Life Stories #49: Jessica Alexander

Jessica Alexander has spent much of the last decade traveling from one international crisis to another, from Darfur to Haiti. In Chasing Chaos, she talks about what it was like to plunge into the world of humanitarian aid, and how she and her colleagues coped with the things they witnessed. She also talks about what she's observed about the problems in how international relief is conducted--like when processing centers are overstuffed with donated goods, or well-meaning civilians drop in on disaster sites to "help" for a few days. The emotional costs have been heavy at times, but Alexander still has a vibrant, optimistic approach to it all... as you'll hear in this interview.