt, or will it be outpaced by the very generation meant to save it?

EPISODE 16: How Can We Do More Good Than Harm? with Stephen Cornish

The story of MSF is one of radical proximity, not just to the patient, but to the political firestorms that create them. As Stephen Cornish, Director of Operations at MSF tells host Mukesh Kapila in this episode, MSF is not merely a medical charity; it is a mirror held up to the "market of misery," forcing the world to look at the victims it would rather ignore. This "arrogance" that Mukesh notes is, in fact, the organization’s primary survival mechanism. By rejecting the "big fat checks" of partisan governments, they have traded financial ease for the moral authority to cross lines that stop others cold. If an organization accepts millions from the same state that is actively a party to a conflict, can it ever truly claim to be an impartial advocate for that state's victims?

This independence necessitates an agonizing moral calculus, leading to the "global triage" that Cornish describes as heart-wrenching. MSF’s history is defined by the tension between the principle of humanity and the reality of being instrumentalized by regimes. Whether they are withdrawing from North Korea because they refuse to be a "fig leaf" for propaganda or staying in Afghanistan to run maternities under the Taliban, the choice is never simple. This prompts a difficult reflection for any observer: is it better for a humanitarian agency to provide a "bad normal" level of care indefinitely, or to strategically withdraw to preserve the capacity for responding to the next catastrophic spike in mortality?

The concept of témoignage, or bearing witness, remains the most controversial and vital weapon in the MSF arsenal. As Cornish notes, while doctors cannot stop conflict, their silence can certainly kill. In the fog of war, where propaganda is an instrument of combat, the simple act of reporting 6,000 poisoning victims in Ghouta becomes a revolutionary act. However, as humanitarian advocacy moves onto platforms like Instagram and into the halls of the UN Security Council, we must ask ourselves where the line falls between life-saving testimony and performative noise. Does a speech at a podium in New York actually change the reality for a patient in a Goma clinic, or does it merely assuage the guilt of the witness?

The "changing humanitarian landscape" suggests a future where the MSF model of 7 million individual donors is no longer just a preference, but a necessity. As traditional UN agencies find themselves "pathetically looking for dollars" and competing for the same public empathy, the distinctiveness of the sans frontières brand faces a new kind of saturation. In a world of increasing walls and closing borders, the true value of MSF may not just be the medicine they provide, but their refusal to accept the world as it is. They remain the indispensable irritant of a global system that often prefers its misery to be quiet, orderly, and well-managed.

EPISODE 18: Is Global Health Keeping Fit For Purpose? with Ilona Kickbusch

In this wide-ranging conversation about the future of global health, leading health policy thinker Ilona Kickbusch delivers a sobering assessment: the global health system as it currently exists is no longer fit for purpose. Speaking with host Mukesh Kapila, she describes an increasingly crowded ecosystem of powerful institutions including the World Health Organization, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and the World Bank, alongside humanitarian giants such as Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Together they represent a vast network of programs, financing streams, and initiatives that aim to improve health outcomes around the world. But Kickbusch argues that the very scale of this architecture has become part of the problem.

The system, she says, is marked by fragmentation, overlapping mandates, and competition for resources. Many organizations operate in silos, often pursuing their own agendas while funding structures remain opaque and heavily influenced by donors. Development aid for health is declining in several countries, forcing smaller NGOs to shrink or close entirely. In such an environment, she asks a fundamental question: Is the global health system still capable of delivering coordinated solutions to today’s health challenges, or has it become too complex to function effectively?

Kickbusch believes reform is unavoidable. She suggests that the global health architecture must be streamlined, with some organizations merged or even closed and others forced to refocus their missions. Yet she acknowledges the political difficulty of such reforms. Institutions develop constituencies, funding relationships, and bureaucracies that make them hard to dismantle. If creating new organizations has been easy over the past two decades, who now has the authority and the political will to rationalize the system?

Beyond institutional reform, Kickbusch raises another concern that may define the next era of global health inequality: the rise of digital health technologies and artificial intelligence. These tools promise transformative advances in diagnosis, treatment, and health system management. But they are largely controlled by a small number of powerful technology companies and wealthy actors. Countries in the developing world often depend on external partners to build digital health infrastructure, creating new geopolitical dynamics. As nations adopt digital health systems, who controls the infrastructure, and what price do countries pay for access to these technologies?

One of the most valuable assets in this emerging landscape is data. Health data, in particular, is becoming a strategic resource. Kickbusch warns that some countries may effectively exchange access to their population data in return for technological support, creating new forms of inequality and extraction. Without strong governance frameworks, this could reshape global health power structures. Will the next era of health inequality be defined not only by access to hospitals and medicines, but also by who owns and controls health data?

The digital transformation of health systems also raises concerns about information integrity. As more people turn to the internet for health advice, distinguishing between scientific evidence, misinformation, and disinformation becomes increasingly difficult. Without stronger mechanisms to regulate and verify online health information, public trust in health systems may erode.

Despite these challenges, the conversation ends with a sense of urgency rather than resignation. Kapila praises Kickbusch for a career devoted to confronting global health inequalities and pushing institutions to evolve. Her central mission remains unchanged: narrowing the gap in health outcomes between countries and populations. Yet the question she leaves hanging over the future is profound: Will technological and institutional transformation help close those gaps, or will it deepen them in ways the world is only beginning to understand?

EPISODE 11: How Can Small Voices Make a Difference? with Ambassador Yvette Stevens

What drives a woman to choose the harder road — to study in Soviet Moscow when the world said go West? To wire a nation’s power grid when no one believed a woman could? To speak truth to power in the corridors of the UN and still find laughter amid life’s ironies?

In this episode of Fading Causes, Mukesh Kapila sits down with Ambassador Yvette Stevens, Sierra Leone’s first female electrical engineer, a UN veteran, and a diplomat who has lived through the Cold War, civil war, and countless battles for gender equality.

What did it take to break barriers in a man’s world? How did her faith, humour, and fierce independence carry her through decades of diplomacy and disruption? And why does she now joke about colour-coordinating her own coffin?

Watch a fearless, funny, and deeply human conversation about ambition, resilience, and what it means to stay true to yourself, even when the world keeps changing the rules.

EPISODE 9: Can We Afford Pessimism In Difficult Times? with Kul Gautam

Has the world kept its promises to children? Can the United Nations, now approaching its 80th year, reinvent itself to regain public trust? And what keeps a veteran of global service fighting for justice after decades at the heart of international diplomacy?

Host Mukesh Kapila speaks with Kul Gautam, the former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, whose path from a remote Nepali village to the highest ranks of the UN embodies both the promise and the frustrations of multilateralism.

Gautam reflects on a career spent championing children’s rights, navigating bureaucracies, and grappling with inequality across continents.

The conversation ranges from the struggles of his early life and improbable ascent to encounters with presidents, Nobel laureates and cultural icons.

But at its core lies a pressing question: in an era of fractured politics and fading faith in institutions, can the ideals that shaped Gautam’s life still inspire the world today?

Listen.

EPISODE 10: Should A Reporter's Camera Reflect or Frame Reality? with Ximena Borrazás

What compels a woman to trade a career in marketing for war zones, famine, and frontlines of sexual violence? What drives someone to document the unspeakable — not just to inform, but to demand justice?

In this searing episode of Fading Causes, Mukesh Kapila speaks with Ximena Borrazás — an award-winning photographer and filmmaker whose work doesn’t just show suffering, it confronts complicity. From the battle-scarred towns of Ukraine to the ravaged refugee camps of Tigray, she brings us face-to-face with atrocities that the world often chooses to ignore.

Why are the horrors of one war front-page news, while others vanish from view? What does it mean to be a “lucky migrant”? Can a photograph become legal evidence of a genocide — and should it?

What do we do with the pain of others once we see it?

Watch and listen.