Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
On July 16, 1945, in a New Mexico desert, the Trinity Test ushered in the Nuclear Age. No other piece of technology has penetrated the American consciousness like the nuclear bomb and found a place in everything from culture to medicine. This podcast explores how nuclear science has impacted and changed our world in both beneficial and destructive ways. We explore the intersection of nuclear science and society using interviews with historians, policymakers, experts in their fields, and first-hand accounts to weave a picture of your nuclear life.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Nuclear weapons history and policy • Testing, arms control, risk reduction • Cold War culture, bunkers, civil defense • Radiation ethics and health studies • Nuclear physics careers and discoveries • Fusion/lasers • Nuclear waste communication • Nuclear themes in film, literature, musicThis podcast examines how nuclear science and nuclear technology have shaped modern life, moving between the physics itself and the human systems built around it. Through interviews with historians, scientists, policymakers, activists, journalists, and people with firsthand experience, it connects the Nuclear Age to topics in national security, public communication, ethics, and culture.
Across the episodes, a major thread is nuclear weapons policy: arms control and verification, nuclear modernization, deterrence strategy, proliferation challenges, and what restarting nuclear testing would practically involve. Historical case studies—from World War II-era bomb efforts to Cold War programs and late–Cold War risk-reduction initiatives—are used to show how technical constraints, institutional decisions, and international politics interact. The show also explores civil defense and continuity-of-government planning through the lens of bunkers, shelters, and emergency governance.
Another recurring focus is radiation and public health, including controversies over dose limits and the ethical failures of non-consensual human radiation experiments, as well as citizen-science efforts that influenced test-ban policy. Listeners also hear from working nuclear physicists and learn how research is conducted, from nuclear forensics questions such as dating plutonium to fundamental science topics like neutrinos, stellar nucleosynthesis, black holes, and the connections between high-energy theory and nuclear physics.
The podcast frequently ties nuclear themes to popular culture and storytelling—films, literature, music, and public traditions—showing how societies imagine nuclear risk, explain it to children, and remember or reinterpret nuclear history. Fusion and large-scale laser and reactor projects appear as examples of nuclear-adjacent science with implications for energy and stewardship.
| Episodes: |
The bomber will always get through | Nathan Radke2026-Mar-03 50 minutes |
(New Intro) Challenger Explosion | Adam Higginbotham2026-Jan-28 44 minutes |
Black holes, string theory, and public policy | Jim Gates (Sylvester James Gates)2025-Dec-30 |
How much time does the US need to restart nuclear testing? | Hans Kristensen2025-Dec-02 |
House of Dynamite | Lee and Nathan2025-Nov-18 56 minutes |
HItler and the Bomb | Mark Walker2025-Oct-16 |
Hidden in plain sight. The Greenbrier Bunker | Deanna Hylton2025-Sep-02 |
The Atomic Pilgrim | James Patrick Thomas2025-Aug-05 |
The ethics of human radiation experiments | The Uncover Up2025-Jun-24 |
Day in the Life of a Nuclear Physicist | Kelly Chipps2025-May-13 37 minutes |
Cold War Human Radiation Experiments | Eileen Welsome2025-Apr-08 53 minutes |
Cold War Kids | Ann Kordas2025-Feb-25 48 minutes |
Nuclear Christmas List with Kelly Chipps2025-Jan-07 48 minutes |
(rerelease) Jimmy Carter - with Jonathan Alter2025-Jan-01 40 minutes |
Was the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion inevitable? with Adam Higginbotham2024-Nov-26 30 minutes |
Ray Cats Nuke the Moon2024-Nov-06 41 minutes |
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The return of Matt Caplan - Twelve Thousand Bombs 2024-Oct-17 less than a minute |
61. Threads turns 40 with Bob Mielke2024-Oct-03 39 minutes |
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Announcement - Contest & Free Documentary Premiere 2024-Sep-03 2 minutes |
The Uranium Show with Lucy Santos2024-Sep-03 50 minutes |
What should we do with all the ray cats? with Matt Caplan2024-Aug-01 52 minutes |
The journey of a citizen scientist with Frank von Hippel2024-May-28 51 minutes |
The Black Sea Experiment: Data taking and legacy2024-Apr-30 42 minutes |
Prelude to the Black Sea Experiment: Soviet Scientists Reach Out2024-Apr-30 38 minutes |
Adventures in Nuclear Risk Reduction - Georgia Pt 22024-Mar-27 52 minutes |
Adventures in Nuclear Risk Reduction - Georgia Pt 12024-Feb-27 58 minutes |
The new face of the nuclear nerd - Miss America (2023) Grace Stanke2024-Jan-30 40 minutes |
Understanding Edward Teller with Istvan Hargittai2023-Nov-28 58 minutes |
For the love of lasers with Donna Strickland2023-Oct-31 42 minutes |
Are radiation limits based on a lie? with Ed Calabrese2023-Sep-26 50 minutes |
How to identify Manhattan Project Plutonium with Cody Folden2023-Aug-29 48 minutes |
Trying to stay alive at the Diefenbunker with Nathan Radke & Lee Kuhnle2023-Jul-25 64 minutes |
J. Robert Oppenheimer with Kai Bird2023-Jun-27 63 minutes |
The 3rd Nuclear Age with Ankit Panda2023-May-30 50 minutes |
The Origin of the Elements with Artemis Spyrou2023-Apr-25 40 minutes |
NIF fusion was a breakthrough, but what kind? with Bob Rosner2023-Mar-28 43 minutes |
Witnessing the Starfish Prime nuclear test with Jim Burkhart2023-Feb-28 39 minutes |
Solving the solar neutrino problem with Nobel Laureate Art McDonald2023-Jan-31 51 minutes |
Is this the year NORAD shoots down Santa? With Martin Pfeiffer2022-Dec-24 32 minutes |
Mom, I'm scared, come pick me up! Students speak out.2022-Dec-15 50 minutes |
US Nuclear Weapons and the Nuclear Posture Review with Steve Fetter2022-Nov-29 38 minutes |
Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with Dominik & Lara from ChernobylX2022-Oct-25 48 minutes |
The Baby Tooth Study 2.0 with Marc Weisskopf2022-Sep-27 58 minutes |
St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey with Nina Gilden Seavey2022-Aug-30 34 minutes |
What if a nuclear engineer was elected US President? with Jonathan Alter2022-Jul-26 40 minutes |
How did the U.S. Government plan for nuclear war without you? with Garrett Graff2022-Jun-28 42 minutes |
Exploring the end of the world with nuclear literature and Daniel Cordle2022-May-31 53 minutes |
Shipbuilding with the precision of a watchmaker - ITER with Michael Loughlin2022-Apr-26 41 minutes |
Can Wargaming teach ethics? With John Emery2022-Mar-29 68 minutes |
Nuclear Threat Reduction & Current Events with Matthias Grosse Perdekamp2022-Mar-08 59 minutes |
Radium & Marie Curie go Goth Rock with Charming Disaster2022-Feb-22 41 minutes |
Using nuclear science to understand cultural heritage with Michael Wiescher2022-Jan-25 53 minutes |
Should Khrushchev receive story credit for Dr. Strangelove? With Nathan and Lee from The UnCover Up2022-Jan-06 39 minutes |
The movie with the finest ending: Failsafe (1964) with Nathan & Lee from The UnCover Up2022-Jan-04 46 minutes |
What's with all the Nuclear Movies? With Nathan & Lee from The UnCover Up2021-Dec-28 60 minutes |
Using radiation as a poison. The murder of Alexander Litvinenko with Pete Burgess2021-Nov-30 53 minutes |
How the Norwegians & British ended the Nazi atomic bomb program with Neal Bascomb2021-Oct-26 57 minutes |
Finger on the Button: Life as a Cold War Missileer with Col. (Ret.) Charles G. Simpson2021-Sep-28 59 minutes |
Scientists as activists, human rights, and ethics with Don Howard2021-Sep-15 81 minutes |
History of early computing with Thomas Haigh2021-Aug-17 84 minutes |
The connection between nuclear disarmament, peace, and black freedom with Vincent Intondi2021-Aug-03 58 minutes |
Nuking the Moon and other Shenanigans with The Uncover Up2021-Jul-20 66 minutes |
The impact of the Cold War on LIGO with Tiffany Nichols2021-Jul-06 42 minutes |
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Announcement: My Nuclear Life / The UncoverUp Crossover 2021-Jun-29 1 minute |
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster with Adam Higginbotham2021-Jun-22 51 minutes |
Death by control rod: The story of SL1 with Todd Tucker2021-Jun-08 51 minutes |
How to restart a nuclear reactor in Japan after the Fukushima disaster with Dreux Richard2021-May-25 62 minutes |
Soviet bone records, Tom Lehrer, and music for your nuclear protest with Tim & Joanna Smolko2021-May-11 67 minutes |
Deep beneath the surface: Innovating nuclear waste disposal with Elizabeth Muller2021-Apr-27 36 minutes |
Hanford Lab Pt. 2: How the DOE got into the museum business with Robert Franklin2021-Apr-13 62 minutes |
Hanford Lab Pt. 1: The triumph of the engineer with Robert Franklin2021-Apr-13 80 minutes |
Quarky News: Volk Field 19622021-Apr-06 16 minutes |
Radium: Luxurious, Beautiful, Expensive, and Modern with Lucy Santos2021-Mar-30 55 minutes |
Nuclear newsletters, queer theory, and Freedom of Information with Martin Pfeiffer2021-Mar-16 56 minutes |
The War Science Won? Building the bomb, ingenuity, and politics with Richard Rhodes (Pt. 3)2021-Mar-02 46 minutes |
How to turn the US into a factory: Beer in Hanford, Silver from Fort Knox, and PO Box 1663 with Richard Rhodes (Pt. 2)2021-Jan-01 50 minutes |
How it all began: Europe, fission, and the Nazis with Richard Rhodes (Pt. 1)2021-Jan-01 59 minutes |
Sunshine in a bottle. The origins of using radiation as a modern cancer treatment with Aimee Slaughter2020-Dec-30 39 minutes |
Thwarting nuclear ambitions with sanctions: Iran, North Korea, and ... Sweden? with Richard Nephew2020-Dec-30 31 minutes |
How do you celebrate Alaska Statehood? Nuke them a harbor with Dan O'Neill2020-Dec-23 52 minutes |
Saving the world with nuclear energy, one microreactor at a time with Leslie Dewan2020-Dec-16 36 minutes |