This is Civics 101. I'm Nick Cappadiche. Most Americans get their weather forecast from their phones or their local news broadcast.

But those weather forecasts aren't actually coming from your favorite weather app or your local meteorologist.

They're coming from the National Weather Service, a so-called child agency of NOAA.

And recently, Noah, as well as the Weather Service, have been the target of deep cuts and

significant changes by President Donald Trump and Doge, that is Elon Musk's quote-unquote

Department of Government Efficiency. Staff have been hastily fired and then attempts have been made

to rehire them. There have been cuts to weather forecasting operations and the cancellation

and lapsing of contracts. And this week, it was revealed that the National Weather Service is no

longer translating its products for non-English speakers,

potentially putting millions of Americans at risk of missing warnings about life-endangering

weather. And as I am recording these words, tornadoes, flooding, storms, they have been

pummeling the Midwestern and southern United States for nearly two weeks, and the effects of those cuts are being felt within the agency and on the ground.

So what is the National Weather Service? How does its work affect public safety, food production, even national security, in addition to showing up on our phones?

And when and why was this agency created in the first place?

Today, we're talking about all of that in an episode we produced in late 2023.

It's very relevant.

Let's take a listen.

Nick, I never knew I was afraid of tornadoes until I was in Alabama one night,

and the tornado radio started making noises.

The tornado radio, Hannah? Was this produced by Michael Crichton?

They're called Weather Alert radios, which is the

sort of thing that you have in your possession if you live in a place where weather could

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