Mahmoud Khalil became the face of Palestinian rights at Columbia University when the Syrian-born refugee refused to wear a mask and negotiated on behalf of the encampment with the University administration. Now the US wants to deport him using a deep-cut statute in the immigration act that gives the Secretary of State sweeping powers to decide who could have “adverse” foreign policy impacts on the United States. How did we get here? We trace the line back from Charlottesville in 2017 — from dome...
Mar 31, 2025•34 min•Season 10Ep. 7
If you live in the US, buying a gun can be as easy as going to Walmart. In countries with strict gun laws, such as most of Europe or Australia, you need a little more ingenuity. Although not that much more: since March of 2020, anyone with access to a cheap second-hand 3D printer and experience putting IKEA furniture together can do it. Does that mean the rest of us should start printing bunkers, presto ? Or are we worried for nothing? Things That Go Boom travels to the mean streets of New York ...
Mar 17, 2025•39 min•Season 10Ep. 6
Nearly everyone has played dress up at some point in their lives, whether putting on mom or dad’s clothes as kids, for Halloween, as their favorite Marvel character at ComicCon… or even, maybe, as a Civil War soldier. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where historians say Civil War casualties were highest, attracts many reenactors. They carry their muskets, pull on their blue britches, and revel in the past. But today that hobby has taken on new meaning — survivalists on the left and right and even some...
Mar 03, 2025•28 min•Season 10Ep. 5
Initially assigned to $100 million bank failure investigations, Mike German’s FBI career took a pivotal turn in 1992, when he went undercover to infiltrate neo-Nazi groups in LA. The years that followed gave him a front-row seat to the Justice System’s handling of domestic terrorism from the 1990s to his departure in 2004. When Mike left the FBI, it was after reporting deficiencies in the bureau’s counterterrorism operations in the wake of 9/11. And today he and his colleagues are taking on the ...
Feb 17, 2025•32 min•Season 10Ep. 4
True to his promise, on the first day of Donald Trump’s second term as president, he pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — an event many observers accuse him of instigating. He also commuted the sentences of the six organizers of the riot, those convicted of the most serious crimes. What does these paramilitaries’ return to public life mean for the rest of us? And how did our broken pardon system get us here? — GIVEAWAY NEWS! Drawn...
Feb 03, 2025•30 min•Season 10Ep. 3
Amy Cooter has been studying US militias since 2008 when, as a graduate student in Michigan, she attended a public meeting of a group that was thought to be a cover for an underground neo-Nazi movement. As it turned out, that assumption was wrong. It was then that Amy realized this militia movement she encountered was worthy of study all on its own. And at the time, most academics weren't studying it, partly because they believed all these guys were the same. They're not. Today Amy is one of the...
Jan 20, 2025•30 min•Season 10Ep. 2
In 1970, Canada’s streets were full of troops and the country was on edge. Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte had been captured by a militant French separatist group, the FLQ, and the Canadian government worried thousands of FLQ sympathizers could be ready to unleash chaos in Quebec. As it turned out, the group that caused so much fear throughout the 1960s was never more than a few dozen individuals. This season on Things That Go Boom, we’re starting in Canada, because four years after Jan. ...
Jan 06, 2025•35 min•Season 10Ep. 1
When Members of Congress are sworn into office, they say an oath. To protect the country from all enemies… foreign and domestic. But what does a domestic enemy look like? And how can they be stopped? Four years after January 6th, we're turning our eyes on the US to ask, “in our divided times, how do we we stop political violence at home… before it starts… and without losing what makes us, us, along the way.”
Dec 30, 2024•2 min
When former US Navy Intelligence Officer Andrew McCormick spent the holiday season in Kandahar in 2013, attempts at holiday cheer were everywhere. But few were more out-of-touch than the generic care packages sent from civilians who knew nothing about him — or the war he was fighting. Part of our series of monologues in partnership with The War Horse . Additional Resources Care Packages a Powerful Symbol of the Military-Civilian Divide , Andrew McCormick, The War Horse, 2020...
Dec 23, 2024•8 min
One night In 1968, Ed Meagher was finishing his last shift at Clark Airways, which included authenticating and repeating messages for the nuclear-armed B-52 fleet in Southeast Asia. Then his phone lines started dinging, with signal after signal — and he couldn’t figure out why none were a match. This monologue is the second in our series with The War Horse . Additional Resources We Were at DefCon 2 — One Step From Nuclear War — and I Was Checking My Work , Ed Meagher, The War Horse, 2024...
Dec 16, 2024•11 min
This month on Things That Go Boom, we’re passing the mic to three veterans to share their memories in their words . In this first entry: When paratrooper Bill Glose came home from the Gulf War after leading his platoon, silence was his fortress. That all changed when a friend suggested he start writing poetry. The story is part of a new partnership with the news site The War Horse. The site publishes real stories from veterans that look war in the eye, rough edges and all. If you haven't heard o...
Dec 09, 2024•13 min
After a season spent examining feminist foreign policies around the world, we turn our attention back to the US. Will the US adopt a feminist foreign policy? And what would that mean? In this episode, three remarkable activists, organizers, and academics share their perspectives on where we are in the process, what the obstacles are, and what gives them hope for the future. Listen and subscribe now on Apple Podcasts , Stitcher , Spotify , Pocket Casts , or wherever you get your podcasts to recei...
Jun 24, 2024•34 min•Season 9Ep. 8
Political Scientist Cynthia Enloe is, arguably, the reason we’re all here. She was one of the first to explore gender in international relations, and the first to ask, “Where are the women?” But what she meant when she asked that question? It’s been lost in a sea of nuances around feminism and feminist foreign policy. Leading to misunderstandings like so many we’ve seen this season on Things That Go Boom. Misunderstandings like the sense among some that feminism is just about turning things arou...
Jun 10, 2024•25 min•Season 9Ep. 7
As civilian casualties mount in Gaza and many more conflicts around the world kill and displace vulnerable people, we ask, "What can feminist foreign policy do about war crimes?" The international community doesn’t have a great track record of timely intervention to stop atrocities. But one-sided military intervention can also be a recipe for disaster. In this episode, we hear from activists in Rwanda and Afghanistan about how their work protects the vulnerable and what they wish international f...
May 27, 2024•33 min•Season 9Ep. 6
When news of a new disaster seems to roll in every day… it can feel like there’s little hope. But what if we had… another option? Not just to reverse course on climate change, but to set the course for a better future. Carol Cohn and Claire Duncanson think we do. GUESTS: Carol Cohn, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Claire Duncanson, University of Edinburgh ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals , Carol Cohn Feminist Roadmap for Sustainable Peace an...
May 13, 2024•21 min•Season 9Ep. 5
When does something as deeply personal as abortion become a matter of foreign policy? Maybe when it becomes a stand-in for national values and belief systems. Or maybe when it becomes a clever wedge to divide societies. Today, Polish abortion activists are on the cusp of a huge change. After 30 years of some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, it looks like some liberalization could be on the way. But it wasn’t easy to get here. And a new trove of documents suggests that Kremlin meddl...
Apr 29, 2024•27 min•Season 9Ep. 4
Mexico's gotten a lot of praise for its feminist foreign policy — despite ongoing femicide in the country. But Mexican women are doing more than just pointing out the hypocrisy. They're using these new foreign policy tools to fight back at home in the war against their own bodies. On this episode, we travel to Mexico to talk with, and march alongside, some of the women fighting for change. GUESTS: Daniela Garcia Philipson, Ph.D. Candidate, Monash University; Martha Delgado Peralta, Former Unders...
Apr 15, 2024•35 min•Season 9Ep. 3
It took two years, after holdups from Turkey and Hungary, but Sweden has officially joined NATO. A move not everyone in Sweden is super psyched about. But this country’s history isn’t quite so peaceful as it might seem. So, can a peace-loving nation with a war-loving legacy keep the peace… when someone starts a war in its backyard? And how does feminist foreign policy really play out when defense is center stage? GUESTS: Dr. Patrik Höglund , historian and maritime archaeologist; Dr. Brian Palmer...
Apr 01, 2024•24 min•Season 9Ep. 2
This season on Things That Go Boom, we’re on a mission to figure out this new thing spreading like wildfire across the world: feminist foreign policy. But to even begin to understand what it is and where it’s going, we had to start in the place where it failed. We’re calling this season, “The F Word.” And on this episode and the next, we take a deep look at the chasm that caused Sweden’s feminist foreign policy to break in two. And we ask: If this thing can’t succeed in Sweden, can it succeed at...
Mar 18, 2024•28 min•Season 9Ep. 1
With more than 50 elections set to take place around the world, 2024 will be a battle for democracy. It will also be a battle for peace. Because after doing things the same way for, pretty much ever, countries in Europe and Latin America have been experimenting with something called “feminist foreign policy,” and feeling the backlash. After all, there’s a lot in a word. But that word is really just the best way folks have come up with to describe this thing that some people think could begin to ...
Mar 04, 2024•2 min
Click Here is a podcast, hosted by Dina Temple-Raston, that tells true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world. Earlier this year, the FBI added Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev to their Most Wanted hacker list for his alleged role in a number of ransomware attacks against U.S. targets. In a rare interview shortly after the FBI announcement, he talked about being added to the list and what he plans to do as an encore.
Dec 04, 2023•19 min•Season 8Ep. 10
What do swarms of autonomous drones, facial recognition, and nuclear test site monitoring have in common? They are all things we were still curious about as we wrapped up this internet and security season of Things That Go Boom. In this mailbag episode, experts weigh in to help answer some tough questions from you, our audience! GUESTS: Lauren Kahn , Senior Research Analyst at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology; Dr. Eleni Manis , Research Director at the Surveillance Technology Over...
Oct 30, 2023•33 min•Season 8Ep. 9
On Sunday, the people of Poland cast their votes in an election that some have called a battle for the country’s soul. When we released this episode, we were still watching for the various parties to confirm the parliamentary coalitions that would lead to the final result. But experts tell us no matter who wins, one thing is likely to stay the same: Poland's hardline approach to refugees from its eastern border with Belarus. So today, we head to that border, where scientists are studying the imp...
Oct 16, 2023•28 min•Season 8Ep. 8
We’re about a year out from a presidential election, and former President Donald Trump is leading the Republican pack in spite of his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The attack reflected the anger and violence that can be stoked by misinformation. But the issue of misinformation has become heavily politicized since the 2016 election and Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data to target divisive messages at segments of the American population. As a result, researchers lik...
Oct 02, 2023•31 min•Season 8Ep. 7
When we say that we’re going to store something “in the cloud” it sounds like an ethereal place somewhere in the atmosphere. But the online cloud is generated by computer servers in data centers all over the world. Thousands of them. And AI is likely to ramp up demand. These data centers don’t employ a lot of people, and each one can hoover up the resources of a small town. So what happens when our need for more, better, faster cyber capability collides with our need for land, water, and power? ...
Sep 18, 2023•29 min•Season 8Ep. 6
Internet blackouts — when internet service is shut down in a country or region — have become much more common over the last decade. But who gets to decide when these disruptions are necessary? From thwarting political protests to preventing cheating on school exams, we’re diving into the who, what, and why of internet blackouts around the world. And we’re asking… what exactly are the rules here in the US? GUESTS: Mazin Riyadh , student at the University of Mosul; Dr. Patricia Vargas , Fellow for...
Sep 04, 2023•26 min•Season 8Ep. 5
It’s one of our biggest problems in 2023, and it can feel distinctly human. But it's not. All sorts of animals deal with all sorts of misinformation every day, including some of our oldest ancestors — like the humble fish. This week on Things That Go Boom, we exit the human world entirely to see what we can learn. Special thanks this week to Christina Stella for pinch-hitting for our engineer, Robin Wise! GUESTS: Ashkaan Fahimipour, Florida Atlantic University; Jimmy Liao, The University of Flor...
Aug 21, 2023•29 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Greg is an artist whose clients include Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. And much like a lot of the folks striking in Hollywood right now, he’s ticked off about AI. It’s a story we hear a lot these days: AI is having an impact on everything in our lives, and it’s killing creators’ livelihoods. What we don’t hear, though, is what that story has to do with the people seeking asylum in the United States every day. In this episode, we’ll show you how their lives can be forever changed b...
Aug 07, 2023•25 min•Season 8Ep. 3
In the age of Oppenheimer, nuclear weapons didn’t have much to do with computers. And, for a long time, most nukes were running on 1970s-era floppy disk systems. But as technology has advanced the US — and all the other nuclear weapons states — have started putting military communications, early warning systems, and even control of nuclear missiles themselves online. So, in this episode, we ask, “Could our nuclear weapons systems… be hacked?” We talk to researchers, policy experts, a top UN offi...
Jul 24, 2023•31 min•Season 8Ep. 2
We need the internet. No, seriously. In 2023, the digital realm isn’t so much a portal as it is the undercurrent of our lives: The web carries our culture, our communication, our bank accounts — and, yes, our global security. But all of that traffic flows through a series of cables at the bottom of the ocean. And lately, we’ve been worrying a lot about it up on dry land: Asking what happens when something — or someone — cuts those cables. Should we really be so worried? This is a story about vol...
Jul 10, 2023•39 min•Season 8Ep. 1
