Best of 2024: Books, Movies, Podcasts, and More December 19, 2024

Looking for something to read, watch, or stream during the cold winter months? Here are some recommendations from the PSR staff and friends for the best content from 2024. 

There were lots of amazing books, podcasts, films, and coverage of nuclear weapons this year: 

• Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen – This best-selling book examines the rapidly unfolding chaos and devastation following the launch of a nuclear attack.
• NukeTalk Podcast, Ploughshares – Check out “Season 3: Atomic Assembly” to learn about nuclear weapons facilities across the country, including an episode about PSR’s current lawsuit over Rocky Flats, Colorado. Don’t miss the 2024 holiday episode on climate change and nuclear winter.
• At the Brink Series, New York Times – With vivid photography, video, and graphics, this series has explored the human stories of Hiroshima survivors and victims of nuclear testing, the $1.7 trillion cost of America’s new arms race, the problems with Presidential sole authority, and more. 
• First We Bombed New Mexico, Lois Lipman – This documentary film tells some of the stories left out of Oppenhiemer, features the Downwinders from the Trinity Test, including PSR’s 2023 Health Hero Award winner Tina Cordova, and the generations of cancers that continue to haunt families.
• Silent Fallout, Hideaki Ito – This film follows the story of radiation poisoning in the U.S., especially the famous St. Louis baby-tooth study that helped inspire John F. Kennedy to halt atmospheric nuclear testing.
• The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation, Ian Fairlie & Cindy Folkers – This book investigates how, “from the beginning of the nuclear age almost 100 years ago, scientists who questioned the public health and safety of the nuclear enterprise have been systematically attacked and silenced.” (from PSR Advisory Council member Alfred Meyer’s review of the book)

Here are several great 2024 books, textbooks, and web resources focused on climate change and health. These each feature PSR members, staff, board members, and friends.

• Code Green Podcast: The Climate-Smart Health Professional, Climate Resources for Health Education
• Climate Change and Public Health, Barry Levy & Jonathan Patz (Second Edition) 
• Health and Climate Change: Unraveling the Connections, Saroj Pachauri, Ash Pachauri, & M.P. Jonathan
• Environmental Health: Foundations for Public Health, Natalie Sampson, Lindsay Tallon, & Natasha DeJarnett
• Climate and Your Mind (ebook) & Ecopsychopedia (website), Lise Van Susteren, Robin Cooper, et. al.

And here are several more great climate books and podcasts from 2024:

• Volts Podcast, David Roberts (including this episode with Washington Governor Jay Inslee giving Washington PSR a special shout-out)
• What if We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
• The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It, Genevieve Guenther
• Electrify Your Home Mini Coloring Book (for all ages), Nicole Kelner

And here are two bonus reads that are not specific to our program areas, but are definitely relevant to our mission:

• Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein – In this best-seller, longtime anti-war and climate activist Naomi Klein examines the strange scrambling of familiar political categories we’re experiencing at this moment. With empathy and curiosity, she dives into far right digital worlds to understand how they have become a mirror world of the political and cultural left. 
• Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, Jamil Zaki – It’s understandable to feel cynical when we work against climate change, nuclear weapons, and injustice. This neuroscientist offers guidance on how to practice empathy, kindness, and generosity toward others, which can help rebalance our view of human nature and help us build the world we truly want.