In 1993, a desperate man stumbled into a remote village in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains. After the residents nursed him back to health, he placed his hands on the village elder's shoulders and made a sacred promise. "Somehow," he said, "I am going to get some private jet reimbursements out of this."

Warning: Contains spoilers for the 2016 film "Arrival."

Thanks to Ted Callahan for helping us fact-check this episode!

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Sources:

Three Cups of Deceit
“60 Minutes” expose
3000 Cups of Deceit
Books vs Bombs? Humanitarian development and the narrative of terror in Northern Pakistan
Delusional States
Can't Get There From Here
Nobel Prize Nominee’s Charity Wins No Award for Accountability
David Oliver Relin, Adventurous Journalist, Dies at 49
What Mortenson Got Wrong
Three Cups of Tea: The Pakistan and Afghan side
3 Lessons to Learn From Greg Mortenson
Mortenson returns to Afghanistan
The naive republic of aid: Grassroots exceptionalism in humanitarian memoir
Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan: A Look at the Data
If you build it, will they come?
What Really Works to Improve Learning in Developing Countries?
The madrassa scapegoat

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Three Cups of Tea

If Books Could Kill

Three Cups of Tea