Super Critical Podcast

In this special episode, we venture out of our cozy fallout bunker to watch the 1999 romantic comedy, Blast from the Past. This is the second in our new series within the podcast -- Mini-Nuke episodes -- where we find movies that do not have enough nuclear nonsense for a full-sized episode but nonetheless demand over analyzation. Tim and a special guest -- his sister, Diana -- delve into the history and use fallout shelters. Ranging from the overkill shelter in the movie to the more modest versions you'd find in backyards during the Cold War, this episode tells you everything you need to know to protect yourself from radioactive fallout -- just not what to do if you get stuck in one for decades. Photos of Tim's trip down into a fallout shelter are up on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.545103975696196.1073741829.437574689782459&type=1&l=be98d22e4f Before your fallout shelter doors automatically lock for 35 years, be sure to check out these sources: -James Daniel, "Survive the Apocalypse in Style," DailyMail, September 6, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2414497/Most-luxurious-bunker--The-1970s-Cold-War-Era-Home-built-26-feet-underground.html -Eli Segall, "Mysterious group buys underground doomsday house in Las Vegas," VegasInc, April 4, 2014, http://vegasinc.com/news/2014/apr/04/mysterious-group-buys-underground-doomsday-house-l/ -Andrew Taylor, "Underground home was built as Cold War-era hideaway," Review Journal, June 20, 2013, http://www.reviewjournal.com/view/downtown/underground-home-was-built-cold-war-era-hideaway -"Underground Homes," New York World's Fair, 1964, https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidelevine/sets/72157618339078546/with/3539303026/ -Life Magazine, "How You Can Survive Fallout," September 15, 1961, https://books.google.com/books?id=nVQEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=life+magazine+fallout+1961&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz2eGv7o3PAhVFND4KHS4ZCXcQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false -F-86 Nuclear Sabre, http://oppositelock.kinja.com/f-86f-nuclear-sabre-215665108 -Janet Maslin, "After Decades in a Bomb Shelter, a Family Learns the Only Fallout Is Social," New York Times, February 12, 1999, http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9406E0DB103AF931A25751C0A96F958260 -"Blast from the Past: Building Elden Underground," CinemaReview, http://www.cinemareview.com/production.asp?prodid=471 -UndergroundBombShelter.com, http://undergroundbombshelter.com/radiation-fallout.htm -Civil Defense Museum, http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cdmuseum2/shelter.html -David Dunlap, "Civil Defense Logo Dies at 67, and Some Mourn Its Passing," New York Times, December 1, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/washington/01civil.html?_r=0 We aim to have at least one new full-sized episode every month and Mini-Nuke episodes on a regular basis. 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, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, or YouTube. Enjoy!

In this special episode, we suppress our emotional sides and explore the logic behind the 2016 science fiction adventure movie, Star Trek Beyond. This is the first in our new series within the podcast -- Mini-Nuke episodes -- where we find movies that do not have enough nuclear nonsense for a full-sized episode but nonetheless warrant some over analyzation. We go into needless detail about Spock's radioactive jewelry gift to Uhura, which also doubles as

In this episode, we maxed out our conference call lines while debating the 1964 drama-thriller movie, Fail-Safe. What happens when you can't recall your own nuclear bombers en route to Moscow? How many air planes can you knock out of the sky with a nuclear bomb? How do you convince your enemy that accidents -- even nuclear ones -- do happen? The podcast hosts and special guest/TCM guru Victoria answer these questions and more. Before our podcast's phone line melted in a fireball, we recommended reading L. Douglas Keeney, 15 Minutes: General Curtis Lemay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation (St. Martin's Griffin, 2012) and two articles at the National Security Archive (see links below). Other sources to check out include -- you can also access these links on our SoundCloud page: -William Burr, "The Air Force versus Hollywood," National Security Archive, January 15, 2010, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb304/index.htm -Christopher Bright, "Cold War Air Defense Relied on Widespread Dispersal of Nuclear Weapons, Documents Show," National Security Archive, November 16, 2010, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb332/ -Photos of SAC HQ, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/gallery/image04.htm, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/gallery/image03.htm, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/gallery/image02.htm -Steve Weintz, "Dreaming of Genie, America's Anti-Aircraft Nuke," War is Boring, March 2, 2014, https://warisboring.com/dreaming-of-genie-americas-anti-aircraft-nuke-df20fe88facd#.clto29h6f -Bob Raichle, Alaska's Cold War Nuclear Shield," Nike Historical Society, 2012, http://nikemissile.org/ColdWar/AlaskaColdWar/alaska_cold_war.shtml -Richard Oulahan, "Doomsday is Better as a Farce," LIFE, October 30, 1964, https://books.google.com/books?id=o0gEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=true -Ari Schulman, "Doomsday Machines: Fail-Safe was Flop, but Much Smarter about Nuclear War than Dr. Strangelove," Slate, October 7, 2014, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/10/fail_safe_50th_anniversary_sidney_lumet_s_nuclear_war_movie_is_better_than.html -Sharon Ghamari, Review of Technical Accuracy in Fail-Safe, Strategy Page, https://www.strategypage.com/moviereviews/default.asp?target=Fail%20Safe -"Revisiting Fail-Safe," Fail-Safe Special Edition DVD, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZdz2HXCgig -B-58 Hustler, Federation of American Scientists, May 29, 1997, http://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/bomber/b-58.htm -Wm. Robert Johnston, MULTIMEGATON WEAPONS: The Largest Nuclear Weapons, April 6, 2009, http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/multimeg.html#U1 -Stiletto, Transformers Wiki, http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Stiletto_(BW) 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, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, or YouTube. Enjoy!

In this episode, we leave our boring jobs and become Jason Borne Bureaucrats, because we watch the 1997 action-thriller, The Peacemaker. How easy is it to steal a Russian nuclear warhead? What the heck does SS-18 mean? Is it really a good idea to try and stab a plutonium core and smash it with a gun? We answer these questions and more. Apologies for the audio issues in this episode. We went mobile from our usual podcast studio and we think some of the wires got frayed in the process. The problem was identified and vaporized. There is some great content in this one so hopefully everyone will enjoy it. Before we jump in the pool to wash off our radioactive debris, we recommend reading Leslie and Andrew Cockburn's One Point Safe (Doubleday, 1997) and John McPhee's The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994). And have fun on NukeMap (http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/)! Other sources to check out include: -Ben Travers, "Is 'The Peacemaker' George Clooney's Calamity? Not Quite," PopMatters, September 26, 2010 (http://www.popmatters.com/review/131263-the-peacemaker/) -Janet Maslin, "The Cold War Is Back, Nuclear Bombs and All," New York Times, September 26, 1997 (http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E05E4DA1F3BF935A1575AC0A961958260) -Various press clippings on Jessica Stern's website (https://jessicasternbooks.com/about/the-peacemaker/) -Props from the movie (http://www.golive.com.au/action/action-films-1990s/the-peacemaker/nuclear-bomb-prop-from-the-peacemaker) -ABC News, "Secret Government Team Fights to Negate Nuclear Threat," June 11, 2005, (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/LooseNukes/story?id=1200558&page=1) -Mirage Gold - Official After Action Report (http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb2, February 1995, 67/16.pdf) -Robert Windrem, "Spy Satellites Enter a New Dimension," NBC News, August 8, 1998 (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077885/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/spy-satellites-enter-new-dimension/) -Federation of American Scientists, "R-36M / SS-18 SATAN," (http://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/icbm/r-36m.htm) -Pavel Podvig, "The Window of Vulnerability That Wasn’t," Russian Forces Blog, June 27, 2008 -Raphael Minder, "Even Without Detonation, 4 Hydrogen Bombs From ’66 Scar Spanish Village," New York Times, June 20, 2016 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, Facebook.com/SuperCriticalPodcast, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, or www.youtube.com/channel/UCLkSAcA8FdC0yyLjxVhjWmw.

In this episode, we are still unaware of what the other half of the battle is, but we do know some things about the 2013 action movie, G.I. Joe: Retaliation. How can a villain trick the world into global nuclear disarmament? Does the U.S. military really have plans to steal Pakistan's nuclear weapons? Does The Rock action figure come with a kung-fu grip? We answer these questions and more. If you don't want to watch the full movie, you can watch these key scenes on YouTube ("Might be a better option than the whole movie."-Tim): -The Atomic Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1tGCDeOi2o -Project Zeus Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlrA-vPOGVQ -Pakistan's Nukes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UwbdmTQik Before we parachute out of our exploding helicopter, we recommend reading Richard Garwin's paper on "Space Weapons: Not Yet" presented atPugwash Meeting No. 283 on May 14, 2003 (http://fas.org/rlg/030522-space.pdf)and Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder's article on "The Pentagon's Secret Plans to Secure Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal" in The National Journal from 2011 (http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/the-pentagons-secret-plans-to-secure-pakistans-nuclear-arsenal/) Other sources to check out include: "The Rock Knew About Osama Bin Laden's Death Before You," The Village Voice, May 2, 2011, http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-rock-knew-about-osama-bin-ladens-death-before-you-who-knew-what-when-6720191 -Rob Lammie, "Brief History of G.I. Joe American Hero," Mental Floss, July 4, 2015, http://mentalfloss.com/article/62636/history-gi-joe-real-american-hero -"GI Joe Retaliation Tungsten Rod Drop," Reel Physics, May 21, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTYOc8b776E -Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Q&A Podcast, February 20, 2016, http://www.theqandapodcast.com/2016/02/deadpool-q.html -Eric Adams, "Rods from God," Popular Science, June 1, 2004, http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-06/rods-god -Colin Johnston, "Rods from God: A Terrifying Space Weapon?," Astronotes, September 27, 2010, http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/rods-from-god-a-terrifying-space-weapon.html -Space Weapons, Earth Wars, a RAND Study prepared for the USAF in 2002 by Bob Preston, Dana Johnson, Sean Edwards, Michael Miller, Calvin Shipbaugh, www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/p…11/RAND_MR1209.pdf -"Fallout Poster," Civil Defense Museum, http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/artgal/youcan.html -War Plan Red, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red 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, Facebook.com/SuperCriticalPodcast, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLkSAcA8FdC0yyLjxVhjWmw.

In the second part of our two part Star Trek marathon, we continue to boldly overanalyze what no one had deemed necessary to overanalyze before: the nuclear nonsense in the fail Star Trek spin-off pilot, Assignment: Earth. Why did countries think it was a good idea to put nuclear weapons in space? What does it look like when a nuke goes off in the vacuum of space? Is it still okay these days to name your cat Isis? With the continued help of our special guest and Star Trek enthusiast Gabe, we answer these questions and more. Before we attempt a gravitational slingshot maneuver around the sun to travel back in time, we recommended reading Outer Space in World Politics, an edited volume organized by Joseph Goldsen in 1963, especially the chapter by renowned nuclear deterrence scholar, Thomas Schelling, on "The Military Use of Bombardment Satellites." Also, check out Space Weapons, Earth Wars, a RAND Study prepared for the USAF in 2002 by Bob Preston, Dana Johnson, Sean Edwards, Michael Miller, Calvin Shipbaugh, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/2011/RAND_MR1209.pdf. Other sources to check out include: -Space Nuclear Weapon Test, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvvrNrCOnw -Space Nuclear Weapon Detonation EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTvqLfvLKU -The Unexpected Effects of Nukes in Space, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhStl7SQnM -Minuteman 1 ICBM Air Launch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It7SQ546xRk -ICBM Basing Modes, ArmsControlWonk, June 12, 2012, http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/205397/icbm-basing-modes/ -Robert Richardson, "Rocket Blitz From the Moon," Collier's Weekly, October 28, 1948, https://www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1948oct23-00024 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, Facebook, GooglePlay, YouTube, or SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com.

In this episode, we boldly overanalyzed what no one had deemed necessary to overanalyze before: the nuclear nonsense in the acclaimed Star Trek episode, The City on the Edge of Forever. How close was Nazi Germany to actually building an atomic bomb? Could one person convince America to stay out of WWII? Will Captain James T. Kirk ever catch a break in his love life? With the help of our special guest and Star Trek enthusiast Gabe, we answer these questions and more. Before we beam back aboard the Enterprise, we recommended reading Jeremy Bernstein’s called Hitler’s Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall (Copernicus Books, New York, 2001) and Mark Walker German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1989). Other sources to check out include: -James Tiberius Kirk, "Khaaaaannn!," Captain's Log, The Year 2285, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRnSnfiUI54 -Mark Walker, “Nazi’s and the Bomb,” NOVA, November 8, 2015, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/nazis-and-the-bomb.html -Klaus Wiegrefe, “The Third Reich: How Close Was Hitler to the A-Bomb?” Spiegel, March 14, 2015, http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/the-third-reich-how-close-was-hitler-to-the-a-bomb-a-346293.html 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, Facebook, iTunes, GooglePlay, YouTube, or SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com.

In this episode, we eject from our aircraft and land on John Woo's 1996 slow-motion action opera, Broken Arrow. What happens when a disgruntled Air Force pilot decides to steal from his employer? Does an underground nuclear explosion set off an EMP? Is it really that easy for nuclear bombs to fall out of airplanes? We answer these questions and more. Before we find the nukes we are looking for, we recommend reading Dr. Stephen Younger's The Bomb: A History (HarperCollins, 2009) and James Mahaffey's Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters, (Pegasus, 2014). Other sources to check out include : -Footage of underground nuclear tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSjratvNGmo -USSR Gas Well Blow Out = Nuclear Bomb Puts Out the Fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iB9QYaSVEo -Rob Coppinger, "NASA plans 'Armageddon' spacecraft to blast asteroid," FlightGlobal, August 3, 2007 -William Broad and David Sanger, "As U.S. Modernizes Nuclear Weapons, ‘Smaller’ Leaves Some Uneasy," The New York Times, January 11, 2016 -Ed Pilkington, "US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina – secret document," The Guardian UK, September 20, 2013 -William Broad, "Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says," The New York Times, June 2, 2010 -Tom Harris, "The Nuclear EMP Threat," How Stuff Works -Review of Broken Arrow, Entertainment Weekly, February 16, 1996 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, iTunes, Facebook, GooglePlay, YouTube, or SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com.

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.

In this episode, our mission -- we chose to accept -- is to talk about the nuclear nonsense in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Can you nuke a city to save a city? Why is there always an "abort the launch" button? Would the Nuclear Football deflate if it is in Siberia? We answer these questions and more. Before the podcast self-destructed, we recommended Bruce Blair's The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War (Brookings, 1993) and Alexi Arbatov's The Equation of Security (2000). Other sources to check out: -"The Russian Nuclear Button," Foreign Policy, May 27, 2010 -"Adventures of the 'Nuclear Briefcase,'" Strategic Insights, Vol. III no. 9, September 2004 -"Cold War Doctrines Refuse to Die," Washington Post, March 15, 1998 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.

[For new listeners starting the podcast at episode #1, welcome! Also, I promise that the audio quality improves once we get better equipment and learn how to do this right!] In this first episode of our podcast, we go undercover with the 1994 action spy comedy (masterpiece?) True Lies. What does this movie tell us about nuclear terrorism? Can a nuclear warhead really be confused for a snow cone maker? Why wasn't Tom Arnold at least considered to play the new James Bond? We explore these questions and more. Books recommend in this episode: On Nuclear Terrorism by Michael Levi (Harvard Press, 2007), Atomic Obsession by John Mueller (Oxford Press, 2012), and Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe by Graham T. Allison (Holt, 2005). 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.