Edward Teller: Destroyer of Worlds

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2018

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb", the force behind Reagan's Star Wars initiative, and the model for "Dr. Strangelove" was a Hungarian math prodigy who fled Hitler's Germany. In America, he became one of the scientific minds behind the creation of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, in a race against the Nazi war machine. Teller's story is told here in his own voice, and by many of the other leading scientists from the dawn of the nuclear age. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2018

Transcript

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0:00.0	The fear to attack and so because of the
0:03.7	deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the fear to attack and so because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process
0:16.7	which rules out human meddling, the doomsday machine is terrifying?
0:24.0	This is the second time in recent months I've had occasion to play a clip from Dr. Strangelove on this it spawned. The first time I played a bit was for our episode on actor James Earl Jones, who made
0:46.0	his film debut as one of the pilots who dropped the H-bomb. Today I'm playing it because our featured achiever was one of the men who actually built the H-bomb and helped inspire the title character.
0:59.5	I'm talking about Dr. Edward Teller, often referred to as the father of the hydrogen bomb
1:06.7	and a controversial figure, if ever there was one.
1:10.3	This is what it takes, a podcast about passion, vision and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
1:18.0	I'm Ellis Winkler.
1:21.0	Had a name, this child is gifted.
1:24.8	And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:27.1	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another job.
1:33.0	It all was so clear.
1:35.0	It was just like the picture started to form itself.
1:38.0	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth,
1:42.0	darkness over light, death over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
1:45.6	Every day I wake up and decide, today I'm going to love my life.
1:51.2	Decide.
1:52.2	My advice is, if they don't... decide.
1:53.0	My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there.
1:58.0	And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for you don't plan for, but boy you better not miss them.
2:07.0	As North Korea rapidly advances its nuclear and missile capabilities and claims to have recently tested hydrogen bomb,
	...

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