For 3 years, scientists in secret cities around the U.S. had been in a race against time to complete the world’s first atomic weapon. And in July of 1945, the very first plutonium bomb was ready. Constructing “The Gadget” as it was called, had taken 2 billion dollars and the collective work of 400,000 people. It was ready to be tested. And it needed to work. ... Show More
Apr 27
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 4
Deep Throat, Operation Gemstone, two valiant reporters, and a secret 30 years in the making. Watergate was not a single scandal, but rather an avalanche of events and co-conspirators, all engaged in corruption to keep President Nixon in office. The stakes were so high that Nixon’ ... Show More
37m 20s
Apr 20
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 3
"The week that changed the world.” Was it a chance encounter at the World Tennis Championship in 1971, “Panda diplomacy” between the U.S. and Communist China, or a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters by a team of 5 burglars, that drastically altered the trajectory of ... Show More
35m 7s
Apr 13
Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 2
Secret Police, CIA operatives, The Pentagon Papers, and The Most Dangerous Man in America. There was a time in the not-so-distant past, when the nightly news changed the game in how Americans felt about the war in Vietnam, the first “television war.” What was more of a shock to s ... Show More
44m 37s
Jul 2023
Destroyer of Worlds (Replay)
July 16, 1945. It happened within a millionth of a second. In the New Mexico desert in the early morning hours, a group of scientists watched in anticipation as the countdown began. It was silent at first, yet hot and unbelievably bright. Then came the sound. The first-ever atomi ... Show More
31m 17s
Jan 2024
The Manhattan Project | Chain Reaction | 1
<p>In December 1938, a team of German physicists achieved an astonishing scientific breakthrough: they split the nucleus of a uranium atom. In the United States, news of the discovery sparked fear in the scientific community. Atomic fission could power a devastating new weapon, a ... Show More
40m 4s
Jul 2023
CultureLab: Oppenheimer – The rise and fall of the “father of the atomic bomb”
First J. Robert Oppenheimer created the weapon, then he fought for years to warn of its dangers. During the second world war, the so-called “father of the atomic bomb”, led a team of scientists in the US in a race against Nazi Germany to create the first nuclear weapon. Then it w ... Show More
27m 52s