A Wrench in the Works

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every day, we go about our lives doing thousands of routine, mundane tasks. And sometimes, we make mistakes. Human error. It happens all the time. It just doesn’t always happen in a nuclear missile silo.

On September 18, 1980, a technician was working in a Titan ll missile silo in Damascus, Arkansa, when he dropped a wrench. The tool fell and pierced a hole in the side of the missile which happened to be carrying a nuclear warhead. This is a story of an accident that nearly caused the destruction of a giant portion of the Midwest.

This story was produced in collaboration with This American Life.

***

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Alex Schwartz.
0:02.0	I'm Nomi Fry.
0:03.0	I'm Vincent Cunningham, and this is Critics At Large, a New Yorker podcast for the
0:07.6	Culturally Curious.
0:09.1	Each week we're going to talk about a big idea that's showing up across the cultural
0:12.4	landscape, and we'll trace it through all the mediums we love.
0:15.3	Books, movies, television, music, art.
0:18.0	And I always want to talk about celebrity gossip too.
0:20.1	Of course.
0:21.1	What are you guys excited to cover in the next few months?
0:24.8	There's a new translation of the Ilias that's coming up Emily Wilson.
0:27.4	I'm really excited to see whether I can read the Iliad again, whether I'm that
0:31.3	literate.
0:32.3	I mean, the jury is out.
0:33.9	I can't wait to hear Adam Driver go again at an Italian accent in Michael Man's Ferrari.
0:38.6	He can't stop.
0:39.6	I mean, and bless him.
0:41.0	I can't wait.
0:42.0	Molto Beine.
0:43.0	Molto Beine.
0:44.0	Molto Beine.
0:45.0	You hope you'll join us for new episodes each Thursday.
	...

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