Listen Now

He was and served as the 39th President of the USA. But before his career in politics, Jimmy Carter was a Navy Nuke under Gen. Rickover. What did he do in the Navy? How did this time in the Nuclear Navy shape his policies? What would happen if someone who thought like a scientist gained access to the highest seat in the land? Find out in this episode when Shelly speaks to Jimmy Carter’s biographer, Jonathan Alter. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

Underground nuclear bunkers, the birth of FEMA, secret government plans for the end of the world, and more in this episode. Garrett Graff discusses his book Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While the Rest of Us Die. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

This episode explores how we, as humans, grapple with the end of the world through nuclear literature including fiction, nonfiction, poems, etc. How do we grapple with the "end" if it is caused by humans and how do we explain nuclear events to children? Visit our webpage for a list of books discussed in this episode. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

The history of fusion as a source of energy is discussed along with past and current projects. Is a fusion power plant still decades away? Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

What is a war game? How did they shape our understanding of the Cold War? Did the mathematicians or social scientists win the war of the COW game? Learn about issues surrounding wargaming at RAND and elsewhere as Shelly & John dive deep into the question, "Can wargaming teach ethics?" Find John Emery's paper here: Moral Choices without Moral Language Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us Send an email us to My Nuclear Life or visit our website mynuclearlife.com. Please leave a 5-star review on iTunes and subscribe to My Nuclear Life wherever you listen to podcasts.

Special episode on reducing nuclear threat with Prof. Matthias Grosse Perdekamp. Recorded when Russia was invading Ukraine.

Today's episode features the musical duo Charming Disaster. They discuss the process of writing their new album based on the life of Marie Curie and the element she discovered, stories that did not make it into their songs, and ways that this album should sound familiar to fans but is also a departure from their usual writing style. Also, Elia & Jeff dispel Shelly's notion of "Goth Rock". Preorder their new album:Our Lady of Radium Visit Charming Disaster Website Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

What role does nuclear science play in understanding art and culture? Michael Wiescher from The University of Notre Dame explains. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

Nathan Radke and Lee Kuhnle from The UnCover Up podcast discuss Dr. Strangelove with Shelly and introduce an interesting conspiracy theory. Lee poses a question on if Nikita Khrushchev should receive story credit for the plot of the movie and backs it up with some interesting history of who could launch a nuclear attack. Wait - did Stanley Kubrick accidentally get it right? Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

Nathan Radke and Lee Kuhnle from The UnCover Up podcast discuss Failsafe (1964) with Shelly and compare it to Dr. Strangelove. Find out what character made Lee want to quit watching Failsafe, who the gang thinks would have a better chance at surviving a nuclear exchange: file clerks or prisoners, and what Shelly wants etched on her tombstone. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

Nathan and Lee from the UnCover Up podcast join today’s conversation in discussing their favorite nuclear movies spanning over the decades, involving wars, nuclear disasters, and so much more! Amongst the 100’s of movies, they’ll be touching on just a sampling—this is a conversation you won’t want to miss! Movie links can be found on our website. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com email us

In this episode Pete Burgess discusses the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian spy who defected to the UK. Why is polonium-210 a good poison? How do you make it? Why wasn’t the public scared it could happen to them? All of those questions and more are answered in this exciting episode. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife Send an email us to My Nuclear Life or visit our website mynuclearlife.com. Please leave a 5-star review on iTunes and subscribe to My Nuclear Life wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode, host Shelly Lesher is joined by Neal Bascomb, author of The Winter Fortress, which tells the story of the plan to sabotage Hitler’s atomic bomb. Listen as Neal tells about the several different missions set out to destroy the Nazi atomic bomb program and how they affected the course of the World War II. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

Our release schedule has changed to the last Tuesday of the month. This episode also introduces information about entering to win some great prizes at mynuclearlife.com drawing on 16 Dec 2021.

Go inside a US missile silo with Col. (Ret.) Charles G. Simpson as he discusses his time as a US Air Force Missileer which started weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis and ends shortly before the end of the Cold War. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

This episode features Don Howard, a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame with an interest in the ethics of emerging technologies. Shelly & Don explore the ethical considerations behind the Manhattan Project and building the H-bomb, and discuss question such as: Should scientists use their expertise to be involved in politics? What is the moral obligation to one’s work? How are scientists involved in human rights work? and more. Don also shares his moving experiences as a child during the Cold War. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife

In this episode Shelly speaks with Thomas Haigh, a historian of computing, about the ENIAC and its influence on nuclear physics. Learn how the ENIAC was more of an experimental apparatus than a computer, the role of women in early computing, why we know so much about the secret h-bomb calculations, what Wikipedia gets wrong, and the confusion surrounding the MANIAC. All of this and more in this super-sized episode. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife

In this episode Shelly is joined by Dr. Vincent Intondi, history professor at Montgomery College in Maryland. He is invited on the podcast today to discuss his recent authorship of his eye opening book entitled African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement. Shelly shares that while reading this book, she was uncomfortable with material, and had to process material from perspectives that she had never considered before. This interview proves to be a true eye-opener for listeners including connections between nuclear weapons and racism, the role of African Americans in nuclear disarmament, and how young people can contribute to new and pressing issues. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

In this episode, Shelly is joined by 2/3rds of The Uncover Up Conspiracy Podcast, Nathan Radke and Lee Kuhlne. They discuss the Pentagon UFO report, their joint Cold War obsession, what we can learn from conspiracy theory, and various nuclear conspiracy theories. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us

In this episode Shelly speaks to Tiffany Nichols, doctoral candidate at the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, graduate student affiliate at the Black Hole Initiative and a National Science Foundation grantee. Her research focuses on how place, surrounding environment, and laboratory are embedded in the outputs signals of The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, also known as LIGO. Visit us at: mynuclearlife.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/mynuclearlife email us