Writing About NASA's Most Shocking Moment

The Book Review

The New York Times

Books, Arts

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The year 1986 was notable for two big disasters: the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in the United States. The journalist Adam Higginbotham wrote about Chernobyl in his 2019 book, “Midnight in Chernobyl.” Now he’s back, with a look at the American side of the ledger, in his new book, “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space.” On this week’s episode, Higginbotham tells host Gilbert Cruz why he was drawn to both disasters, and what the Challenger explosion revealed about weaknesses in America’s space program.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Gilbert Crudes, editor of the New York Times Book Review and this is the Book Review podcast. Before we dive into
0:15.3	this week's episode a few notes for you. First, next weekend is Memorial Day
0:20.4	here in the US so we'll not have an episode dropping on Friday, May 21st.
0:26.2	But the week after that, we're going to have a great episode.
0:28.8	It's going to be our next book club discussion.
0:31.0	This one is about the novel James by Percival Everett.
0:35.0	If you're interested in listening to that discussion,
0:37.8	I urge you to use the next few weeks to catch up on what I think
0:41.5	is a pretty great book.
0:45.0	All right, in 2019, our guest on this week's episode
0:49.0	published his first book,
0:51.0	The Gripping Accounts of the Accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in what was then
0:56.4	the Soviet Union.
0:58.6	That book, Midnight at Chernobyl, was one of the book reviews, 10 best books of that year.
1:04.3	He's now out with another account of a disaster that occurred in 1986.
1:08.8	This is the explosion of the
1:15.0	challenge of the Challenger. In January of 1986, 73 seconds into its flight,
1:18.0	the Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean.
1:21.0	All seven people aboard were killed, including Krista McCollable. the Adam Higginbotham's new book is called Challenger, A True Story of Heroism and Disaster
1:36.3	On the Edge of Space.
1:37.8	Adam, welcome to the Book Review Podcast.
1:40.1	Thank you for having me.
	...

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