On the 81st anniversary of the US’s nuclear attack on Hiroshima, host Bert Zipperer is in conversation with Mari Faines of the Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists and Steve Leeper of Physicians for Social Responsibility. They discuss all the human, ecological, and moral harms perpetuated by powers committed to a nuclear status quo. Faines writes, “There is no question the nuclear status quo upheld since 1945 is rooted in colonial systems of power and White supremacy that started centuries ago. But nuclear security scholarship that explicitly makes this connection and examines the harm resulting from this socio-political, cultural, economic, and ecological history is still incredibly limited.” Faines draws connections between militarism and justice movements and says that our current moment requires an intersectional approach to crises, local and existential. Leeper advocates for a “peace culture” as opposed to the “war culture” he sees as driving nuclear proliferation and Trump’s MAGA movement. The path of peace, says Leeper, leads to universal health and well being, and that goes for all humanity and the non-human world. He will be speaking at a Lanterns for Peace event tonight, sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility. They also discuss the doomsday clock that is currently set to 85 seconds until midnight, how there’s no such thing as a small nuclear weapon, nuclear power, and how to change the kitchen table conversation about nuclear weapons. Mari Faines serves as a Board Fellow for the Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists. Just prior, Faines served as a strategic advisor and policy expert at the U.S. Department of State working on AUKUS, the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Prior to joining the State Department, she spent five years in the United Kingdom completing graduate work in Peace and Security studies, while working as a project manager for an international solutions corporation. Upon returning to the United States, she continued working at the intersection of nuclear nonproliferation policy and social justice issues. Faines has written for a multitude of publications and was a former podcast host. She remains engaged in global policy issues by volunteering with various advocacy organizations and has been recognized for many of these contributions over the past decade. Faines holds a Master’s of Science (MSc) from SOAS University of London and a Bachelor’s from Colgate University. Steve Leeper has spent about half of his 78 years in Japan. He began working as UN representative of Mayors for Peace in 2002. This led to his appointment in 2007 as chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. He stepped down in 2013 to be a professor at Hiroshima Jogakuin University. He shifted from professor to visiting professor in 2015. He is co-founder of Peace Culture Village in Hiroshima and PEAC Institute in Montclair, NJ, Detroit, MI, and Atlanta, GA. He is a recipient of the Academia Prize from Kyoto University, the Tanimoto Peace Prize (Hiroshima’s highest peace award), and an honorary doctorate from Hiroshima Jogakuin University. His publications include Hiroshima Resolution (bilingual), Nihon ga Sekai wo Suku (Japanese), Hiroshima wo Tsutaetai America-jin (Japanese), and Kakuheiki Haizetsu e no Michi (Japanese). Featured image of the aerial view of the flash of light from the Able Day explosion over Bikini Lagoon in 1946 via National Archives. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here The post There’s No Better Time to Abolish Nukes appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.
