Things That Go Boom

Converting the War Economy

A quick note: Independent journalism like Things That Go Boom only exists because of listener support. And right now, Newsmatch is doubling all donations — making it a powerful moment to give. If you love our show (and we hope you do!) consider making a tax-deductible contribution today.👉 https://inkstickmedia.com/donate/Enjoy the show!For decades, the US economy has been deeply intertwined with war-making — from Cold War-era aerospace and nuclear weapons to today’s AI-driven military technologies. But this wasn’t always seen as inevitable.In the 1970s and ’80s, organizers built unlikely coalitions across the peace, labor, civil rights, and faith movements to challenge military spending and push for an economy that served people instead of perpetual war. Their work helped popularize the idea of economic conversion: redirecting public resources away from weapons production and toward jobs that meet human needs.In this episode, we revisit that history — and ask what it can teach us now. As communities organize against new defense-tech projects and local governments continue to subsidize weapons manufacturers, activists are once again grappling with how to confront the war economy — and what a more just, peaceful alternative could look like.This is the final episode of our season, MIC Drop, reporting on how the military-industrial complex shapes local economies — and how communities are organizing in response.Guests: Dr. David Cortright, former Executive Director of SANE; Larry Frank, former Development Director for Jobs with Peace LA; Nathan Kim, Graduate Research Associate at DAIRAdditional Resources:Cortright v. Resor Reenactment and details about the Waging Peace event at George Washington UniversityUCLA: Memory Work Los Angeles project on Jobs with PeaceRecording of the 1982 Central Park Rally Brown University Costs of War Project

Inside the Campaign to Block Israel’s War Ships

As violence continues in Gaza, a new strategy inside the Palestine solidarity movement is taking shape — one aimed not at city streets or college campuses, but at the arteries of the global economy.Around the world, dockworkers have refused to unload ships tied to Israel’s military supply chain. In Italy, Morocco, India, and Sweden, those refusals have sparked national strikes and port shutdowns. But in the United States — where 70% of Israel’s weapons originate — things look very different.This episode dives into the complicated reality facing American activists trying to “block the boat”: a divided labor movement, powerful unions with clashing politics, and a military-industrial complex that shields its most sensitive logistics behind military bases and Air Force cargo planes.We meet East Coast organizers struggling to reach conservative longshore workers, West Coast veterans who once helped stop South African apartheid cargo, and the researchers studying how social-movement unionism succeeds — and fails.What power do workers really have to stop the flow of war? And what happens when activists push that power to its limits?Guests: Tova Fry, organizer and activist with Port Workers & Communities for PalestineKaty Fox-Hodess, Senior Lecturer at the University of SheffieldRafeef Ziadah, Senior Lecturer at Kings CollegeLara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource & Organizing CenterClarence Thomas, retired dock worker at ILWU Local 10Charmaine Chua, Acting Associate Professor of Geography at the University of California, BerkeleyAdditional Resources: Community picket lines and social movement unionism on the US docks, 2014–2021: Organizing lessons from the Block the Boat campaign for Palestine, Katy Fox-Hodess and Rafeef Ziadah, Critical SociologyReds or Rackets? The Making of Radical and Conservative Unions on the Waterfront, Howard KimeldorfThis Union Is Famous for Opposing South African Apartheid. Now It’s Standing With Gaza., Sarah Lazare, The NationDockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area, Peter Cole

Fighterland, USA

For a century, the weapons industry has helped shape St. Louis — from the McDonnell Douglas fighters that once symbolized American air power to Boeing’s sprawling factories today. But when thousands of machinists walked off the job this year, something cracked in “Fighterland, USA.”In this episode, we head to the picket line to hear from the workers who build America’s bombs and jets — those struggling to afford rent, groceries, and daycare while assembling weapons worth more than their annual salaries. Reporter Sophie Hurwitz takes us inside a city reckoning with its identity: Can St. Louis really become the “Silicon Valley of defense” when the jobs it’s banking on are shrinking? What happens when an economy built on war no longer guarantees stability? And what does labor power look like in an industry whose products help shape conflicts worldwide?While some in town are fighting to keep defense dollars flowing, others want St. Louis to imagine a different future. This is the story of a strike, a city, and a century-long relationship with the military-industrial complex now reaching its breaking point.Guests: Sophie Hurwitz, Reporting Fellow, Inkstick Media; Breanna Donnell, Rick Perdue, Mason, and other Boeing Machinists; Stephen Quackenbush, Professor and Director of Defense and Strategic Studies, University of Missouri; Maxi Glamour, 3rd Ward Committeeperson, St. LouisAdditional Resources: “How One Dissenter Left Boeing,” Sophie Hurwitz, Inkstick Media “The Year Arms Contractors Stopped Supporting Pride,” Sophie Hurwitz, Inkstick Media

Under the Bridge, Over the Line

San Diego’s Barrio Logan is a place defined by both proximity and resistance — pressed against naval shipyards, fenced in by freeways, and crowned by the Coronado Bridge. For decades, the community has lived with the noise, the pollution, and the promises that never quite came true.When the USS Bonhomme Richard went up in flames in 2020, the Navy said there was “nothing toxic in the smoke.” Residents knew better. It was just the latest chapter in a long story of damage left unresolved — one that began when the waterfront was seized for the war effort and continued through decades of rezoning fights, health crises, and a ballot-box battle that pitted neighbors against the city’s most powerful industry.In this episode, Things That Go Boom travels to San Diego to ask: what does it mean to live — and keep fighting — in the shadow of the military’s hometown? Featuring voices from across the neighborhood, we trace how a community beneath the bridge built its own language of survival.GUESTS: Dr. Alberto López Pulido, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of San Diego; Brent Beltrán, Publisher, Calaca Press; community activist; Ramón “Mr. Ray” Fino, Vietnam veteran, lifelong Barrio Logan resident; Angel Garcia, Commander, VFW Post Don Diego 7420ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:Environmental Health Coalition: Barrio Logan Community PlanChicano Park Museum: Logan Heights Archival ProjectIntersectional Health Project San Diego: Barrio Logan“Fallout From Trump’s EPA Cuts Includes Long-Sought Barrio Logan Park,” Philip Salata, inewsource

Gabriel Sanchez on Georgia, Tex-Mex, and Representing a District Built on Defense Jobs

When 27-year-old Gabriel Sanchez won his Democratic primary in Smyrna, Georgia — home to a massive Lockheed Martin plant — few expected an outspoken anti-war socialist to carry a district built on defense jobs. But Sanchez has managed to do just that, working to push for better benefits, wages, and labor rights across the state. In this episode, we look at how he’s building bridges between anti-war ideals and pro-labor politics — and what his unlikely success might mean for the future of organizing in defense towns.GUEST: Gabriel Sanchez, Georgia State RepresentativeADDITIONAL RESOURCES:Jonathan Chang and Meghna Chakrabarti, “'The last supper': How a 1993 Pentagon dinner reshaped the defense industry,” WBUR’s On PointTaylor Barnes, “Meet the democratic socialist winning in a Lockheed town,” Inkstick MediaMichelle Baruchman, “Only socialist in legislature beat expectations,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (paywall)