July 13, 2023
Trailer: Lost Women of the Manhattan Project
Episode Description
During World War II, thousands of scientists and engineers worked on the Manhattan project, the top secret push to develop an atomic bomb that would end the war. Two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did just that, while also killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. The devastating potential of nuclear weapons sparked a moral controversy that continues to this day. Hundreds of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project were women. Over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you a few of their stories.
Katie is co-founder and co-executive producer of The Lost Women of Science Initiative. She is the author of six non-fiction books and one novel, and was a longtime reporter for The New York Times. She is at work on her second novel.
Further Reading:
Episode Transcript
Lost Women of the Manhattan Project Trailer
SPEAKER: Mary Argo.
SPEAKER: Virginia Olsson.
SPEAKER: Lillian Carson.
SPEAKER: Elizabeth Maxwell.
SPEAKER: Joan Hinton.
SPEAKER: Priscilla Green.
SPEAKER: Myrtle Karcher.
KATIE HAFNER: During World War II, thousands of scientists and engineers worked on the Manhattan Project, the top secret push to develop an atomic bomb that would end the war. Hundreds of those scientists were women.
SPEAKER: Francis Dunne was the only woman in explosives assembly.
SPEAKER: Floy Lee was a biologist and hematologist and researched the impact of radiation on chromosomes.
SPEAKER: Lilli Hornig had a master's degree in chemistry from Harvard.
SPEAKER: Leona Woods Marshall hid her pregnancy under baggy overalls.
SPEAKER: Naomi Livesay was a mathematician. She supervised the mechanical computing operation at Los Alamos.
SPEAKER: Carolyn Parker was a physicist.
SPEAKER: Her work was so secret, her sister said years later, “She couldn't discuss it, even with us, her family.”
KATIE HAFNER: The devastation caused by nuclear weapons sparked a moral controversy that continues to this day.
SPEAKER: Kay Way was a physicist.
SPEAKER: She signed the petition to prevent the United States from dropping the bomb on Japan.
KATIE HAFNER: Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you a few of these stories. The Women of the Manhattan Project, from Lost Women of Science, starting July 20th, wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER: Roberta Shor.
SPEAKER: Opaline Calhoun.
SPEAKER: Elizabeth Marcus.
SPEAKER: Lorraine Barbic.
SPEAKER: Maria Goeppert Mayer.
SPEAKER: Elaine Palevsky.
SPEAKER: Evelyn Walker.
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