Selects: The Great Nuclear Winter Debate of 1983

# Stuff You Should Know: Nuclear Winter

Josh and Chuck dive deep into one of the most fascinating and controversial scientific debates of the Cold War era—nuclear winter. This episode explores what would actually happen to Earth's atmosphere if a large-scale nuclear war occurred, tracing the theory's origins from volcanic eruptions like Krakatoa to Carl Sagan's famous 1983 predictions that sparked both scientific consensus and fierce political backlash. Along the way, they unpack how this became less about pure science and more about a proxy war between anti-nuclear activists and nuclear proliferation advocates, complete with all the messy real-world consequences that follow when politics collides with research.