In our second episode we travel to a desolate stretch of arid scrubland in southwestern Nevada, where from 1951 to 1958, the blinding flashes and towering mushroom clouds of atmospheric atom bomb tests rose from the desert floor. It is today a contaminated, radioactive wasteland. But the strange story of an all-American suburb built to be vaporized offers a jarring glimpse at Cold War nuclear madness—and how we have largely forgotten the vivid, visceral feelings of seeing a mushroom cloud rise over American territory.
From secret laboratories to atomic beauty pageants — from Duck and Cover to all-night bomb watching parties, listen to the story of how the Nevada Test Site helped to create the Atomic Age.
Listen here — or find us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.
Music and FX Credits
- Duck and Cover [remix] (2005) by Rev T. (Tyson Saner) (c) copyright 2005 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license.
- Atomic bomb test on Bikini Atoll, 1946 – enhanced and restored by CGEffex
- Yesterday’s News by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license.
- Slip into Something More Jazzy by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license.