Nukes

How did 2 guys you've never heard of save the world from nuclear apocalypse? Can nuclear weapons be hacked? What's the most consequential honeymoon in human history? Why was a British nuclear weapon designed to contain live chickens in the bomb casing? And why are nuclear bombs useful for detecting art forgeries?

At 5:29am on July 16th, 1945, the first nuclear test – codenamed Trinity – was carried out in a remote stretch of New Mexico desert, an area called Jornada del Muerto, or the journey of the dead man. The heat from the blast melted the desert sand, creating a new material that became known as Trinitite. Colors flashed in the sky, first purple, then green, then white. The shockwave was felt 100 miles away. And the mushroom cloud, that iconic plume that has come to symbolize the incredible power of death and destruction put at the fingertips of humanity, rose 7 and a half miles into the sky.

That was it — the birth of the Atomic Age. The world would never be the same again.

In this episode, we explore aspects of nuclear weapons that you probably haven’t heard about. Can nuclear weapons be hacked? Why are nukes useful in detecting art forgeries? Why haven’t you heard of two men who saved the world from nuclear apocalypse? And why did the British government develop a nuclear weapon that had live chickens embedded in the casing of the bomb? Find out on Episode 14: Nukes.