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Digging Harbors with Nuclear Bombs: Project Plowshare
Episode 5795
In 1957, the U.S. government launched Project Plowshare under the Atoms for Peace banner, betting that nuclear explosions could dig canals, carve hig…
1 week, 6 days ago
Starfish Prime: When the US Nuked Space
Episode 5794
On July 9, 1962, the United States launched a Thor rocket from Johnston Atoll and detonated a 1.4-megaton thermonuclear warhead 400 kilometers above …
1 week, 6 days ago
Little Boy: The Untested Bomb That Changed War
Episode 5793
Little Boy was the least efficient nuclear weapon ever built, throwing away 98.5% of its fuel — and it was the one Los Alamos trusted without a full-…
1 week, 6 days ago
Tsar Bomba: The 50-Megaton Test That Shook the World
Episode 5792
On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated RDS-220 over the Arctic — a 50-megaton device the West called Tsar Bomba. It was built in just sixtee…
1 week, 6 days ago
How to Become an Honorary Consul for a Tiny Nation
Episode 5791
A retired management consultant in a Welsh village runs a country's consulate out of his house — because his wife is from Kiribati and the president …
1 week, 6 days ago
Police Auditors: Rights, Rage, and the Camera
Episode 5790
Self-described First Amendment auditors film police stations, town halls, and libraries, waiting for a uniformed reaction that becomes the video. Sev…
1 week, 6 days ago
Build First, Ask Later: Hermits Who Dug Cathedrals
Episode 5789
A man in Hackney dug through his own floor for forty years, and kept going after the council moved him to the top of the building to stop him. A Colo…
1 week, 6 days ago
What Is a Consulate That Isn't a Consulate?
Episode 5788
Israel ordered the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem closed after the UK banned imports from West Bank settlements. Twenty diplomats left, …
1 week, 6 days ago
Inside the Two Steel Industries
Episode 5787
Roughly half the world's steel comes out of China, and the plants making it split into two almost unrelated industries: blast furnace ironmaking and …
1 week, 6 days ago
Colgate, Harley, and Bic: Famous Brands' Forgotten Flops
Episode 5786
Everyone knows the Colgate frozen lasagna story. Except the lasagna never existed — the box was a mock-up built by the Museum of Failure in 2017. Wha…
1 week, 6 days ago