The residents of East Palestine, Ohio have been at the epicenter of one of the country’s largest environmental disasters in living memory. On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying toxic chemicals, including the human carcinogen vinyl chloride, derailed, contaminating the soil and surrounding waterways and erupting into a fireball and mushroom cloud that dwarfed the village. To allegedly prevent an even more catastrophic explosion, officials then intentionally vented more noxious fumes and set it all on fire again—sending more toxic chemicals into the air and community. In this important episode, you’ll hear from a reporter who has been on the ground digging for answers; another who exposes how corruption, deregulation, and the rail industry’s obsession with profits over people helped contribute to this catastrophe; and an East Palestine resident who shares in devastating detail her guilt, anguish, and fury over the untold impacts this tragedy has already had on her children’s health as she confronts the heartbreaking realization that her community will never be the same again.

News Beat is a Morey Creative Studios production, in association with Manny Faces Media.

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Producer/Audio Editor: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti
Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski
Managing Editor: Rashed Mian
Episode Art: Jeff Main
Executive Producer: Jed Morey