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 

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 Resources

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

This month on Things That Go Boom, we’re passing the mic to three veterans to share their memories in their words. 

In this first entry: When paratrooper Bill Glose came home from the Gulf War after leading his platoon, silence was his fortress. That all changed when a friend suggested he start writing poetry. 

The story is part of a new partnership with the news site The War Horse. The site publishes real stories from veterans that look war in the eye, rough edges and all. If you haven't heard of them, be sure to check them out. And tune in all month for more monologues. 

Additional Resources 

Silence Was My Father’s Fortress. I Shared It for a Time Until Poetry Set Me Free, Bill Glose, The War Horse, 2024

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 University

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

NDN Collective

Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative

International Women’s Network Against Militarism

Poverty Draft by Al Scorch

We are the Ones by Sweet Honey in the Rock

Special 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 University

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 

Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, Cynthia Enloe

Twelve Feminist Lessons of War, Cynthia Enloe

The 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 Afghanistan

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

The Rwanda Women’s Network

The 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 Policies

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, UN

Background on the Responsibility to Protect, UN

Women Peace and Security Agenda (UN Resolution 1325), UN

On 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.