FIELD NOTES
Episode 3 | Bullies in a Strange Land → Listen
The Week I Waited
Everyone asks about the back door. The twenty minutes, the gravel, the guard's radio. That's the scene people remember, and I understand why.
But the part I think about is earlier. It's the week I knew the eyewash station wasn't hooked up to water and didn't tell the one person I trusted to fix it. I told myself I was still gathering facts. The truth is I was afraid she already knew.
Compliant on Paper. They hired me to fix a paper problem: a course, a signature, a stamp that said the fab could pass an audit. The eyewash was there to be seen, not used. So were the gloves, and the six-month rule nobody was supposed to question. A company can look exactly as safe as its paperwork says and still have an eyewash that's never touched water. The same gap now shows up in AI governance checklists, where "we have a policy" stands in for "it works."
The Only Sound I Made. The Remington is the sound I'm proudest of in this episode. Those keys were a small step toward not staying silent, and for a while they let me believe I'd done something that mattered. They were proof I had at least a wee bit of courage to go up against the system, even if the system won that round.
Coming Up November 16: A Canary Conversation with Judith Barish
Later this month I sit down with Judith Barish, Coalition Director of CHIPS Communities United, a coalition working to give workers and neighbors of chip fabs a seat at the table. Her organization has said Silicon Valley residents have known since the 1970s what this industry's chemistry did to workers and communities. I want to know what she's seeing now, and who gets a seat when public money meets industry plans.
The Substack Connection. In this essay I argue the best clean-up is the kind done before anyone needs it. Chuck's crew showed me the other kind. AI Creates Messes. Clean-Up Expertise Is Your Superpower.
🐦 Canary Question — Have you ever known something was wrong and waited a week to say it? What were you afraid of hearing?
Capture your response in a journal, reply to this email or log in and comment on the web version.
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Thank you for joining me. Until next week,
