Hannah Rosen

Careers ended in capricious, even cruel ways.

Today, we're looking back at those careers to take stock of who and what we've lost.

This is Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer.

Frank spent months tapping into the network.

He called one fired worker, who led him to another worker, felt pressure to resign, and so on, until the bigger picture became clearer.

Frank's interviews are compiled in the February issue of the magazine.

You'll hear some of their voices throughout the episode.

You talked to how many people?

So you talked to 75-80 people.

I'm sure there were themes that emerged.

So that's not a cliché.

I actually think that there's nothing more patriotic that you can do but to work in public service, whether that's truly I thought I was going to retire from this job.

I thought I was I thought this was it.

I'd found I'd found the thing I was going to do forever.

This is Elizabeth Poole, one of the people Frank spoke with.

I worked for the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency in Region 5.

That's the Chicago office, the Great Lakes office.

And my job was the Children's Environmental Health Coordinator there.

I helped people not just at the agency, but our partners across the six states we served.