Super Critical Podcast

In this episode, we left the polling booth to watch the movie Deterrence (2000) about a president fighting a nuclear war against Iraq while stranded in a diner during a snowstorm on the campaign trail. Are nuclear weapons useful to deter chemical, biological, or conventional weapon attacks? Can anyone stop an irrational president from ordering a nuclear strike? Is there a connection between the diner’s famous greasy chiliburger and the IBS News station? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and co-host Gabe answer these questions and more.

Before we reach our positive control point, we recommend:

-Kevin Pollak Chat Show (2009-2019)

-Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (1960) and Arms and Influence (1966)

-The Contender (2002 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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we scrambled our B-52s so we could watch the in-flight movie By Dawn’s Early Light (1990). What is the U.S. president to do once a nuclear war begins? Who is in command of the nuclear stockpile when POTUS is missing? Why is James Earl Jones always finding his finger on the nuclear button? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Sylvia Mishra (@MishraSylvia), doctoral researcher at King’s College London where studies nuclear strategy and emerging technologies, answer these questions and more.

Note: Tim mistakenly says in the episode that Tsar Bomba was not a deployable nuclear weapon. While it is not a really practical nuclear bomb (weight, yield size, requiring a HUGE parachute to slow decent long enough for plane to get away safely), it was still an air-dropped test that was deployable. Thanks to everyone who pointed out what we got wrong, nuke wise!

Before we reach our positive control point, we recommend:

-Sylvia Mishra, “Directing Doomsday: Lessons Learned from Nuclear War in Film,” CSIS Next Generation Nuclear Network, July 8, 2020

-Fail-Safe, 1964 movie

-Countdown to Looking Glass, 1984 movie

-David Hoffman, The Dead Hand, The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, 2010

-Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, 2017

-Christian Brose, The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, 2020

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we got the family together over Zoom to watch the most depressing “Hallmark movie” of all time, Testament (1983). How can one Mom keep the family going after a nuclear attack cuts off their community? How accurately does the movie portray the horrors of radiation sickness? How does nuclear war turn ham radio operators into the most important people on the planet? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and returning special guest Lucy Steigerwald (@LucyStag), contributing editor to AntiWar.com answer these questions and more.

Before we go blow out the candles on our sad birthday cake, we recommend:

-DVD extras for Testament, including “Testament at 20”

-Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006)

-Airplane! (1980)

-Carol Amen, “The Last Testament,” Ms. Magazine, August 1981, https://www.scribd.com/doc/59083080/Amen-Carol-The-Last-Testament-Ms-Aug-81

-The Day After (1983)

-On the Beach (1959)

-Threads (1984)

-TheStagBlog.com, “Testament”

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we pulled an all-nighter to watch the thrilling movie Miracle Mile (1986) about star crossed lovers trying to escape Los Angeles at night before a possible nuclear attack. Why do we keep nuclear weapons in North Dakota? How long would you have before the missiles start landing in your backyard? Does Google Maps have a good escape route preprogrammed in the event of a pending nuclear war? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and Gabe answer these questions and more.

Before we answer this random payphone that is ringing nearby, we recommend:

-Cloverfield (2008 movie)

-10 Cloverfield Lane (2016 movie)

-Six String Samurai (1998 movie)

-La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, CA

-Fred Kaplan, The Wizards of Armageddon, 1983

-Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota

-NORMS Restaurants

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we aced our foreign service exam and started our undercover mission to the movie Spies Like Us (1995). How well does this comedy deploy a Soviet road mobile nuclear missile for hilarious effect? Can you actually recall a nuclear missile once it is in the air? Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, and doctor. Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and Gabe answer these questions and more.

Before we open up the nuclear disarmament negotiation board game box, we recommend:

-Fletch, 1985

-The Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997

-International Spy Museum

-Nuclear War Card Game, 1965

-Steven Pomeroy, An Untaken Road: Strategy, Technology, and the Hidden History of America’s Mobile ICBMs, 2016

-Get Smart, 1965-1970 TV Show

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we leave our bunkers and march like atomic ants to the movie theater to enjoy the film Matinee (1993). What does this story about director Joe Dante’s love of B-movies monster flicks have to say about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its impact on kids living in Florida? How do you write an effective comedy about topics that are usually nightmare fuel? When can we equip our own home theaters with Atomovision? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Matthew Gault (@mjgault), VICE journalist and host of the War College Podcast (@War_College) answer these questions and more.

Before we turn up the Rumble-Rama setting on our seats, we recommend:

-War College Podcast

-Them (1954) and Blast from the Past (1999)

-Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

-Barry Atkinson, Atomic Age Cinema: The Offbeat, the Classic, and the Obscure, 2014

-Matthew Gault, “How to Survive a Nuclear Bomb,” Vice, January 9, 2020

-L. Douglas Kenney, 15 Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation, 2012

-Adam Curtis, “To The Brink of Eternity,” Episode in the Pandora’s Box documentary series, 1992

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, school is out for nuclear winter break, so we binged the Netflix series Daybreak about high school students surviving post-WWIII. How well does a nuclear war plot mesh with a John Hughes teenage comedy? What is the connection between sunflowers and nuclear disarmament? Who in our high school yearbook was voted “most likely to depress everyone with a podcast about nuclear war movies”? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Cecili Thompson-Williams (@cecilitw), Executive Director of Beyond the Bomb (@BeyondtheBomb), answer these questions and more.

Before we decide which post-apocalyptic clique to join, we recommend:

-The 100 (TV series)

-BeyondTheBomb.org

-Phineas and Ferb (TV series)

-WarGames (1983 movie)

-Night of the Comet (1984 movie)

-Elizabeth King, “How Growing Up with the Threat of Nuclear War Shapes Kids’ Psyches,” TheCut, June 7, 2017

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we tried to get healthy during quarantine by watching an episode of the TV show Gilligan’s Island called “Pass the Vegetables, Please” where the castaways get super powers from eating crops grown from radioactive seeds. Can radiation actually help farmers? What would happen if you ate radioactive food? Is the Professor a stand-in for Dr. Oppenheimer of the Manhattan Project? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and Gabe answer these questions and more.

Before we our three hour tour sets sail, we recommend:

-“HI FI Gilligan,” Gilligan’s Island, season 2, episode 10

-AtomicGardening.com

-“JUGHEAD,” LOST, “season 5, episode 3

-Visiting Tangier Island

-Archipelago tiki bar in Washington, DC

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode released on April 1, the show gets inverted and becomes the Super Critical Angle of Attack podcast to talk about the movie Air Force One (1997). Sure, the movie has some nuclear weapon plots, but how well did it accurately portray POTUS’s airplane? Did the movie do justice to flight physics? If aviation accident prone Harrison Ford is your pilot, would you have a bad feeling about this? New podcast host Gabe and special guest Tim Westmyer (@Westmyer) answer these questions and more.

Before we fired up the Air Force One fax machine, we recommend:

-Countdown to Looking Glass, 1984 TV movie

-Independence Day, 1996 movie

-“The Air Force’s ‘Doomsday Plane’ is in the Shop,” DefenseOne, November 6, 2019

-On Board Air Force One, National Geographic documentary, 2009

-CBS News photo tour of Air Force One

-National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton Ohio

-Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA

Enjoy!

In this episode, we see how many scientists in the desert it takes to build an atomic bomb by watching the 1989 movie “Fat Man and Little Boy.” How did scientists and the military both collaborate and clash in the pursuit of the first nuclear weapon? What was the role of women scientists in this endeavor? Could you actually buy a condo in Manhattan even if you had the budget of the atomic bomb project? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guests/nuke experts Erin Connolly (@Erin_Conn17) and Kate Hewitt (@BlondNukeGirl) from Girl Security answer these questions and more.

Before we started eating our Pentagon cakes, we recommend:

-Day One, 1989 TV Movie

-Robert Serber, The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How to Build the Atomic Bomb, 1992

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

-Denise Kiernan, Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, 2014

-John Hersey, Hiroshima, 1946

-Kate Brown, Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, And The Great Soviet And American Plutonium Disasters, 2015

-GirlSecurity.org

-HighlyEnriched.com (coming soon)

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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!