Things That Go Boom

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. What’s worked, what hasn’t, and where it might go next. GUESTS: Ethan Lee, Stanford University (Student); Ali Wyne, Eurasia Group; Scott Rozelle, Stanford University; Peter Lorentzen, University of San Francisco. ADDITIONAL READING: The World China Wants, Rana Mitter, Foreign Affairs. Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise, Scott Rozelle, University of Chicago Press. Foreign Policy Lessons From Brown v. Board of Education, Ali Wyne, Inkstick Media. 'Mulan' and China's Approach To Soft Power Through Hollywood, Ethan Lee, Inkstick Media.

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 sides according to Brown University estimates. But how does it fit into Biden's foreign policy for the middle class? And what does our exit mean for the lives of middle-class Afghan women who fear a Taliban resurgence? GUESTS: Metra Mehran, Institute of Diplomacy at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kabul; James Traub, Foreign Policy ADDITIONAL READING: Biden’s ‘Foreign Policy for the Middle Class’ Is a Revolution, James Traub, Foreign Policy. The People We’re Leaving Behind in Afghanistan, Steve Coll, The New Yorker. US Troops Are Packing Up, Ready or Not, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Najim Rahim and Fatima Faizi, New York Times.

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 about Cliff Huxtable? Dre Johnson? Or Jane Villanueva? On this episode, we dig into the huge, diverse swath of people that make up America’s middle class. And we ask if it’s possible to create one overarching policy that makes life better for them all — especially if you, yourself, only represent a small piece. Or may even have fallen out of touch entirely. GUESTS: Emily VanDerWerff, Vox; Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study; Mari Faines, Physicians for Social Responsibility; Lori Latrice Martin, Louisiana State University ADDITIONAL READING: What TV Says About Race and Money, Salamishah Tillet, New York Times 10 Episodes That Show How Cheers Stayed Great for 11 Seasons, Emily VanDerWerff, AV Club America’s Hollow Middle Class, Anne Helen Petersen, Vox America in Denial: How Race-Fair Policies Reinforce Racial Inequality in America, Lori Latrice Martin, SUNY Press

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? Slapping a little lipstick and climate change on Trump’s, “America First” agenda? Or creating something truly revolutionary? Ask around in Washington, and you’ll get ten different answers to the same question, if you get an answer at all. So this season, Things That Go Boom set out to decide for itself: What even is the middle class? What does it have to do with foreign policy? And, are we sitting on the precipice of a major change in the way we live our lives?

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 at what Biden’s done so far in terms of foreign policy, and what that might signal about his priorities going forward. On this episode Things That Go Boom: A very candid conversation with Nahal Toosi. What has Biden already accomplished, what can we learn about his goals, and what are analysts watching for on the horizon? GUESTS: Nahal Toosi, Politico ADDITIONAL READING: We're All 'Omnipolicy' Experts Now, Nahal Toosi. Biden’s ‘Foreign Policy for the Middle Class’ Is a Revolution, James Traub. 7 Ways to Track if Biden’s Omnipolicy Works, Nahal Toosi.

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... And last year, the US deployed a new one. But, what exactly are these things? Do we need them? And what does the deployment of a new generation of them reveal about the US’s nuclear posture? On this episode of Things That Go Boom, we talk about low-yield nuclear weapons -- or what we’ve affectionately termed, “baby nukes.” GUESTS: Matt Korda, Federation of American Scientists; Rose Gottemoeller, Stanford University ADDITIONAL READING: The Littlest Boy, Adam Rawnsley and David Brown. Nuclear Notebook: United States Nuclear Weapons, 2021, Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda. After the Apocalypse: US Nuclear Policy, Heather Williams, Vipin Narang, Beatrice Finh, and Togzhan Kassenova.

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 million people RSVP’d to ambush Area 51. But when they take a turn to the dark side, conspiracy theories can be as dangerous as any other threat we face. On this episode of Things That Go Boom, we talk about how the internet has fueled a rise in that dark side, and how it caught the US government by surprise. GUESTS: Elizabeth Neumann, Former Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at the Department of Homeland Security; Oumou Ly, Fellow, Berkman Klein Center, Harvard Law School ADDITIONAL READING: Leaving Trump in Office Now Will Just Encourage White Nationalists, Kathleen Belew and Elizabeth Neumann. When Disinformation Becomes a Political Strategy, Who Holds the Line?, Oumou Ly. QAnon Believers Are Obsessed With Hillary Clinton. She Has Thoughts., Michelle Goldberg.

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, she wore tennis shoes that day — Rep. Barbara Lee. We speak with Lee about the greatest terror threat inside the United States today, white nationalism, as well as a more general trend toward political radicalization. We also revisit her lonely vote in the wake of 9/11, when Lee was the only lawmaker in both chambers to take a stand against granting broad war powers to the president in response to the attack. Twenty years later, those powers have been stretched to cover drone strikes and military interventions across the globe. But with President Joe Biden in the White House, Lee seems closer than ever to getting that authorization repealed. GUEST: Rep. Barbara Lee, of California’s 13th congressional district, is a member of the Democratic Party. Besides her efforts to reign in presidential war powers, she’s advocated to end poverty and fight HIV. ADDITIONAL READING: 60 Words And A War Without End, BuzzFeed White Supremacist Domestic Terror Threat Looms Large In US, The Guardian Lone Wolves Connected Online: A History Of Modern White Supremacy, NYT

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, everything from the agency that controls America's nuclear weapons to the agency that regulates the electric grid, to a company whose products you probably use every day: Microsoft. So, what did they have in common? They were all using the same software monitoring service: a platform called Orion, from the company SolarWinds. The breach leaves the US open to nightmare scenario after nightmare scenario. So how did we get here, and how can we prevent similar attacks in the future? GUESTS: Mieke Eoyang, Senior Vice President for the National Security Program and Chairperson of the Cyber Enforcement Initiative, Third Way; Juliet Okafor, Founder and CEO, Revolution Cyber ADDITIONAL READING: Cybercrime vs. Cyberwar: Paradigms for Addressing Malicious Cyber Activity, Journal of National Security Law and Policy. To Catch a Hacker. A Moment of Reckoning: The Need for a Strong and Global Cybersecurity Response, Microsoft.

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 and its residents have made a difficult decision to relocate. “Would you relocate?” she asks. Experts believe stories like Darlene’s are just a precursor to a massive migratory trend that could have millions of Americans on the move before mid-century, as wildfires rage and floodwaters rise. And the consequences could be far-reaching— affecting our economy, our social fabric and even our foreign policy priorities. On this episode, we examine how ‘climigration’ could play out here at home, and how climate change can become a threat multiplier. GUESTS: Jesse Keenan, associate professor of real estate at the Tulane School of Architecture specializing in climate change adaptation: Francesco Femia, co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security, and the Council on Strategic Risks; Darlene Turner, library skills teacher; Jonathan Foret, executive director of the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center. ADDITIONAL READING: The Great Climate Migration, ProPublica. ‘We’re Moving to Higher Ground’: America’s Era of Climate Mass Migration is Here, The Guardian. How Russia Wins the Climate Crisis, NYT.