It wasn’t long after the attack that filmmakers started grappling with the prospect of nuclear war, the consequences of nuclear testing, and the potential for disaster. Japan responded in 1954 with “Godzilla,” where underwater hydrogen bomb testing triggered the titular monster’s rage. The following decade saw the release of “Planet of the Apes,” in which leading man Charlton Heston’s character discovers — in an absolute gut punch ending — that he’s been on earth all along, destroyed by nuclear war. Then, in 1979, we got “The China Syndrome,” about journalists who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. That’s just three movies from an extensive canon. But, says one of our guests, not enough people take the threat of nuclear war seriously. We’ll be talking about why and digging into the films that captured a generation of moviegoers.
GUESTS –
Tom Nichols | Staff writer for The Atlantic, a professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, and an instructor at the Harvard Extension School. You can read his article “Damn You All to Hell!” here.
Andrew Patrick Nelson | Film scholar and the chief curator of Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West.
Airdate: Wednesday, Sept., 10, 2025, at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.