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A Perfect Holiday Conversation Topic
NUCLEAR WAR. Noboody’s not interested. Nobody’s going to argue in favor of one . . .
OK, you may not think a pleasant conversation about nuclear warfare sounds like the best path to happy holidays with family and friends.
But think about it. Is anyone going to start arguing? Awareness v global annihilation? Does the prospect of blowing up the planet (or maybe not!) have a certain conversational cachet that everyone might buy into? Goodwill in the air. Plus — since we really don’t expect anyone to launch a nuclear war tomorrow, what better time to talk about catastrophe than when we’ve still a small chance of keeping it at bay.
Ploughshares, an extraordinary global peace and security nonprofit committed to eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons, wants us to talk about this.
To that end, Ploughshares Executive Director Elizabeth Warner recently arranged a conversation with historian of science and nuclear technology Alex Wellerstein and invited supporters to listen in (and ask questions!) Wellerstein’s writings on the subject have appeared in the New Yorker, the Washington Post and elsewhere and he’s currently at work on a second book. In addition to his day job as a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology he is also working on a video game which millions of people far younger than this writer…
