It was 1950, just five years after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Soviet Union had just built their own bomb. And what did Americans, huddled around their radios, most want to hear? Comedian Bob Hope, joking about the world "blowing itself up." In this Popcast, Eliza Smith talks about "The Quick and the Dead," a 1950 NBC special about atomic energy, hosted by Bob Hope.

Original audio can be found on Pop Up Archive, courtesy of the Broadcast Archives at WILL and Illinois Public Media: http://bit.ly/1Ij8A0Y