Ploughshares Stories
Trump’s Nuclear Testing Threat: What Does it Mean?
Last week, on October 29, President Donald Trump announced via a late night post on his social media site Truth Social that the U.S. would “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis [with other nations].” The post caused alarm among advocates and policymakers as experts quickly weighed in to read the tea leaves…
Netflix and Not-So-Chill: Preparing to Watch ‘A House of Dynamite’
On October 24, 2025, Kathryn Bigelow’s new film, A House of Dynamite, releases on Netflix. The premiere follows a limited run in theaters, which rallied the nuclear threat reduction together to engage in the somewhat lost—but not totally forsaken—art of watching movies in community. I first watched A House of Dynamite at a sold-out theater…
What happens when we go to war with ourselves?
What happens when we go to war with ourselves? We fight our brothers and our cousins and our mothers, our children, our friends, colleagues and mentors. What happens when we start to tear at the seams, breaking apart the bonds of trust and objective truth? We tear open all that is dear to us, and…
Interview: “My Dad Moved the Mormon Church on Nukes”
This interview was conducted by Taylor Barnes for Inkstick Media—a Ploughshares grantee. A few years ago, I came across what folks in Utah call “the MX battle,” and ever since, I can’t unsee it. The reason I keep coming back to it is not just because it’s a rare success story in the peace…
Atomic Alchemy Issue #3: Prepare, For We Are In a Battle Over Building Dreams of a Better Tomorrow
In the penultimate issue of the Atomic Alchemy zine series, Jasmine Owens explores the weaponization of our fear as fuel for nuclear necropolitical status quo, and the power of radical imagination in the struggle for liberation. Atomic Alchemy Zine #3: “Prepare, For We Are In a Battle Over Building Dreams of a Better Tomorrow” Author…
80 Years Later: Honor the Memory, End the Threat
August 6 and 9 respectively mark 80 years since the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 people and unleashing generations of suffering. An estimated 38,000 children died in the attacks, many from the immediate impact of the bombs, others from the long-term health effects of radiation. In a moving testament…
Dr. Emma Belcher at Nobel Laureate Assembly: Communicating Nuclear Risk – VIDEO
On July 16, Ploughshares President Dr. Emma Belcher spoke on a panel alongside W.J. Hennigan of The New York Times and Nobel Laureate Jody Williams, moderated by Outrider Foundation President & CEO Robert K. Elder. The panel was part of the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Chicago, IL, coinciding with…
New Approaches for the Anti-Nuclear Movement
These are hard times for individuals and organizations seeking to reduce the risk of a nuclear confrontation. The dangers of a nuclear conflict are increasing, but public awareness of the risks we face is at a low ebb. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday clock, an annual expert assessment of the risk of a…
Eighty Years After Trinity: A Legacy of Fallout & Building the Movement Forward
In the early hours of July 16, 1945, the United States detonated the first atomic bomb—known as the Trinity test—in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico, marking the dawn of the nuclear age, altering the course of history, and unleashing radioactive fallout across unsuspecting communities. Hispanic and Indigenous residents of downwind towns, like…
Historic Expansion of RECA Passes in Reconciliation Bill
In a historic and hard-fought victory for communities harmed by U.S. nuclear weapons testing, waste, and uranium exposure, Congress has passed the largest expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) since its original enactment in 1990. RECA provided compensation to individuals with serious illnesses resulting from radiation exposure from nuclear testing and uranium work.…