Loud Murmurs

HBO’s mini-series “Chernobyl” has been a smashing success—nominated for 19 Emmys and boasted a whopping audience of 8 million views. The 5-episode series dramatizes the story of the April 1986 nuclear plant explosion in Soviet Ukraine.In this episode, Loud Murmur’s three hosts, @Muge_Niu (Izzy), @afrazhaowang (Afra), and @Diaodiaoyang (Diaodiao), talk about why we find the series so compelling and germane to political themes of our present time. We are very honored to have Yangyang Cheng (@Yangyang_Cheng) as a guest on this week’s show. Born and raised in China, Yangyang is a particle physicist and postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University. She writes the “Science and China” column for SupChina. Her words have also appeared in Foreign Policy, MIT Tech Review and more.In the first half of the show, we talk about the show’s obsession with recreating the material culture of the Soviet Union; why the show resonates with our current debate over the global “war on truth” and the threat of a nuclear war.