Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2025-12-04
Books mentioned on Part Two: The Men Who Might Have Killed Us All
Robert Evans: Robert and Margaret discuss the birth of the first atom bomb and how delusions about the use of air power made it a savior for a certain kind of U.S Army Air Corps officer.
Robert Evans discussed The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen, Command and Control by Eric Schlosser, and Brighter Than A Thousand Suns by Robert Jungk.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Bomber Mafia
The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell is a work of narrative nonfiction examining the strategic bombing campaigns of World War II and the eccentric technologists who championed them.
Discussed“anyway, there's this group called the Bomber Mafia that Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book on, uh, that had some terrible takes.”
Where to get it
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Catch-22
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a landmark satirical novel set during World War II that explores bureaucratic absurdity and ironic paradoxes through the experiences of American bomber crews.
Discussed“I read that other really good book about this by Joseph Heler.”
Where to get it
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Nuclear War
Annie Jacobsen's nonfiction book Nuclear War: A Scenario provides a chilling, unsparing countdown and thorough examination of what a global nuclear exchange would actually look like.
Discussed“and this is kind of what uh the book nuclear war Jacobson theor like talks about but like essentially you get like a nuclear January 6th right one nuke goes off gets launched at or goes off in one country”
Where to get it
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Command and Control
Command and Control by Eric Schlosser is an investigative history examining the safety hazards, accidents, and near-misses associated with the American nuclear weapons arsenal.
Discussed“In the book Command and Control, Schlloer writes, "Lame was involved in almost every aspect of the plan from selecting the mix of bombs, magnesium for high temperatures, napalm for splatter to choosing a bomb pattern that could start a firestorm."”
Where to get it
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Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
Discussed“In the book, Brighter than a Thousand Sons, Robert Young says that Slotkin's colleagues at the time described him regularly going off, quote, in search of fighting, excitement, and adventure.”
Where to get it
