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Plain English with Derek Thompson

Oppenheimer: The Genius, the Film, and the Project That Changed the World

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.81.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb,' discusses the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, the history of nuclear weapons, and the new film on his life by Christopher Nolan. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_ Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Richard Rhodes Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You may find this hard to believe, but 60 saws that explain the 90s.

0:04.4

America's favorite poorly named music podcast is back with 30 more songs than 120 songs total.

0:11.8

I'm your host Rob Harvilla here to bring you more true musical analysis,

0:15.8

poignant nostalgic reveries, crude personal anecdotes, and rad special guests,

0:21.3

all with even less restraint than usual.

0:24.6

Join us once more on 60 saws that explain the 90s every Wednesday

0:29.6

on Spotify.

0:31.6

Today's episode is about Jay Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the Atomic Bomb,

0:37.6

and the subject of the new sensational film by Christopher Nolan.

0:43.3

It's not every week that I choose to do a podcast episode based on a movie I just saw.

0:49.4

And this is probably the first week I've ever done a podcast episode about a movie I just saw.

0:55.2

But of course, Oppenheimer is not just a movie.

1:00.1

If you wanted to know, think about the answer to the question,

1:05.2

what's the most important thing that's ever happened for the human race?

1:12.8

You think about the candidates for that question.

1:16.7

Maybe it's the comment smashing into the Yucatan Peninsula, which killed up the dinosaurs,

1:21.2

which probably carved out some room for us weak small mammals.

1:26.8

Maybe this is an answer to the question I quite like.

1:30.0

The moment that one of the descendants of Genghis Khan was about to invade,

1:34.7

and very likely conquer all of Eastern and maybe even Central Europe,

1:40.2

Ogadai Khan died back in Mongolia and they had to pull back their forces.

1:45.4

And so there's this alternate history where the Mongols would have conquered not just

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