Super Critical Podcast

In this episode, we found a bootleg DVD in our stocking of the 1964 TV movie A Carol for Another Christmas, which retold the classic Christmas Carol story but with nuclear war. What was the public diplomacy mission of this pro-UN film? How does isolationism and international engagement theories suggest doing with the problem of nuclear weapons? Does the Ghost of Christmas Future know when the last two books in A Song of Ice and Fire come out? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and podcast co-host Gabe answer these questions and more.

Full movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbp1du33l0c

Before we get in our crash couches and jump the ship, we recommend:

-Scrooged (1988 movie)

-We’re Doomed! (2019 board game)

-“Time Enough at Last” and “No Time Like the Present,” Super Critical Podcast episode #47

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we went interstellar with our intercontinental ballistic missiles to talk about nuclear weapons in two science fiction shows: The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica. How are nuclear weapons used as weapons (and themes) in these two stories? What would the impact of a nuclear weapon actually be against a space ship? When are we getting our Gaius Baltar and Paolo Cortázar buddy comedy? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Stefan Sasse (@StefanSasse), host of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour podcast, answer these questions and more.

Before we get in our crash couches and jump the ship, we recommend:

-John McPhee, The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor, 1974

-Marco Fey, et al., The nuclear taboo, Battlestar Galactica, and the real world: Illustrations from a science-fiction universe, Security Dialogue 47 no. 4, 2016

- Neal Stephenson, Seveneves, 2015

-The Foundation (Apple TV)

-Raised by Wolves (Apple TV)

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we watched the documentary False Alarm (2021) about that time in 2018 no one talks about anymore when the people of Hawaii received an erroneous warning on their phone that North Korea fired a nuclear armed ballistic missile and they had minutes to live. What was the reaction of people who received this ominous message? How does this ordeal stack up to Hawaiians’ long history of being on the short end of the nuclear arms race? Have there ever been a worse case of Textmergency/Textastrophe than this nuclear attack warning appearing on every cell phone in Hawaii? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and the documentary’s director Nick Lyell (@FalseAlarmFilm) answer these questions and more.

The documentary is streaming thru Vimeo On-Demand for the month of November 2021: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/falsealarm/311014137

Movie information: www.FalseAlarmFilm.com

Before we clear our nuclear notifications on our mobile phones, we recommend:

-False Alarm (documentary 2021)

-Super Critical Podcast episode #21 on Ladybug Ladybug (1963)

-Alia Wong, “Pandemonium and Rage in Hawaii,” The Atlantic, January 14, 2018

-Sean Flynn, “The Real Story of the Hawaiian Missile Crisis,” GQ, April 2, 2018

-Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua, et al, A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty, 2014

-Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawaii (2008 documentary)

-The Bomb (PBS 2015 documentary)

-Solarpunk Futures (card game made by Nick Lyell and the Solar Punk Surf Club at thefuture.wtf)

In this episode, we called opened our nuclear launch code safes to pull out the DVD box for Crimson Tide (1995) about two leaders on a submarine butting heads about whether to launch nuclear missiles and possibly start and/or stop WWIII. How accurate did the film portray nuclear command and control launch procedures? What role do boomers play in nuclear deterrence? How does Captain Ramsey’s dog have such a keen sense of a person’s character? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and returning special guests Geoff Wilson of the Council for Arms Control and Nonproliferation (@NuclearWilson) and nuclear expert Will Saetren (@WillSaetren) answer these questions and more.

Note: Tim gets his wires crossed as he recommends a documentary (The Man Who Saved the World) that is actually about Soviet missile launch officer Stanislav Petrov instead of the Soviet naval officer Vasily Arkhipov who Geoff and Will talk about during the episode. The documentary is still excellent and it is scary how many examples of nuclear near misses there are that this mistake could happen.

Before we concur on the latest EAM, we recommend:

-The Man Who Saved the World (2013 documentary) -

-Jeffrey G. Lewis and Bruno Tertrais, “The Finger on the Button: The Authority to Use Nuclear Weapons in Nuclear-Armed States,” CNS Occasional Paper #45, February 2019

-Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of Submarine Espionage, 2016

-Project Azorian

-Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, 2021

-Robert Moore, A Time to Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy, 2016

-Armageddon Letter, http://www.armageddonletters.com/

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we called our sommelier for advice on the best atomic alcohol to drink while watching the Alfred Hitchcock movie Notorious (1946) telling a spy romance story that discovers uranium ore stashed in a wine bottle owned by ex-Nazis hiding out in Brazil. How did Hitchcock introduce the first major atomic MacGuffin plot device so soon after the reveal of the Manhattan Project? What could a rogue element do with uranium ore hidden in a wine cellar? Why don’t the ex-Nazis hide the uranium in a bottle of Wild Turkey because nobody would ever want to look closer at that bottle. Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and co-host Gabe answer these questions and more.

Full movie online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LwPhO2qPcQ

Before we check out tea for poison, we recommend:

-Rear Window (1954 movie)

-The Boys From Brazil (1978 movie)

-Uranium Glass (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass)

-Casablanca (1942 movie)

-“How Atomic Physics Helped Solve a Wine Fraud Mystery,” NPR, June 3, 2014

-Pitch Meeting series on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyXMyxkJQV4&list=PLRE-UFLEgWzBuOiqemhEI9b4gmmBbutnC)

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we put on our skis and telemarked our way to the winter lodge to watch the movie The Heroes of Telemark (1965) about a team of Norwegian resistance fighters sabotaging a heavy water plant during WWII to prevent Germany from getting closer to an atomic bomb. How close was Nazi Germany from building a nuclear weapon? What is the importance of heavy water in a nuclear program? What is more likely: that Tim builds a homemade nuclear device or Tim properly pronounces all these Norwegian names? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast), and returning special guest returning special guest Will Saetren (@WillSaetren) answer these questions and more.

Full movie online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBiR8ZipPM

Before we synchronize our ticking clock time bombs, we recommend:

-William Stephenson, A Man Called Intrepid, 2016

-Neal Bascomb, The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb, 2017

-The Final Countdown (1980 movie)

-Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (VR game with Norwegian heavy water plant level)

-The Heavy Water War (2015 Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation show)

-Norway Resistance Museum

-Vemork Hydro Plant

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we put a crew together to seize a movie theater to watch the nuclear missile silo hostage taking movie Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977). How easy is it to hijack a nuclear Titan ICBM launch site? What does the Vietnam War have to do with the logic of nuclear deterrence? Is “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” what they call the sparkly skin in those vampire movies? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast), Gabe, and returning special guest returning special guest Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst), answer these questions and more.

Full movie online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMnX8Hd0TPQ

Before we disable our cutoffs and inhibitors, we recommend:

-Kiss Me Deadly (1955 movie) also directed by David Aldirch

-The Parallax View (1974 movie)

-David Halberstram, The Best and the Brightest, 1972

-Defence of the Realm (1986 movie)

-A Very British Coup (1988 TV series)

-Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we looked at our calendars and realized it was finally the day to watch The Day After (1983). What would happen to a “middle of nowhere” city in Kansas in the event of a nuclear war? How did this TV movie impact the public dialogue about nuclear weapons? What about the movie scared Ronald Reagan so much he had to write about it in his diary (this is not a joke)? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest David Craig (@Producing2Power), Clinical Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California and author of an upcoming book - Before The Day After - answer these questions and more.

Full movie online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyy9n8r16hs&t=3840s

Thanks to everyone who pointed out that some of the movie's stock footage came from the documentary First Strike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlPEBROvR9w&t=74s

Before we start power up our ham radios with the rare car battery, we recommend:

-David Craig’s book (Before The Day After)when it is available!

-Dawn Strover, Facing Nuclear Reality: 35 Years After the Day After, December 2018

-Physicians for Social Responsibility, The Last Epidemic

-Testament (1983)

-Threads (1984)

-Viewpoint episode that aired right after The Day After

-Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, 1986

-Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb, May 2013

-That Certain Summer (1972)

-Beth A. Fisher, The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War, 2000

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we raised the periscope on our nuclear submarine to enjoy the story of On the Beach - both the movie (1959) and book (1957). What is the more likely ultimate catastrophe of a nuclear war: global nuclear fallout or nuclear winter? Why did the Eisenhower administration try to shut this movie down? If you read On the Beach while sitting on a beach, is that just tempting fate? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione), Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute and recent president of the Ploughshares Fund, answer these questions and more.

Before we start our engines at the Australian Grand Prix, we recommend:

-Beverly Gray, “The Continuing Relevance of ‘On the Beach,’” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, August 3, 2015

-Fallout (2013 documentary)

-Collisions (2015 documentary)

-Office of Technology Assessment, The Effects of Nuclear War, May 1979

-Warfare History Network, “One of America’s Most Legendary Generals Had a Terrifying Plan to Win the Korean War,” The National Interest, July 16, 2017

-Fail Safe (1964 movie)

-Them! (1954 movie)

-Seven Days in May (1964 movie)

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, the high school yearbook voted us “Most Likely to Join the Nuclear Club” after we watched the 1986 movie The Manhattan Project where student Paul Stephens builds a nuclear bomb with plutonium stolen from a secret government lab run by the guy dating his mom. How easy is it to build a homemade nuclear weapon? What motivates a brilliant scientist to devote their life to WMD? Do you enter a homemade nuclear bomb at the science fair under the project category of physics, chemistry, or psychopath? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and returning special guest Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) answer these questions and more.

Before we earn extra credit by weaponizing some anthrax in AP Bio class, we recommend:

-Special Bulletin (1983 movie)

-Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes game

-“Fat Man and Little Boy,” The Simpsons, season 16 episode 5

-Science Fair (2018 documentary)

-Ken Silverstein, “The Radioactive Boy Scout,” Harper’s Magazine, November 1998

-Ken Silverstein, The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor, 2005

-The Day After Trinity (1980 documentary)

-WarGames (1983 movie)

-“Nth Country Experiment,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, March 1, 2019

Check out our website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!