In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, people everywhere are demanding that police departments change not just their rules, but the culture inside that leads to these deaths. But those things are notoriously hard to change. As a case study, here's the story of a fire department that gets a new boss who starts a war with his own firefighters, to change their macho, racist culture. They fight back hard.

Adam Maida
Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.
A Policeman Burns Down the Firehouse
A strongman gets hired to take over the Amsterdam Fire Department. He’s a career police officer named Leen Schaap who has zero firefighting experience. That does not go over so well. Joanna Kakissis reports the story. (42 minutes)
Song:
Mom. Hey Mom. MOM. Hey Mom. Mom. Mom
A teenage girl decides the only way forward is to tear something down and rebuild from the ground up. Elna Baker explains. A version of this story appears on getmortified.com (8 minutes)