No Strings Attached with GiveDirectly

Two years into Rx Kids, this episode looks at what changes when families get cash before a child is born and through the first year of life. Host Tyler Hall speaks with Dr. Mona Hanna, pediatrician and founder of Rx Kids, and Emma Kelsey, Program Director leading delivery for Rx Kids at GiveDirectly. They explain how the program works, why it starts in pregnancy, and what early results show: nearl...

GiveDirectly CEO Nick Allardice and Head of Research Caitlin Tulloch join Anthropic researcher Saffron Huang and Vox's Kelsey Piper to discuss how we might share the vast wealth emerging from AI. They explore what we can do now to ensure AI benefits everyone, not just the wealthy, and dig into the latest evidence on UBI. Special thanks to Asterisk Magazine for hosting this conversation. Full trans...

GiveDirectly CEO Nick Allardice and VP of Product Sarah Moran reflect on what it means to lead through a period of major disruption, from steep USAID cuts to rising global need. They share how GiveDirectly is evolving its cash transfer programs—investing in efficiency, technology, and rapid emergency response—while expanding work in areas like maternal health. The conversation also looks inward, e...

In February, Susan and Michael Dell made headlines for donating $6.25 billion to a new federal initiative creating savings accounts for children, known as Trump Accounts . It’s one of the largest charitable gifts in U.S. history and a rare example of private funding backing a public cash policy. But will they work? And how do they compare to baby bonuses—cash given directly to parents when a child...

In August, The New York Times ran the headline: A New Way to Reduce Child Deaths: Cash. The story covered new research from a large randomized study of GiveDirectly’s cash transfer program in Kenya, finding that giving money to families, no strings attached, led to a 48% drop in child deaths. In this episode of No Strings Attached , host Tyler G. Hall speaks with Caitlin Tulloch (Head of Research)...

GiveDirectly’s Leith Baker and Camille Raguin take you behind the scenes of our rapid response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica. They share what worked, what didn’t, and how lessons from this response can help us act faster and better in future crises, across all our programs. You’ll also hear stories from recipients like Desilee and Ivorie, who used their funds to recover on their own terms. See m...

Oxford Professor Dr. Dennis Egger presents economic "slack" as the reason that a large influx of cash in a rural Kenyan economy didn't cause inflation. The idea is that before cash arrived, many businesses were operating at only about 60% of their potential output (e.g., a grain miller who only runs his machine half the day because he has few customers). When cash led to more customers, they could...

World Bank economist Ugo Gentilini shares more about the long history of giving people money, no-strings attached, previewing his new book, Timely Cash: Lessons from 2500 Years of Giving People Money. This was originally an internal discussion held with GiveDirectly, recorded on October 24, 2025.