Things That Go Boom

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.” 

Andrew McCormick, a former U.S. Navy Intelligence Officer, shares his poignant experiences of receiving holiday care packages while deployed in Kandahar. He highlights the emotional turmoil soldiers face during the holiday season, juxtaposing festive cheer with the harsh realities of combat. McCormick critiques the mismatch between soldiers' needs and the generic items sent from home, urging for a more thoughtful connection to truly support those in the field. His reflections expose the often-overlooked military-civilian divide in understanding wartime experiences.

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 ResourcesWe Were at DefCon 2 — One Step From Nuclear War — and I Was Checking My Work, Ed Meagher, The War Horse, 2024 

Bill Glose, a Gulf War veteran and published poet, shares his transformative journey from silence to self-expression through poetry. He discusses how writing allowed him to confront the emotional scars of war, turning personal struggles into art. Glose highlights an open mic experience that led to healing and culminated in his poetry collection, 'Half a Man.' He also reflects on the profound themes of mortality and alternate realities, bridging the gap between warrior and civilian narratives in the aftermath of conflict.

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 receive a new episode every two weeks.GUESTS: Janene Yazzie, Director of Policy and Advocacy for NDN Collective; Lyric Thompson, Founder and CEO of the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative; Margo Okazawa-Rey, Professor Emerita San Francisco State UniversityADDITIONAL RESOURCES:NDN CollectiveFeminist Foreign Policy CollaborativeInternational Women’s Network Against MilitarismPoverty Draft by Al ScorchWe are the Ones by Sweet Honey in the RockSpecial thanks to The Gender Security Project

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 around and subjugating men. Or that a man could never be a feminist, let alone carry out a feminist foreign policy.On this episode of Things That Go Boom, where are the women, really?And where do we go from here?GUESTS: Cynthia Enloe, Clark UniversityADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, Cynthia EnloeTwelve Feminist Lessons of War, Cynthia EnloeThe Invisible Frontline: How the Fight for Women’s Rights Changes in Times of War, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

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 feminists would do differently. And we hear from an expert on international hierarchies about how feminist foreign policy fits into the long history of attempts to end genocide — and who intervention has historically served.GUESTS: Mary Balikungeri, Director and Founder of Rwanda Women’s Network; Dr. Toni Haastrup, Chair in Global Politics at the University of Manchester; Salma, activist with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of AfghanistanADDITIONAL RESOURCES:The Rwanda Women’s NetworkThe Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)Statement of Intent on Feminist Informed Policies Abroad and at Home, The African Feminist Collective on Feminist Informed PoliciesThe Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, UNBackground on the Responsibility to Protect, UNWomen Peace and Security Agenda (UN Resolution 1325), UNOn May 19, 2024 there was an attempted coup in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the government there alleges that American citizens were involved in the plot. (DRC army says it stopped attempted coup involving US citizens, Reuters) The incident appears to be largely separate from the conflict on DRC’s eastern border that we discuss in this episode and the US has denied any involvement in the attempted coup. 

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 and Planet The Past, Present, and Future(s) of Feminist Foreign Policy, Columba Achilleos-Sarll, Jennifer Thomson, Toni Haastrup, Karoline Färber, Carol Cohn, Paul Kirby

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 meddling may have been part of the reason why. GUESTS: Rebecca Gomperts, abortion activist/medical doctor; Hanna Muehlenhoff, University of Amsterdam; Wiktoria Szymczak, abortion doula; Klementyna Suchanow, organizer, Polish Women’s Strike; Anna Gielewska, Editor in Chief of V Square BACKGROUND: Lucy Hall, University of Amsterdam; Tom Meinderts, University of Amsterdam; Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Ipas Partners for Reproductive Justice A spokesperson for Poland’s Law and Justice party, which formerly led the country’s government, replied to our questions with a statement excerpted below: “The Constitution of Poland defends the right to life and Poland's position concerning abortion is based on the Polish Constitution which was adopted in 1997. Polish law allows for abortion in cases where the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act or when the woman's life or health is in danger. The Law and Justice government followed established procedures when employing staff and will not comment on individual appointments.” ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Anti-Abortion International Under the Tutelage of the Kremlin: We Are Disclosing the Emails of the Group in Which Ordo Iuris Operates, Klementyna Suchanow for Onet (Machine translation from Polish by Google at the link; we are not responsible for errors) A Dying Baby, a Trump Tweet: Inside Network Setting Global Right-Wing Agenda, Sian Norris for Open Democracy Conservatives AKA Russia: How a Polish Left Wing Activist Spins Conspiracy Theories, Zuzanna Dąbrowska for Do Rzeczy (republished by Ordo Iuris) Tip of the Iceberg: Religious Extremist Funders against Human Rights for Sexuality & Reproductive Health in Europe, European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

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 Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Andrea Samaniego Sánchez, UNAM; Marcela, Activist; Lidia Florencio, Activist ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Internacional Feminista Mexico’s Feminist Foreign Policy, Martha Delgado Feminist Foreign Policy Index: A Qualitative Evaluation of Feminist Commitments, International Center for Research on Women