Pop Culture in the Atomic Age

The US government poured $8 billion dollars down the drain when politics and poor planning left its efforts to dispose of Cold War-era plutonium at the Savannah River Site a failure. Now, it wants to produce plutonium pits at the site. Guests include Tom Clements (Savannah River Site Watch) and Taylor Barnes (Field Reporter for Inkstick Media).

It was the uranium enriched at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that was used in Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August of 1945. Today, every single weapon in the US’ nuclear arsenal, all 5,000, has parts that were built or maintained at Y-12. Guests include Tanya Kardile (Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance) and Emily Strasser (author of Half-life of a secret: Reckoning with a hidden history).

The Pantex Plant sits just 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas. It's the only remaining assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons in the United States.   Guests include Barbara Kent (downwinder and advocate), Kaysie Kent (downwinder and advocate), and Lucie Genay (author of Under the Cap of Invisibility: The Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant and the Texas Panhandle).

In 1989, a team of FBI agents raided and shut down the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant after nearly 3 years of investigation into its environmental and waste practices. It was the first-ever raid of one government agency by another. Featured guests include Kristen Iversen (Author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats), Jon Lipsky (Former FBI Special Agent who led the Rocky Flats raid), and Dr. Deborah Segaloff (Colorado Physicians for Social Responsibility). 

Over 80 years ago, Hanford was miles and miles of open farmland. Now, it’s known as the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere. This episode features Steve Olson, author of the book Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age, and Britany Lindley, staff attorney at Hanford Challenge.  

The holiday season here! So is Human Rights Day. Listen to this special holiday episode about the intersections between justice, human rights, and nuclear weapons. Guests include Mary Dickson (Downwinder and Activist) and Lilly Adams (Union of Concerned Scientists).

We're not quite done with Oppenheimer yet! In this bonus episode, Ploughshares Fund President Dr. Emma Belcher sits down with Charles Oppenheimer, grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The two discuss how growing up in New Mexico, the site of the Trinity Test, and being an Oppenheimer shaped his views on nuclear weapons. They also discussed how the film helped organize and raise awareness of those working on nuclear elimination, as well as bringing nuclear issues back into the public eye.

In the years between Oppenheimer the man and Oppenheimer the movie, nuclear weapons have carved out a lasting place for themselves in popular culture. These depictions are not just plot points—they’re opportunities to educate and call for action.  Guests include Alex Wellerstein (Nuclear Weapons Historian and Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology) and John Pope (Chief Audience Officer of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).

It was only three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. In the years since, those impacted have been able to transform grief into a lasting legacy through their stories and art.   Guests include Dr. Masao Tomonaga (Nagasaki Hibakusha and former Director of the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Atomic Hospital) and Ravi Garla (Strategic Communications Consultant at the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

The Bomb. The Aftermath. The Cover-up. And everything after. Guests include Dr. Yuki Miyamoto (DePaul University and second generation Hiroshima Hibakusha) and Lesley M.M. Blume (journalist, historian, and author of Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed it to the World).