Boy and Island

This podcast explores the development of the book, Boy and Island by Andrew Hurst which centers on the Three Mile Island (T.M.I.) nuclear power accident that occurred near his childhood home in Middletown, Pennsylvania on March 28, 1979—the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. Boy and Island examines T.M.I.’s impact on local citizens by unveiling the previously untold story of his family’s incredible journey in search of sanity and justice on the frontline of a nuclear nightmare. Hurst was six-years-old when the accident occurred, while his father, James Hurst, was a founding member of PANE (People Against Nuclear Energy). PANE’s mission to hold T.M.I.’s owners and operators accountable for psychological and emotional trauma went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In waging this war, the Hurst family found themselves in an astounding series of circumstances that uprooted their lives and led them to seek refuge in strange places, leading to encounters with remarkable people. Hurst’s first-person account of these experiences is sensitively crafted with poetic insights from his insider’s perspective and loaded with rare, unpublished photos and archival materials. Boy and Island also examines the ways the T.M.I. experience has impacted Hurst’s creative instincts as an artist and how it has shaped his character as an adult. Ultimately, Hurst sees Boy and Island functioning as a story that transcends the confines of the T.M.I. issue by mining the tragedy for unconventional wisdom and forward thinking about place, family, and social justice. Read more about Boy and Island at www.boyandisland.com