Imagine, if you will, that for unknown reasons North Korea has just launched a nuclear bomb at the United States. What happens next?
The journalist Annie Jacobsen has imagined exactly that, and spent more than a decade interviewing dozens of experts while mastering the voluminous literature on the subject — some of it declassified only in recent years — for her 2024 book “Nuclear War: A Scenario,” which walks readers through the 72 minutes from launch to global annihilation. In the Book Review, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/books/review/nuclear-war-annie-jacobsen-countdown-sarah-scoles.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Barry Gewen said the book</a> was “gripping” and declared it essential reading “if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision.”
Jacobsen now has another book out: “Biological War: A Scenario.” Our critic Dwight Garner <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/books/review/biological-war-annie-jacobsen.html?eafs_enabled=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote in his review</a> that it “moves like a meteor.”
For this week’s episode, we revisit the conversation the host Gilbert Cruz had with Jacobsen last year, in which she discussed why she wrote “Nuclear War,” and how she managed to compile so many details about topics that are among the most secret in the world.
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