Are we in the middle of a new Cold War — or have we rewritten the game? With old nuclear arms treaties expiring and no new ones being signed, are we adapting to the times — or playing with fire?

In episode four of the third season of "Things That Go Boom," our partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley looks at the past and present of civil defense and nuclear arms control and asks what we can do — as individuals and as a nation — to prevent the existential threat of nuclear war.

Guests: Alex Wellerstein, professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology and historian of nuclear weapons; Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation.

Additional Reading:

• NUKEMAP

• Trump Will Withdraw From Open Skies Treaty, The New York Times

• Time Running Out on the Last US-Russia Nuclear Arms Treaty, Defense News

• Will Donald Trump Resume Nuclear Testing?, The Economist