Ah Long spent years building a life in Shanghai. Then the pandemic arrived.

China's Zero-COVID policy cost him his job, his relationship, and eventually his faith that he could build a future there. So he did something almost unimaginable: he set out alone for the United States, crossing the Darién Gap, surviving robberies, and surrendering at the US-Mexico border to seek asylum.

But by the time he arrived, America had changed, too.

In this episode, reporter Aria Young follows Ah Long's extraordinary journey from China to New York and examines how both Beijing and Washington have turned to the language of emergency to expand executive power. The story asks a larger question: when governments rule through crisis, what happens to the people caught between?

Guests:

Ah Long, Chinese asylum seeker living in New York

Rory Truex, Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University

Rev. Mike Chan, Executive Director of Ministries in New York at Chinese Christian Herald Crusade

Additional Resources:

Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the US, Diana Roy and Sabine Baumgartner, Council on Foreign Relations

Deportation Data Project

A Study of Chinese Law on Restricting Personal Liberty for Public Health Protection: Taking the COVID-19 Epidemic as the Entry Point, Tengfei Liu and Zhongwu Ma, Frontiers in Public Health

A few hours outside Bogotá, a giant yellow circus tent rises above the countryside. Inside, families laugh at clowns, gasp at acrobats, and cheer for trapeze artists soaring overhead.

The performers are all members of the Colombian military.

For more than three decades, Circo Colombia has sent active-duty soldiers across the country to perform for communities, many of them in regions shaped by decades of armed conflict. Military officials say the circus builds trust, provides entertainment, and offers a different face of the armed forces.

But not everyone sees it that way.

Some Colombians view the circus as a sophisticated public-relations project for an institution still grappling with allegations of corruption, violence, and abuses committed during the country's long civil conflict. Others argue the performances can blur the line between entertainment, recruitment, and intelligence gathering.

Reporter Natalie Skowlund travels to the town of Supatá to step inside the tent and meet the people at the center of this unusual story: soldier-clowns, former military performers, circus historians, government officials, and audience members trying to make sense of what happens when the military puts on a show.

In this episode: Why Colombia has a military circus, what it reveals about the country's relationship with war and memory, and how one former circus soldier came to see the circus not as a tool of the military, but as a path to freedom.

Guests:

Professional Soldier Luís Javier Cardenas, clown and trapeze artist with Circo Colombia
Franci Guzmán and Ana Pinzón, audience members at Circo Colombia show in Supatá, Colombia
Rosa Elena González Moreno, Colombian Ministry of Culture Circus Program Coordinator
Jonathan Hernández, professional circus artist and former soldier performer with Circo Colombia
Olga Lucía Sorzano, PhD, Colombian circus scholar and director of Artemotion

Additional Resources:

A Spanish-language report on the history of circus in Colombia.

Tatan's Instagram account.

Colombia's military circus, live, in the AP archive.

After a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, residents were told the air was safe and the situation was under control. But for many people living there, the emergency never really ended.

In this episode, East Palestine resident and Rail Watch founder Jess Conard takes us inside the chaos and confusion of the derailment’s aftermath: shifting evacuation zones, lingering chemical smells, chronic health problems, and the exhausting burden of trying to prove harm after disaster strikes.

But this story isn’t just about one train derailment. It’s about what actually counts as an emergency in the eyes of the federal government — and what kind of response that label unlocks.

As Congress routinely moves billions of dollars quickly and flexibly for war and national security priorities, communities impacted by industrial disaster often struggle to access long-term healthcare, environmental testing, or meaningful support. Through conversations with budget experts Steve Ellis and Julia Gledhill, this episode examines how emergency spending works, how “urgent” becomes a political category, and what those choices reveal about whose suffering matters.

Because emergencies don’t just expose broken systems. They expose what those systems were built to protect.

Guests:

Jess Conard, founder and executive director of Rail Watch
Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense
Julia Gledhill, research analyst at the Stimson Center

Additional Resources:

Rail Watch

The Ghost Budget: US War Spending & Fiscal Transparency, Linda J. Bilmes, MIT Press Direct

The United States Is Self-Destructing Amid Empire Collapse, Julia Gledhill, The Nation

Defense Divided: Overcoming the Challenges of Overseas Contingency Operations, Laicie Heeley and Anna Wheeler, Stimson Center