Oppenheimer

Last week, Vladimir Putin vowed to make new nuclear weapons and consider placing them close to NATO countries. Meanwhile, here in the US, the government boosted its nuclear weapon spending by 18% between 2022 and 2023.

The world is closer to nuclear war than it's been in at least forty years.

Today on the show: The game theory of nuclear war. When can mathematical models help us, and when can they lead us astray ... even to the brink of destruction?

Guest Kelly Clancy's book is Playing With Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World.

Related Episodes:
How to get Russia to pay Ukraine
Congressional game theory

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The film's release in Japan, more than eight months after it opened in the U.S., had been watched with trepidation because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

It's not every day that an exuberant comedy about a Mattel doll goes head-to-head with a brooding drama about the father of the atomic bomb, but critic Justin Chang says both films deliver.