Wild Thing

In the 1990s, a teenager named David Hahn set out to earn his Atomic Energy Merit Badge. For a science whiz like him, the requirements were too easy, so he decided to make his own challenge: build a nuclear reactor in his own backyard. Journalist Ken Silverstein is the author of The Radioactive Boy Scout and he joins us to tell the tale.
*Season 3 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lincoln. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.
*Find us on social media - @wildthingpod - and on our website https://wildthingpodcast.com/

Most people consider Three Mile Island to be American’s worst nuclear accident. But the actual legacy of that incident is much more complex than than many of us realize, as historian Natasha Zaretsky, author of Radiation Nation, points out.
*Season 3 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lincoln. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.
*Find us on social media - @wildthingpod - and on our website https://wildthingpodcast.com/

In this bonus episode, we hear from author Richard Rhodes. His best known book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, won a Pulitzer Prize. It's about the Manhattan Project, but as Rhodes explains, there's a lot of history leading up to that moment, starting back in the 19th century.
*Season 3 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lincoln. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.
*Find us on social media - @wildthingpod - and on our website https://wildthingpodcast.com/

Transparency has always been something of a gray area in the history of nuclear fission. It made sense to keep this knowledge a secret during World War II. But afterwards, it seemed that citizens should have had the right to know what their country was involved in and how it affected them. Dr. Sarah Robey is the author of Atomic Americans: Citizens in a Nuclear State and she sits down with us to talk about transparency and trust in the nuclear age.
*Season 3 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lincoln. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.
*Find us on social media - @wildthingpod - and on our website https://wildthingpodcast.com/

This week, we're sharing an episode of AAA's Via podcast, in which Laura spoke to them about Bigfoot. Via is kind of the ultimate road trip podcast and their new season explores the Western United States.
And in this episode, we talked about Sasquatch — the legends, the science, and the places where people might try their luck at finding everyone's favorite forest-dwelling hominid. Proof may be elusive, but in its place you’ll find mythology, anthropology, pop culture—and the knowledge that sometimes unsolved mysteries are the best kind.
You can listen to more episodes of Via at aaaviapodcast.com