The Greatest Existential Threat with Prof. Robert Redwine and Dr. Jim Walsh (S4:E1)

Описание: Episode Summary:
What is nuclear weapons education? And why is it so important for everyday citizens, and the planet?


Episode Notes:
To most people, especially those who are too young to remember the Cold War, the possibility of nuclear Armageddon may seem so remote as not to be worth contemplating. But Prof. Bob Redwine and Jim Walsh, two of the instructors behind MIT’s Nuclear Weapons Education Project (NWEP), warn that it may not be so unlikely after all, and that failure to take the threat of nuclear war seriously makes it more likely that it will actually occur. Redwine, Walsh, and their colleagues used their expertise from a wide array of fields to create the NWEP and its associated course 8.S271 Nuclear Weapons: History and Prospects. Together, the course and the project website represent an interdisciplinary effort to educate nonspecialists on the science, technology, and history of nuclear weapons, along with present efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and to reach international agreements to reduce the likelihood of a world-devastating conflict. In this episode, we hear how the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed geopolitics forever, how a well-intentioned nuclear doctrine may have disastrous unintended consequences, and why understanding the topic of nuclear weapons requires an interdisciplinary approach.


Relevant Resources:

MIT OpenCourseWare
https://ocw.mit.edu/

The OCW Educator Portal
https://ocw.mit.edu/educator/

Professor Redwine’s faculty page
https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/rober...

Jim Walsh’s faculty page
https://ssp.mit.edu/people/jim-walsh

8.S271 Nuclear Weapons - History and Future Prospects on OCW
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/8-s271-nu...

Nuclear Weapons Education Project website
https://nuclearweaponsedproj.mit.edu/...

“Nuclear Gets Personal with Prof. Michael Short” (Chalk Radio episode)
https://chalk-radio.simplecast.com/ep...

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue/


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Credits:
Sarah Hansen, host and producer (  / learning_sarah  )
Brett Paci, producer (  / brett_paci  )
Dave Lishansky, producer (  / daveresonates  )
Show notes by Peter Chipman