Hi, accused listeners. In comic books speak, the episode you're about to hear is not canon.

It's a bonus episode we've put together as a sort of holiday treat.

The backstory is that we're halfway through our eight episode season examining David

Bach's story, and the folks who make business decisions requested we go on hiatus over Christmas

and New Year's weeks because of advertising considerations that I know nothing about.

Amanda and I thought it'd be a bummer to disappear for two full weeks though.

So we decided to do something we've never done before but plan to do more often through a new Patreon page.

We're taking a look at some things we learned while reporting this season and sharing it with you,

just in case you think this stuff is as interesting as we do.

In truth, this is one of my favorite aspects of being a reporter.

Nothing happens in a vacuum.

Everything seems to be tied together in weird ways that I always find fascinating and surprising.

I love getting to learn new stuff by teaching myself not just about the case I'm reporting,

but the context surrounding it, the history and politics and pop culture.

David Bach's got his job at the Frenald Uranium Processing Plant about 35 years after the war

ending bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If you were around in the 80s, you surely remember how the Cold War affected things.

Sylvester Stallone made sure of it.

Rocky Balboa fought a Russian in 1985's Rocky IV and John Rambo was tortured by Russians in Rambo First Blood Part II, also in 1985.

In this episode, we're going to take a step back even further though,

to talk about how nuclear weapons reshape pop culture, both before 1945's bomb droppings and immediately after.

Normally, episodes such as this will be exclusively posted at patreon.com slash accused,

...