Things That Go Boom

Germany's internal border checks were supposed to be temporary.Introduced in 2015 as an emergency response, they've now become a familiar part of daily life across much of Europe.Reporter Sam Baker travels to Germany's borders with France and the Netherlands, where commuters sit in traffic, businesses absorb mounting costs, and local leaders question whether the checkpoints make anyone safer. Along the way, she meets journalist Sandra Alloush, whose experience at one of these border checks changed the way she moves through Europe, and explores why a policy that many acknowledge has significant limits continues to expand.The story raises a larger question: What happens when democracies begin governing through permanent emergencies? And what does it mean when extraordinary powers become ordinary?Guests:Wolfram Britz, Mayor of Kehl, GermanyMaartje van der Woude, Professor of Law and Society at Leiden UniversitySandra Alloush, journalist, filmmaker, and advocate for refugee rightsLucien van Ryswijk, Mayor of ZevenaarRaquel Garcia Hermida van der Walle, Member of the European ParliamentAdditional Resources: History of Schengen, European CommissionRacial Profiling Practices at EU Internal Borders, European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)

Ah Long spent years building a life in Shanghai. Then the pandemic arrived.China's Zero-COVID policy cost him his job, his relationship, and eventually his faith that he could build a future there. So he did something almost unimaginable: he set out alone for the United States, crossing the Darién Gap, surviving robberies, and surrendering at the US-Mexico border to seek asylum.But by the time he arrived, America had changed, too.In this episode, reporter Aria Young follows Ah Long's extraordinary journey from China to New York and examines how both Beijing and Washington have turned to the language of emergency to expand executive power. The story asks a larger question: when governments rule through crisis, what happens to the people caught between?Guests:Ah Long, Chinese asylum seeker living in New YorkRory Truex, Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton UniversityRev. Mike Chan, Executive Director of Ministries in New York at Chinese Christian Herald CrusadeAdditional Resources: Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the US, Diana Roy and Sabine Baumgartner, Council on Foreign Relations Deportation Data ProjectA Study of Chinese Law on Restricting Personal Liberty for Public Health Protection: Taking the COVID-19 Epidemic as the Entry Point, Tengfei Liu and Zhongwu Ma, Frontiers in Public Health

A few hours outside Bogotá, a giant yellow circus tent rises above the countryside. Inside, families laugh at clowns, gasp at acrobats, and cheer for trapeze artists soaring overhead.The performers are all members of the Colombian military.For more than three decades, Circo Colombia has sent active-duty soldiers across the country to perform for communities, many of them in regions shaped by decades of armed conflict. Military officials say the circus builds trust, provides entertainment, and offers a different face of the armed forces.But not everyone sees it that way.Some Colombians view the circus as a sophisticated public-relations project for an institution still grappling with allegations of corruption, violence, and abuses committed during the country's long civil conflict. Others argue the performances can blur the line between entertainment, recruitment, and intelligence gathering.Reporter Natalie Skowlund travels to the town of Supatá to step inside the tent and meet the people at the center of this unusual story: soldier-clowns, former military performers, circus historians, government officials, and audience members trying to make sense of what happens when the military puts on a show.In this episode: Why Colombia has a military circus, what it reveals about the country's relationship with war and memory, and how one former circus soldier came to see the circus not as a tool of the military, but as a path to freedom.Guests:Professional Soldier Luís Javier Cardenas, clown and trapeze artist with Circo ColombiaFranci Guzmán and Ana Pinzón, audience members at Circo Colombia show in Supatá, ColombiaRosa Elena González Moreno, Colombian Ministry of Culture Circus Program CoordinatorJonathan Hernández, professional circus artist and former soldier performer with Circo ColombiaOlga Lucía Sorzano, PhD, Colombian circus scholar and director of ArtemotionAdditional Resources:A Spanish-language report on the history of circus in Colombia.Tatan's Instagram account.Colombia's military circus, live, in the AP archive.

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.

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, the US economy has been deeply intertwined with war-making — from Cold War-era aerospace and nuclear weapons to today’s AI-driven military technologies. But this wasn’t always seen as inevitable.In the 1970s and ’80s, organizers built unlikely coalitions across the peace, labor, civil rights, and faith movements to challenge military spending and push for an economy that served people instead of perpetual war. Their work helped popularize the idea of economic conversion: redirecting public resources away from weapons production and toward jobs that meet human needs.In this episode, we revisit that history — and ask what it can teach us now. As communities organize against new defense-tech projects and local governments continue to subsidize weapons manufacturers, activists are once again grappling with how to confront the war economy — and what a more just, peaceful alternative could look like.This is the final episode of our season, MIC Drop, reporting on how the military-industrial complex shapes local economies — and how communities are organizing in response.Guests: Dr. David Cortright, former Executive Director of SANE; Larry Frank, former Development Director for Jobs with Peace LA; Nathan Kim, Graduate Research Associate at DAIRAdditional Resources:Cortright v. Resor Reenactment and details about the Waging Peace event at George Washington UniversityUCLA: Memory Work Los Angeles project on Jobs with PeaceRecording of the 1982 Central Park Rally Brown University Costs of War Project