#45 - Nicholas Enrich

On February 3, 2025, Elon Musk posted this on X: "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone [sic] to some great parties. Did that instead."

It's safe to say that no one needed Musk's savage imagery. It's also worth pointing out that by now--a year later--the barely-trained, Musk-led forces at the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have directly cost the jobs of over a quarter of a million people worldwide and have, according to several published models, led to nearly 800,000 deaths worldwide, including more than half a million children.

We may never know exact numbers, but we do know that these harrowing figures were the result of a toxic mix of cruelty, arrogance, incompetence, ego, and ignorance.

We know this, in part, because Nick Enrich, USAID's then-Acting Assistant Administrator of Global Health, had a front-row seat to the devastation and refused to stay quiet about what he saw. His book--'Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID'--defies belief, but serves as an invaluable document and bears witness to a still unfolding atrocity.

Nicholas Enrich

Elon Musk's infamous post (done with the same lack of precision that was a hallmark of DOGE's work)

Learn more about Into the Wood Chipper HERE

SHOW CREDITS

SP/FS Producer & Host: Christopher Wurst

Opening Voices: Dmitri Wurst, Elena Wurst, Kjara Wurst, Christopher Wurst

Cold Open Music: BWM – The Brina Band

Episode Music:

Willow - Sappheiros

Cast in Wicker – Blue Dot Sessions

New England is Interesting – BOPD

In Paler Skies – Blue Dot Sessions

Supermoon – Alan Singley

Waterbourne – Blue Dot Sessions

Cass County Beauty Queen – Alan Singley

Interview date: May 21, 2026