The President and the Nuclear Button

Nukes of Hazard

With the 2020 presidential election looming large, it’s a good time to take a look at the absolute power the President of the United States has over U.S. nuclear weapons. Policy Analyst and Host Geoff Wilson sat down with Dr. Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology, to discuss the history of presidential launch authority, how our nuclear launch system actually works, and what steps we could take to make it more democratic.