Includes Dick Gregory after Three Mile Island
This is a small tribute to Dick Gregory, who also needs to be remembered for his antinuclear work, embedded in a program about the phenomenon of radiation and ways to monitor it.
Opening with a clip from the song Radioactivity by Kraftwerk, leading into a sketch of the life and death of Madame Curie. She discovered radiation but was unable to understand its danger and died from radiation poisoning.
Next the comedian Dick Gregory who states that radiation is worse than hunger and war: “Because I can feel hunger. I can see war. .. I cannot see radiation… I look around one day and I am dead.”
On to the synopsis of 36 years in the life of a Geiger counter builder, Dan Sythe, whose main goal was to help people with their health issues. The huge scale of radiation contamination becomes clear when one follows him on his travels from Chernobyl to Fukushima with visits to the Marshall Islands, the Lakota, Navajo, and Cherokee Nations to Khazakstan, to people harmed by uranium mining, milling, processing, and nuclear weapons development… all over the world.
Ending with Steven Starr, Senior Scientist with Physicians for Social Responsibility, who eloquently explains the extreme danger that Cesium 137 poses that is present in all fuel-pools at nuclear power power plants.
This program includes material from TUC Radio’s nuclear collection, the Helen Caldicott Foundation, and the Pacifica Archives.
Podcast (file2): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
