Episode #55: The Manhattan Project

Super Critical Podcast

In this episode, the high school yearbook voted us “Most Likely to Join the Nuclear Club” after we watched the 1986 movie The Manhattan Project where student Paul Stephens builds a nuclear bomb with plutonium stolen from a secret government lab run by the guy dating his mom. How easy is it to build a homemade nuclear weapon? What motivates a brilliant scientist to devote their life to WMD? Do you enter a homemade nuclear bomb at the science fair under the project category of physics, chemistry, or psychopath? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and returning special guest Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) answer these questions and more. Before we earn extra credit by weaponizing some anthrax in AP Bio class, we recommend: -Special Bulletin (1983 movie) -Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes game -“Fat Man and Little Boy,” The Simpsons, season 16 episode 5 -Science Fair (2018 documentary) -Ken Silverstein, “The Radioactive Boy Scout,” Harper’s Magazine, November 1998 -Ken Silverstein, The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor, 2005 -The Day After Trinity (1980 documentary) -WarGames (1983 movie) -“Nth Country Experiment,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, March 1, 2019 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, [e-mail], and YouTube. Enjoy!