We are all products of, and hostage to, the legacy of the splitting of the atom. This class examines the culture and politics of the nuclear era. If the immediacy of nuclear issues seemed to fade with the Cold War, they have now come roaring back. This course explores the lived spaces between the the “thinkable” world of strategy and policy and the “unthinkable” world of worst case scenarios (e.g. mutually assured destruction, nuclear winter, meltdowns). Sites of war and accidents, of waste storage and weapons testing, of the risks and hopes for nuclear energy, are also the sites of new forms of social awareness, popular culture, and protest. The class asks how did managing unimaginable risks become part of “normal” life? How has society dealt with the tension between knowledge and responsibility—of scientists, politicians, and ordinary people—as they face situations where people struggle most elementally with their relation to nature, humanity, and power? Readings draw on ethnographies, reportage, and film. With the hands of the Doomsday Clock set by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at 89 seconds to midnight, this class aims to provide a timely perspective on our parlous contemporary situation.