Across the country — from DC to Los Angeles to Chicago — the military is more visible in daily life than it’s been in years. But behind the boots on the ground lies a much bigger system. One that puts grenade launchers in the hands of police, surveils our every step, and ships weapons overseas. And it's grown bigger and more powerful than ever before. 

This season on Things That Go Boom, we trace the reach of the military-industrial complex: how decisions in Washington fuel a trillion-dollar industry, how that industry shapes our cities and neighborhoods, and how people on the ground are responding.

Mahmoud Khalil became the face of Palestinian rights at Columbia University when the Syrian-born refugee refused to wear a mask and negotiated on behalf of the encampment with the University administration. Now the US wants to deport him using a deep-cut statute in the immigration act that gives the Secretary of State sweeping powers to decide who could have “adverse” foreign policy impacts on the United States. How did we get here? We trace the line back from Charlottesville in 2017 — from domestic extremists fighting on the streets to taking shots in the halls of power. 

GUESTS: Joseph Howley, Associate Professor of Classics, Columbia University; Diala Shamas, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights; Chris Mathias, Author, “To Catch A Fascist” (forthcoming);  Ben Lorber, Senior Research Analyst, Political Research Associates

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 

Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of US Antiterrorism Law, Center for Constitutional Rights 

A Letter From Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil, ACLU

If you live in the US, buying a gun can be as easy as going to Walmart. In countries with strict gun laws, such as most of Europe or Australia, you need a little more ingenuity. Although not that much more: since March of 2020, anyone with access to a cheap second-hand 3D printer and experience putting IKEA furniture together can do it. Does that mean the rest of us should start printing bunkers, presto? Or are we worried for nothing? Things That Go Boom travels to the mean streets of New York and the jungles of Myanmar to find out.

GUESTS:

Lizzie Dearden, British journalist specializing in the modern technology that offers criminals and terrorists new ways to operate; Frank Grosspietsch, Canadian expert and international consultant in all things ghost gun; Manny Maung, Burmese journalist and human rights expert; "Rebel Lion," Burmese rebel fighter resisting the military junta; and Brendan Baker, reading the English translation of Rebel Lion's Burmese

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Rebel Lion's Facebook profile.

Rap Against Junta, the Burmese resistance hip-hop collective making music denouncing the military junta.

Lizzie Dearden's latest book, Plotters, about the terrorist plots you've never heard of because the perpetrators were caught in time.

Nearly everyone has played dress up at some point in their lives, whether putting on mom or dad’s clothes as kids, for Halloween, as their favorite Marvel character at ComicCon… or even, maybe, as a Civil War soldier.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where historians say Civil War casualties were highest, attracts many reenactors. They carry their muskets, pull on their blue britches, and revel in the past. But today that hobby has taken on new meaning — survivalists on the left and right and even some pundits have suggested a second US Civil War isn’t quite so unlikely as it might seem. So, we thought we’d head out to learn a little bit more about why some folks like to play war… and what they think about the prospect of another.

GUESTS: Pete Bedrossian, Civil War reenactor; Mike Peets, Civil War reenactor; Levi Rifenburgh, Civil War reenactor, high school student; Mary Babcock, Bannerman Island; Rebecca DuBois, Bannerman Island, archivist; Peggy Bedrossian, Former reenactor, Pete's wife; Kyle Windahl, Regalia maker, historian; Jocelyn Windahl, Occasional Reenactor, High school STEM teacher, Kyle's wife; Matt Atkinson, Civil War reenactor; Sherry/Cheri Stultz, Gettysburg Family Restaurant; Mark Russell, Civil War reenactor

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Civil War Re-Enactors Have Their Own POG-Level Slang, Blake Stilwell, We Are The Mighty

How Gettysburg Became a Refuge for Conservatives Battered by Trump-Era Strife, Virginia Heffernan, Politico

Initially assigned to $100 million bank failure investigations, Mike German’s FBI career took a pivotal turn in 1992, when he went undercover to infiltrate neo-Nazi groups in LA. The years that followed gave him a front-row seat to the Justice System’s handling of domestic terrorism from the 1990s to his departure in 2004.

When Mike left the FBI, it was after reporting deficiencies in the bureau’s counterterrorism operations in the wake of 9/11. And today he and his colleagues are taking on the FBI in the halls of Congress and in court.

On this episode, Mike tells us how FBI leaders exploited America’s fear of terrorism after 9/11 to break free of regulations imposed on them in the wake of Hoover-era civil rights abuses. And how today, the FBI can’t even count the number of domestic terrorism cases it handles.

And that’s before the Trump administration’s purge.

GUEST: Mike German, Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within, Mike German and Beth Zasloff, New Press

Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy, Mike German, New Press

Justice Department Must Reveal the Real Scope of Domestic Terrorism, Mike German and Faiza Patel, Brennan Center for Justice.

True to his promise, on the first day of Donald Trump’s second term as president, he pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — an event many observers accuse him of instigating. He also commuted the sentences of the six organizers of the riot, those convicted of the most serious crimes. 

What does these paramilitaries’ return to public life mean for the rest of us? 

And how did our broken pardon system get us here?  

—

GIVEAWAY NEWS! Drawn and Quarterly has agreed to collab with us and give one US-, UK-, or Canada-based member of our Boom Squad a free copy of “Are you willing to die for the cause.”  

To enter: Subscribe to Inkstick on Substack (https://inkstick.substack.com/). You'll get a welcome email from us saying you're on the list. Reply to our welcome email with the word "BOOK” so we know to enter you in the draw.

If you’re already a subscriber you can still join by replying to any of Inkstick’s Substack emails with the word BOOK. You can also follow us on Instagram @inkstickmedia and @goboompod for two extra entries. We’ll draw names at random and let the winner know by the time our next episode hits. Offer is only valid for people with UK, US and Canadian mailing addresses. 

GUESTS: Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, founder, Dunn’s Democracy Defenders; Walter Olson, Cato Institute; Graham Dodds, Concordia University 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 

How Do Donald Trump’s Pardons Compare With Other Us Presidents? Hanna Duggal and Marium Ali, Al Jazeera  

Donald Trump Is Firing Out Presidential Pardons and Warnings of Retribution. What Happens Next? Adam Quinn, The Conversation

Amy Cooter has been studying US militias since 2008 when, as a graduate student in Michigan, she attended a public meeting of a group that was thought to be a cover for an underground neo-Nazi movement.

As it turned out, that assumption was wrong. 

It was then that Amy realized this militia movement she encountered was worthy of study all on its own. And at the time, most academics weren't studying it, partly because they believed all these guys were the same. They're not.

Today Amy is one of the foremost experts on these groups. In this episode, she tells us the things we’re still getting wrong about the US militia movement. And explains how, by ignoring the movement’s complexities, we might have missed our window for change.

GUEST: Dr. Amy Cooter, Director of Research, Academic Development, and Innovation (RADI), Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

"As Trump Touts Plans for Immigrant Roundup, Militias Are Standing Back, but Standing By," Amy Cooter, The Conversation.

Nostalgia, Nationalism, and the US Militia Movement, Amy Cooter, Routledge.

"The Sheriffs, Hardliners, and Militias Preparing for Trump’s Return," Tyler Hicks, Inkstick Media.

In 1970, Canada’s streets were full of troops and the country was on edge. Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte had been captured by a militant French separatist group, the FLQ, and the Canadian government worried thousands of FLQ sympathizers could be ready to unleash chaos in Quebec. As it turned out, the group that caused so much fear throughout the 1960s was never more than a few dozen individuals. 

This season on Things That Go Boom, we’re starting in Canada, because four years after Jan. 6, the US is as divided as ever. And we wondered if it might be headed for an October Crisis of its own.

It doesn’t take a lot of people to create a lot of fear. But what does it mean for a place to devolve into the grip of that fear, and how do we escape it?

GUESTS

Jean Foster, retired schoolteacher; Elizabeth Morgan, philanthropist and organic farmer; Chris Oliveros, graphic novelist, “Are You Willing To Die For The Cause”; Alexandre Turgeon, historian, Laval University; Peter Graefe, political scientist, McGill University

RESOURCES

You can buy “Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?” by Chris Oliveros here: https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/are-you-willing-to-die-for-the-cause/

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.” 

When former US Navy Intelligence Officer Andrew McCormick spent the holiday season in Kandahar in 2013, attempts at holiday cheer were everywhere. But few were more out-of-touch than the generic care packages sent from civilians who knew nothing about him — or the war he was fighting. 

Part of our series of monologues in partnership with The War Horse. 

Additional Resources

Care Packages a Powerful Symbol of the Military-Civilian Divide, Andrew McCormick, The War Horse, 2020