Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 1

Past Present Future

D&HR Media Ltd

Politics, News, Philosophy, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 747 Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the first in a new series of conversations exploring the future that faces us all, David talks to S. M. Amadae about what nuclear weapons and the prospect of nuclear war have done to the human condition. Was 1945 the decisive watershed in the history of humanity? What made the possibility of nuclear conflict different from previous ideas of catastrophe? How did we reconcile ourselves to the horrifying consequences of what we had built? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our recent series What’s Wrong With Political Philosophy? in which David and Paul talk about how personal experience shapes our political and philosophical outlook – a conversation exploring luck, accidents, human frailty and human connection. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next Time: M.A.D. and N.U.T.S. You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Poppy's come to the end of her work visa.
0:02.0	She partied most nights and now can't afford her flight back to the UK.
0:05.0	Her parents are annoyed, but not too worried.
0:08.0	With their HSBC Premier bank account, they can transfer money to her account abroad at HSBC UK's best exchange rates.
0:14.0	So more of their hard-earned cash actually reaches its destination.
0:17.0	Everything's premier when your bank account is.
0:19.0	Search HSBC Premier. HSBC UK, opening up a world
0:23.5	of opportunity. Apply with £100,000 annual income or £100,000 savings or investments with HSBC UK or
0:29.1	Premier Status Broad. Sophie Tom and the kids are standing by the luggage carousel, waiting for Sophie's bag.
0:34.0	Looks like she's going to be wearing Tom's clothes for a week, but she's not worried.
0:44.1	Their HSBC Premier bank account has comprehensive worldwide travel insurance that covers them, the kids and grandkids, if they had them.
0:46.6	Everything's Premier when your bank account is.
0:51.2	Search HSBC Premier, HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity.
0:54.9	Apply with £100,000 annual income or £100,000 savings or investments with HSBC UK or Premier Status Broad, covered provided by Aviva Insurance Limited. H.
0:58.9	Age restrictions and limitations apply.
1:09.9	Hello, my name's David Ronsamon and this is past-present future, the History of Ideas
1:15.2	podcast. Today it's the first in a new series of conversations exploring some of the biggest
1:23.0	questions of all. What does the future hold for us, us, humans, as a species? And we're starting
1:31.3	with nuclear weapons and nuclear war. I'm going to be talking over three episodes to S.M. Amadei,
1:38.2	Sonia Amadee, who is director of the Centre for Existential Risk and have spent decades studying nuclear weapons
1:46.4	and the thinking that surrounds them. Today, we start by asking what changed for all of us
1:54.1	in August 1945.
	...

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