U.S. Department of Energy
How do we avoid destroying ourselves in a post-nuclear world?
The technical complexity of building the bomb at Los Alamos, culminating in the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert in July 1945, was dwarfed by the diplomatic and political complexity of what came after: securing the peaceful use of nuclear technology in a post-war world. The challenge continues, and to it we now add the unknowns of an AI future. How do we create and keep a ‘system of systems’, not for its own sake, but for the preservation of humanity and life on Earth?
Working closely with Argonne National Laboratory and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, we sat down with twenty-three of the world's leading thinkers, policymakers, scientists and historians. They ranged from the Director General of the IAEA and ambassadors from Ghana, Brazil, Nigeria and the Netherlands, to a former Secretary of Energy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the bomb, economists and scholars of nuclear risk. Together they helped us understand how collaboration, trust and verification come together in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Sharing the Atom tells the story of how world leaders came together to build a political and legal framework that enabled the pursuit of nuclear technology for peaceful use. The story that unfolds reveals just how essential that framework has become, and how critical it will remain in the years ahead.
Client
U.S. Department of Energy
Project
Sharing the Atom
Services
Concept Development - Creative Direction - Naming - Production - Interviews - Sound Design - Post Production - Distribution Strategy - Branding & Design
Voices
Ghanaian Ambassador Kwaku Aning, Canadian Ambassador John Barrett, Former Canadian official Jim Casterton, Dutch Ambassador Piet de Klerk, Brazilian Ambassador Sérgio Duarte, Doctor Guiseppe Esposito, NNSA Associate Deputy Administrator Rich Goorevich, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, Former U.S. official Lisa Hilliard, NNSA Assistant Deputy Administrator Corey Hinderstein, U.S. Ambassador Laura Holgate, Former President of Urenco USA, Inc.; current NNSA Assistant Associate Deputy Administrator Melissa Mann, ABACC Secretary General Marco Marzo, Former Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, Nigerian Ambassador Charles Oko, Former Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, Author Richard Rhodes, NNSA Deputy Administrator Frank Rose, Former IAEA official Laura Rockwood, Economist Geoffrey Rothwell, Scholar Scott Sagan, U.S. Ambassador Adam Scheinman, Economist Tom Wood
Share:
Our Process
Bringing details to life from voices across the globe
Opportunity
The opportunity of nuclear technology is back in the news and the threat of nuclear war too. The opportunity was to bring the history of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to a wider public, through the voices of the people who negotiated it and maintain it at a moment when the questions it raises have never felt more urgent.
Insight
The story of non-proliferation is not one of documents but of people and of trust, slowly built between nations that had every reason to withhold it. Bringing the voices of ambassadors, scientists, and administrators to tell, in their own words, the remarkable story of the treaty and its equally important future
Outcome
A four-part podcast series, featuring twenty-three voices from across the international non-proliferation community, that makes seven decades of nuclear diplomacy listenable, human and urgent. It stands as a public record of how the world learned to share the atom.
