Podcasts about damascus accident

Free preview cross-over with the Bang-Bang Podcast. In this episode, Van and Lyle are joined by writer Max Read to dissect The Sum of All Fears, the 2002 film adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel. The film thrusts CIA analyst Jack Ryan, portrayed by Ben Affleck, into a high-stakes scenario where a nuclear bomb detonates in Baltimore, pushing the U.S. and Russia to the brink of war. The movie's release shortly after 9/11 adds a layer of poignancy to its themes of terrorism and national insecurity.The discussion delves into the portrayal of neo-Nazi antagonists manipulating global powers, a narrative choice that, while admirably distancing from the novel's Middle Eastern villains, also anticipates our terrifying present. The trio likewise examines the character of Russian President Nemerov, a Vladimir Putin stand-in who, putting aside his central role in anti-Chechen violence, comes off as way too sympathetic in 2025. The narrative's sanitized depiction of nuclear devastation, particularly the aftermath of the Baltimore explosion, earn well-deserved chuckles. Most of all, Max brings his media expertise on the “‘90s Dad Thriller” to the conversation, further offering stark relief to a current moment when such innocent and fun-loving thrills have been rendered quaint—perhaps even impossible.Further ReadingMax Read's Substack“‘90s Dad Thrillers: a List,” by Max ReadThe Spook Who Sat By The Door, by Sam Greenlee"Trump dreams of a Maga empire – but he's more likely to leave us a nuclear hellscape," by Alexander HurstThe Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, by Daniel EllsbergCommand and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, by Eric Schlossser“The Man Who Knew Too Much,” by Lyle Jeremy RubinThe Hunt for Tom Clancy Substack, by Matt Farwell

In an Oxide and Friends tradition, Bryan and Adam invite the community to share book recommendations.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers on included Steve Klabnik, Tom Lyon, Ian Grunert, Owen Anderson, phillipov, makowski, and saethlin. (Did we miss your name and/or get it wrong? Drop a PR!)Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them: Elon Jet High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems by Southwick, Karen Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology by Paul Rabinow Sun Labs vs. SunSoft Water Fight 1992 Cyberville: Clicks, Culture, and the Creation of an Online Town Hardcover by Stacy Horn Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster's Inevitable Bust Kindle Edition by Alan Payne A History of Silicon Valley - Vol 1: The 20th Century Paperback by Piero Scaruffi H-E-B Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Arion Press) A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future Hardcover by Jill Lepore UNIVAC and the 1952 Presidential Election NPR: The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President Doom Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting by Judith Brett Bryan had a reading list for his wedding?! (his wife confirms) The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes Harp in the South by Ruth Park Cloudstreet by Tim Winton Death of the Lucky Country by Donald Horne 30 Days in Sydney by Peter Carey Leviathan by John Birmingham The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes Barbarians Led by Bill Gates by Jennifer Edstrom and, Marlin Eller Murray Sargent's account of how his Scroll Screen Tracer got Windows to work in protected mode Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure by Jerry Kaplan DeviceScript Washington: A Life by Chernow California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric--and What It Means for America's Power Grid Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein Acts of the Apostles: Mind over Matter: Volume Blue by John F.X. Sundman Thunder Below!: The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II by Eugene B. Fluckey Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman The Predictors: How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street by Thomas A. Bass The Eudaemonic Pie: The Bizarre True Story of How a Band of Physicists and Computer Wizards Took On Las Vegas by Thomas A Bass Some of the other books mentioned in the Discord channel: Herr aller Dinge/Lord of All Things by Andreas Eschbach Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert A. Simon California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric--and What It Means for America's Power Grid by Katherine Blunt The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution Hardcover by Gregory Zuckerman The Predictors: How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street by Thomas A. Bass The Eudaemonic Pie: The Bizarre True Story of How a Band of Physicists and Computer Wizards Took On Las Vegas by Thomas A Bass Models.Behaving.Badly.: Why Confusing Illusion with Reality Can Lead to Disaster, on Wall Street and in Life by Emanuel Derman It's a Nonlinear World by Richard H. Enns Not technically books, but suggested reading nonetheless by folks in Discord: The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President by Steve Henn, NPR How a brilliant debugger (Scroll Screen Tracer by Murray Sargent) turned Windows OS into the IBM OS/2 crusher and gave Microsoft its killer product. DeviceScript: TypeScript for Tiny IoT Devices Bob and Ray | Slow Talkers of America | Audio Recording (YouTube) Ursula K. Le Guin The Maintenance Race by Stewart Brand If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!

Get ready to step into the world of the largest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile ever built by the United States: the Titan II. We promise you an enthralling journey, taking you into the depths of the responsibility and immense pressure shouldered by servicemen in the face of potential catastrophe. Our story today comes from a wonderful book that sheds a great deal of light on this issue, the title of the book is Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser.We'll scrutinize the US military's safety protocols, delve into the grave responsibilities bestowed upon young servicemen, and explore the Air Force's subsequent investigation into the incident. This episode is not only thrilling, but also an eye-opener to the dire importance of the technology, training, and safety measures involved in handling nuclear weapons. You don't want to miss this!Key Points from the Episode:We'll be shedding light on the daily operations and routine maintenance procedures that kept these mighty missiles in check, with the capability to hit a target as far as 6000 miles away, carrying a yield of nine megatons. Join us in unfolding the story of airmen David F Powell and Jeffrey L Plumb, who had the daunting task of managing a low-pressure warning light in the oxidizer tank of the Titan II missile.We're also going to talk about an incident that sent chills down the spine of every serviceman involved. Brace yourselves as we dive into the terrifying account of the infamous Damascus Titan missile explosion. A simple socket wrench falling off a platform and striking the missile caused fuel to spray out, nearly leading to a nuclear disaster. Other resources: Almanac of Broken Arrow EventsMore goodnessGet your FREE Academy Review here!Want to leave a review? Click here, and if we earned a five-star review from you **high five and knuckle bumps**, we appreciate it greatly, thank you so much!Because we care what you think about what we think and our website, please email David@teammojoacademy.com, or if you want to leave us a quick FREE, painless voicemail, we would appreciate that as well.

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by: Eric Schlosser Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less by: Alex Epstein The Paradox of Democracy: Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion by: Zac Gershberg and Sean Illing  Adults in the Room: My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment by: Yanis Varoufakis  Apollo: The Race to the Moon by: Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox Ender's Game (The Ender Saga, 1) by: Orson Scott Card The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 by: Matt Dinniman Faith, Hope and Carnage by: Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan

The nuclear threat is back, and the Doomsday Clock is almost at midnight. How did we end up here again? In the 1930s, German physicists learned that splitting the nuclei of heavy atoms could release tremendous amounts of energy. Such theoretical ideas became relevant when WW II began.  Today, we try to eliminate nuclear weaponry while exploiting the atom for peaceful uses, such as energy generation. But as the invasion of Ukraine shows, power plants can also be military targets. We lay out some of the questions that scientists and strategists are grappling with considering recent events.  Guests:  John Mecklin – Physicist, and Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Robert Rosner – Physicist at the University of Chicago and a former chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist's Science and Security Board. Eric Schlosser – Journalist, author of “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.” Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact sales@advertisecast.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The nuclear threat is back, and the Doomsday Clock is almost at midnight. How did we end up here again? In the 1930s, German physicists learned that splitting the nuclei of heavy atoms could release tremendous amounts of energy. Such theoretical ideas became relevant when WW II began.  Today, we try to eliminate nuclear weaponry while exploiting the atom for peaceful uses, such as energy generation. But as the invasion of Ukraine shows, power plants can also be military targets. We lay out some of the questions that scientists and strategists are grappling with considering recent events.  Guests:  John Mecklin – Physicist, and Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Robert Rosner – Physicist at the University of Chicago and a former chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist's Science and Security Board. Eric Schlosser – Journalist, author of “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.” Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact sales@advertisecast.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we chat with @TubeTimeUS about reverse engineering sound cards, how the MOnSter 6502 came to be, the Snappy Video Snapshot, ethics in engineering, troubleshooting techniques, and much more! Here's a detailed list to many of the things we talked about: Eric's Website (TubeTime.us) MoNSter 6502 PCB Reverse Engineering - Hackaday Supercon Presentation Cloning a Sound Card - Hardware.io Presentation Fermi Estimation Bunny Huang Bill Mensch NMOS logic I2C Visual6502 project Windell and Lenore from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories Snappy Video Snapshot Saleae  Excess Solutions in San Jose Electronics flea market Fry's Electronics Winamp 555 timer kit 741 timer kit FIB Maker Faire Power line thread San Bruno gas explosion  Dieselgate Technology adoption curve California public utilities commission  Regulatory Capture This is How They Tell Me the World Ends Responsible disclosure Command and Control Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser X-Unit Logic analyzer capture modes Ghidra IDA Radare (See Episode 45 for more details!) Cutter Hertha Ayrton Herta's famous paper about the Arc Lamp and Negative Resistance Have comments or suggestions for us? Find us on twitter @unnamed_show,  or email us at show@unnamedre.com. Music by TeknoAxe (http://www.youtube.com/user/teknoaxe)

History episode: A brief history of nuclear escalation and its nail-biting byproducts Script and sources: https://medium.com/@nickrroberts/broken-arrows-and-almost-annihilations-ca0ff71cdec8 Referenced in the podcast: "The Bomb" Making Sense, Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/podcasts/186-the-bomb/, The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, Fred Kaplan, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser Checkpoint Charlie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoint_Charlie

Scott talks to Colleen Moore about America’s withdrawal from global nuclear arms agreements under the Trump administration. Part of the reason for Trump’s keenness on pulling out of these agreements is his reputation as a tough negotiator who prioritizes America’s interest and won’t tolerate “bad deals,” but he’s also received nonstop allegations from the left for four years that he’s a Russian puppet, which makes it very difficult to try to make peace with them. Luckily, nuclear arms reduction is an issue that 80% of Americans support, so Scott and Moore see a huge opportunity for politicians to make this a leading issue in the future. Discussed on the show: “Nuclear Arms Nightmare: Don’t Let New START Die” (The National Interest)Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety“Command and Control (2016)” (IMDb) Colleen Moore is the Digital Engagement Manager at Beyond the Bomb and Global Zero. Find her on Twitter @cmoo11_. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com. Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2zjzlhDm3Q

In this episode, we explore what happens when someone with superhuman speed tries to finish the nuclear arms race in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). How easy would it be for Superman to destroy the planet’s nuclear weapons himself? What happens with Lex Luthor decides to rearm the world? Is that a bird? Is that a plane? Is that… a giant wad of nuclear missiles flying toward the sun? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast), Gabe, and special guest Will Saetren (@WillSaetren), Project Lead in Nonproliferation at CRDF Global, answer these questions and more. Before we visit Nuclear Man at the nuclear power plant tour, we recommend checking out: • Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013-2016 comics) • Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2016 documentary) • The Day the Earth Died!, June 1985, Superman no. 408 • Michael O'Hanlon, A Skeptic's Case for Nuclear Disarmament, 2010 • Watchmen (1986-1987 comics) • Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, 2013 • Keren Yarhi-Milo, Knowing the Adversary: Leaders, Intelligence, and Assessment of Intentions in International Relations, 2014 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, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube. Enjoy!

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the recently deceased Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty — a Cold War-era agreement that was supposed to stop the US and Russia from putting destabilizing missiles too close to each other. They explain where the treaty came from, why it mattered, and why Trump pulled out of it — and cap it off with a discussion of whether the treaty’s demise was a good thing or not. Zack does his best (worst?) Yaakov Smirnoff impression, Jenn breaks down the song “99 Red Balloons” at length, and Alex laughs at Mikhail Gorbachev’s jokes. Alex’s recent INF treaty explainer US President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev sign the INF in 1987 Here’s the full text of the treaty if you want to read it yourself. The Worldly hosts prefer this cover of “99 Red Balloons” by Goldfinger, but their producer Byrd maintains that the Nena version is best. Editorial director Liz Nelson, meanwhile, recommends this version from the punk band 7 Seconds. Zack mentioned that there were several times we came close to nuclear war thanks to misinterpretations or accidents. If you want to know even more, we recommend reading the chilling book Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. Here’s more background on the Obama administration’s policy toward the INF treaty and Russia’s apparent violation of it. And here’s then-US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats in November 2018 laying out the evidence the intelligence community has showing that Russia violated the terms of the treaty. Oh, and here’s Russia’s government denying it did so, and instead accusing the US of having violated the treaty. Also, more on the “missile gap” Here is a smart op-ed laying out the case for pulling out of the treaty and building more of these missiles, and here’s a smart op-ed laying out the case against pulling out of the treaty. Here’s some more background on National Security Adviser John Bolton’s well-known loathing of arms control agreements.  And we mentioned that China recently warned the US that it would take unspecified “countermeasures” if the US were to deploy these missiles near China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we figured out how an RBMK reactor explodes by watching the hit HBO show Chernobyl. What caused the nuclear power plant disaster? How did the Soviet leadership and the Russian people respond to the crisis? If vodka is really such a powerful medicinal wonder, can it be covered by your health care insurance? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guests Meghan McCall (@Nuclear_Ginger_) and Geoff Wilson (@NuclearWilson) answer these questions and more. Our special guests also have excellent podcasts on nuke topics to enjoy: -Meghan McCall's Press the Button -Geoff Wilson's Nukes of Hazard Before we hug our dogs closer than normal, we recommend checking out: -Chernobyl, Podcast by Craig Mazin and Peter Segal -Chernobyl VR Project, The Farm 51 -The China Syndrome, 1979 movie -Adam Higginbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster, 2019 -Svetlana Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, 2006 -David McMillan and David Baillargeon, David McMillan: Growth and Decay: Pripyat and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 2019 -Pandora’s Promise, 2013 documentary -Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, 2014 -Metro video game series 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, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube. Enjoy!

Eric Schlosser – an investigative journalist, author and filmmaker – examines strategies for saner nuclear policy, the fallibility of our nuclear command and control system and how deterrence works… until it doesn’t. Schlosser will be a guest speaker at "Chain Reaction 2019: A New Moment," the Ploughshares Fund June 10 gala in San Francisco. Also: Early Warning weekly nuclear news analysis with Michelle Dover and Mary Kaszynski. ploughshares.org/chainreaction2019  

In this episode, we tuned the radio to the song 99 Luftballons (or 99 Red Balloons) by the band Nena and talked about its connections to nuclear weapons, the Cold War arms race, and anti-nuclear protests. How did the threat of intermediate range nuclear missiles in Europe inspire Nena to write this catchy dirge? What happens when early warning systems confuse 99 balloons for UFOs and nukes? What artist will win their Grammy with a song about the dangers of Gamma Rays? Tim Westmyer and returning special guest Will Saetren (@WillSaetren) answer these questions and more. This is the 11th in our Mini-Nuke episode series, where we overthink pop culture with a smaller slice of nukes than our usual full-sized episodes. Playlist of nuke songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs&list=PLXh-L52NGj3wWH92cBVAjeW-7giQ2B4vW Before we hit shuffle on our nuke war mix to lament the death of the INF Treaty, we recommend checking out: -The Man Who Saved the World (2014 documentary) -Rush, “Distant Early Warning,” Grace Under Pressure, 1984 -No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future (1979) -Jeffrey Lewis, The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States, 2018 -Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, 2014 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, Spotify, GooglePlay, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube. Enjoy!

This week, Kaiser and Jeremy chat with Andrew Small, senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, D.C. Andrew is one of surprisingly few scholars with specialized experience researching China's relations with what it calls its "all-weather friend" — Pakistan. His book from 2015 on the subject is titled The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics. Kaiser, Jeremy, and Andrew discuss how Sino-Pakistani ties have been impacted by the recent election of Imran Khan to prime minister, Pakistan's economic difficulties, and the numerous projects that comprise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC – one of the most important components of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Recommendations: Jeremy: What3Words, a startup that has divided the entire world into a grid of 57 trillion squares, each of them three meters by three meters (9.8 feet), and assigned each square a three-word address, generated randomly by computer. Improving.shrimps.legal, for instance, is located just south of the Chairman Mao portrait at Tiananmen in Beijing. Read more about the system and its implications for developing countries and China on SupChina. Andrew: Two alternative views on how an economic “decoupling” of the U.S. and China could happen, other than the tariff-driven trade war path currently being taken. First, “Trump thinks a trade war with China is the only option, but it’s not,” a piece by Dan Rosen in Foreign Affairs, and second, “Jennifer Hillman testifies on addressing Chinese market distortions,” where the Georgetown Law professor lays out before the U.S. Senate in early June how litigation could be brought before the World Trade Organization to address grievances against China. Kaiser: Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, by Eric Schlosser.

“If we read an article in the newspaper presenting two opposing viewpoints, we assume both have validity, and we think it would be wrong to shut one side down. But often one side is represented only by a single ‘expert’.” In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I discuss Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. In this book, Oreskes and Cornway talk about media and science, and scientific consensus that became controversial in the public eye — from the SDI to tobacco to global warming. “Rome may not be burning, but Greenland is melting, and we are still fiddling. We all need a better understanding of what science really is, how to recognize real science when we see it, and how to separate it from the garbage.” We cover a wide range of topics, including: The tobacco industry and the regulations on smoking today Global Warming and all its many causes. Are all causes equally serious? How media talks about science and creates controversial topics out of scientific consensus The SDI and nuclear winter The sugar industry vs working out And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Merchants of Doubts by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway! Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Flatgeologists [0:49] Strategic Defense Initiative [2:05] DDT Pesticide [2:19] The Sugar Film (2014) [06:05] Neighbourhood Effect [16:27] Tragedy of the Commons [16:27] Magnetic Resonance Imaging – MRI [18:30] Toshiba Corporation [18:30] Yamaha Corporation [18:30] The Spacex Launch [19:10] Black Mirror: Men Against Fire [22:06] Jordan Peterson’s interview on Channel 4 [26:24] Futurama: Crimes of the Hot [27:58] Mutual Assured Destruction Doctrine [32:30] CFC – Chlorofluorocarbons and Ozone depletion [38:06] Philip Morris USA [51:50] Krispy Kreme [53:48] Moore’s Law [1:14:08] Books mentioned Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman [1:13] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie [15:14] Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio [18:42] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser [31:40] 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson [1:07:16] (Nat's Notes) (Neil's Notes) (book episode) The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley [01:09:35] (Nat's Notes) People mentioned Naomi Oreskes Erik M. Conway Elon Musk [1:05] [28:00] [39:30] (on this podcast) Michelle Obama [10:25] Andrew Carnegie [15:07] Adolf Hitler [21:34] Jordan B. Peterson [21:27] (on this podcast) Nassim Nicholas Taleb [27:08] (on this podcast) Ronald Reagan [31:18] Richard Feynman [35:20] Freeman Dyson [35:34] Carl Sagan [36:43] S. Fred Singer [42:16] Show Topics 0:44 — Science and media. Topics that have become controversial in the public sphere, through media, that weren’t so within the scientific community; tobacco, the sugar industry, pesticides, etc. 03:58 — The sugar industry and its history of media deception; people’s perceptions on sugar, then and now. The industry’s attempts of bettering their images as sugar is more and more seen as unhealthy. 07:21 — Sugar and artificial sugar: its effects on your body and microbiota. The inexistent proofs that help losing weight. 09:16 — What about exercise? The food industries’ attempts to shift responsibility for health and fitness into “lack of exercise”, overblowing the importance of exercising. 11:05 — Two issues that are not necessarily separated by the book: on one hand, people should be better informed of the risks of their behaviors, like eating sugar, or drinking. On the other hand, should they not be allowed to engage in certain behaviors? Or simply have awareness of the risks if they do engage? Advocating for control, instead of banning, like the taxing on the tobacco industry. 13:15 — The public perception of tobacco as incredibly dangerous, and different perspectives in different countries. 15:21 — The conclusion of the book helps understands the author’s overall thesis. Many people who fought back against restrictions to industries had been Cold War veterans, looking to protect free market. There are certain areas in which free market doesn’t work, like air quality. 17:47 — Regulation is the mother of innovation: they force people to create new solutions, often starting from the beginning. 20:05 — Surprisingly, Hitler banned cigarettes once it was known they were lethal. He had various issues with what he considered “dirty” or “unclean”, which links back to his view of the people he persecuted. 22:35 — All the Nazi research regarding smoke got discredit following their defeat, since no one wanted to use nazist research. But were there such qualms about other research, like rocket science? Is it ethic at all to use research created unethically? 24:06 — Likewise, many studies for controversial topics just can’t be conducted for ethical reasons, or at times there’s too many variables. Epidemiology is useful in this case; though correlation doesn’t necessarily means causation. 25:55 — Climate change, and how its many causes often get simplified to just one problem. And even if we’re wrong about its causes, isn’t it too dangerous to ignore the chance human intervention is responsible? 29:41 — Good science focuses on what’s not yet known; but media often then latches on to these doubts, advertising what scientist don’t know and obscuring the science of what they do know. 30:48 — The SDI: Reagan's program against nuclear strikes through satellites. Was it a serious project? Was it a proposital rumor? Could it have started a nuclear war? How did the idea get so far when it had such opposition? 35:10 — Richard Feynman, Freeman Dyson, and their views on nuclear winter and global warming: two issues that were somehow conflated. Were the models being used accurate? 36:34 — Scientists often focus on areas of doubt, rather than what is already known. A topic largely discussed in the book is that scientists aren’t necessarily good at understanding public policy, media, or how to get their ideas across to the public and vice-versa. 38:06 — CFCs. Once again, many factors contributed to the damage to the ozone layer, but all were given equal weight when certain factors were much more damaging than others. The same was done regarding skin cancers, where many other factors were pointed out that were true, but not as relevant. This seems to be a common tactic to detract from central issues. 43:58 — Second-handed smoking and e-cigarettes: are they as dangerous as regular cigarettes? What of second-hand damages that come with alcohol, like drunk driving? Should alcohol and driving be more strictly regulated? 51:05 — The companies knew what they were doing: memos from tobacco companies show their strategy of trying to keep the doubt on whether or not cigarettes were bad for your health. The ethical dilemma around working for such companies. 54:46 — School’s approach to drug education: are abstinence arguments really effective, or are them increasing drug use? Alternative methods for decreasing drug use and its harmful effects. 01:00:45 — Global Warming is still very much a current issue. What arguments that are in vogue today could be misinformation? It can be difficult to find a balance between suspecting statements that challenge the current scientific consensus, and not completely shutting them down. 01:05:00 — The book has a critical stance on Capitalism and Technology. “Technology won’t save us”. However, it is possible to join business and sustainability. 01:09:30 — The book has a certain one-sided point of view, which can be true for most of the topics discussed, but can also be a dangerous attitude. Radical changes are also much more difficult to execute, such as suddenly switching entirely away from fossil fuels. 01:12:24 — Alternatives to developing without fossil fuels. What about nuclear power? Could that be a solid green alternative? Can solar power progress as fast as our technological needs? 01:18:05 — Sponsors time. You can support us by going through our Amazon sponsored link, and buy iPads for your family, Louis Vuitton bag, or maybe puppies in the future. Use Perfecto Keto for all your keto needs. Try the Coffee Flavored Exogenous Ketones and the MCT oil powders. Try their new MCT oil to help you achieve perfect hair. “If you stop using shampoo, your hair starts being a barometer of your health”. Kettle & Fire’s bone broths will help you keep up your health, and you can put it in your hair, if you want! And Four Sigmatic for all your mushroom coffee needs and reduce your caffeine intake, though unfortunately it will not help you achieve the perfect hair. Check always our Support page. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com  

Eric Schlosser, author of the 2014 Lionel Gelber Prize shortlisted book “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety”, speaks with Robert Steiner, Director, Fellowships in Global Journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs.

Big eipsode 42!  Te have a Grand Tour spoilercast on the Stuttgart episode, talk how much the Ghostbusters would have been making, discuss Le Mans and Steve McQueen, have our first Word of the Week: Purloined, gush about our fake fidget cubes, bag on crowd funding even though Wonko likes his Mod-T 3D printer and Glyph video headphones, a quick diversion into VR headsets, and a distressing discussion about nuclear armageddon miraculously avoided in "Command and Control". Links from this episode: - The Grand Tour - 9. Berks To The Future * - How Much Money Would the Ghostbusters' Business Actually Be Worth? - Le Mans * - Steve Mcqueen: The Man & Le Mans * - Steve McQueen - Word of the Week: Purloined - Fidget Cubes * - Fidget Cube: A Vinyl Desk Toy - Kickstarter - Mod-T by Newmatter - Avegant Glyph - CST-01: The World's Thinnest Watch - Steam Early Access Games - GoFundMe - ELEGIANT 3D VR Glasses * - HTC VIVE - Virtual Reality System * - In Chilling Documentary 'Command And Control,' A Nuclear Explosion Narrowly Avoided - Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

The only warheads we thought would go off in the United States were Soviet warheads. We never considered that our own warheads could detonate our own continent. – Allan Childers, Missile Combat Crew It is September 19, 1980, and a nuclear disaster is playing out in a missile silo outside Little Rock, Arkansas. A worker accidentally drops a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead in our arsenal. It sets in motion a chain of emergency responses to head off damage and destruction of unknown reach. Directed by Emmy Award winner Robert Kenner (Food, Inc., Merchants of Doubt) and based on the critically acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Command and Control is a minute-by-minute account of the long-hidden story of the "Damascus Accident." With original footage and eyewitness accounts, the film recalls this near-miss catastrophe, shocking for being only one of thousands of close brushes with nuclear incidents, according to a recently declassified Department of Energy document. Join New America NYC for a screening of Command and Control and discussion about the risks of our aging nuclear arsenal and current efforts in arms control and nonproliferation. PARTICIPANTS Robert KennerDirector, Producer, and Co-writer, Command and Control Eric SchlosserProducer and Co-writer, Command and Control Sharon SquassoniDirector and Senior Fellow, Proliferation Prevention Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies Tamara Patton Doctoral Candidate, Nuclear Futures Lab, Princeton University

In this episode, we play a nice game of chess. After five minutes of that, we put on the 1983 Cold War movie and techno-horror story, WarGames. Can a country "win" a nuclear war? Could a faulty computer actually lead to WWIII? How did ICBM silo missileers keep themselves occupied before there were portable DVD players? We answer these questions and more. Before we go back to DEFCON 5, we recommend reading Eric Schlosser's Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety (Penguin Books, 2014). Other sources to check out include : -"WarGames: A Look Back at the Film that Turned Geeks and Phreaks into Stars," Wired, July 21, 2008 -"In Nuclear Silos, Death Wears a Snuggie," Wired, January 14, 2011 -"A Year Later: Responding to Problems in the ICBM Force," The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 12, 2015 -"The Reagan Presidency: Every Night at the Movies," Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1991 We aim to have a 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, Facebook.com/SuperCriticalPodcast, or SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com.

On the seventh podcast of American History Too! we turn our attention to the most cuddily of all US Presidents – Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt.  We pull apart ‘T.R.’s’ legacy in the context of American imperialism abroad and the rise of progressivism at home.  Malcolm argues that Roosevelt is a shining example of why nuance is required when we discuss historical figures, while Mark discusses the legitimacy of Roosevelt’s place on Mt. Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.  What legacy can we ascribe arguably the first modern president?  We give you our views but it’s left up to you to decide. Finally, find out the truth behind the ‘Teddy Bear’ story and also how T.R. actually felt about the nickname! We’ll be back in a couple of weeks when we’ll hopefully be joined by another special guest to discuss the 1930s.  Until then, thanks again for listening! Mark and Malcolm    Reading List: -          Michael Cullinane, ‘Imperial “Character”: How Race and Civilization Shaped Theodore Roosevelt’s Imperialism,’ America’s Transatlantic Turn: Theodore Roosevelt and the ‘Discovery’ of Europe, eds. Hans Krabbendam and John M. Thompson (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). -          Kathleen M. Dalton, ‘Theodore Roosevelt’s Contradictory Legacies:  From Imperialist Nationalism to Advocacy of a Progressive Welfare State,’ A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Serge Ricard (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) -          Peter G. Filene, “An Obituary for ‘The Progressive Movement’,” American Quarterly 22 (1970), 20-34 -          Fabian Hilfrich, Debating American Exceptionalism: Empire and Democracy in the Wake of the Spanish-American War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Chp.2. Also see Ken Burns’ excellent recent documentary series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014) Our Holiday Reading recommendations -          W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the electrical age (2013) -          Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety (2013) -          Gary Younge, No place like home: A black Briton journeys through the American South (2000) -          Raymond Arsenault, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (2007) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the 5: I recently finished a book called Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, And The Illusion Of Safety. It's a fantastic, sobering book on the approach the US took to nuclear weapons in the past and even today.