Behind the Scenes of 'American Emergency'

Over the weekend we re-shared the first installment of American Emergency, our 4-part series all about the Federal Emergency Management Agency. OTM’s Senior Producer Eloise Blondiau and host Micah Loewinger spent nearly a year researching and reporting those episodes. And earlier in the summer, they put on a live event at WNYC, where Eloise and Micah gave a behind the scenes look at their process making the show, and why they wanted to tell a story about FEMA in the first place. 

The conversation was recorded live at The Greene Space in New York, and moderated by legendary reporter Nancy Solomon. We were joined by one of our sources, former top FEMA staffer MaryAnn Tierney, who now leads the control center for SEPTA – the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. MaryAnn shared her expertise on how FEMA really works, as well as her experience working with Trump’s latest pick to lead the agency, Cameron Hamilton.