The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett – Most Replayed Moment: “Here’s What Happens When A Nuclear Bomb Drops! These Countries Will Be Safe!”

Episode Overview This special episode of The Diary Of A CEO revisits the podcast's most replayed, chillingly memorable segment discussing the catastrophic consequences of a large-scale nuclear exchange. Steven Bartlett and his guest (an investigative journalist and expert on nuclear war scenarios) unpack the aftermath of nuclear strikes—the horrifying visuals, the implications for humanity, and which countries might offer the last refuge on Earth. The discussion balances factual detail and emotional gravity with a thread of hope regarding prevention.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Immediate Aftermath of a Nuclear Strike

• Expert Describes the Attack
  • The guest outlines in graphic detail what follows the detonation of a 1-megaton nuclear bomb over a target like the Pentagon, sourced directly from defense scientists and Pentagon documents.
  • “On top of the initial flash of thermonuclear light, which is 180 million degrees, which catches everything on fire in a nine mile diameter radius… each one of these fires creates a mega fire that is 100 or more square miles.” (B, 01:29)
• Total Destruction
  • The U.S. hit by 1,000 Russian nuclear weapons would be transformed into a landscape of unchecked fire and devastation.
  • “In the scenario at minute 72, a thousand Russian nuclear weapons land on the United States. And so it just becomes a conflagration of fire…hundred, two hundred square mile fires burning.” (B, 02:09)

2. The Lethality and Grim Reality for Survivors

• Death Toll Calculations
  • A key estimate: a nuclear war could kill up to 5 billion of the world's 8 billion people, primarily due to famine caused by nuclear winter (B, 06:01).
  • “The number that they have is 5 billion people would be dead.” (B, 06:01)
• Violence and Breakdown of Society
  • Survivors would inhabit a lawless, brutal world.
  • “Khrushchev…said after nuclear war the survivors would envy the dead… It's man returning to the most primal, most violent state as people fight over the tiny resources that remain.” (B, 03:30)
• Visceral Imagery
  • Steven recites a passage narrating the horror:
    “A thousand fireballs, each more than a mile in diameter…tens of millions of unfortunate survivors suffering fatal third degree burns. People naked, tattered, bleeding and suffocating. People who don't look or act like people anymore.” (A, 04:45)

3. Nuclear Winter and Where Might Be Safe

• Climate Catastrophe
  • Post-strike, mid-latitude countries become uninhabitable—fields frozen, sunlight lethal due to ozone loss.
  • “Most of the world…the mid latitudes would be covered in these, you know, sheets of ice… agriculture would fail. And when agriculture fails, people just die.” (B, 07:29)
• Safe Zones: New Zealand & Australia
  • They are best positioned to sustain agriculture and shelter survivors.
  • “That's exactly where you'd go. According to Toon, those are the only places that could actually sustain agriculture.” (B, 06:45)

4. The Asteroid Analogy and Human Agency

• Historical Perspective
  • Nuclear war compared to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs—except this is a preventable, man-made threat.
  • “Professor Toon compared nuclear war to that situation…Nuclear war is a man-made threat and therefore, it has to be a man-made solution.” (B, 08:19)

5. The Power and Responsibility to Prevent Catastrophe

• Presidential Authority & The Day After
  • Past reductions in nuclear arms were prompted by powerful storytelling and political will.
  • “President Reagan was…pro nuclear weapons…He saw The Day After and he changed his position. He wrote in his White House journal that he became greatly depressed…And they famously issued a statement that said a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” (B, 09:20–11:30)
• From 70,000 to 12,500 Warheads
  • Treaties and activism have reduced the global arsenal, proving progress is possible.

6. The AI & Nuclear War Risk

• AI as a Trigger for Catastrophe?
  • Steven recounts a scenario posed to ChatGPT, where AI instigates nuclear war.
  • The guest explains why most nuclear weapon systems remain deliberately analog and insulated from such digital risks.
  • “Our ballistic missile systems are…analog because of the exact fear that you describe and that ChatGPT described back at you.” (B, 14:12)
• Navigating by the Stars
  • Missiles guide themselves by celestial navigation to prevent electronic hijacking.
  • “It's actually a really interesting concept that the most advanced…ballistic missile is guiding itself to its target by this ancient concept…looking at the stars.” (B, 15:47–16:29)

7. Probability, Human Nature, and Learning from History

• Inevitable War?
  • Probability increases the longer nuclear weapons exist, raising existential questions.
  • “If we play this forward…I don't know, a thousand years, what is most likely to cause the end of humanity?...the longer we're here, the longer we have these weapons, the higher the probability.” (A, 18:41)
• Can War Be Unlearned?
  • Anthropological studies show humans oscillate between suspicion and collaboration.
  • Positive change is possible through learning and training new ways to view the “other.”
  • “What we do know is that people can learn to think differently… if that's too Pollyanna-ish to find the way in which…How do I look at the person coming at me as someone who could be on my team or…not an enemy that I would have to kill.” (B, 21:06–23:33)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The survivors would envy the dead.”
  — (B quoting Khrushchev, 03:30)

• “5 billion people would be dead.”
  — (B, citing Prof. Brian Toon’s research, 06:01)

• “You have to imagine people living underground, fighting for food everywhere, except for in New Zealand and Australia.”
  — (B, 07:29)

• “Nuclear war is a man-made threat and therefore, it has to be a man-made solution.”
  — (B, 08:19)

• “He saw The Day After and he changed his position. He wrote in his White House journal that he became greatly depressed.”
  — (B, referencing President Reagan’s change of heart, 10:30)

• “Our ballistic missile systems are…analog because of the exact fear that you describe and that ChatGPT described back at you.”
  — (B, 14:12)

• “The most advanced, potentially civilization ending ballistic missile is guiding itself to its target by this ancient concept…looking at the stars.”
  — (B, 15:47)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:29] – Describing nuclear blast aftermath; firestorms and total devastation.
• [03:30] – Why survivors would envy the dead; society's collapse.
• [06:01] – Food crisis and death estimates: 5 billion dead.
• [06:45] – Only New Zealand and Australia might be survivable.
• [08:19] – Nuclear war vs. asteroid impact: human responsibility.
• [09:20–11:30] – Reagan, The Day After, and nuclear weapon reductions.
• [14:12] – Analog safeguards and AI scenarios.
• [15:47–16:29] – Missiles navigating by starlight: a built-in analog defense.
• [18:41] – Probability of nuclear war over time.
• [21:06–23:33] – Anthropological perspectives; can humanity “unlearn” war?

Tone & Concluding Thoughts

This episode delivers a sobering, fact-driven narrative underscored by empathy and a belief in the possibility of human-led change. Steven Bartlett’s inquisitiveness and the guest’s deep expertise make the catastrophic consequences of nuclear conflict vivid and real, while also highlighting the crucial agency individuals and leaders hold in averting disaster.

The chilling reminders of what is at stake are balanced by hopeful notes—a testament to storytelling’s power to shift policy and societal trajectories, and the final suggestion that humanity can, with effort, learn to build trust and peace.