Christopher Nolan's latest film Oppenheimer tells the story of the brilliant physicist

who oversaw the construction of the first atomic bomb at a secret military base in the

New Mexico desert.

It goes on to chart the dark complicated legacy of what he made there, a technology that has gone

on to irrevocably change the world and that retains the real possibility of ending it.

I'm Glenn Weldon and today we're talking about Oppenheimer, Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is NPR Senior Editor Bilal Kereshi Hey Bilal.

Hey Grant.

Also with us his podcast producer and film and culture critic Kate Young Hey Kate.

Hey no. And rounding out the panel is filmmaker. and film-and-culture critic, hey Kate.

And rounding out the panel is filmmaker,

pop-culture critic and I-HeartRadio producer Joelle Monique.

Welcome back to Joelle.

Hey!

So, in Oppenheimer,

Killian Murphy plays the brilliant theoretical physicist Jay Robert Oppenheimer at various stages in his career as a young student in the 1920s, as a respected scientist in the 1940s tasked with corraling fractious physicist to beat the Nazis to the atomic bomb,

and as an older and very public figure in the 1950s,

whose US security clearance is under review by McCarthy-esque politicians

suspicious of his past affiliations with communists.

Matt Damon plays Leslie Groves, the military commander who partnered with Oppenheimer

to create the bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Robert

Downey Jr. plays Louis Strauss, a man who eventually becomes Oppenheimer's political nemesis.

Florence Pugh shows up for a bit to play Oppenheimer's first love Gene, and Emily Blunt gets a bit more to chew on as his wife Kitty.

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