Chatter: Nuclear War, A Scenario with Annie Jacobsen
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2024
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Without warning, North Korea launches a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile at the United States. American satellites detect the launch within seconds, setting off a frantic, harrowing sequence of events that threatens to engulf the planet in a nuclear holocaust.
That’s the terrifying hypothetical storyline that journalist Annie Jacobsen imagines in her new book. It’s a minute-by-minute, and occasionally second-by-second account of how the vast U.S. national security apparatus would respond to a “bolt out of the blue” attack with a nuclear weapon. It’s a riveting story and the supreme cautionary tale.
Shane Harris spoke with Jacobsen about the book, the present threat of a nuclear world war, and her body of work, which has dug deeply into the dark corners of intelligence and national security.
Books, interviews, movies and TV shows discussed in this episode include:
Nuclear War: A Scenario https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/748264/nuclear-war-by-annie-jacobsen/
Chatter interview with A.B. Stoddard about The Day After https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/chatter-the-day-after-and-dad-with-a.-b.-stoddard
Top Gun: Maverick https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745960/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_top%2520gun
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5057054/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_jack%2520ry
Find out more about Annie Jacobsen on:
Her Website: https://anniejacobsen.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anniejacobsen?lang=en
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfair Podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com |
| 0:16.4 | slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.0 | This is Chatter, I'm Shane Harris. This week journalist Annie Jacobson on a scenario for nuclear war. |
| 0:51.7 | You know, the fundamental reason for me writing this book was to show in appalling detail just how horrific nuclear war would be. |
| 0:58.0 | So many of these cold warriors |
| 1:01.0 | explain to me how this is a fundamental fear that once nuclear |
| 1:07.8 | launch begins it ends in only one way which is nuclear Armageddon. |
| 1:15.0 | There are so many weapons ready for launch. |
| 1:20.0 | America has 1,770. |
| 1:25.0 | 1,674. |
| 1:29.0 | This is the precipice. |
| 1:30.0 | This is the razor's edge. |
| 1:32.0 | Do we really want to live like this? |
| 1:35.0 | Annie Jacobson, welcome to chatter. It is a delight to have you on the |
| 1:45.2 | podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we were just talking before we came |
| 1:49.6 | on. I feel like you and I have we are in such similar parallel worlds and we have never |
| 1:53.4 | actually had the chance to talk to one another so this is really a treat for me so |
| 1:57.9 | thanks for coming on and for me as well we report on very similar veins of national security and government secrecy. |
| 2:07.0 | Yeah, totally. |
| 2:08.0 | And you've just decided after writing about, you know, military history in Area 51, why not the light topic of nuclear war. |
... |
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