November 03, 2006

J. Roberts Oppenheimer

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. Sara Fishko examines how the epic and tragic arc of his life has turned Oppenheimer into a modern American myth.

Dr. Strangelove

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. Arun Rath explains how the bizarre, over-the-top parody of Dr. Strangelove was closer to reality than any of us would care to believe.

Special Guest

Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes

Historian Richard Rhodes has been chronicling the nuclear age for two decades, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for The Making of the Atomic Bomb. His books also include Dark Sun, about the making of the hydrogen bomb, and Masters of Death, about a Nazi task force that executed over 1.5 million people. Rhodes is currently working on a history of nuclear issues since the end of the Cold War.

Campaign Signs

Design for the Real World: Election Signs

As we approach the first Tuesday in November, we're awash in red, white and blue bumper stickers, buttons, and lawn signs. Graphic designer Michael Bierut explains why so many of these campaign signs look the same, no matter what side of the fence they're planted on. Produced by Hillary Frank.

Jules Feiffer

Jules Feiffer

The Bush administration has boosted the careers of many liberal comics and commentators like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But a familiar voice of the old left has been unusually quiet during the last six years: Jules Feiffer. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky traveled to Feiffer's studio to find out why the legendary cartoonist erased himself from the editorial pages.

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