Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
President Trump has said that he wants to phase out FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and move responsibility for dealing with major disasters to the state level. Since its creation in 1979, the agency has played a key role in coordinating emergency response nationally. Host Ira Flatow talks with Samantha Montano, an emergency management specialist and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis, about the path forward for FEMA and how US emergency response efforts might change in the coming years.
Plus, how much can extreme flooding events be attributed to climate change? Host Flora Lichtman breaks down the science with Andrew Dessler, Director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather.
Guest:
Samantha Montano, assistant professor of Emergency Management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis (Park Row, 2021)
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences and director of Texas A&M’s Texas Center for Climate Studies
Subscribe to our podcast and never miss your daily dose of science: pod.link/73329284
President Trump has said that he wants to phase out FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and move responsibility for dealing with major disasters to the state level. Since its creation in 1979, the agency has played a key role in coordinating emergency response nationally. Host Ira Flatow talks with Samantha Montano, an emergency management specialist and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis, about the path forward for FEMA and how US emergency response efforts might change in the coming years.
Plus, how much can extreme flooding events be attributed to climate change? Host Flora Lichtman breaks down the science with Andrew Dessler, Director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather.
Guest:
Samantha Montano, assistant professor of Emergency Management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and author of Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis (Park Row, 2021)
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences and director of Texas A&M’s Texas Center for Climate Studies
Subscribe to our podcast and never miss your daily dose of science: pod.link/73329284
