Oppenheimer with Kai Bird

The Preamble

Sharon McMahon

Government, History, Storytelling, Education

4.9 • 15.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sharon’s guest today is Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of American Prometheus, which is the biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer that the blockbuster Christopher Nolan film was based on. Join us while Kai shares his experience of what it was like to have his work turned into a historically accurate major motion picture, and how he conducted the research required to capture the life of Oppenheimer. If you are interested in learning more about the mid-Century, World War II, his wife Kitty, or what happened to them immediately after the war, you will not want to miss this episode.

Special thanks to our guest, Kai Bird, for joining us today.

Host/Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Guest: Kai Bird

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends, welcome, delighted to have you joining me today.
0:08.8	My guest is Kai Bird.
0:11.4	I am so excited to be chatting with the author of American Prometheus, which is the biography
0:19.0	of Robert Oppenheimer on which the blockbuster Christopher Nolan movie was based.
0:25.7	So if you are interested in learning more about the mid-century, if you're interested in
0:29.4	learning more about World War II, the Manhattan Project, about Robert Oppenheimer, his wife
0:35.6	Kitty, what happens to him after the war?
0:38.6	You have got to stay tuned for this episode.
0:41.0	Let's dive in.
0:42.0	I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting.
0:48.0	I am very excited to be joined by biographer Kai Bird.
0:52.7	Thank you so much for being here today.
0:54.5	Thank you Sharon for having me.
0:56.0	It has been an eventful year in your life as a biographer.
1:01.8	Has it not?
1:02.8	It's been amazing, yes.
1:06.2	We are just chatting about your book American Prometheus, which is an incredible biography.
1:12.6	It's been widely critically acclaimed, of course.
1:17.0	And it was the basis for a huge blockbuster movie this year, Oppenheimer.
1:23.8	I'm not going to talk too much about the movie because I want to talk about the book, but
1:27.6	I would love to get your reaction about what was it like to see your work on the big screen?
1:34.8	Oh, it was an incredible experience.
	...

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