The Disastrous Response in East Palestine, Ohio with Prem Thakker

The Response

Today on the show, we’ve brought on Prem Thakker, a journalist with The New Republic who has been reporting on East Palestine, Ohio. Prem’s recent piece is titled: “Life After the Ohio Train Derailment: Trouble Breathing, Dying Animals, and Saying Goodbye.”

In this episode, we’ll bring you up to date on everything happening in the aftermath of the February 3rd train derailment — from the health concerns and experiences of the residents of East Palestine, to Norfolk Southern’s bungled and oftentimes horrifying response, to what coverage of the event has looked like and why so many politicians have remained silent on the issue for so long, and to the small glimmers of hope that disasters like this can present in terms of building community strength and solidarity.

Resources:

• "Life After the Ohio Train Derailment: Trouble Breathing, Dying Animals, and Saying Goodbye," The New Republic
• "The Conspiracy of the Ohio Train Derailment Is Right in Front of Us," The New Republic
• "Trump, Who Deregulated the Railroad Industry, Lies to the People of Ohio in His Visit," The New Republic
• "Death Plume" Tweet by Robert Raymond and the response to the "fact-check" by USA Today.

Episode credits:

• Host, producer, and editor: Robert Raymond
• Executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music: “Meet you on the other side” by Cultivate Beats

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The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net.