History of Philosophy Audio Archive

Nuclear Risk Editorial Fellow Jack Kennedy https://jackkennedy.ie/about/ comes back for the second time to talk Strait of Hormuz, Israel's nuclear option, NATO proliferation risks, Nixon, Kissinger, and Vietnam. "Belt of radioactive cobalt" mentioned. By the way, ships are already paying in Yuan to access the Strait, and the IRGC has confirmed control of a working route through the Strait - if you pay in Chinese money...
Follow Jack on Bluesky
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Sources Mentioned:
Iran’s Parliament working on bill to impose fees on ships in Strait of Hormuz (March 26 2026, AP)

Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter Admin, Operation Cyclone) admits to using Mujahedeen fighters to create quagmire for Soviets - Jan 1998

Poland seeks as much autonomy as possible in terms of nuclear arms, Tusk says (Reuters, March 3 2026)

Not One Inch - M. E. Sarotte

Governing From the Skies by Thomas Hippler

The Samson Option by Seymour Hersh

WAS IT OBLITERATION? The US attack on Iran may not have wiped out its nuclear ambitions but it did set them back years by Seymour Hersh

Camus editorial after Hiroshima (Aug 8th 1945)

In The Loop (2009 British Diplomatic Comedy)

The Thick of It (Also British Political Comedy)

Inside the Kremlin's Cold War by Zubok and Pleshakov

1890 treatise Alfred Thayer Mahan The Influence of Sea Power on History

Music and Image Credits:
Didn't Know What I Was In For by Better Oblivion Community Center

Curb Your Enthusiasm Song Cover (YouTube)

Cover Image: by Domiri Ganji (permission requested)

General
Operation Unthinkable (Churchill)

Arkangel Intervention / North Russia intervention

Human Remains in Space over Navajo Objections

The Algiers Putsch 1961

Operation Vulture (US Nuclear Negotiation with France over Dien Bien Phu, 1954, Dulles and Radford)

1979 Vela Incident

Hiroshima rages while Nagasaki prays. FULL EPISODE DESCRIPTION ON PATREON
I'm joined for a second time by friend of the show Franco Castro Escobar, a PhD researcher at Keele University in the UK. This time we discuss life in Nagasaki before, during, and after the nuclear attack, trauma and education, the developmental origins of youth antinuclear activists, hibaku Maria and the destruction of the Urakami Cathedral, Iwo Jima and the Pacific Theater, disaster storytelling and kataribe, militarism in San Diego, efforts to rewrite and suppress history in Japan, Iris Chang and Nanking, and American imperial activities vis a vis the dreaded "counterproliferation" - empowering allies to acquire nuclear weapons or attack adversary states with nuclear breakout potential as an alternative to diplomacy.
We also talk about the beautiful camphor trees in Nagasaki, many of which are still alive today despite being charred and cracked by nuclear blast, the longstanding commitment to nonviolence and prayer as an alternative to hatred in Nagasaki, and some important poetry and theology connected to the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) movement that expresses the 'ultimate aspiration' of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be the last cities attacked by atomic bombs as we transition to a more peaceful world, one that must be free of nuclear weapons and threats of their retention and use.
This episode aims to answer a few questions that ought to be important to all of us, namely:
How can children be taught the truth about the historical effects and current reality of nuclear weapons proliferation?
Why did the United States really attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
How do religious beliefs (and the lack thereof) influence how people interpret collective tragedies and respond?
SHOW NOTES
Franco's article Youth antinuclear socialisation in Japan: early encounters with the concept of nuclear weapons

Urakami Cathedral, largest Catholic cathedral in Asia

Book: The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai

Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition

Kataribe Storytelling

Disaster Storytelling

Minamata Mercury Poisoning Scandal

Barefoot Gen (Best Hiroshima teaching resource for kids, acc to Franco, genre: Anime and Manga)

Book: Nagasaki by Susan Southard

Book: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

Book: Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

Book: When We Say Hiroshima: Selected Poems by Kurihara Sadako

Book: Command and Control by Eric Schlosser

Book: Nuclear War: A Scenario by Anne Jacobsen

Book: The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

The 1971 Blood Telegram (Bangladesh Genocide/US State Dept)

Music Credit (Fair Use Asserted by Author): 福山雅治 - クスノキ-500年の風に吹かれて-（KUSUNOKI PROJECT ver.） https://youtu.be/JumRmUwmOgs

Happy Equinox. The Beginning, is at last: beginning.
Music Credit: Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" Gernot Schmalfuss / Music Director and Chief Conductor Gwhyneth Chen / Piano Evergreen Symphony Orchestra National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan 13 Nov. 2020 (Creative Commons).
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hymn to the Spirit of Nature (1820).from Prometheus Unbound (Act II, Scene V):
Life of Life! Thy lips enkindle
With their love the breath between them;
And thy smiles before they dwindle
Make the cold air fire; then screen them
In those locks, where whoso gazes
Faints, entangled in their mazes.
Child of Light! Thy limbs are burning
Through the veil which seems to hide them,
As the radiant lines of morning
Through thin clouds, ere they divide them;
And this atmosphere divinest
Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest.
Fair are others; none beholds Thee;
But thy voice sounds low and tender
Like the fairest, for it folds thee
From the sight, that liquid splendor;
And all feel, yet see thee never,—
As I feel now, lost for ever!
Lamp of Earth! Wheree'er thou movest
Its dim shapes are clad with brightness,
And the souls of whom thou lovest
Walk upon the winds with lightness
Till they fail, as I am failing,
Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing!

You can find the full talk from March 2025, officially-titled "Normalizing Genocide and the New World Order" at the link below, via The Sanctuary for Independent Media, which Chris has lectured at for years. Chris also writes on Substack "The Chris Hedges Report" and has a podcast of the same name.
Hedges also wrote something like 12 books, which I've read about 9 of, personally. Each was life-changing. I would start with "Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison" (2014) by Chris Hedges.
Rest of episode description available free on Patreon.

Full episode description on Patreon
I am joined (just in time for the all-important Vernal Equinox on March 21st) - with the brilliant and timely Dr. Maya Kornberg https://www.mayakornberg.com/.
Her new book STUCK: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress was released March 10th and can be purchased now. (Non-affiliate link). Personal Disclaimer: I was given a hardcover of this book to review by Page One Media. I have never paid anyone, nor has anyone ever paid me, nor will anyone ever pay, to come on my show.
Dr. Kornberg is a senior research fellow at NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice and the author of Inside Congressional: Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process.
SOUND AND IMAGE CREDITS:
Intro: Schubert, Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major by Max John. Link's to Max's work in other episode descriptions or by searching YouTube.

Please watch as much Frank Capra as possible, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) from which I derive the cover image as well, apparently, as the absolutely bizarre trailer at the end, which you can watch here, courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment (don't DMCA me, you swine! - it is artistic commentary and I assert Fair Use!):

https://youtu.be/bXoF7w6IWAc