Eric Schlosser (2015) | Nuclear Delusions

Eric Schlosser (2015) | Nuclear Delusions

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas October 18, 2020 Duration: 39:22

Why has humanity still not worked out how to make nuclear weapons safe? 

As an investigative journalist, Eric Schlosser continues to explore subjects ignored by the mainstream media and gives a voice to people at the margins of society. He's followed the harvest with migrant farm workers in California, spent time with meatpacking workers in Texas and Colorado, told the stories of marijuana growers and pornographers and victims of violent crime, gone on duty with the NYPD Bomb Squad, and visited prisons throughout the US. His most recent book, Command and Control (2013), examines the efforts of the military, since the atomic era began during World War II, to prevent nuclear weapons from being stolen, sabotaged, or detonated by accident. Command and Control was a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book, was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize (History) and also received the Gold Medal Award (Nonfiction) from the 2013 California Book Awards. 


For more than a decade, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas has curated a space where provocative thinking isn't just welcomed, it's the entire point. This podcast is a direct line to that stage, offering an archive of talks that deliberately unsettle comfortable opinions and interrogate the stubborn problems we often agree to ignore. Each episode captures a live conversation from Australia's original disruptive ideas festival, presenting arguments that can be exhilarating, uncomfortable, and vitally important. You’ll hear from a compelling roster of festival alumni-including leading experts, intellectual troublemakers, and visionary authors-who share perspectives that conventional discourse frequently sidelines. The discussions here aren't theoretical exercises; they grapple with the pressing and difficult issues shaping our society and culture right now. Tuning in means granting yourself access to a decade-long tradition of intellectual courage, where the core assumption is that some truths are only reached by first entertaining a dangerous idea. It’s a chance to listen as boundaries are pushed, not for shock value, but for clarity. The result is a consistently challenging and refreshing audio experience that complicates simple narratives and expands what feels possible to talk about.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Podcast Episodes
Masha Gessen (2024) - The War of the Narratives [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:25
In an age of creeping authoritarianism, anyone who questions the logic of competing narratives when it comes to historical conflicts risks being silenced. Russian American journalist Masha Gessen says however, in order t…
Tariq Ali (2015) | The Twilight of Democracy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:25
What is the purpose of democracy when it's become more challenging than ever to tell the left and right apart? Journalist and filmmaker, Tariq Ali says Western democracy has failed and we are now seeing the emergence of…
Dennis Glover (2015) | Winners and Losers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:23
In modern Australia, productivity is all that matters, or so our leaders tell us. However the way we have pursued economic growth in the last 30 years has prevented many people from sharing the rewards. We now create wea…
Molly Crabapple (2016) | From the frontline [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:55
In a time of turmoil, what happens when art and politics collide? From prisons, refugee camps and war zones, artist and journalist Molly Crabapple has documented the astounding courage of people living in the worst possi…
Drawing Truth to Power (2022) | Badiucao, Dan Ilic & Cathy Wilcox [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:05
Drawing truth to power is more dangerous in some parts of the world than others. The combination of satire and anger can make the best political cartoons lethal to politicians, unveiling truths around human rights, leade…
Steven Pinker (2022) | Enlightenment or Dark Age? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:04
Are the ideals of the Enlightenment – reason, science and humanism – and the progress they can deliver being undermined by a cynical desire to burn it all down? Pre-eminent psychologist Steven Pinker explains why problem…