Professor NUKEMAP, etc. Switched to Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/wellerstein.bsky.social
New blog: doomsdaymachines.net/
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Alex Wellerstein
The great equalizer?
“Survivalist” fiction has typically been expressed in a very “masculine” way. By capital-S “Survivalist,” I mean fiction that is not just a “survival” narrative, but embodies or reflects a version of “Survivalism,” an ideological preoccupation with the survival of civilizational collapse that started in the 1960s but really built up steam in the late-1970s and early 1980s, the precursors of what became known as “Prepperism” in the early 2000s.
Wasteland wrap-up #98
Another week of protests by French youth, which have now expanded beyond high school (lycée) students into university students, apparently. Sciences Po has been closed much of the week in anticipation of this. That has not affected me as of yet, as I generally work at home and am not teaching this semester. While walking around my neighborhood, near the Jardin du Luxembourg and its environs, I definitely saw more protest activity this week than I had before.
The speed of war
The horror potential of nuclear weapons is not just their enhanced capacity for destruction, but the speed at which they can inflict it. The first atomic bombs did with a single plane, in a single instant, what would have taken hundreds of bombers loaded with conventional munitions the work of many hours. By 1950, plans had been drawn up by the US Air Force to drop nearly 300 atomic bombs on over 120 Soviet cities within a week of the onset of World War III.
Wasteland wrap-up #97
As I write this post, there is what looks like a Catholic heavy metal band (big hair, dark sunglasses, ripped leather and denim, large Jesus tattoos) loudly playing a (pretty good) brass band instrumental rendition of The Cure's "Close to Me" under my apartment window at the moment. Vive la France ! X marks the spot: contrails near the Jardin du Luxembourg. The dramatic lighting is mostly because I have positioned the Sun just behind the building.
“Do you know what to do in a radiation emergency?”
In the fall of 2022, while living in northern New Jersey, I began to see signs. I saw them on buses, in windows, and on the train that goes to New York City: signs telling me that “SEPTEMBER IS NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH,” and asking questions like: “Do you know what to do in a radiation emergency?” To which I would mentally reply… “a radiation emergency?
Wasteland wrap-up #96
The excitement of last week in Paris was the visit from Pope Leo XIV, known here (of course) as Léon XIV, who arrived to do whatever it is that Popes do when they visit Catholic countries. Which includes driving around in the Popemobile and giving a public mass. I am not a Catholic, but it was fun to see all of the preparations for that.
The Way Nukes Work (*Sort of)
Often when I am interviewed, I am asked variations on the question: “when and why did you start getting interested in nuclear weapons?” My sense is always that the interviewer is hoping for a good “personal connection” to the topic, which many people working in the field have, but I do not. I came to the subject through a roundabout way that might make for a good scholar (I am not personally invested in one kind of narrative about it) but not for a good story.
Wasteland wrap-up #95
Last week an old family friend was in town, so I went with them up to Sacre Coeur. I had been there many years ago, over a decade, while visiting Paris, but my memory of it was marred by people trying to scam me out in front of it. It was one of those, “let me give you something for free and then bully you into paying for it” sorts of things.
Une apocalypse française
The idea of post-apocalypse does not seem universal or disconnected from history. Different cultures, at different times, have embraced the idea, particularly as a literary genre, and the different apocalypses contemplated all feel very of their time and place. Post-apocalyptic stories tend to be about how people react once civilized society has collapsed, and are usually commentaries of one form or another on the nature of human societies, human beings, and the concerns of their writers.
The secret to avoiding dirty bombs
The concept of a “dirty bomb” has two distinct and different technical meanings in the nuclear literature: a weapon that uses conventional explosive (like TNT) to distribute a radioactive contaminant, or a nuclear weapon that derives a significant proportion of its energy from nuclear fission (as opposed to nuclear fusion, which is “cleaner”). Both use the metaphor of “dirt” for radioactive contamination.
Wasteland wrap-up #94
This last week has been one of those “how did that fly so by fast?” weeks, where I had lots of tedious little errands (like having to go to our local tax office to get them to verify my identity so they would activate my online account with them) mixed in with a lot of little bits of work here and there.
Wasteland wrap-up #93
This week was my second birthday spent in France. It was also one of those half-decadal birthdays that, while objectively no different than any other birthday, makes one realize, “oh boy, I’m aging!” There’s something about getting to a mid-point of a decade that makes one suddenly think about what it’ll be like to be at the end-point of it.
Doomsday Puppers
If you’re wandering around a ruined post-apocalyptic landscape, who do you want at your side? You have a few options: Nobody, you are truly the Last Person on Earth: A depressing state of affairs, once you get bored of running around through the ruins, particularly if they are inhabited by zombies or aliens or sentient apes. Or if you, god forbid, break your only pair of glasses.
Wasteland wrap-up #92
Well, the season has officially flipped into Fall, I think. It’s still somewhat hot and muggy at times, but it’s also rainy and sometimes quite cool. The leaves have started to come down. The entire tone of light has changed. It’s not bad — it was a hot summer — but I’m always a little disturbed when the end of August rolls around. Lyndon at the Jardin du Luxembourg this morning, taking in the change of seasons. This last week has just been work, work, work, for the most part.
Running on empty
Oregon Road ‘83 is a video game (in progress) about, among other things, driving around the western United States after a full-scale nuclear war in 1983. To drive a car1 in 1983 means having access to gasoline/petrol. Consequently, “fuel” is one of the key resources to manage in the game.
Wasteland wrap-up #91
This last week, after a late afternoon thunderstorm — which gifted us with a fantastic double rainbow — the weather suddenly turned, and we have (apparently) made it out of the heat of summer and into the cool breeze of fall. Lyndon and I celebrated by going on a long walk to the Seine, and digging out my longer pants. We’ve also been so happy that they finally finished the construction work on the outside of our apartment building, which has been going on for 9 months or so.
Rage against the Machines
Our present moment is one of promises and warnings — sometimes at the same time — about what artificial intelligence holds for our human future. The promises are about how a world of high productivity, high leisure, and incredible discovery is just around the corner. The warnings talk about disruption, joblessness, new threats from other states, and the fear that the creation of superintelligent machines will herald the end of man in one way or another.
Wasteland wrap-up #90
The exciting thing this last week was the European eclipse, which happened on Wednesday. In Paris, the sun was 92% occluded, which, if you haven’t seen one, sounds a lot more impressive than it is. I had seen a 90% eclipse in New Jersey back in April 2024, and it was about the same as that. Back in 2017, I saw a total eclipse in Missouri, but it was under cloud cover and so the most dramatic aspects were alas not visible to me.
Nuclear thrones
Most US government-produced imagery about fallout shelters was clean, calm, and collected. Illustrators showed happy, white, suburban families in neat little spaces, doing “normal” activities like reading books, telling stories, and playing with toys. You’d hardly know that there was a nuclear war on, based on these images.
The political implications of Hiroshima’s scarred “maidens”
The political implications of Hiroshima’s scarred “maidens” Bulletin, By Alex Wellerstein | Article, Feature | August 6, 2026 On May 7, 1955, 25 young Japanese women arrived by airplane at Travis Airfield in California. They had flown there from Iwakuni Airbase in Tokyo a few days prior, with a layover in Honolulu.
Wasteland wrap-up #89
I am approaching my first anniversary on arriving to Paris. I am reminded of how quiet the city was, as August is the month in which a huge number of Parisians take their vacations. It is not uncommon to see stores and restaurants closed with hand-written signs that instruct you to come back in a few weeks, when their owners and employees are back from wherever it is they go. On Saturday, the weather in the morning was quite cool, so Lyndon and I went to his favorite place, the Seine.
The scarred women of Hiroshima
As part of my work as a Senior Fellow of the The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, I am writing several articles for them, which I am allowed to republish here on Doomsday Machines. You can read the original article here. Thirteen Hiroshima Maidens, scarred by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, pause at a Hollywood church during their return to Japan after 18 months of plastic surgery in New York. Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library.
Bomb shadows of the future
The famous “human shadows” at Hiroshima are so famous that various mythical versions of them now populate the Internet. The realities are grim enough, if not much to look at — a smudge whose human form requires considerable reconstruction. The “shadow” on the steps of the Sumitomo Bank, not far from ground zero, above is the most famous one. The above photograph was taken by US military forces in the city in November 1945.
Wasteland wrap-up #88
This week has been one of writing for me, as I have an article for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that I am finishing up for imminent publication. I enjoy the writing of these things, although I can’t quite say I love deadlines. Well, it takes something to get them out the door, I suppose. I happened upon this bar, La Bombe, while trekking across town to pick up Lyndon’s dog food this week.
Signs of the end times
Some months ago, my brain offered me up this intrusive thought some months ago: “What would be the opposite of the Doomsday Clock?” The first appearance of the Doomsday Clock, created for the Bulletin by the artist Martyl Langsdorf. The Doomsday Clock, of course, is the famous design emblem that has been affixed to the masthead of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1947.
I went to the movies twice this week, to see the two-part summer French blockbuster La Bataille de Gaulle [The Battle of de Gaulle] (2026). Unless you are in France you have probably not heard about it, but it is (according to Wikipedia) one of the most expensive French films of all time (although at $85 million USD that makes it less than half of a standard Marvel movie, and it’s really two movies at that), and it has been advertised very heavily here as the summer blockbuster.
How to fight a nuclear war in 1950
When most people imagine “nuclear war,” they imagine the push-button “wargasm” that only became possible for the United States to do by the mid-to-late 1950s, and some time later than that by the Soviet Union. From the mid-1940s through the early 1950s, however, the US arsenal was relatively small in terms of quantity, and relatively limited in terms of capability. Consequently, “nuclear war” in this period was a different sort of beast.
Thirteen films that are essential to understanding the nuclear age
Thirteen films that are essential to understanding the nuclear age Bulletin, By Alex Wellerstein | July 16, 2026 Nuclear films are both reflections of the zeitgeist in which they are made and shapers of it. They feed off of both popular and expert anxieties, while also helping to solidify the terms on which these anxieties are engaged.
Wasteland wrap-up #86
The bulk of the last week was spent in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the annual meeting of the History of Science Society (which was co-located with the European Society for the History of Science). I gave a talk (more about that after the fold, below), and was a discussant for a panel on global nuclear history, and otherwise spent time going to some talks and meeting with friends and colleagues. I enjoyed it quite a lot. Edinburgh Castle.
Thirteen films that are essential to understanding the nuclear age
Nuclear films are both reflections of the zeitgeist in which they are made and shapers of it. They feed off of both popular and expert anxieties, while also helping to solidify the terms on which these anxieties are engaged. While some themes are apparently universal (how many ways are there to blunder into nuclear war), some feel very much of their particular time and place.
Wasteland wrap-up #85
Last week was once again a hot one here. Not as bad as the canicule a few weeks ago — or maybe I’m just getting more used to it. On the really hot days, though, it’s just unpleasant inside and out. Inside one feels like one is shut in, hiding from heat, with fans that help but don’t really provide respite. Outside one quickly gets tired and feels put-upon. On the days where there is a breeze, it’s not so bad, but on the days when there isn’t, it’s a slog. Well, it should cool off soon.
"When civilization gets civilized again, I’ll re-join"
Panic in Year Zero! (1962) was an early and today fairly obscure entry into the genre of post-apocalyptic films. Directed by and starring the Welsh actor Ray Milland, it was a low-budget the post-apocalyptic road trip following the activities of a family in the aftermath of a thermonuclear attack on Los Angeles.
Wasteland wrap-up #84
I’ve never been much of a 4th of July celebrator; I have always regarded patriotism with only a slightly less dim view than I have nationalism. So I probably would have regarded the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with some skepticism anyway.
American science at 250
The making of the Manhattan Project Overlooked figures of American science Silicon Valley and the state Recombining representation Eugenics and its legacies A final frontier References and Notes Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Related Editorial 250 years of promise Science2 Jul 2026 Related Policy Forums From Edison’s Invention Factory to the new architecture of innovation Science2 Jul 2026 WWII and the evolution of US federal...
Hiroshima from below
The first views of Hiroshima that were seen in the United States were from the air: the view from B-29 bombers of the mushroom cloud, and surveying the damage as a whole. This is the view of the person dropping the bomb, not the person being harmed by it. Reconnaissance photograph of the damage at Hiroshima, made on August 8, 1945. This photograph was shown to Truman at a briefing by the Secretary of War the same day.
Wasteland wrap-up #83
So supposedly the canicule historique (record heat wave) has finally relented here in France. Over 1,000 people in France died from it, mostly those over 65, but also many people of younger ages, including people who drowned while trying to take refuge in canals and rivers. On one of our later-afternoon, short, around-the-block, stay-in-the-shade dog outings, Lyndon became convinced there was something interesting inside these planters. I do not know what. He investigated with great gusto.
Survival is a drag
60 Seconds! is a video game about spending some quality family time in a fallout shelter after a nuclear detonation, developed by a Polish video game studio (Robot Gentlemen) and released in 2015 (and a remastered version was released in 2019). Like the Fallout game series, it leans heavily into a 1950s gonzo aesthetic about nuclear war, and is very tongue-in-cheek in its approach to the subject. The game has two basic “modes” which can be played concurrently or individually.
Wasteland wrap-up #82
The Paris heat wave is back! It’s almost funny, because these are temperatures that Americans in much of the country would not find that impressive (from 90ºF to 98ºF or so), especially given that the humidity is generally low. I grew up in the California Central Valley, where the summers are very hot but very dry, and lived for many years in Boston, New York, and especially Washington, DC, where the humidity makes everything feel like the inside of an oven.
I had an interesting conversation recently with Ward Wilson about the historicity of the moral revulsion of destroying cities. Ward brought up the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, a case he has written about before, and how even people in the Ancient world seemed to regard the destruction of an entire city as a moral hazard unlike most of those found in war.
Wasteland wrap-up #81
Greetings from somewhere in the air Iin between Germany and France… I was in Germany for much of last week, attending a conference, the 25th meeting of the Science and Democracy Network. I am, as I write this, flying back to Paris from Berlin.
The spoils of nuclear war
One of the things that makes Civil Defense interesting to me, as a historian, is that if one takes it truly seriously — which not all of its advocates do or have done — it involves trying to think very concretely about what would happen during a nuclear war, and what kind of world would exist for those who survived a nuclear war. These imagined scenarios, particularly when they get very granular in their attacking the problem of nuclear war survival, often feel surreal.
Wasteland wrap-up #80
The weather has cooled off dramatically from the heat wave of the last few weeks, to the point where I’ve had to put my shorts aside and go back to slacks. Quite a contrast! It also has been raining on and off, which has its ups and downs. A thoroughly wet Lyndon at the Jardin du Luxembourg. This upcoming week I will be making a trip to Potsdam, Germany, for the Science and Democracy Network annual meeting.
A strange, unloved apocalypse
There are a lot of books about nuclear apocalypses, ranging from the very “grounded” to the fairly fantastic. But none of them, to my knowledge, are as strange as Philip K. Dick’s Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965). The cover from (one of the) 1965 Ace Books editions of Dr. Bloodmoney. I am not quite sure what it is showing, but it is definitely "weird in a good way.” Dick, or PKD as he is known to his fans, was a prolific author of strange science fiction.
Wasteland wrap-up #79
I mentioned a little while back that I was appointed to the role of Senior Fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. This was done with the hope, by Bulletin CEO and President Alexandra Bell and I, that we could get it funded and thus make it more than just a nice affiliation. I am very pleased to say that thanks to help from Longview Philanthropy, we did find a philanthropic funder for the position and our plan for it. So what that means, practically, are several things.
Bomber arithmetic
In February 1957, Captain John H. Morse, Jr., a former US Navy aviator and a special advisor for the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), wrote a long memo to AEC Commissioner Lewis Strauss about the “arithmetic” of Air Force strategic planning. The context was a debate inside the AEC about the prudence of a “military requirement” that the US Strategic Air Command had set for the development of a 60 megaton bomb.
Wasteland wrap-up #78
I was recently informed that my latest book,The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age(HarperCollins, 2025), has been awarded the Harry S. Truman Book Award for 2026 from the Truman Library Institute. I am quite honored and more than a little surprised.
"To build a shelter was to admit to the kind of age we lived in..."
The end of the world is a recurrent themes in several episodes of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (1959–1964), but none perhaps are quite as direct about it as “The Shelter,” which aired on September 29, 1961. Its focal point was a family bomb shelter, and it came at one of the real peaks of popular interest in the idea, not long after President Kennedy announced a massive public fallout shelter program.
Wasteland wrap-up #77
We are well into spring here, which sometimes means overcast and even rainy days. But it also means that the length of the day is getting dramatic, and because France is in the wrong time zone, it also means that the day keeps being light well into the night.
Paper cups and a Confederate Flag
While working on my post about the clergy and Civil Defense, I stumbled across a collection of scanned issues of The Georgia Alert, a publication of the Civil Defense Division of the State of Georgia, USA, from the 1950s, hosted by the Digital Library of Georgia.
Wasteland wrap-up #76
Grades are due tomorrow and a number of other things are due this upcoming week, so I am running around like the proverbial chicken sans tête trying to get things done. But there is the sweet, sweet promise of, well, more things to do once I get these particular tasks done. That’s life! I was posing Lyndon for a photograph near Les Invalides when these two other dogs ran up to him before I really realized it. He started wagging his tail but stayed in place, like the good boy that he is.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Alex
Contact Alex, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack