Super Critical Podcast

In this episode, we stepped up to the bar and ordered a couple rounds of Atomic Alcohol. The podcast collected ten examples of nuclear themed wine, cocktails, and beer with names, history, or other interesting connections to nukes. Why do breweries and wineries go to the nuclear well so many times? Could a beverage change how you think about the atom? How many drinks can the podcast team have and still sound reasonably intelligent? Tim Westmyer, Gabe, and special guests Will Saetren (@WillSaetren) and Eric Gascho (@EricGascho) answer these questions and more.

Before the bartender announces last call for atomic alcohol, we recommend checking out:

-Alex Wellerstein, “Beer and the Apocalypse,” Restricted Data, 2012

-Frank Kelly Rich, “Boozing with the Bomb: Alcohol in the Atomic Age,” Drunkard Magazine

-Charlie Papazian, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing

Special thanks to:

-Tori Mason at Forbidden Root for the cans of Atomic Child

-Tony Fitzpatrick and Robert Finkel at Forbidden Root for the interview

-@VortexAeroMedia for sending the bottles of Atom Splitter

-William Henry at Nuclear Wine, Chris Kotiza at Nuclear Nugget, and Steve at Cit of Cambridge Brewing for answering my questions about their beer

-Outro music by Slim Gaillard and His Quartette (1945

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 took the midnight train going anywhere... far away from the bad TV mini-series, Atomic Train (1999). Could a dangerous Russian nuke end up on a runaway U.S. train? What would a major city like Denver do to evacuate after a nuclear detonation? How can a movie with a runaway train, nukes, hazardous chemicals, Rob Lowe, and 50+ helicopters be so boring? Tim Westmyer, Gabe, and special guest Elliot answer these questions and more.

Before the atomic train conductor yelled “all aboard,” we recommend checking out:

-Threads (1984 TV movie) and Special Bulletin (1983 TV movie)

-The Stand (1994 TV mini-series)

-Michael Krepon, “Moving from MAD to Cooperative Threat Reduction,” Stimson Center, December 2001, https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/93680/Report41.pdf

-Unstoppable (2010 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 did a deep dive on the nuclear plot of The Hunt for Red October (1990). Is bigger necessarily better for the Red October? Just how bad would it be if the United States could no longer tracker Russian submarines? How easy is it for a cook to hotwire a submarine launched ballistic missile? Tim Westmyer and special guest Boris take a break from their vacation in Las Vegas to answer these questions and more.

Before we listened for the pings of a slot machine (hopefully more than just a single ping), we recommend checking out:

-Douglas Waller, Big Red: Three Months On Board a Trident Nuclear Submarine, 2001

-Pavel Podvig, Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces, 2004

-Run Silent, Run Deep, (1958 movie)

-Russian Naval Blog, “Even The Russians Know They Suck, Part I,” February 7, 2010

-Tom Clancy, The Bear and the Dragon, 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, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, [email protected], and YouTube.

Enjoy!

In this episode, we loaded up our DeLorean with plutonium and popcorn so we could talk about the heavy nuclear plot of the movie Back to the Future. How safe was the nuclear time machine? Why was Doc Brown cavorting with Libyan terrorists? Does the Mr. Fusion come in as many colors as a Kitchen-Aid mixer? Tim Westmyer and returning special guest Kevin answer these questions and more.

This is the tenth in our Mini-Nuke episode series, where we overthink movies with a smaller slice of nuclear weapons plot than our usual full-sized episodes.

Before we activated our time circuits, we recommend checking out:

-Back in Time (documentary), 2015

-Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer, Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons, 2016

-Rich Handley, A Matter of Time: The Unauthorized Back to the Future Lexicon, 2012

-Back to the Future: The Game (2010), Tell Tale Games

-DeLorean (documentary), 1981

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 did some atomic tourism, first to the Nuclear Test Site and then on the emotional journey that is the 1994 melodrama, Blue Sky. How does a mild mannered nuclear test site scientist navigate radioactive cover-ups and family crises? What was it like visiting the former nuclear test site in Nevada? How do you convince your friends it would be more fun to record a podcast in a hotel room than to wander the Las Vegas Strip? Tim Westmyer and special guest Clark answer these questions and more.

Before we get on our horses and ride off into the mushroom cloud, we recommend checking out:

-Radio Bikini, Documentary (1998), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVwzhGtzDuI

-Michael Harris, The Atomic Times: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground (2010)

-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)

-Raphael Honigstein, Das Reboot: How German Soccer Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World (2015)

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 April 1st edition of the Nuke Cage Podcast, we rage about the multitude of movies where Nic Cage takes on nuclear, chemical, biological, and conventional weapons in a post-Cold War security environment. How accurate are the movies Face/Off, The Rock, Next, and Lord of War? Why has Nic Cage done so many of these films? Can we make Nic Cage an honorary NEST member already? Tim Westmyer and Tristan Volpe answer these questions and more. Follow the podcast @NukeCage and Tristan @ TeeAndersVolpe.

Before we go looking for some VX rockets, we recommend checking out:

-Super Critical Podcast, www.supercriticalpodcast.com

-Jonathan Tucker, War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda (2007)

-In Time, movie, 2011

-Gregory Koblentz, Living Weapons: Biological Warfare and International Security (2011)

-Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, Barriers to Bioweapons: The Challenges of Expertise and Organization for Weapons Development (2014)

-W. Seth Carus, Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents Since 1900, August 1998, https://fas.org/irp/threat/cbw/carus.pdf

-W. Set Carus, Defining “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Occasional Paper 8, January 2012, http://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/occasional/cswmd/CSWMD_OccationalPaper-8.pdf

In this episode, who watches the Watchmen? Spoiler alert: we did and got super critical about the nuclear war plots of the Watchmen comics and movie. What will keep us from moving the Doomsday Clock to midnight? How would the Cold War play out if Nixon had a walking nuclear superhero? Does Dr. Manhattan make house calls? Tim Westmyer and special guest Luis Navarro answer these questions and more.

Before we meditate our way through the multiverse, we recommend checking out:

-Doomsday Clock Timeline, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, https://thebulletin.org/timeline

-Richard Bensam (editor), Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen (2011)

-H. Bruce Franklin (editor), Countdown to Midnight: Twelve Memorial Stories about Nuclear Warfare (1984)

-Atomic Café, documentary, 1982

-Command and Control, documentary, 2016

-Zero Days, documentary, 2016

-Captain America: Nomad, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_(comics)

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 stormed The Man in the High Castle television show to explore nukes in a world where Germany and Japan won World War II. What difference would a Nazi nuclear bomb have made in the war? How would Japan go about getting their own nuclear weapon in secret? Who is Joe Blake and why should we care? Tim Westmyer and special guest Tim Collins answer these questions and more.

Follow Tim Collins, PhD candidate studying British nuclear history, on Twitter @WarAndCake.

Before we meditate our way through the multiverse, we recommend checking out:

-Superman: Red Son (2003)

-Wolfenstein video game series (especially the reboots)

-Lawrence Freedman, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (1981)

-Transcript of Surreptitiously Taped Conversations among German Nuclear Physicists at Farm Hall (August 6-7, 1945), http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/English101.pdf

-That Mitchell and Webb Look, “Are We the Baddies?,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JOpPNra4bw

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 compared the Hawaii ballistic missile threat false alarm in real life and the 1963 film, Ladybug Ladybug. What does an elementary school do when the nuclear attack warning bell goes off? How did Americans respond to similar false alarms during the Cold War? What happens when it is North Korea’s turn to experience an IT problem? Tim Westmyer and Gabe answer these questions and more.

Full movie available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Io7O_V08E

Before we start our long walk uphill to home after school, we recommend checking out:

-Episode #14: Twilight Zone – The Shelter, Super Critical Podcast

-Alice L. George, Awaiting Armageddon: How Americans Faced the Cuban Missile Crisis (2004)

-Force Majeure, 2014 movie

-“Bart’s Comet,” The Simpsons, Season 6, Episode 14 (February 5, 1995)

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 passed the nuclear test of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. How did Indiana Jones end up facing down a nuclear mushroom cloud? Can a lead-lined fridge serve as a decent fallout shelter? Is Indiana Jones an immortal superbeing? Tim Westmyer, Gabe, and special guest Alex answer these questions and more.

This is the ninth in our Mini-Nuke episode series, where we overthink movies with a smaller slice of nuclear weapons plot than our usual full-sized episodes.

Before we locked the fridge door, we recommend checking out:

-Nightbreaker (1989 TV movie)

-Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Nuclear Testing, A Graphic History (2016)

-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory YouTube page on nuclear tests

-The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (TV Show)

Credit to Karl Golden on YouTube for his awesome metal cover of the Indiana Jones theme.

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!