Micah Loewinger has released a new multi-part investigative series on FEMA titled American Emergency, tackling the history and failures of the disaster response agency. On Radiolab, host Latif Nasser highlighted the project's origins, telling listeners that "The series sprung from the mind of On the Media co-host Micah Loewinger."
The project, which Micah Loewinger put together alongside On the Media senior producer Eloise Blondiau, tracks how the agency's mission has repeatedly fractured. Latif Nasser noted that the reporting picks up in the 1990s "when FEMA stops obsessing over nuclear winter and focuses on climate disasters." From there, the series outlines how the September 11 attacks once again divided the agency's focus toward counterterrorism.
By unpacking these bureaucratic pivots, Micah Loewinger is confronting how FEMA became a lightning rod for conspiracy theories. As climate disasters intensify, this deep dive will likely shape how the public evaluates the agency's ability to respond to modern crises.