This Reporter Can Tell Us What Nuclear Apocalypse Looks Like (Encore)

Imagine, if you will, that for unknown reasons North Korea has just launched a nuclear bomb at the United States. What happens next?

The journalist Annie Jacobsen has imagined exactly that, and spent more than a decade interviewing dozens of experts while mastering the voluminous literature on the subject some of it declassified only in recent years for her 2024 book “Nuclear WarA Scenario,” which walks readers through the 72 minutes from launch to global annihilation. In the Book Review, Barry Gewen said the book () was “gripping” and declared it essential reading “if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilizationdestroying decision.”

Jacobsen now has another book out“Biological WarA Scenario.” Our critic Dwight Garner wrote in his review () that it “moves like a meteor.”

For this week’s episode, we revisit the conversation the host Gilbert Cruz had with Jacobsen last year, in which she discussed why she wrote “Nuclear War,” and how she managed to compile so many details about topics that are among the most secret in the world.

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