UNLOCKED: Coping in the New Age of Nuclear Anxiety
Angry Planet17 Mar 2022

UNLOCKED: Coping in the New Age of Nuclear Anxiety

Russia is at war with Ukraine and Vladimir Putin is making vague nuclear threats. Both Russian and U.S. officials are, mostly, trying to dial things down. A Russian defense official said they don’t have their hands on the button and the Pentagon said it had canceled the test of a Minuteman missile. And yet … days later the U.S. head of Strategic Command said America needed to modernize its nuclear forces and reminded everyone that the test had been postponed and not canceled.


If all this is leaving you a bit anxious about the possibility of nuclear war, you’re not alone. To be clear, the possibility of nuclear war is still damn low … but that doesn’t always make the anxiety go away. Something that has always helped me deal with the threat of nuclear hellfire … is pop culture.


That’s what we’re gonna talk about today.


Here to help me with that is Jacqueline Bryk. Bryk is an analog Roleplaying Game personality, a nuclear policy dilettante, and a nuke wonk gadfly. She’s the writer of many fine games including the Ten Candles hack, Nuke: “A simple, stark game about slowly dying in a city hit by a nuclear weapon.”


Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.


https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe


You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episoder(493)

Social Media Has Changed War Forever

Social Media Has Changed War Forever

War. War has changed.Anyone can keep up to date with the latest conflict on Twitter. Facebook is a great place to watch the propaganda game of entire countries unfold. YouTube amplifies previously mar...

12 Des 201734min

How a Medieval Battle Invented English Pride and Made the Longbow a Legend

How a Medieval Battle Invented English Pride and Made the Longbow a Legend

On a Summer day in 1346, a small army of upstart British peasants cut the heart out of the French aristocracy. That’s the story anyway.The Battle of Crécy was one of the most important of the Hundred ...

5 Des 201744min

ICYMI: Talking About Russian Propaganda in 2015

ICYMI: Talking About Russian Propaganda in 2015

As Jason and Matthew sleep off their holiday induced Turkey Comas, War College presents an episode from the early days of the show. Here’s what we said back then—The media in Russia is lively, often e...

27 Nov 201732min

America’s Secret Nuclear Upgrades

America’s Secret Nuclear Upgrades

If you just look at the number of warheads, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is a small fraction of the size it was during the Cold War. But is that even the right measure anymore? This week on War College, R...

20 Nov 201723min

A Deadly Warrior’s Peaceful Homecoming

A Deadly Warrior’s Peaceful Homecoming

War is hell and the people who fight often have a hard time coming home. Kevin Lacz didn’t. Lacz is a former U.S. Navy SEAL who served alongside Chris Kyle in the battle of Ramadi. He survived, came h...

13 Nov 201730min

The Apocalyptic Religion of Stalin’s Russia

The Apocalyptic Religion of Stalin’s Russia

Joseph Stalin’s Bolsheviks were atheists. At least in the traditional sense. But that didn’t mean they didn’t believe in prophecy. In fact, it was prophecy that guided their nearly every action.If peo...

6 Nov 201731min

Congress No Longer Sends America to War

Congress No Longer Sends America to War

An ambush killed four U.S. Special Operations soldiers in the North African country of Niger. Before the incident, few Americans had ever heard of Niger and fewer knew American soldiers were fighting ...

30 Okt 201735min

How the Kurds Defeated ISIS and Lost a Nation In the Same Week

How the Kurds Defeated ISIS and Lost a Nation In the Same Week

The Kurds live in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq but have no country to call their own. When they decided to create one for themselves inside Iraq, it didn’t go well.After Iraq's Kurds held an independ...

23 Okt 201748min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
forklart
i-retten
stopp-verden
popradet
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
det-store-bildet
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-gukild-johaug
fotballpodden-2
nokon-ma-ga
rss-ness
hanna-de-heldige
e24-podden
aftenbla-bla
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
bt-dokumentar-2