Booo

Used as a platform to promote social and racial justice, with strong political bias, particularly against former President Trump. Typical white, privileged, liberal woman. There’s nothing here for me.

NATO lovers/spook suckers

Je suis un chat 🐈‍⬛

Super grateful for all the clarity and creativity of this podcast. As a long-ago student of international relations, this one of my favorite national security podcasts. Laicie & team - thank you!

I love Lacie Harley’s comprehensive take on what yields security— not merely or principally armaments, national intelligence, and stern brows, but environmental care and a world where there aren’t populations of materially desperate people. Smart, humane, and thoroughly researched.

Started the series with getting ear screwed by hearing the host putting down former president Trump. What is with liberals? Does everything have to full circle back to their anti hero trump? I refuse to listen to these politically motivated duds.

The entirety of S3 ep. 1 focused on the disinformation ecosystem that's tearing down the trust on which democratic societies are built, and I was ready for an entire season of exploration of this. But at the last second, the host swerved the focus of this season to...food security! Shame on you for this bait and switch. You're out of my playlist for this tactic.

Thought provoking, interesting, lively, and at times hilarious. Really well done. Can’t recommend highly enough.

فارسی

Enjoy the reporting and different perspectives on current and historical events. Well made and easy to listen to. Thank you!

I love this show! I always learn something new. I never knew anything about foreign policy before I found this podcast and now I can’t get enough! Foreign policy isn’t as boring as it sounds, haha. Anyway, Things That Go Boom is one of my favorite shows and I never miss an episode. Keep ‘em coming!

This podcast flattens incredibly complex geopolitical issues. The hosts take the perspective from a very provincial, American viewpoint in my opinion; choosing to frame the issues through a specific, ideological, domestic-culture-wars lens. The most recent one about China / US relations was the last straw for me. Cringe.

I liked the previous seasons but now they’re following the well trod path of all the public radio connected podcasts by making it into a social / racial justice crusade. I came here for a foreign policy story but now I’m stuck listening to the same tropes about race that I get ad nauseam on Marketplace and on various news and politics shows.

I love this show! It provides super interesting alternative ways to think about what national security is, while also being fun to listen to. It’s a go-to for long car rides for me.

Definitely not a good start to a podcast series when the terms are defined—or rather not defined—through anything like an historical lens. Class in the US is myth, a part of the whole ideological bag filled with the American dream of owning a house, or equal rights, or equal justice before the law. Everyone cannot be middle class, but more than 80% of Americans have identified as such for decades. We can’t see class difference because it would unravel too many ideas we’ve been fed by politicians and school curriculums. Because of the Cold War, serious class analysis in this country has been neutered, and American exceptionalism provides cover for the nonsense. The US can’t conceive of labor (and therefore has no ability to create policy that defends workers), if a middle class job is a factory job and the ability to buy an expensive truck. I’m not suggesting that manufacturing jobs aren’t good substantial jobs that could support a family back in the day; I’m suggesting that the division between blue-collar and white-collar labor has always mattered here. Class resentment/anxiety has flowed along that divide, or after manufacturing and logging and mining jobs have been hemorrhaged by the US to compete in a global economy (and to create and protect the finance industry, whose employees definitely aren’t considered ‘workers’), now it flows along the urban/rural divide. Let’s not start with trying to define ‘middle-class’; let’s start with ‘class’ and how muddy the concept is in a country that has such a meager sense of its own history. As one of the experts said, race holds a higher importance in the US to class in defining people’s experience and status. I’d argue that that stems in part from the fact that the powers that be have ruthlessly undermined any movement that attempted to join poorer whites and people of color. Listen to Scene on Radio’s season called ‘Seeing White’ or Throughline’s episode on the Black Panthers, and while we are educating ourselves, listen to the Uncertain Hour’s series on changing definitions of employment in the US to see how class may have lost all possibility of definition in the economy we currently live and work under. Whiteness itself can’t be separated from the history of class in the US.

An absolute must listen for anyone who wants to actually understand national security and how it connects to their lives.

Things That Go Boom is a fantastic podcast. They make these issues accessible (and fun), so I’ve added this to my weekly routine. If you’re looking for a new podcast, this is a must listen to.

The content of this podcast is great, but I can’t get through an entire episode because of the host’s uptalk. It’s maddening.

I’ve missed you guys!! Thanks for coming back and I’ll never miss an episode!

I love the depth that they go to and articulate the national security implications in this complex world. Keep them coming sista!

...of the complexities of our lives with tech and information - and shows they lead back to us. Brava, Laicie!

Only took a few episodes to see that the host hates men, republicans, America and thinks white people are to blame for everything. I think there are enough crazy feminists like her doing podcasts. Definitely deleting this one.

If there were a gateway drug for security issues, this would be it. Laicie is human, funny, and really good company. She does a masterful job of reducing "complex" issues to their simplest human elements (which, under all the theory and abstraction, is what everything is). Each episode has drama, quirkiness, mind-broadening ideas, and very, very good story-telling. I have never enjoyed a podcast so much. More please.

This is a really great podcast. And if you’re looking for something to listen to you should stop looking and listen to this one. Even if you’re not looking for something to listen to you should listen to this one.

Informative, consistently interesting, thought provoking. I could just go on.

Concise, well researched, timely, compelling. Storytelling that always leaves me knowing and understanding the world we live in a little bit better. I’d like to see her do an episode with Jeffrey Sachs.

Voice burn louder than words! seriously sooo much voice burn! Does she have the energy to speak?!

Despite fear for the current state of things it unpacked issues of foreign policy really well. Super informative and subscribed!

One of my favorite podcasts! Super informative but also just straight-up enjoyable. Where most experts cling to elitism and can’t (or don’t want to) bring you in, Laicie is a relatable, trustworthy narrator who weaves personal storytelling and accessible discussions to shine a light on important foreign policy / global security issues that directly impact our lives. Do yourself a favor and subscribe!

Quote from podcast: “Democracy is the powerless fantasizing power would be shared with them. In some aspects it’s the same as communism.”

Just started listening and this is one of top five best podcast I have ever listened to. Definitely moved to a must listen spot on my list. Great program with great objectivity and relevance to world situations. Also really love Lacy’s voice. Very soothing radio voice.

This is a throw away line that ends up being so profound, not only here, but where we are in a global/ political circumstance. I was blissfully ignorant, thanks for upsetting that? Keep pointing out the things that go Boom.

Well written, entertaining, and fascinating. Thanks to all involved!

I cried in season 1 when she interviewed the veterans and the use of Shakespeare as therapy. So good. I’d love to hear about national security and airports, TSA etc. I am an avid traveler and the US border security is insane. It’s so chaotic and doesn't really add any real value or safety. It’s more safety theater than anything else.

Season 1 says the podcast "digs deeper into US foreign policy and the ins, outs and what have yous of what keeps us safe." That fascinating tag line got me to listen when the podcast launched in 2017 and I've listened ever since. Host Laicie Heeley, founder and editor of the foreign policy magazine Inkstick and a partner with the Truman National Security Project, has a way of delivering policy information about horrifying possibilities in a very engaging way. Each episode offers listeners a chance to learn more about foreign policy via excellent story-telling. Plus Heeley has a great voice for podcasting. Her podcasts aren't politicized. Two side-by-side reviews thought otherwise: one complained she is too much of a leftist while the other complained she was too credulous about Trump. Maybe that's why I like her; she can't be pigeon-holed. Definitely check out early episodes as well as recent ones.

The storytelling is fine but I can't get past the fact that this podcast gives credit to the Trump Administration for well thought out deliberations on the JCPOA. Let's face facts, Trump doesn't like any deal that Obama did, no matter what the merits.

Great storytelling!! This podcast is fun and informative!

This podcast was so interesting and addictive.

If The Daily and This American Life had a baby, it would be this podcast. The use of storytelling to convey the complexities of foreign affairs makes for a fascinating listen—that doesn’t induce sleep.

Awesome podcast by influential thinkers.

Fun and engaging take on the old boring narratives.

Pressing security issues presented in an engaging narrative fashion.

Foreign policy is a complex topic and that is compounded when you add nuclear threat to the discussion. Things That Go Boom is clarifying and unfolds in stories that are equal parts relatable, terrifying and utterly maddening. Getting a human perspective from insiders (and the occasional teenager) keeps it real. Because this real problem needs real solutions real fast!

An exceptional narrative-driven investigation into U.S. national security policy. Laicie Whaley’s insights will stay with you long after an episode concludes.

Elegantly told with a lot of heart. I found myself crying over my breakfast as I listened. This 20 minute episode will stay with me for a long time.

This is a great and informative podcasts. Takes dense, wonky topics, like nuclear weapons policy and breaks it down into language that is relatable and easy to digest. A+ product.

Yay! A unique voice on the scene. Love this show with diverse perspectives on big topics like nuclear weapons, diplomacy, US Veteran experiences that are humanizing, thoughtful, curious, and inspiring. I always learn something and come away thinking a bit differently. It really is “national security for the rest of us.”

Leftist trash. Information lodged in between a political agenda

Excellent informative podcasts, but not completely intellectually honest. I get the Trump bashing, It’s all too common in everything today, and not very unique. You will gain so much more credibility if you are intellectually honest with the subject matter. To talk deterrence and red lines without mentioning Obama’s Syria position is a lost opportunity. I will stick with it, it’s still very good info.