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From emergency spending… to military spectacle… to disasters whose consequences linger long after the cameras leave… this season explores how emergencies reshape communities, politics, and the boundaries of what we learn to accept.

Coming Soon: Living in the Emergency

Words: Laicie Heeley
Pictures: Jake Espedido
Date:
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  • Wars. Raids. Climate disasters. Political violence. Economic shocks. Surveillance. States of emergency that never seem to end. We live through them all while still trying to get dinner on the table, make rent, raise kids, and imagine a future. This season, Living in the Emergency follows people navigating a world shaped by permanent urgency —[...]
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Wars. Raids. Climate disasters. Political violence. Economic shocks. Surveillance. States of emergency that never seem to end. We live through them all while still trying to get dinner on the table, make rent, raise kids, and imagine a future.

This season, Living in the Emergency follows people navigating a world shaped by permanent urgency — and examines who benefits when fear, instability, and crisis become the organizing logic of everyday life.

From emergency spending, to military spectacle, to disasters whose consequences linger long after the cameras leave, this season explores how emergencies reshape communities, politics, and the boundaries of what we learn to accept.

Hosted by Laicie Heeley, Things That Go Boom returns on May 25th with reported, narrative-driven stories about the systems and decisions hiding inside the chaos.

Because this isn’t one crisis.

It’s a condition.

Subscribe to Things That Go Boom wherever you get your podcasts.

Laicie Heeley

Editor in Chief

Laicie Heeley is the founding CEO of Inkstick Media, where she serves as Editor in Chief of the foreign policy magazine Inkstick and Executive Producer and Host of the PRX- and Inkstick-produced podcast, Things That Go Boom. Heeley’s reporting has appeared on public radio stations across America and the BBC, where she’s explored global security issues including domestic terrorism, disinformation, nuclear weapons, and climate change. Prior to launching Inkstick, Heeley was a Fellow with the Stimson Center’s Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program and Policy Director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Her publications include work on sanctions, diplomacy, and nuclear arms control and nonproliferation, along with the first full accounting of US counterterrorism spending after 9/11.

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  • After a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, residents were told the air was safe and the situation was under control. But for many people living there, the emergency never really ended. In this episode, East Palestine resident and Rail Watch founder Jess Conard takes us inside the chaos and[...]
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  • A quick note: Independent journalism like Things That Go Boom only exists because of listener support. And right now, Newsmatch is doubling all donations — making it a powerful moment to give. If you love our show (and we hope you do!) consider making a tax-deductible contribution today. 👉 https://inkstickmedia.com/donate/ Enjoy the show! For decades,[...]
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  • As violence continues in Gaza, a new strategy inside the Palestine solidarity movement is taking shape — one aimed not at city streets or college campuses, but at the arteries of the global economy. Around the world, dockworkers have refused to unload ships tied to Israel’s military supply chain. In Italy, Morocco, India, and Sweden,[...]
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  • For a century, the weapons industry has helped shape St. Louis — from the McDonnell Douglas fighters that once symbolized American air power to Boeing’s sprawling factories today. But when thousands of machinists walked off the job this year, something cracked in “Fighterland, USA.” In this episode, we head to the picket line to hear[...]
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  • San Diego’s Barrio Logan is a place defined by both proximity and resistance — pressed against naval shipyards, fenced in by freeways, and crowned by the Coronado Bridge. For decades, the community has lived with the noise, the pollution, and the promises that never quite came true. When the USS Bonhomme Richard went up in[...]
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  • When 27-year-old Gabriel Sanchez won his Democratic primary in Smyrna, Georgia — home to a massive Lockheed Martin plant — few expected an outspoken anti-war socialist to carry a district built on defense jobs. But Sanchez has managed to do just that, working to push for better benefits, wages, and labor rights across the state.[...]
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