I've done episodes before about people who've saved a large number of human lives.

Mostly these people have done so through inventions or innovations and feels like agriculture or medicine.

What about people who prevented an impending disaster, however, like when Superman stops an asteroid from hitting Earth?

Well, there was such a case, and thanks to the actions of a single man, millions of lives and perhaps hundreds of millions of lives, might have been saved.

Learn more about Stanislav Petrov, the man who saved the world, on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Brilliant.org.

Brilliant's mission is to inspire and develop people to achieve their goals in STEM,

one person, one question, and one small commitment to learning at a time.

They enable great teachers to illuminate the soul of math, science, and engineering through

bite-sized interactive learning experiences.

Their courses explore the laws that shape our world, elevating math and science from something

to be feared to a delightful experience of guided discovery.

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in 1983 the Cold War was near its height.

The number of nuclear warheads on Earth was at an all-time high.

The Soviet Union and the United States were both on high alert,

and each could launch a full-scale

attack in a matter of minutes. The President of the United States was Ronald Reagan

who was a staunch cold warrior and the leader of the Soviet Union was a former

KGB chief named Uri Andropov.

...