The Cold War - The Nature of Risk | 4
American History Tellers
Audible
4.6 • 19K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2018
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Americans were desperate to find hope in the shadow of the bomb.
Miracle cures, cheap energy, and even brand new atomic gardens: the wonders of the atom were ours to discover! Right? Eager to explore nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes, Americans instead found the resulting radioactive fallout too dangerous.
In Episode 4, we’ll talk about swim wear, baby teeth, and how America just couldn’t get friendly with the atom.
Scott Kauffman’s “Project Plowshare: The Peaceful Use of Nuclear Explosives in Cold War Alaska” was inspired by Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech and essential reading for anyone interested in nuclear history.
Finally, Audra Wolfe’s book, “Competing with the Soviets,” was crucial to our overall understanding of the Cold War.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music, |
| 0:05.6 | download the app today. |
| 0:16.9 | Imagine that it's late January 1951. |
| 0:19.9 | You work for Kodak at the company's headquarters in Rochester, New York. |
| 0:23.4 | The fine snow has been falling for days, and the drive to work this morning was a little |
| 0:27.5 | slippery. |
| 0:28.5 | You snow, squeaks beneath your feet as you walk from the parking lot to the factory. |
| 0:32.2 | But once you're inside, no one wants to talk about the weather. |
| 0:35.6 | Instead, everyone's talking about something else that seems to be falling from the sky. |
| 0:40.2 | Radiation. |
| 0:41.4 | You work for one of Kodak's research arms, the physics division. |
| 0:44.6 | You and your colleagues spend most of your time exploring new opportunities for your company |
| 0:48.3 | at the margins of science. |
| 0:50.3 | But your group also helps with quality control. |
| 0:53.4 | Radiation damages film, and right now, the factory has a radiation problem. |
| 0:57.7 | The coworker leads a group of you over to a Geiger counter, positioned by the air filters. |
| 1:02.7 | Started going off Sunday and hasn't really stopped since. |
| 1:05.7 | Wow, that's a lot. |
| 1:07.7 | Never heard anything like it. |
| 1:08.7 | The levels are just off the charts. |
| 1:10.4 | At least 25 times higher than normal. |
| 1:13.3 | Where's it coming from? |
... |
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