Klaus Fuchs: 2. A split life

Klaus Fuchs: 2. A split life

Author: BBC World Service July 16, 2022 Duration: 40:02

The world’s most dangerous spy? A young scientist’s journey into espionage. From a German pacifist family to a Soviet spy ring. Physicist Klaus Fuchs flees Nazi rule for England and joins the race to develop an atomic bomb – whoever gets there first wins the war. Presenter Rosa Ellis discovers how Fuchs’ double life begins. #thebomb

This podcast has been edited for accuracy. Audio was updated on 20th July 2022.


From the BBC World Service, The Bomb is a history podcast that traces the profound and permanent shadow cast by atomic weapons. It goes beyond the familiar mushroom cloud to explore the human dramas that defined the nuclear age: the physicists in secret laboratories racing for a breakthrough, the clandestine networks of spies trading in ultimate secrets, and the world leaders who held the power of annihilation in their hands. The narrative builds across seasons, culminating in a gripping third season that places you inside the most dangerous confrontation in history. With the world on the brink during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the story is told through a remarkable personal lens by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the two men at the heart of the standoff. This podcast meticulously details how fear, ideology, and fragile diplomacy shaped our global reality, asking whether catastrophe can be averted when the stakes are the highest imaginable. Each episode is a layered examination of the decisions, both monumental and minute, that brought us to the edge and defined the precarious balance of power for decades to come.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 32

The Bomb
Podcast Episodes
Klaus Fuchs: Bonus: The sound design [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:59
What does the inside of an atom sound like? Meet our sound designer for Season 2. How Tim Nielsen is using cinematic design. He says he draws inspiration from the human heartbeat. Season 2 begins on 9 July 2022.
Klaus Fuchs: Bonus: Introducing Rosa Ellis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:05
"She was not just a spy - she was a spymaster". The family secret of Rosa Ellis, host of season 2 of The Bomb. Emily Strasser takes us behind the scenes of this espionage thriller, as Rosa talks about her great-aunt's do…
Klaus Fuchs: Introducing The Bomb season 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:24
The spy who changed history. And a great-aunt's double life. The Bomb is returning with season 2. Klaus Fuchs was a brilliant scientist, but he was also a dangerous spy, stealing atomic secrets and handing them over to t…
Leo Szilard: 7. The doomsday clock [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:56
The world’s first nuclear bomb drops on the unsuspecting city of Hiroshima. On 7 August 1945, the world is changed forever. In this final episode, featuring first-hand accounts of the attack that day, Emily Strasser asks…
Leo Szilard: 6. The first atomic bomb [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:15
Time is running out. As Manhattan Project scientists test the world’s first nuclear bomb, Leo Szilard knows it’s the last chance to stop the US government from dropping the bomb on Japanese civilians. Working with collea…
Leo Szilard: 5. Enemy alien [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:47
The FBI pursues Leo Szilard as he loses control of the project to create a nuclear bomb. With his influence waning, the leaders of the Manhattan Project now threaten his liberty. But as the world’s first nuclear bomb com…
Leo Szilard: 4. Pearl Harbour [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:53
An attack on Pearl Harbour changes everything. After a surprise Japanese attack destroys US ships, the US declares war on Japan, and intensifies its efforts to create the first nuclear bomb. Caught in the middle of it al…
Leo Szilard: 3. The Einstein letter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:10
A vital message must be delivered to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Fearing the Nazis are on the verge of creating the first nuclear bomb, Leo Szilard needs to convince the US Government to take the threat seriously…
Leo Szilard: 2. Race to the bomb [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:20
It’s a race against time to beat the Nazis to the first nuclear bomb. After his epiphany in London, Leo Szilard must convince the scientific establishment to take the nuclear threat seriously. He turns to Frederick Linde…
Leo Szilard: 1. Moonshine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:58
A little-known scientist discovers something that will change the course of human history.After befriending some of the world’s greatest physicists in 1920s Berlin, Albert Einstein among them, Leo Szilard is forced to fl…