Episode 03 - Interviewing the Director of Human Rights Projects

Daniel Rothenberg is the Managing Director of International Projects for the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University's College of Law, and he was kind enough to join me for Project Idealism's second full podcast. Daniel oversees numerous Human Rights projects, and in this episode the primary topic of our discussion is The Iraq History Project. Taking a victim centered approach to documenting various Human Rights violations under Saddam Hussein’s regime, this project is one of the largest independent human rights data collection and analysis projects in the world We discuss how a project of this size got going, how interviewers were recruited and trained, how the stories of victims were shared, and how that information was carried through Iraq - often times without power and always without internet access - to offices in Northern Iraq. Daniel shares some fascinating information about the specifics of their project and provides numerous lessons not only for project managers or those in business, but anyone interested in how amazing people do amazing work. Daniel has been a guest on NPR's Worldview, and is also the author of With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today. I truly can't thank Daniel enough for his participation with the Project Idealism podcast.