We speak with Lois Lipman, director of the documentary First We Bombed New Mexico, and Tina Cordova, the film’s heart and co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Together, they discuss the film’s impact and their decades-long advocacy for those harmed by nuclear testing and uranium mining. A hopeful development: the recently signed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” enacted on July 4, 2025, includes a temporary extension and expansion of RECA (the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) to finally cover affected communities in New Mexico. The documentary is being updated to reflect this change, with a revised version expected later this year.

To bring the conversation into the present, we also speak with military strategist and Stimson Center senior fellow Christopher Preble. He offers insights into the state of nuclear deterrence today and whether the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) still holds. While acknowledging the need to modernize the U.S. arsenal, Preble questions whether the projected $1 trillion investment over the next 30 years is the wisest path forward. He also weighs in on the feasibility of “The Golden Dome,” a proposed missile defense system, arguing that given the geographic scale of the U.S. and other technical limitations, the concept remains impractical.