Episode 6

Can Emergency Response Increase Peace & Resilience? Lessons from Nepal

Published on: 14th October, 2025

In our last episode of the season, we see what we can learn from Nepal about the connections between emergency response, peace, and resilience. Staying at the micro level, we closely examine a collaboration between the Nepalese organization Lumanti and the MIT based Urban Risk Lab.

One note on this episode: Bridget references "Aceh province" during the opening quiz. To clarify, Aceh province is in Indonesia and was the epicenter of an earthquake and tsunami in 2004.

Yatra Sharma worked as an architect and urban developer with the Kathmandu-based Lumanti Support Group for Shelter. The nonprofit works to improve housing for the urban poor in Nepal. Today she is a yoga teacher. Learn more at https://lumanti.org.np and check out the videos Yatra referenced at https://youtu.be/KL51C4j1Vt0?si=8w6Kn19uqNmSr3vp and https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMERBfGBB8_/?igsh=aHBtNGJ0em91ZTMz

 

Larisa Ovalles is a Research Scientist at MIT’s Urban Risk Lab. She develops processes to increase emergency planning and preparedness at local and community levels. This includes developing alternative post-disaster housing solutions for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). And she was on the design team of the project in Nepal that we’ll discuss today. Learn more at: https://urbanrisklab.org.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Kaelen Song. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn, and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for Disrupting Peace

About the Podcast

Disrupting Peace
Disrupting Peace explores why peace hasn’t worked, and how it still could. In each episode, Bridget Conley, research director at the World Peace Foundation, speaks with a researcher specializing in one obstacle to peace, and an activist who’s changing systems from the ground up. Together they explore what worked, what didn’t, and why we shouldn’t give up.

About your host

Profile picture for Bridget Conley

Bridget Conley

Bridget Conley is Research Director at the World Peace Foundation (WPF) and an Associate Research Professor at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. She leads WPF’s research programs on atrocity response and incarceration. She works closely with the Executive Director on project development, fundraising and strategic vision for WPF. Currently, her primary research focus concerns the implications of American mass incarceration for local, national and international policies.