Dr. Samantha Montano
@samlmontano.bsky.social
Working on disaster justice & the climate crisis. Emergency Management PhD. Author of 📚DISASTEROLOGY 📚 she/her
Pinned
Some other places to find my work if you are so inclined:
Book: www.disaster-ology.com
Instagram: @samlmontano
Substack: disasterology.substack.com
TikTok: @samlmontano
Book: www.disaster-ology.com
Instagram: @samlmontano
Substack: disasterology.substack.com
TikTok: @samlmontano
Watched the new HBO documentary "Thoughts and Prayers". If you're up for it, I do recommend it. I think it does a good job of broaching the active shooter preparedness industry. Although primarily coming out of law enforcement, the industry has infiltrated emergency management.
November 26, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Watched the new HBO documentary "Thoughts and Prayers". If you're up for it, I do recommend it. I think it does a good job of broaching the active shooter preparedness industry. Although primarily coming out of law enforcement, the industry has infiltrated emergency management.
Listen, it’s anyone’s game but I still think Phoenix is going to be the first big U.S. city to be unlivable (broadly defined) because of failure to take climate action.
November 26, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Listen, it’s anyone’s game but I still think Phoenix is going to be the first big U.S. city to be unlivable (broadly defined) because of failure to take climate action.
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Montano
The whole thing is ridiculous. There is no one on that council that I trust.
The council, appointed by Trump and made up almost exclusively by members from Republican-led states who support significant FEMA reforms, finished a draft report in early November of over 160 pages.
Kristi Noem's office shrunk it to 20 pages, alarming some council members.
Kristi Noem's office shrunk it to 20 pages, alarming some council members.
FEMA Reforms Bryant Helped Draft ‘Got Nuked’ in Favor of Cuts
A much-anticipated report on reforms to FEMA that former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant helped draft has been whittled down in favor of drastic cuts.
buff.ly
November 25, 2025 at 10:46 PM
The whole thing is ridiculous. There is no one on that council that I trust.
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Montano
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Is there any research on whether physical or social scientists tend to be more or less “hopeful” about climate action as compared to each other? I have a theory…
November 24, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Is there any research on whether physical or social scientists tend to be more or less “hopeful” about climate action as compared to each other? I have a theory…
Listen, academia is a nightmare in a thousand different ways but they really popped off with this sabbatical thing.
I’ll be traveling full time (while writing, obviously) from July 2026 through February 2027 and it is single handedly keeping me sane.
I’ll be traveling full time (while writing, obviously) from July 2026 through February 2027 and it is single handedly keeping me sane.
November 24, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Listen, academia is a nightmare in a thousand different ways but they really popped off with this sabbatical thing.
I’ll be traveling full time (while writing, obviously) from July 2026 through February 2027 and it is single handedly keeping me sane.
I’ll be traveling full time (while writing, obviously) from July 2026 through February 2027 and it is single handedly keeping me sane.
Good chat about emergency management in these strange times on the Water Talk podcast!
We were thrilled to have @samlmontano.bsky.social on Water Talk for a conversation about all things disaster and emergency management, where things stand with FEMA, and public engagement. Give it a listen wherever you get podcasts! www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/epi...
Ep 79: Disasters and Emergency Management — Water Talk
A conversation with Professor Samantha Montano (Massachusetts Maritime Academy, author of Disasterology) about the stages of emergency management, needs following different types of disasters, and the...
www.watertalkpodcast.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Good chat about emergency management in these strange times on the Water Talk podcast!
Anyway... @amsavitt.bsky.social and I have a bet going about what happens with the plot on the TV show 911 and the winner gets to be first author on our future book.
November 21, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Anyway... @amsavitt.bsky.social and I have a bet going about what happens with the plot on the TV show 911 and the winner gets to be first author on our future book.
Kevin Guthrie is back in the news* so let me use it as an opportunity to remind everyone of the horror he's responsible for in Florida.
*A quote in like one article. I will use literally any opportunity to bring this up.
disasterology.substack.com/p/disasterol...
*A quote in like one article. I will use literally any opportunity to bring this up.
disasterology.substack.com/p/disasterol...
Disasterology: September 2025
This newsletter is a compilation of recent disaster ~things~ that I think are cool, important, or otherwise of interest to people who are intrigued with disaster (broadly defined).
disasterology.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Kevin Guthrie is back in the news* so let me use it as an opportunity to remind everyone of the horror he's responsible for in Florida.
*A quote in like one article. I will use literally any opportunity to bring this up.
disasterology.substack.com/p/disasterol...
*A quote in like one article. I will use literally any opportunity to bring this up.
disasterology.substack.com/p/disasterol...
I would pay so much money for this.
I want a tool like Adblock that blocks all AI tools and content from my browser
November 20, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I would pay so much money for this.
😍😍
JUST IN: A tidal wave of 30,000 students hit the streets in Charlotte, walking out to confront ICE with sheer numbers and zero hesitation.
This is a generation refusing to be controlled.
This is a generation refusing to be controlled.
November 20, 2025 at 3:26 PM
😍😍
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Montano
He already tried to murder all of them less than five years ago so this certainly checks out.
November 20, 2025 at 2:48 PM
He already tried to murder all of them less than five years ago so this certainly checks out.
My students asked me what silverware to use at the Banquet last night.
Me: Outside in. Haven’t you seen Titanic?
Students: no
Me: ??????
Other student: weren’t you in Titanic?
Me: ??????
Guys. A Titanic documentary, I was very briefly in a Titanic documentary. 😂😂😂
Me: Outside in. Haven’t you seen Titanic?
Students: no
Me: ??????
Other student: weren’t you in Titanic?
Me: ??????
Guys. A Titanic documentary, I was very briefly in a Titanic documentary. 😂😂😂
November 20, 2025 at 2:20 PM
My students asked me what silverware to use at the Banquet last night.
Me: Outside in. Haven’t you seen Titanic?
Students: no
Me: ??????
Other student: weren’t you in Titanic?
Me: ??????
Guys. A Titanic documentary, I was very briefly in a Titanic documentary. 😂😂😂
Me: Outside in. Haven’t you seen Titanic?
Students: no
Me: ??????
Other student: weren’t you in Titanic?
Me: ??????
Guys. A Titanic documentary, I was very briefly in a Titanic documentary. 😂😂😂
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Montano
This is the first story I ever did that got more than a million views
November 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
This is the first story I ever did that got more than a million views
Consider my nerves frayed.
"We have a 2000s housing bubble level of financial engineering on top of a 1920s level of private unregulated lending on top of something bigger than a 1990s internet (or 1870s railroad) level of technology and infrastructure build-out. It’s one bubble to rule them all."
"We have a 2000s housing bubble level of financial engineering on top of a 1920s level of private unregulated lending on top of something bigger than a 1990s internet (or 1870s railroad) level of technology and infrastructure build-out. It’s one bubble to rule them all."
"We have a 2000s housing bubble level of financial engineering on top of a 1920s level of private unregulated lending on top of something bigger than a 1990s internet (or 1870s railroad) level of technology and infrastructure build-out." prospect.org/2025/11/19/a...
The AI Bubble Is Bigger Than You Think - The American Prospect
It’s not just OpenAI that looks overhyped. There’s a whole mountain of sketchy financial engineering underneath.
prospect.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Consider my nerves frayed.
"We have a 2000s housing bubble level of financial engineering on top of a 1920s level of private unregulated lending on top of something bigger than a 1990s internet (or 1870s railroad) level of technology and infrastructure build-out. It’s one bubble to rule them all."
"We have a 2000s housing bubble level of financial engineering on top of a 1920s level of private unregulated lending on top of something bigger than a 1990s internet (or 1870s railroad) level of technology and infrastructure build-out. It’s one bubble to rule them all."
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Montano
The important thing to bear in mind as Trump's popularity begins to wobble is that the disastrous economic consequences of the things he's done in the first 10 months of this term have not even *begun* to hit. We've been coasting on the fumes of the economy he inherited and soon they'll be gone.
my wife and her entire team were fired over Zoom from their program manager jobs at a local nonprofit Seattle hospital this Spring because Trump just stopped paying Medicaid reimbursements. and this is a relatively affluent urban center
we're really not prepared for what's coming
we're really not prepared for what's coming
As a direct result of President Trump's Big Ugly Bill, almost 300 jobs will be cut from Providence Swedish's First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard, and Issaquah hospitals and clinics. These are not the only layoffs we've seen in our health care system in Washington state in recent months.
November 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM
The important thing to bear in mind as Trump's popularity begins to wobble is that the disastrous economic consequences of the things he's done in the first 10 months of this term have not even *begun* to hit. We've been coasting on the fumes of the economy he inherited and soon they'll be gone.
Reposted by Dr. Samantha Montano
Me at Cloudflare making sure OpenAI stays down:
November 18, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Me at Cloudflare making sure OpenAI stays down:
I am pleased to see that Richardson's legacy as he leaves FEMA has been largely framed by his failure to respond to the July 4th flood.
It took days for the national media to notice he wasn't there. @marisakabas.bsky.social was the first to report it.
It took days for the national media to notice he wasn't there. @marisakabas.bsky.social was the first to report it.
Has anyone seen David Richardson, the current head of FEMA? Where is he? I've not seen or heard a word from him during this flood? They've sent Noem out instead which is not usually how this goes.
November 18, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I am pleased to see that Richardson's legacy as he leaves FEMA has been largely framed by his failure to respond to the July 4th flood.
It took days for the national media to notice he wasn't there. @marisakabas.bsky.social was the first to report it.
It took days for the national media to notice he wasn't there. @marisakabas.bsky.social was the first to report it.
My generous read of this is that this is a weird miscommunication? My understanding is that Kidd wanted to stay in Texas to run TDEM (because for him this is as sweet a gig as you get in public sector EM), not that he did not physically want to move to DC???
November 18, 2025 at 1:03 PM
My generous read of this is that this is a weird miscommunication? My understanding is that Kidd wanted to stay in Texas to run TDEM (because for him this is as sweet a gig as you get in public sector EM), not that he did not physically want to move to DC???
I understand that everything about this situation, from the behavior to the writing, is bad, but my god, it's so funny.
oh my god you have to read this until the end www.telos.news/p/part-1-how...
Part 1: How I Found Out
Olivia had just returned from a reporting trip—at least that’s what she told me it was—and her Herschel backpack, the one with the flap that never quite closed properly, was tossed beside our bed, its...
www.telos.news
November 18, 2025 at 2:01 AM
I understand that everything about this situation, from the behavior to the writing, is bad, but my god, it's so funny.