150 episodes

Nuclear weapons aren't just a national security issue; they are also a human rights issue. Building a safer future requires an examination of past and present nuclear policy. NukeTalk investigates nuclear weapons policy by looking at the human impact of nuclear weapons. And brings the stories of those affected to you. NukeTalk is hosted by Ploughshares.

NukeTalk Ploughshares

    • News
    • 4.6 • 93 Ratings

Nuclear weapons aren't just a national security issue; they are also a human rights issue. Building a safer future requires an examination of past and present nuclear policy. NukeTalk investigates nuclear weapons policy by looking at the human impact of nuclear weapons. And brings the stories of those affected to you. NukeTalk is hosted by Ploughshares.

    Atomic Assembly: Hanford, Washington

    Atomic Assembly: Hanford, Washington

    Over 80 years ago, Hanford was miles and miles of open farmland. Now, it’s known as the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere.
    This episode features Steve Olson, author of the book Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age, and Britany Lindley, staff attorney at Hanford Challenge.
     

    • 37 min
    Atomic Assembly: Rocky Flats, Colorado

    Atomic Assembly: Rocky Flats, Colorado

    In 1989, a team of FBI agents raided and shut down the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant after nearly 3 years of investigation into its environmental and waste practices. It was the first-ever raid of one government agency by another.
    Featured guests include Kristen Iversen (Author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats), Jon Lipsky (Former FBI Special Agent who led the Rocky Flats raid), and Dr. Deborah Segaloff (Colorado Physicians for Social Responsibility). 

    • 36 min
    Atomic Assembly: Amarillo, Texas

    Atomic Assembly: Amarillo, Texas

    The Pantex Plant sits just 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas. It's the only remaining assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons in the United States.
     
    Guests include Barbara Kent (downwinder and advocate), Kaysie Kent (downwinder and advocate), and Lucie Genay (author of Under the Cap of Invisibility: The Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant and the Texas Panhandle).

    • 45 min
    Atomic Assembly: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

    Atomic Assembly: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

    It was the uranium enriched at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that was used in Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August of 1945. Today, every single weapon in the US’ nuclear arsenal, all 5,000, has parts that were built or maintained at Y-12.
    Guests include Tanya Kardile (Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance) and Emily Strasser (author of Half-life of a secret: Reckoning with a hidden history).

    • 46 min
    The Shadow of Oppenheimer

    The Shadow of Oppenheimer

    Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is officially out, so it’s time to travel back to 1945 and examine who was left behind in the pursuit of a false sense of security. This story starts with one man: J. Robert Oppenheimer. But the people affected total in the millions. And the fallout of that decision continues to this day. 
     
    Ploughshares Fund’s podcast is back for its second season titled “The Shadow of Oppenheimer.” Hosts Angela Kellett and Jacqueline Hsing are joined by nuclear policy experts in the field this week to give an understanding of what you need to know ahead of (or after) watching the film Oppenheimer. These nuclear policy experts explore how modern nuclear weapons have increased in capacity and destruction compared to their predecessors, the amount of money going into the US nuclear stockpile compared to compensation programs for radiation-exposed people, and how the nuclear field is mobilizing in response to Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
     
    Guests include Matt Korda (Federation of American Scientists), Allen Hester (Friends Committee on National Legislation), Istra Fuhrmann (Peace and Security Funders Group), and Dr. Emma Belcher (Ploughshares Fund).

    • 25 min
    Fact, Fiction, Film

    Fact, Fiction, Film

    Does Oppenheimer have a post-credit scene? Yes, and you’re living it.
    Hosts Angela Kellett and Jacqueline Hsing review Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer and discuss what’s fact, what’s fiction, and what’s missing from the narrative.

    • 14 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
93 Ratings

93 Ratings

lilmonimoni ,

Black Lives Matter

Say no to racism

EuphoniusWail ,

Countdown to Armageddon

Apart from climate change, there is no greater existential threat than the use of nuclear weapons. Press The Button is a weekly deep dive with leading experts about the nature of the nuclear threat and what scholars, lawmakers, think tanks, governments and civic organisations are doing to (hopefully) reduce the threat. Organized by the Ploughshares Fund, Press The Button sometimes feels too close to the Beltway, but its heart is in the right place. I eagerly await each episode, and gain knowledge and enlightenment from each. Thank you to the producers!

DaveHochh ,

Not really a national security podcast

This is coming from a center left person here, but this is really a political pod about the big grab bag liberal wishlist of policies, with a patina of foreign policy. It’s not a nuclear / foreign policy pod.

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