Nuked in the Midwest feat. Devin O’Shea (Premium E280) Sample

Summary

QAA Podcast
Episode: Nuked in the Midwest feat. Devin O’Shea (Premium E280) Sample
Date: March 5, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the QAA crew—Jake Rockatansky, Travis View, Liv Agar, and guest Devin O’Shea—dive into the disturbing and darkly comedic story of St. Louis’s radioactive legacy. They explore the bizarre, hazardous, and often covered-up history of nuclear waste disposal in the Midwest, focusing particularly on the ongoing crisis of a radioactive landfill in St. Louis, Missouri, and the inept government and corporate responses over the decades. The conversation mixes humor, history, and local reporting, with a focus on how dangerous material from the Manhattan Project ended up threatening a densely populated American city.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Simpsons as a Cultural Reference & Real-Life Parallels

• [00:48] Devin O’Shea opens by comparing a Simpsons episode’s comical depiction of nuclear waste to the grim reality in St. Louis.
• [00:48-01:23] "In St. Louis we said, oh, yeah, you think that's funny? How about a radioactive landfill that's on fire for 14 years?" — Devin
  The group uses satire to underscore the absurdity of the actual situation.

St. Louis’s Radioactive Landfill Disaster

• [01:25] Devin describes seeing alarming headlines about radioactive waste in two major North St. Louis landfills—West Lake and Bridgeton Landfills.
• [01:46-02:21] They lampoon the logic of storing Manhattan Project waste in a busy city, questioning the sense of moving radioactive material from New Mexico to Missouri.
  • “I would have expected like a really big, like, hole…with one of those weird like universal signs—none shall enter here.” — Julian, [01:46]
  • “I think they should have put it in Manhattan since that's the name of the project.” — Devin, [02:21]

The Comedy of Failed Nuclear Waste Disposal

• [03:01] Jake reads out the various failed “techniques” used for disposal—burying by the airport, forgetting about it, then reburying in a slightly “better spot.”
  • “Secretly burying the stuff near a creek by the airport… Forgetting about it and hoping no one notices… Finally admitting there's a problem, digging up millions of cubic meters of soil, then reburying it all in a slightly better spot.” — Jake, [03:01]
• The panel riffs on American bureaucratic culture and the tendency to “fix” disasters as minimally as possible.
  • “Wait till the absolute last second to tell everybody you did a big boo boo and then you fix it. Minorly.” — Jake, [03:17]
• They joke about the absurdity of mutation, referencing Chernobyl and The Simpsons, wondering how the U.S. would handle a nuclear disaster.
  • “I'm really happy that Chernobyl didn’t happen in America…they would have just played it off like, whoops, don't worry about that.” — Julian, [03:29]

The Current Threat: Subsurface Smoldering Event

• [04:07] Devin explains the ongoing crisis: an underground fire (“subsurface smoldering event”) has been burning beneath Bridgeton landfill for 14 years, threatening to reach the radioactive waste.
  • “For the last 14 years, something called the subsurface smoldering event has haunted a large part of St. Louis. It's a very DeLillo name. I like a lot. The subsurface smoldering event.” — Devin, [04:07]
• The crew lampoons the naming, likening it to a trendy festival.
  • “It's like a festival… you could buy a three day pass.” — Jake, [04:42]
• [04:50-05:17] Discussion of the real-life contingency plans for locals, including “go bags” and prepping to shelter in place if the radioactive material combusts.
  • “There are a whole bunch of emergency services…if the bad thing happens, people are supposed to either flee or shelter in place and close the air ducts and ventilation of their houses and hope for the best.” — Devin, [04:50]

Worst-Case Scenarios & Government Evasion

• [05:23] Jake asks what could happen if the fire meets the radioactive waste.
• [05:25-06:33] Devin shares details from an investigative report: radioactive contamination might already have reached the fire, risking cancerous particulate spreading over miles of populated neighborhoods. Officials remain dismissive.
  • “If the fire creeps into the Westlake landfill, the smoke will carry thorium and radium particulate up out of the subterranean and cancer pollen will waft up and out… Officials say chill out and they've never lied.” — Devin, [05:25]
  • “So yeah, one of those ‘it could be already this bad’ situations.” — Jake, [06:33]

Local Activism & Institutional Apathy

• [05:25-06:33] The story of tireless activism, especially by local mothers, highlights both the power of grassroots organizing and the extreme resistance they’ve met from public officials.
  • “A battalion of women activists have been catastrophically pissed off about this for a long time… helped me understand how much harassment public officials need and the ends to which officials will go to avoid talking to you.” — Devin, [05:25]

The Noonday Club and the Dark Social History of St. Louis Elites

• [06:37] Devin shares the strange and “cursed” history of St. Louis’s elites gathering at the Noonday Club, tying together threads of social club privilege, Charles Lindbergh’s Nazi associations, and links to the Manhattan Project scientists.
• [08:13] Reflections on the personalities and aesthetics of Nazi elites, likening Goering to a “Trump style Nazi” who loved big, shiny things.
  • “Goering really was like a Trump style Nazi. Like, he just liked owning big things. Like, that was his ideology.” — Julian, [08:13]

Tying It Together: American History, Satire, and Danger

• The episode weaves a surreal tapestry connecting seemingly ridiculous—yet true—realities of American disaster, elite mismanagement, and the haunting legacies of nuclear hubris.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “Oh, yeah, you think that's funny? How about a radioactive landfill that's on fire for 14 years?”
  — Devin O’Shea ([00:48])
• “Wait till the absolute last second to tell everybody you did a big boo boo and then you fix it. Minorly.”
  — Jake ([03:17])
• “It's like what they did with cigarettes for like 100 years. They're like, it's actually good for you, all the radiation. It's gonna make you stronger. You'll have more children with more limbs.”
  — Jake ([03:48])
• “A battalion of women activists have been catastrophically pissed off about this for a long time.”
  — Devin ([05:25])
• “If the fire creeps into the Westlake landfill…the smoke will carry thorium and radium particulate…cancer pollen will waft up and out…It might be secretly doing that right now, but officials say chill out and they've never lied.”
  — Devin ([05:25-06:33])
• “Goering really was like a Trump style Nazi. Like, he just liked owning big things. Like, that was his ideology.”
  — Julian ([08:13])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:48 — St. Louis landfill vs. The Simpsons satirical reality
• 01:25 — Manhattan Project waste in Missouri: origins and mismanagement
• 03:01 — American strategies for hiding nuclear disasters
• 04:07 — The “subsurface smoldering event” and ongoing risks
• 05:25 — Harrowing potential for radioactive smoke and local activism
• 06:37 — The Noonday Club, St. Louis social history, and Nazi connections
• 08:13 — Reflection on authoritarian personalities, aesthetics, and legacy

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Tone & Style

The tone is conversational, irreverent, and satirical, blending gallows humor with investigative reporting. The hosts keep the mood light even while discussing sobering topics—often using sarcasm and pop culture references to highlight the surreal intersection of American bureaucracy, corporate negligence, and environmental catastrophe.

Transcript

[A]

Sam, if you're hearing this, well done.

[B]

You found a way to connect to the Internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast Premium Episode 280, Nuked in the Midwest. As always, we are your hosts, Jake Rockatansky, Devin o', Shea, Liv Agar and Travis View.

[C]

I was watching this documentary called the Simpsons where the main guy, Homer barehands a plutonium rod and his son bart fishes a three eyed fish out of the pond downstream from Mr. Burns nuclear reactor. And it's sort of like a comment on America in the 1990s because then you have the Springfield tire dump, which happens to be on fire. And it's funny because black smoke pours into the air and no one on the show ever dies. So it's fine. In St. Louis we said, oh, yeah, you think that's funny? How about a radioactive landfill that's on fire for 14 years?

[B]

Oh, dear. Oh, man.

[C]

A few weeks ago, back in January, I fired up my favorite local news source, St. Louis Public Radio, and saw one of the worst case scenario headlines. There are these two big landfills up in North St. Louis. One is called the West Lake Landfill and it is packed full of radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project. Excellent as you do.

[A]

It sounds like not where I would expect them to place the waste from the Manhattan Project. Yeah, I would have expected like a really big, like, hole. And then it has one of those weird, like universal signs where it's like, none shall enter here. Nothing good.

[C]

Pictures of sharp rocks does that.

[A]

Like the. They made that as like the St. Louis welcome sign instead.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I called it a day.

[D]

I guess I'm a little confused why they decided to do the Manhattan Project in the middle of the desert of like New Mexico and then move the waste to a highly populated area. That's a little confusing to me.

[C]

I think they should have put it in Manhattan since that's the name of the project. But yeah, I guess I'm voted out.

[B]

I think they were trying to create like six eyed fish.

[A]

Yeah. How many eyes can we get?

[B]

Yeah, that's almost like. It's almost like a Kendrick lyric. How many eyes can you get? 1, 2, 3, 4. All right, all right, I'll stop.

[C]

There's hosing and tarps covering these huge sections of fields. And it looks like a weird golf course from overhead or a kind of soar in the land. Which is deserved because this nuclear disposal site is the end product of a dozen botched techniques for disposing of nuclear material. Jake, would you read some of the other techniques for me?

[B]

With pleasure. Number one, secretly burying the stuff near a creek by the airport. Number two, forgetting about it and hoping no one notices. Number three, finally admitting there's a problem, digging up millions of cubic meters of soil, then reburying it all in a slightly better spot. Now number three, really sounds like the American way. Wait till the absolute last second to tell everybody you did a big boo boo and then you fix it. Minorly.

[C]

Minorly.

[A]

This really makes me happy that Chernobyl didn't happen in America. Yeah, like that was definitely a Soviet, you know, late Soviet bureaucrat, you know, corruption problem. That was particular. But it's really good it happened there and not in America because I guess they would have just played it off like, whoops, don't worry about that.

[B]

It's like what they did with cigarettes for like 100 years. They're like, it's actually good for you, all the radiation. It's gonna make you stronger. You'll have more children with more limbs.

[A]

They're releasing more dogs and like animals into the area because they're like, we want to see the three eyed dogs in the Simpsons.

[C]

Well, the big problem was with the better spot that they chose, which was directly next to the Bridgeton landfill. Or as some say, both the west lake and the Bridgeton landfill are just the same big hole in the ground. Long after some construction companies started burying leftover thorium in the Westlake landfill, the Bridgeton landfill caught fire underground. For the last 14 years, something called the subsurface smoldering event has haunted a large part of St. Louis. It's a very DeLillo name. I like a lot. The subsurface smoldering event.

[B]

Yeah, they try to make it sound like a good thing. It's like a festival or something. You could buy a three day pass overpriced. But you know, you get to see Everybody.

[C]

It's a 14 year long party that ends in. Well, we'll see moms in the houses around the Westlake landfill have go bags and a plan for what to do in the worst case scenario. There are a whole bunch of emergency services around the greater St. Louis area that have been prepped for this. And if the bad thing happens, people are supposed to either flee or shelter in place and close the air ducts and ventilation of their houses and hope for the best.

[B]

Well, what's the bad thing that happens if like the whole thing goes up like a volcano? Like a man made volcano? Kind of.

[C]

Oh, we're getting there.

[B]

Oh, boy. All right.

[C]

The good news is that a lot more people know about the Westlake landfill than they did a decade ago. Thanks to the herculean work of a bunch of moms, a battalion of women activists have been catastrophically pissed off about this for a long time, and the whole story has helped me understand how much harassment public officials need and the ends to which officials will go to avoid talking to you or looking at you or glancing at a well documented map of a cancer cluster. Still, this is bad. The Missouri Independent report from January says that there is a high likelihood that radioactive contamination has made it to the smoldering landfill fire, which is not the type of shit I'm trying to hear. If the fire creeps into the Westlake landfill, the smoke will carry thorium and radium particulate up out of the subterranean and cancer pollen will waft up and out. Landing in an urban community where a lot of people live up to five or six miles of populated area, depending on the wind, a whole lot of it could end up Snowing on North St. Louis, St. Charles and Southern Illinois. It might be secretly doing that right now, but the officials say chill out and they've never lied.

[B]

So yeah, one of those it could be already this bad.

[C]

Who's to say? Lunch at the Noonday Club the Noonday club in downtown St. Louis is a famous room in American history that people like you and me were never invited to dine in. The club was at the top floor of the Security bank building with 10 stories that towered over the city in 1892 when it was built. The thing is a powerful looking block structure, brick set on limestone base, and on the top floor was a members only Noonday lunch club where two veiled prophet guys, Albert Lambert and William Bixby dined one day and agreed to put money into American Nazi hands. Of course in 1927 they didn't know that Charles Lindbergh would become a huge fan of the Reich. Limberg would go on to receive a big fancy Nazi sword from Hermann Goring. But that day Bixby and Lambert were just putting money into Lindbergh's hands for his famous transcontinental flight.

[B]

It is said that whoever holds the sword, their plane can never crash. Indy and his father have been looking for it for decades.

[A]

Guring lost the sword right in the middle of the battle for Britain.

[C]

Damn.

[A]

Just like misplaced it. Where's that sword?

[C]

Where's that one sword? Plain sword, Bejeweled.

[B]

It's bejeweled. It's got almost kind of a square, but some of the lines are bent in a funny way.

[C]

For a long time, I thought it was actually a baton because Goering loved batons. He loved to be like the Reich.

[B]

Marshall, like a twirler. Like he's tossing them up into the air, he's doing a couple spins and he's catching him when it comes back down.

[C]

Yeah, that kind.

[A]

Goering really was like a Trump style Nazi. Like, he just liked owning big things. Like, that was his ideology. Like, yeah, I'll back whoever lets me do that and whoever lets me make the most suffering possible as well.

[C]

Right. And everything's got to be gold plated and shiny.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Got a little quote.

[A]

Before taking off for New York and Paris, Lindbergh thanked the backers by circling his plane over the Noonday Club. He pointed the nose down and flew close to the flagpoles so everyone there would hear his engine.

[B]

This is like what the ospreys, what Biden's ospreys did when they flew over my house a couple of months ago.

[C]

Yeah. Thanking you.

[B]

Thanking you for your patronage.

[C]

About 15 years later, on April 17, 1942, two different men of the Veiled Prophets court launched at the noonday. One was Manhattan Project scientist Arthur Holly Compton, and the other was Edward Mallincrot.

[B]

These don't sound like villain names at all. You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA podcast. For access to the full episode, as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries, go to patreon.com qaa Travis, why is that such a good deal?

[D]

Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA podcast for just $5 per month. For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries. That includes 10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian the Nanny, 10 episodes of Perverts with Julian and Liv, 10 episodes of the Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, plus 20 episodes of trickle down with Me Travis view. It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting.

[C]

Travis, for once I agree with you. And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.comqaa well, that's.

[B]

Not an opinion, it's a fact.

[C]

You're so right, Jake.

[B]

We love and appreciate all of our listeners.

[C]

Yes, we do. And Travis is actually crying right now, I think out of gratitude.

[D]

Maybe that's not true. The part about me crying, not. Not me being grateful. I'm very grateful.