Ep. 39 - OPPENHEIMER - Paradox of a “Humanist Scientist”
OPPENHEIMER
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Christopher Nolan film OPPENHEIMER (2023) based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Photo credit: Universal Pictures
“Oppenheimer’s life story is that of a scientist, and we are living in a world drenched with science and technology. And yet, quite clearly, many of our own citizens don’t understand science, don’t understand the scientific quest or the process.”
In episode 39, we talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Kai Bird about the Christopher Nolan film OPPENHEIMER, based on the 2005 book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer co-authored by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin.
Our conversation focuses on the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's formation and struggles before, during and after the top-secret Manhattan Project. In 1943, Oppenheimer assembled the greatest scientific minds of the time in Los Alamos, New Mexico to create the first atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project achieved that goal with the successful detonation of the atomic bomb, known as the Trinity Test. That success would change the course of history and humanity for all time.
Podcast note: The conversation includes a quote from President Truman’s handwritten 1945 diary where he used a disparaging word for the Japanese Emperor. Go to the podcast link for program description and more information.
Guest: KAI BIRD
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist, Kai Bird, is the co-author of the 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer with the late Martin J. Sherwin (1937-2021). In addition to receiving the Pulitzer Prize, American Prometheus also won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Duff Cooper Prize for History.
Kai Bird has written critically acclaimed and award-winning biographies, including: The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms that focuses on Cold War policies that extended through the War in Vietnam; The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Roy Ames; and most recently The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.
Kai’s memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, was a Finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Kai Bird has produced critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA.
His current project is a biography of Roy Cohn, an American prosecutor and lawyer who served as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was a Wisconsin Republican most recognized for his interrogations of alleged communists during the Cold War period in the United States also known as the “Red Scare.”
Kai Bird is an elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians.
Connect with Kai Bird: website | Facebook | X (formerly Twitter)
Purchase your copy of the New York Times bestseller American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin from our affiliate bookstore at bookshop.org
“A work of voluminous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying its multifaceted portrait with a keen grasp of Oppenheimer’s essential nature…. It succeeds in deeply fathoming his most damaging, self-contradictory behavior.” —The New York Times
OPPENHEIMER
OPPENHEIMER, based on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, is written and directed by Christopher Nolan.
The film traces J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life from his days as a student physicist in Europe to his academic career in the U.S. and into World War II and the Cold War. Oppenheimer’s social life and friendships are a mixture of academia, science, politics, and seduction. Some of his associations haunt him in later years.
As Oppenheimer is recruited to direct the top-secret Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb, the film reveals the paradox of an enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world to end a war.
OPPENHEIMER (Universal Pictures) features Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves Junior, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Kenneth Branagh as Neils Bohr, Gary Oldman as President Harry S. Truman, and many more acclaimed actors in the cast (link to IMDb full cast list).