Movies

In this episode, we put on our skis and telemarked our way to the winter lodge to watch the movie The Heroes of Telemark (1965) about a team of Norwegian resistance fighters sabotaging a heavy water plant during WWII to prevent Germany from getting closer to an atomic bomb. How close was Nazi Germany from building a nuclear weapon? What is the importance of heavy water in a nuclear program? What is more likely: that Tim builds a homemade nuclear device or Tim properly pronounces all these Norwegian names? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast), and returning special guest returning special guest Will Saetren (@WillSaetren) answer these questions and more.

Full movie online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBiR8ZipPM

Before we synchronize our ticking clock time bombs, we recommend: 
-William Stephenson, A Man Called Intrepid, 2016
-Neal Bascomb, The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb, 2017
-The Final Countdown (1980 movie)
-Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (VR game with Norwegian heavy water plant level)
-The Heavy Water War (2015 Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation show)
-Norway Resistance Museum
-Vemork Hydro Plant

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, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube.

Enjoy!

Episode #59: The Heroes Of Telemark

In this episode, we called our sommelier for advice on the best atomic alcohol to drink while watching the Alfred Hitchcock movie Notorious (1946) telling a spy romance story that discovers uranium ore stashed in a wine bottle owned by ex-Nazis hiding out in Brazil. How did Hitchcock introduce the first major atomic MacGuffin plot device so soon after the reveal of the Manhattan Project? What could a rogue element do with uranium ore hidden in a wine cellar? Why don’t the ex-Nazis hide the uranium in a bottle of Wild Turkey because nobody would ever want to look closer at that bottle. Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and co-host Gabe answer these questions and more.

Full movie online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LwPhO2qPcQ

Before we check out tea for poison, we recommend: 
-Rear Window (1954 movie)
-The Boys From Brazil (1978 movie)
-Uranium Glass (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass)
-Casablanca (1942 movie)
-“How Atomic Physics Helped Solve a Wine Fraud Mystery,” NPR, June 3, 2014
-Pitch Meeting series on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyXMyxkJQV4&list=PLRE-UFLEgWzBuOiqemhEI9b4gmmBbutnC)

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, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube.

Enjoy!

Episode #60: Notorious

In this episode, we called opened our nuclear launch code safes to pull out the DVD box for Crimson Tide (1995) about two leaders on a submarine butting heads about whether to launch nuclear missiles and possibly start and/or stop WWIII. How accurate did the film portray nuclear command and control launch procedures? What role do boomers play in nuclear deterrence? How does Captain Ramsey’s dog have such a keen sense of a person’s character? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and returning special guests Geoff Wilson of the Council for Arms Control and Nonproliferation (@NuclearWilson) and nuclear expert Will Saetren (@WillSaetren) answer these questions and more.

Note: Tim gets his wires crossed as he recommends a documentary (The Man Who Saved the World) that is actually about Soviet missile launch officer Stanislav Petrov instead of the Soviet naval officer Vasily Arkhipov who Geoff and Will talk about during the episode. The documentary is still excellent and it is scary how many examples of nuclear near misses there are that this mistake could happen.

Before we concur on the latest EAM, we recommend: 
-The Man Who Saved the World (2013 documentary) - 
-Jeffrey G. Lewis and Bruno Tertrais, “The Finger on the Button: The Authority to Use Nuclear Weapons in Nuclear-Armed States,” CNS Occasional Paper #45, February 2019
-Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of Submarine Espionage, 2016
-Project Azorian
-Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, 2021
-Robert Moore, A Time to Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy, 2016
-Armageddon Letter, http://www.armageddonletters.com/

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, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube.

Enjoy!

Episode #61: Crimson Tide

In this episode, we watched the documentary False Alarm (2021) about that time in 2018 no one talks about anymore when the people of Hawaii received an erroneous warning on their phone that North Korea fired a nuclear armed ballistic missile and they had minutes to live. What was the reaction of people who received this ominous message? How does this ordeal stack up to Hawaiians’ long history of being on the short end of the nuclear arms race? Have there ever been a worse case of Textmergency/Textastrophe than this nuclear attack warning appearing on every cell phone in Hawaii? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and the documentary’s director Nick Lyell (@FalseAlarmFilm) answer these questions and more.

The documentary is streaming thru Vimeo On-Demand for the month of November 2021: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/falsealarm/311014137

Movie information: www.FalseAlarmFilm.com

Before we clear our nuclear notifications on our mobile phones, we recommend: 
-False Alarm (documentary 2021)
-Super Critical Podcast episode #21 on Ladybug Ladybug (1963) 
-Alia Wong, “Pandemonium and Rage in Hawaii,” The Atlantic, January 14, 2018
-Sean Flynn, “The Real Story of the Hawaiian Missile Crisis,” GQ, April 2, 2018
-Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua, et al, A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty, 2014
-Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawaii (2008 documentary)
-The Bomb (PBS 2015 documentary)
-Solarpunk Futures (card game made by Nick Lyell and the Solar Punk Surf Club at thefuture.wtf)

Episode #62: False Alarm

In this episode, we went interstellar with our intercontinental ballistic missiles to talk about nuclear weapons in two science fiction shows: The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica. How are nuclear weapons used as weapons (and themes) in these two stories? What would the impact of a nuclear weapon actually be against a space ship? When are we getting our Gaius Baltar and Paolo Cortázar buddy comedy? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Stefan Sasse (@StefanSasse), host of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour podcast, answer these questions and more.

Before we get in our crash couches and jump the ship, we recommend: 
-John McPhee, The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor, 1974
-Marco Fey, et al., The nuclear taboo, Battlestar Galactica, and the real world: Illustrations from a science-fiction universe, Security Dialogue 47 no. 4, 2016 
- Neal Stephenson, Seveneves, 2015
-The Foundation (Apple TV)
-Raised by Wolves (Apple TV)

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, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube.

Enjoy!

Episode #63: The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica

In this episode, we investigated a distress beacon to find our new artificially intelligent WMD friend in the Star Trek Voyager episode “Warhead” (s5 e25 - 1999) where the crew picks up smart bomb hitchhiker hellbent on finishing his military mission. Why don’t all nuclear armed missiles have a self-destruct feature? How do you deter against a nuclear strike from a planet 80 light years away? How does the USS Voyager convince a nuclear bomb to stop loving itself and not explode? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast), co-host Gabe, and special guest James Sheehan (@jsheehandc) -- consultant working on trans-Atlantic cooperation and public diplomacy -- answer these questions and more.

Before we check out of sick bay, we recommend: 
-Russian Roulette, PBS, February 23, 1999
-Dark Star (1974 movie by John Carpenter)
-“One,” Metallica, …And Justice for All (1989)
-Meilan Solly, “The Japanese WWII Soldier Who Refused to Surrender for 27 Years,” Smithsonian Magazine
-The Delta Flyers, Voyager Podcast
-Jetrel, Star Trek Voyager (s1 e15, May 1995)
-Sunshine (2007 movie)
-Star Trek: First Contact (1996 movie)
-Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons (2022), Wizards of the Coast

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, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube.

Enjoy!

Episode #66: Star Trek Voyager - Warhead

In this episode, we found ourselves in the danger zone watching a surprise nuclear weapon plot in the fun movie Top Gun: Maverick (2022) where Tom Cruise needs to teach a crew of hot shot misfits to airstrike a uranium enrichment facility on the Death Star (kind of). Why did Top Gun sequel feel the need to raise the nuclear stakes in the plot? Any real life influence on the story related to airstrikes against similar nuclear facilities? Will this movie series ever run out of teambuilding activities to play on the beach sand? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and co-host/aviation guru Gabe answer these questions and more.

Before we request a tower flyby, we recommend: 
-Hot Shots! (1991 parody of Top Gun)
-Amb. Wendy Sherman, Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage, Power, and Persistence, 2018
-“Israel Admits Striking Suspected Syrian Nuclear Reactor in 2007,” BBC, Mach 21, 2018
-“Israeli Attack on Iraq’s Osirak 1981: Setback or Impetus for Nuclear Weapons,” National Security Archive, June 7, 2021
-“Top Gun – The Need for Speed,” LockheadMartin.com
-“Tom Cruise Terrifies James in ‘Top Gun’ Fighter Jet!,” The Late Night Show with James Corden channel on YouTube, March 24, 2022
-“Actual TOPGUN, Dave Berke, Reacts to "TOPGUN: Maverick" with Jocko Willink,” Jocko Podcast channel on YouTube, June 3, 2022

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, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube.

Enjoy!

Episode #67: Top Gun - Maverick

In this episode, we teamed up to discuss the portrayal of nuclear weapons in the 2016 superhero movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Just how easy is it to nuke a moving target in space? Do nukes still pack a punch for today’s movie audiences? Why can’t Superman and Batman just talk about their feelings? Tim and Joel answer these questions and more.

This is the fifth in our Mini-Nuke episode series, where we overthink movies with not enough nuclear nonsense for a full-sized episode but nonetheless demand over thinking. For the short nuke scene discussed in the movie, watch it on YouTube here: https://goo.gl/wKDQnt

Before we recharged our alien cells using solar radiation and/or sunflowers, we recommended checking out: 
-Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns, 1986
-Matthew Gault, “How the U.S. Military Could Kill Superman
Kryptonite… and Lots of Nukes,” WarIsBoring.com, May 31, 2016
-300, Legendary Pictures, 2007

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!

Mini-Nuke 5: Batman v Superman

In this episode, we took the midnight train going anywhere... far away from the bad TV mini-series, Atomic Train (1999). Could a dangerous Russian nuke end up on a runaway U.S. train? What would a major city like Denver do to evacuate after a nuclear detonation? How can a movie with a runaway train, nukes, hazardous chemicals, Rob Lowe, and 50+ helicopters be so boring? Tim Westmyer, Gabe, and special guest Elliot answer these questions and more.

Before the atomic train conductor yelled “all aboard,” we recommend checking out: 

-Threads (1984 TV movie) and Special Bulletin (1983 TV movie)
-The Stand (1994 TV mini-series)
-Michael Krepon, “Moving from MAD to Cooperative Threat Reduction,” Stimson Center, December 2001, https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/93680/Report41.pdf
-Unstoppable (2010 movie)

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!

Episode 27: Atomic Train

In this episode, we place bets on the biggest fight in the cinematic universe: nuclear weapons vs. asteroids. What do the movies Armageddon, Deep Impact, and Meteor tell us about how planet Earth will defend itself against space rocks? How effective would nukes in these doomsday scenarios? How can we thank the dinosaurs for becoming oil so that the drill team in Armageddon learned the skills necessary to save us from another asteroid extinction event? Tim Westmyer and returning special guest Boris (@bmelnikov) answer these questions and more.

Before we decide to violate the Outer Space Treaty, we recommend checking out: 

-“Chicxulub crater,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
-Vladimir Rubtsov, “The Tunguska Mystery,” 2009, https://www.amazon.com/Tunguska-Mystery-Astronomers-Universe/dp/0387765735
-“Space Weapons Earth Wars,” Rand Corporation, 2002, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/2011/RAND_MR1209.pdf
-Force Majeure (2014 movie)
-Meteor Man (1993 movie)

Thanks to Brgfx for creating and hosting the meteor image graphic on Freepik.com used in the podcast thumbnail.

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!

Episode #30: Nukes vs. Asteroids

In this episode, we worked out our plutonium cores while watching the movie Mission: Impossible –Fallout. How easy is it for a rogue scientist – Norwegian or otherwise – to build a nuclear bomb if they got access to a plutonium core? Why do apocalyptic terrorist organizations seek nuclear weapons? When does Wolf Blitzer find time to report the news between all his movie shoots? Tim Westmyer, Gabe, and special guest James Finnegan answer these questions and more.

Before we nuke more insects to see what happens, we recommend checking out: 
-Ronin (1998 movie)
-Fatman and Littleboy (1989 movie)
-Matthew Gault, “Mission Impossible Fallout Missed its Chance to Tell a Good Story,” The National Interest, July 30, 2018
-C'était un Rendezvous (1976 movie)
-Mythbusters, Episode 160 about Mission: Impossible Masks

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!

Episode #31: Mission: Impossible - Fallout

In this episode, we followed chirping sounds in the desert and discovered GIANT RADIOACTIVE ANTS in the movie THEM! (1954). What happens to insects exposed to radiation in the real world? How did nuclear testing and atomic monster movies change public opinion on nuclear weapons? Where was Ant-man when the people Alamogordo needed him to calm these killer atomic ants? Tim Westmyer and returning special guest Tim Collins (@WarAndCake), PhD candidate studying British nuclear history, answer these questions and more.

Before we nuke more insects to see what happens, we recommend checking out: 
-Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth, 1982
-Barry Atkinson, Atomic Age Cinema: The Offbeat, the Classic and the Obscure, 2018
-Spencer Weart, The Rise of Nuclear Fear, 2012
--Richa Malhotra, “Ants Trapped in Nuclear Bunker are Developing Their Own Society,” NewScientist, September 5, 2016
-Gerard J. DeGroot, The Bomb: A Life, 2006
-Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, 1996
-Godzilla (1954 movie)

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!

Episode #32: THEM!

In this episode, we did the math about what happens when you add a missing nuclear weapon together with neo-fascists and an unassuming CIA desk analyst in the Sum of All Fears (2002). How can terrorists get their hands on a plutonium core? Why did Russia allow the United States so many inspections of its nukes? Why won’t America just let Jack Ryan finish writing his memo. Tim Westmyer, Gabe, and special guest Jon Duke (@VortexAeroMedia) answer these questions and more.

Before we nuke more insects to see what happens, we recommend checking out: 
-Peter Feaver, Guarding the Guardians: Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons in the United States, 1992
-Cresson H. Kearney, “Chapter 13: Surviving Without Doctors,” Nuclear War Survival Guide, 1987, http://www.madisoncountyema.com/nwss.pdf
-The Fourth Protocol (1987 movie)
-Peter Hennessey, The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War, 2002
-War Book (2014 movie)
-The Letter of Last Resort, BBC Radio 4, 2013, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0210spc

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!

Episode #33: Sum of All Fears

In this episode, school is out for nuclear winter break, so we binged the Netflix series Daybreak about high school students surviving post-WWIII. How well does a nuclear war plot mesh with a John Hughes teenage comedy? What is the connection between sunflowers and nuclear disarmament? Who in our high school yearbook was voted “most likely to depress everyone with a podcast about nuclear war movies”? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Cecili Thompson-Williams (@cecilitw), Executive Director of Beyond the Bomb (@BeyondtheBomb), answer these questions and more.

Before we decide which post-apocalyptic clique to join, we recommend: 
-The 100 (TV series)
-BeyondTheBomb.org
-Phineas and Ferb (TV series)
-WarGames (1983 movie)
-Night of the Comet (1984 movie)
-Elizabeth King, “How Growing Up with the Threat of Nuclear War Shapes Kids’ Psyches,” TheCut, June 7, 2017

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!

Episode #48: Daybreak

In this episode, we aced our foreign service exam and started our undercover mission to the movie Spies Like Us (1995). How well does this comedy deploy a Soviet road mobile nuclear missile for hilarious effect? Can you actually recall a nuclear missile once it is in the air? Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, and doctor. Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and Gabe answer these questions and more.

Before we open up the nuclear disarmament negotiation board game box, we recommend: 
-Fletch, 1985
-The Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997
-International Spy Museum
-Nuclear War Card Game, 1965
-Steven Pomeroy, An Untaken Road: Strategy, Technology, and the Hidden History of America’s Mobile ICBMs, 2016
-Get Smart, 1965-1970 TV Show
 
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!

Episode #50: Spies Like Us

August 6 marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, followed three days later by the bombing of Nagasaki, on August 9th. In this special episode, Nukes of Hazard host Geoff Wilson narrates a selection from John Hersey’s Hiroshima, written in 1946. We also revisit last year’s episode of Nukes of Hazard, an interview with Kathleen Burkinshaw, who tells the story of her mother, who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

75 Years Later: the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

Podcast overthinking movies about nuclear weapons with policy analysis, quasi-science, pop culture debates, and too many puns.

Mini-Nuke 5: Batman v Superman

Super Critical Podcast

Related tracks