Podcasts by Things That Go Boom

Things That Go Boom Introduces: Click Here from 2023-12-04T08:00

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 ...

Well, What Do You Know? from 2023-10-30T07:00

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 secur...

Least Cost Paths from 2023-10-16T07:00

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 parti...

Tobacco, Trust, and the Artist Formerly Known as Twitter from 2023-10-02T07:00

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 at...

Will the Internet Suck Us Dry? from 2023-09-18T07:00

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...

Who Gets To Shut It All Down? from 2023-09-04T07:00

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? F...

How to Break a Fish from 2023-08-21T07:00

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 ances...

Lost in Translation from 2023-08-07T07:00

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 s...

Can You Hack a Nuke? from 2023-07-24T07:00

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 t...

The Internet Is at the Bottom of the Sea from 2023-07-10T07:00

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 —...

Coming Soon: Troubleshooting from 2023-06-26T10:00

You know the internet — that big, vast, expanse that powers our lives and every single thing we do. It’s all we seem to talk about these days: spyware, malware, phishing attacks, TikTok bans, Ru...

How a US Reporter Was Imprisoned in Putin’s Russia from 2023-06-09T07:00

We’re hard at work on Season 8 of Things That Go Boom, coming your way July 10. But in the meantime, we wanted to drop in and share a special episode with you from our friends at Project Brazen....

Getting L-A-O-D from 2023-03-20T17:20:52

America’s war on communism in southeast Asia dragged the entire region into the fray, and the impacts are still an ever-present danger. (You might remember our episode this season on landmines a...

Mr. Fonio from 2023-03-06T08:00

There are tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of edible plants in the world. But humans only cultivate a couple hundred of those at any significant scale. And when we eat, we tend to stick to j...

What’s Next for Brazil After Bolsonaro? from 2023-02-20T08:00

Just two years ago, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was in prison. It’s a fairytale-like comeback story. But his life is also a food story. From a hungry childhood raised by sharec...

Can Cluster Bombs Show Us How To Stop a Nuclear War? from 2023-02-06T08:00

Despite being banned, anti-personnel landmines and unexploded submunitions still litter fields from Bosnia to Bangladesh. And they’re even being used in Ukraine. Does that mean the treaties that...

How Xi Jinping Plans to Fill China’s ‘Rice Bowl’ from 2023-01-23T08:00

One morning in the 2010s, a rural midwestern farmer called the cops. There was a guy in a suit sniffing around a field near town. A big SUV dropped him off.

And the story of how the man ...

Reissue: Navigating the Strait from 2023-01-09T08:00

We turn our attention to the narrow strait that divides China and Taiwan, which some analysts believe is the most likely flashpoint for another far-away conflict involving the US military.

Reissue: Take This Job and Shove It from 2022-12-26T08:00

Conversations about downsizing America’s defense budget almost immediately stall out in a Catch-22: Reallocating those tax dollars to invest in domestic priorities would be devastating to the ma...

Are Military Families Really Going Hungry? from 2022-12-12T08:00

Many Americans once viewed the US military as a reliable road to a middle-class life. But, despite record-breaking military spending in recent years, new research shows that one-in-six military ...

Samin Nosrat on War, Appropriation, and the Power of Food from 2022-11-28T08:00

Samin Nosrat joins us to talk about cooking, conflict, and the global forces shaping the food on our plates. Have you ever tried Saigon cinnamon? How about Iranian saffron? Learn about the flavo...

What Our Nuclear History Means for Indigenous Food from 2022-11-14T08:00

On the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, endangered plants bloom on the shrubsteppe. The Yakama Nation signed a treaty in 1855 to cede some of its lands to the US government. The treaty promised that...

Food, War, and the Conspiracy Supply Chain from 2022-10-31T07:00

When we’re not in a crisis, food doesn’t tend to make it into stump speeches or budget pressers. It’s easy to end up in front of the computer, scrolling social media, snacking on something produ...

Season 7: Food Fight from 2022-10-17T07:00

Think back to when you were a kid, and school was out. What did you eat when you got home?

Maybe it was a beef patty from your favorite bodega or chocolate chip cookies baked by your mom...

Cold Front: Tromsø from 2022-08-08T07:30

Putin’s war in Ukraine has European nations scrambling to cut off their supplies of Russian gas — both to further penalize Russia and to ensure the country can’t withhold its energy supplies as ...

Cold Front: Beijing from 2022-07-25T07:30

China’s business activity in the Arctic has been attracting a lot of eyeballs. Its state-sponsored construction companies have been securing contracts for important infrastructure, and the count...

Cold Front: Yellowknife from 2022-07-11T07:30

Noel Cockney and Randy Baillargeon have seen what a warming North can do to their home.

Manning an educational Indigenous fish camp an ice road away from Yellowknife, Canada, they slice ...

Move Slow and Fix Things from 2022-05-16T07:00

The House and Senate were always supposed to check the president’s power in foreign affairs. But when partisan loyalties and an onslaught of domestic issues make legislation nearly impossible… w...

This Really Happened from 2022-05-02T07:00

Covert action has supported our nation’s security goals for decades — from fighting the Cold War to killing Osama Bin Laden. But it’s also part of a long American history of justifying the means...

S6 E6 - This Really Happened from 2022-05-02T07:00

Covert action has supported our nation’s security goals for decades — from fighting the Cold War to killing Osama Bin Laden. But it’s also part of a long American history of justifying the means...

To Appropriations and Beyond! from 2022-04-18T07:00

When Congress created Space Force back in 2019, it looked to some like a wild idea from President Trump had just gone and become the sixth branch of the armed forces. But the US military has bee...

S6 E5 - To Appropriations and Beyond! from 2022-04-18T07:00

When Congress created Space Force back in 2019, it looked to some like a wild idea from President Trump had just gone and become the sixth branch of the armed forces. But the US military has bee...

S6 E4 - Of Militias and Mercedes-Benzes from 2022-04-04T07:00

It’s hard to overstate how much arms trade and aid factor into US foreign policy. Missiles, aircraft, guns, and more — we sell and give them to others as a way to exert global power without ever...

Of Militias and Mercedes-Benzes from 2022-04-04T07:00

It’s hard to overstate how much arms trade and aid factor into US foreign policy. Missiles, aircraft, guns, and more — we sell and give them to others as a way to exert global power without ever...

You Get a Sanction, and You, and You from 2022-03-21T07:00

At their core, sanctions are a way for countries to say, “We don’t like what you’re doing, and we’re going to make your life harder for it.” When they’re at their best, sanctions can isolate cor...

S6 E3 - You Get a Sanction, and You, and You from 2022-03-21T07:00

At their core, sanctions are a way for countries to say, “We don’t like what you’re doing, and we’re going to make your life harder for it.” When they’re at their best, sanctions can isolate cor...

S6 Bonus - 'Praying to Black Jesus' in Kyiv from 2022-03-05T08:00

Long lines at ATMs and gas stations. The constant blare of air raid sirens. Military jets scrambling across the sky. Eurasia expert (and for the first time, war reporter) Terrell Jermaine Starr ...

'Praying to Black Jesus' in Kyiv from 2022-03-05T08:00

Long lines at ATMs and gas stations. The constant blare of air raid sirens. Military jets scrambling across the sky. Eurasia expert (and for the first time, war reporter) Terrell Jermaine Starr ...

S6 E2 - Border-aucracy from 2022-02-21T08:00

Congress hasn’t passed a significant immigration bill in decades, but the demands on the immigration system today are very different than they were in the ’90s. So, what’s a president to do? Wit...

Border-aucracy from 2022-02-21T08:00

Congress hasn’t passed a significant immigration bill in decades, but the demands on the immigration system today are very different than they were in the ’90s. So, what’s a president to do? Wit...

Why Buy the Cow? from 2022-02-07T08:00

Since the beginning of the American experiment, presidents have tussled with Congress over how to handle foreign threats. That creative conflict is supposed to be the democratic ideal. But there...

S6 E1 - Why Buy the Cow? from 2022-02-07T08:00

Since the beginning of the American experiment, presidents have tussled with Congress over how to handle foreign threats. That creative conflict is supposed to be the democratic ideal. But there...

S6 Trailer from 2022-01-31T08:00

The Framers of the Constitution made sure Congress had a voice guiding our role in the world. Congress decides how much money we spend on everything from immigration to foreign aid. It has the p...

S5 Bonus - Downwind from 2022-01-17T08:00

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a speck of a country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Population 60,000. But it has an outsized legacy as the place where the US military exploded doze...

S5 Bonus - What’s Next for Progressive Foreign Policy? from 2021-12-20T08:00

Things That Go Boom is asking for your help this holiday season. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. Together, we can tell the stories that need to be told: Listen

S5 Bonus - And You Thought Thanksgiving Dinner Was Intense? from 2021-09-20T07:00

Obaidullah Baheer has built his career promoting progress in Afghanistan: He’s a university lecturer on intractable conflicts and who advocates for women’s and minority rights online.

Bu...

S5 E7 - Navigating the Strait from 2021-09-13T07:00

We turn our attention to the narrow strait that divides China and Taiwan, which some analysts believe is the most likely flashpoint for another far-away conflict involving the US military.

S5 E6 - Take This Job and Shove It from 2021-08-30T07:00

Conversations about downsizing America’s defense budget almost immediately stall out in a Catch-22: Reallocating those tax dollars to invest in domestic priorities would be devastating to the ma...

S5 E5 - You Say Gatorade, I Say Bacon from 2021-08-16T07:00

On this episode of Things That Go Boom, we look at some of the ways civilian and military cultures are merging — and diverging — after two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. If Americans ar...

S5 E4 - Amtrak and the End of the Free World from 2021-08-02T07:00

Washington and Beijing have been increasingly at odds -- over human rights, trade, maritime boundaries, you name it. Does this tension help Biden at home? And what does it mean for Asian America...

S5 E3 - Alright Dom, What's Next? from 2021-07-19T07:00

Here in the US, we’re just catching on to the idea of creating a foreign policy that lifts up our middle class, but China’s been at it for decades. On this episode, we dig into China’s rise. Wha...

S5 E2 - Out From Under the Leaking Roof and Into the Rain from 2021-07-05T07:00

One of Biden's biggest foreign policy moves so far has been sticking with Trump's Afghanistan withdrawal plan. The move comes after 20 years of war, which killed more than 241,000 people on all ...

S5 E1 - Cheers to the American Middle Class from 2021-06-21T07:00

Quick, give me the first answer to this question that comes to your head: What TV character is the archetype of the American middle class? Archie Bunker? Homer Simpson? Roseanne Conner? What abo...

S5 Trailer from 2021-06-14T07:00

The Biden administration says it’s focused on creating a “foreign policy for the middle class,” But what does that really mean? Keeping on keeping on with the way things have always been done? S...

S4 Bonus - A Very Hokey 100 Days from 2021-05-03T07:00

April 29 marked President Biden’s 100th day in office. So we thought it was about time to pop back in with a special bonus episode — before we’re back officially with season 5 — to take a look a...

S4 E9 - Baby Nukes: When a Little Boom Is All You Need from 2021-03-01T08:30

Over the course of our nuclear history, smaller (potentially more usable) nuclear weapons have come in all shapes and sizes — from so-called backpack bombs to the Davy Crockett nuclear rifle...<...

S4 E8 - Aliens Among Us from 2021-02-15T08:30

Conspiracy theories are as old as time. And, they’re not all bad. Sometimes they bring us together for a subpar party in the desert. Take, for example, that one time in 2019 when more than 2 mil...

S4 E7 - Why One Congresswoman Wore Tennis Shoes on Jan. 6 from 2021-02-01T08:00

When a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the legislature on Jan. 6, it caught the Capitol Police completely off-guard. But there was one woman in the House Chamber who was not surprised. In fact, sh...

S2 E5 (Fallout) - I Want Money from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Money in politics is a little bit like an iceberg — there’s the stuff you can see, like lobbying firms, and then there’s all the stuff below the waterline. On this episode of Things That ...

S2 E4 (Fallout) - Bad Blood from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Before they were enemies, the US and Iran used to have a thing. In fact, we started their nuclear program. Like any failed relationship… it’s not just one thing that led us all here. Year...

S2 E3 (Fallout) - The Slog from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Jake Sullivan is no James Bond. He's a nice kid from Minnesota. But Sullivan's top secret diplomacy may have staved off catastrophe as the U.S. pursued the Iran nuclear deal. On this epis...

S4 E6 - Saving the World With 50-Year-Old IT from 2021-01-18T08:30

In December 2020, the company FireEye noticed that it had been the victim of a cyber intrusion. And it wasn’t the only one. About 18,000 companies and government agencies were breached, everythi...

S4 E5 - Duluth, Not as Cold as You Think! from 2021-01-04T08:00

Darlene Turner is an Inupiaq Eskimo living on a battle line. Not the military kind, the climate change kind. With less sea ice to buffer storms, the ocean is washing away chunks of her village a...

Reissue: The Slog from 2020-12-21T08:30

Over the past few weeks, the president-elect, Joe Biden, has been rolling out announcements about his new cabinet. And in one of those announcements, he revealed that the subject of one of our f...

S4 E3 - A Forward-Looking Foreign Policy from 2020-12-07T08:30

Just after President Dwight D. Eisenhower assumed office on January 20, 1953, deep in the middle of the Cold War, his greatest adversary died. The speech that followed is considered one of his b...

S4 E2 - The Blob from 2020-11-23T08:30

Things That Go Boom is launching its very first fundraiser! Please consider giving just $5 a month. It’s convenient for you, provides ongoing support for Things That Go Boom and Inkstick Media, ...

S4 E1 - Fee-fi-fo-fear from 2020-11-09T08:30

2020 has been a scary year. In an effort to get to the root of why we’re all feeling the way we are, the first thing we did was something we probably should have done a long time ago... we reach...

S4 Trailer from 2020-10-26T07:30

Things That Go Boom will be back November 9th, and we’ll be there to hold your hand while you weep, or party, all the way to the inauguration, a coronavirus vaccine, an accidental nuclear war (?...

S3 E8 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - After the Apocalypse from 2020-08-24T07:00

Can the country rebound from the social, cultural, and economic toll of COVID-19? Now we know what happens while we’re sleeping; have we woken up? And what will it take to right the ship?

S3 E7 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - Future Wars from 2020-08-10T08:00

Why did the US Naval Academy reinstate celestial navigation as part of its curriculum a few years ago? Well, you can’t hack a sextant.

In this episode, we look at some of the vulnerabili...

S3 E6 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - Inner Decay from 2020-07-27T15:18:02

Disinformation and misinformation have been blurring the line between fantasy and reality since the start of communication itself. But over the last decade, they’ve posed an increasing threat to...

S3 E5 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - Democracy! (Yawn) from 2020-07-13T07:00

As the US reckons with systemic racism and a less-than-democratic past, China is doubling down on its authoritarian ways. Meanwhile, research on the health of democracy from across the globe ind...

S3 E4 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - This Is Not a Drill from 2020-06-29T07:00

Are we in the middle of a new Cold War? Or have we rewritten the game? With old nuclear arms treaties expiring, and no new ones being signed, are we adapting to the times or playing with fire? Listen

S3 E3 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - So You Want Your Own Army? from 2020-06-15T07:00

After almost a decade in prison, Yevgeny Prigozhin was released into a new world. Gorbachev gave his last speech as leader of the Soviet Union; the Communist Party was outlawed. Soon, gangs were...

S3 E2 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - While We Were Sleeping from 2020-06-01T07:00

If the US can’t build better airports or trains than China, or even take care of itself in times of major crisis like the coronavirus, how exactly is it supposed to “beat” China in this global c...

S3 E1 (The Wrong Apocalypse) - World War C from 2020-05-18T07:00

The US spends more than $700 billion on defense every year, more than healthcare, education, and all the rest of our discretionary spending combined. And yet the coronavirus slipped silently and...

S3 Trailer (The Wrong Apocalypse) from 2020-05-04T07:00

Could the rise of China spell the end of the US as the dominant world power? Are we on an irreversible path toward military confrontation? Are we prepared for life in a multilateral world?
<...

S2 Bonus - Our Closet Bunker Broadcast on Iran from 2020-01-08T08:00

Last night it looked like we were headed for war. Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two military bases in Iraq in response to US escalation in the region.

How worried should we be...

S2 Bonus - Amb. William Burns from 2019-07-08T07:00

When we left off with our second season, there were... a few things happening with Iran…

And Amb. William Burns has a unique perspective -- he's been down this road with Iran before, as ...

S2 E7 (Fallout) - Collateral Damage from 2019-06-24T07:00

The first clue something was wrong came in the form of an alert on Yegi Rezaian’s phone. Where I grew up,” she says, “these things don’t happen by accident.”

Within hours, Yegi and her h...

S2 E6 (Fallout) - No Cheese, Extra Pickles from 2019-06-17T07:00

If you want to know how sanctions are playing out in Iran — look no further than the classified ads. You’ll find folks selling unused cosmetics, pets, and… something even more unusual.

B...

S2 E2 (Fallout) - The Worst Deal Ever from 2019-05-20T07:00

Time magazine called Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster a “pre-eminent warrior-thinker.” President Trump called him a pain.

So when McMaster left the White House to be replaced by the hawkish John B...

S2 E1 (Fallout) - Nothing Good Happens After Midnight from 2019-05-13T07:00

Prepping a fallout shelter might sound like an exercise from an era of soda fountains and hula hoops. But for Ron Hubbard, president of Atlas Survival Shelters, business is, well… booming.

S2 Trailer (Fallout) from 2019-05-06T07:00

It’s been called President Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement -- so why does the Trump administration think it was the “worst deal ever” made?

On this season of Things That Go ...

S1 E4 - What Shakespeare Can Teach Us About PTSD from 2018-02-12T08:00

We don’t always talk about the things that scare us most. First, Ally Harpootlian's grandmother Betty kept a secret life of poetry locked away. Then, a whole new way to look at Shakespeare - and...

S1 E3 - What Happens When the Military Thinks Outside the Box? from 2018-02-05T07:00

How Nancy Sinatra’s #1 hit, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," became a military anthem. Then, a bunch of students at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) try to change the world —  and eli...

S1 E2 - Home Security from 2018-01-29T07:00

In this episode, Laicie explores white nationalism, the Haitian revolution, and the impacts of nuclear weapons production on the Navajo Nation – and goes all the way back to America’s founding t...

S1 E1 - The Bear from 2018-01-22T08:00

Two true stories about nuclear false alarms. Plus, what deterrence has to do with being an eleven-year-old boy, and a deeper dive into the Trump administration’s assault on diplomacy. 

S1 Trailer from 2017-12-11T22:30:15

One year ago, Donald J. Trump became the President of the United States. Since then, it seems like the world has exploded. North Korea, Russia, Charlottesville. The threats are all around.