NPR.

On On Sunday,

On Sunday, Balaus threatened Ukraine.

On Sunday, Belarus threatened Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

Days earlier, Vladimir Putin vowed to make new nuclear weapons and could place them close to NATO countries.

And Putin spoke in Moscow earlier this year saying that the West is creating a threat

of nuclear war that could destroy civilization.

And here in the U.S. the government boosted its nuclear weapon spending by 18 percent between

2022 and 2023. It's evident the world is closer to nuclear war than it's been in at least 40 years.

It's scary stuff and the situation of rising nuclear tensions has its roots in a field of mathematics that underpins

a lot of economics. Game theory. In this case, the game theory of nuclear standoffs.

Neuroscientist Kelly Clancy says,

depending on this way of thinking,

may have led to a worrying escalation.

We're in for a lot of trouble

because that's actually not the way humans really operate.

This is the indicator from planet money. I'm Darien Woods.

And I'm Adrian Ma. Today on the show, The Game Theory of Nuclear War.

When can mathematical models help us and when can they actually lead us astray and even to the

brink of destruction.

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Wise, the app that makes

managing your money in different currencies easy.

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