It’s September 26th. This day in 1983, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces determined that an alert about an incoming nuclear attack was, in fact, a computer glitch, likely preventing a series of retaliations by the USSR and the USA.
Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Petrov made his decision, what could have gone wrong, and why the policy of “mutually assured destruction” invited such perilous scenarios.
Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.
Find out more at thisdaypod.com
This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.
If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com
Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod
Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia
McKinley Lost-Causes The Civil War (1898)
Recent Favorite: Family Jewels w/ Rick Perlstein
Recent Favorite: The Dominion of Melchizedek (1993)
On The Media: The Divided Dial
In The Bubble: Ken Burns on Franklin, Public Health, and More
Ask Us Anything (Part 2)
Ask Us Anything (Part 1)
Stuff That Inspired Us: Popular Work
Stuff That Inspired Us: Academic Work
The Reagan Astrology Scandal w/ Mangesh Hattikudur (1988)
Karl Rove's "IT Guru" and the 2004 Ohio Rumor Mill (2008)
Ford on "Dynasty" (1983)
JFK Almost Assassinated (1960)
Bernie Madoff's Pyramid Collapses (2008)
Sandy Hook Conspiracies Take Root (2012)
The Video Game Freakout (1993)
The Nullification Crisis and the Almost-Civil-War (1832)
Colored Conventions Movement (1830)
The First Email. Probably. (1971)
Jews To Alaska (1938)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace