John talks with Joan Rohlfing (Nuclear Threat Initiative, U.S. Department of Energy) and author/reporter David E. Hoffman (Washington Post) about nuclear energy, nuclear safety and nuclear war — both the current reality and how these issues are portrayed in Hollywood.

Joan and David explain how the nuclear landscape has changed over the decades, the stories Hollywood has missed, and the importance of getting them right moving forward.

Thanks to our friends at Hollywood Health & Society for helping put this episode together.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Megana catch up on Scriptnotes behind-the-scenes from the past few weeks, including John’s not-great-not-terrible Covid experience.

Links:

• Joan Rohlfing and the Nuclear Threat Initiative and on Twitter
• David E. Hoffman and his books, including Pulitzer winner The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
• Dall-E-2
• MidJourney
• Atomic Veterans
• Book Give Me Liberty by David E. Hoffman
• Reykjavík summit of 1986 between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• John August on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.