Episode #710
Oppenheimer, Strangelove, Darondo
Friday, March 10, 2006
Kurt Andersen and historian Richard Rhodes talk about how living with the threat of nuclear annihilation changed our culture. We’ll explore how Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project’s lead scientist, became an American myth. And we’ll see how popular culture reflects optimism, anxiety, and ambivalence about the nuclear age.
Record cover for Atomic Cocktail from the Slim Gallaird Quartet
(Atomic Records. Hollywood, California. Copyright 1945)
Guests:
Richard Rhodes
The Bomb
This week in Studio 360, the Cold War is over -- but the atomic bomb still has a hold on us. Kurt Andersen talks with historian Richard Rhodes about how living with the threat of the bomb has changed us and our culture, high ...
American Prometheus
Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer led a team of thousands to create the first nuclear weapon. He was immediately hailed as an American hero, but after speaking out against the use of the bomb he was condemned as a traitor and maligned as a Communist spy. WNYC's Sara ...
Nuclear Monsters
Stanley Kubrick set out to make a serious drama about an accidental nuclear war, and ended up making the blackest comedy ever, Dr. Strangelove. Studio 360's Arun Rath explains how the bizarre, over-the-top parody of Dr. Strangelove was actually closer to reality than any of us would ...
Army Theater
The days of USO shows with Bob Hope and chorus girls are long gone -- but the armed forces are still hard at work entertaining the troops. Sometimes, they even get the troops to entertain each other. Adam Allington caught up with an Army unit that performs ...
Darondo
Justin Torres is a record nut, the kind who combs through stacks of dusty LPs looking for obscure gems. Torres told Studio 360's Chris Roose that he became obsessed with finding an R&B crooner named Daron "Darondo" Pulliam. Darando wasn't just a forgotten singer ...
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