S2 E13: HBO’s Chernobyl -- Science and conscience

Loud Murmurs 小声喧哗

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, Juan , @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. Yangyang shares her thoughts on the trend of scientists “fact-checking” fictional works and what she thinks of the made-up character “Ulana Khomyuk.” We discuss questions including whether the story was told from a Western perspective using Soviet Union as a backdrop, or does it reflect a deep understanding of the Soviet system?

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Loud Murmurs episode if we didn’t go beyond the pop culture work to fully nerd out on bigger themes.

In this episode we also took a deep dive into:

1. The two highly symbolic female character -- Ulama Khomyuk and Lyudmilla Ignatenko
2. Nation brand-building through scientific advancement
3. How to properly commemorate Chernobyl

Here are some references we made in the show:

1. Svetlana Alexievich’s book “Voices from Chernobyl”
2. Yangyang’s column “Science and China” for SupChina

Last but not least:

Follow us on Twitter at @loudmurmurs

Find us on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, 喜马拉雅, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and drop us a note or leave us a review. We’d love to know what you think of our show!

If you want to support Loud Murmurs, please join our Patreon project, donating $1-$5 per month to help us keep doing what we do!

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)