At the start of the 21st century, several groups began efforts aiming not just to control nuclear weapons but to eliminate them altogether. The so-called Gang of Four, William Perry, George Shultz, Sam Nunn and Henry Kissinger, wrote numerous p

Nuclear Freeze: A Walk in the Park

Mar 5th, 2024 47m 8s

Against the backdrop of heightened Cold War anxieties, the 1980s bore witness to a remarkable phenomenon: the Nuclear Freeze protest movement. From bustling city streets to rural communities, voices united in defiance against the specter of nuc

Marshall Islands: Paradise Interrupted

Dec 5th, 2023 49m 59s

From 1946 through 1958, the US detonated 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, with an explosive force equal to 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for 10 years. The Marshallese are still dealing with the consequences to this day.Lingering ra

Atomic Veterans: Training for the Final War

Aug 29th, 2023 55m 29s

During the era of atmospheric nuclear testing, hundreds of thousands of American servicemen were made to participate in nuclear tests to prepare for fighting an atomic war. Thousands more were exposed to deadly radiation while cleaning up after

Downwinders Part 2: Fatal Harvest

Aug 8th, 2023 47m 29s

In this episode, we look at the long-term impact of nuclear testing on the American citizens it was supposed to protect, and the efforts of victims to fight for recognition and compensation.

Downwinders Part 1: The Ultimate Patriots

Jul 25th, 2023 50m 2s

In the race to develop the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer's Trinity test inadvertently exposed thousands of unsuspecting American citizens to toxic radioactive fallout. This test marked the beginning of a decade-long, top-secret campaign of above-gro

Trailer

Introducing Season 2

Jul 18th, 2023 3m 7s

With the Trinity Test, J. Robert Oppenheimer ushered in the atomic age, and a decade-long campaign of U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing. In Season 2 of AT THE BRINK, discover the hidden history and the human fallout of the development of the ato

From Hope to Hostility: US Relations With Putin's Russia [Special Episode]

Apr 13th, 2022 24m 49s

When the Cold War ended in 1992, there was great hope for the newly formed Russian Federation. But following a series of major economic problems, and missteps by the West, an obscure ex-KGB agent named Vladimir Putin began to turn the nation in

Did Ukraine Make a Mistake Giving Up Nuclear Weapons? [Special Episode]

Mar 30th, 2022 37m 16s

In the 90s, Ukraine made the decision to dismantle the thousands of former Soviet nuclear weapons left on its territory. Nearly 3 decades later, Russia has invaded Ukraine using their own nuclear arsenal to bully other nations from interceding.

Hibakusha: Survivors of the Bomb

Oct 27th, 2020 54m 47s

In this episode, we hear the wrenching stories of two survivors of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. These two women, known as “Hibakusha” or “explosion affected persons”, both suffered injury and radiation sickness, but unlike the more than

Ask the Brink: A quick update

Sep 23rd, 2020 2m 50s

Dear listener, We wanted to pause in the midst of this series and share our heartfelt thanks with you. This is an important, timely topic, and your engagement and interest is giving us real hope. You have the power to create change and make th

Fire and Fury in the Hermit Kingdom: North Korea’s Nuclear Program

Sep 10th, 2020 45m 13s

The history of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions has see-sawed between crisis and hope. Bill Perry tells how close we came to war in 1994, and he and Philip Yun tell their story of negotiating directly with North Korea in the 1999 crisis. But the

The Iran Deal: Blocking a Persian Bomb

Aug 26th, 2020 48m 19s

Was the Iran nuclear deal really “the worst deal ever negotiated”, as Donald Trump claimed? We’ll hear from Ambassador Wendy Sherman, the lead U.S. negotiator, former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes, Iranian diplomat Seyed Mousavian, and others in U.S

Project Sapphire: A Secret Mission to Thwart Nuclear Terrorism

1 Aug 12th, 2020 45m 47s

In 1994, Andy Weber was serving at the U.S. embassy in Kazakhstan when his auto mechanic asked if he wanted to buy some uranium. This was the beginning of a story straight out of spy novels, as the U.S. executed a complicated plan to smuggle ou

Modernizing Doomsday: The True Cost of Our Nuclear Arsenal

Jul 29th, 2020 44m 48s

In January 2020, the Doomsday Clock was set at 100 seconds to midnight, telling us that the world is the closest to catastrophe it has ever been during the nuclear age. A big reason is that both the U.S. and Russia are embarking upon an unprece

Loose Nukes: A Nuclear Success Story

Jul 15th, 2020 43m 35s

Most Americans cheered when the Soviet Union broke apart into 15 independent countries in 1991, but a few had a sobering concern: the break-up created three new nuclear states overnight: Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. They had no resources or

The Biscuit and the Football: Presidential Nuclear Authority

Jul 2nd, 2020 35m 58s

Is there anything more quintessentially American that naming the briefcase that the President uses to authorize a nuclear attack, “the football”? The authority to single-handedly decide the fate of the world with a deadly weapon is possibly one

Seek Immediate Shelter: Nuclear False Alarms

Jul 1st, 2020 32m 4s

There is an urgent, specific danger facing our world today: nuclear weapons. In our first episode, producer and filmmaker Cynthia Lazaroff recounts the 40 minutes of terror she experienced during Hawaii’s nuclear missile false alarm in 2018. We