Culture and Nuclear Weapons

If we change our cultural conceptions of nuclear weapons, we can make the world safer from nuclear threats.

The dangers of nuclear weapons are rarely communicated in a way that is compelling and accessible, despite the fact that these risks affect us all. At Ploughshares Fund, we are exploring the power of media, technology, and popular culture to change perceptions and attitudes. Learn more about our Cultural Change Initiative here.

Latest News, Analysis and Explorations of Culture and Nuclear Weapons

  • Daryl Kimball Reddit AMA

    Daryl Kimball Reddit AMA

    Arms Control Association director Daryl G. Kimball hosted an AMA (‘Ask me Anything’) session on Reddit, the 25th most visited web site in the world. Reddit’s AMA regularly features noteworthy individuals with unique expertise to take questions from...

    September 21, 2016 - By Derek Zender
  • Time for Korean Americans to be heard on North Korea

    Time for Korean Americans to be heard on North Korea

    North Korea’s fifth nuclear test is yet another example of how brazen provocation desensitizes us to the truly significant. While many will debate the details of the latest test, few in the Korean-American community are focusing on the bigger picture – that a US policy of increasing pressure...

    September 16, 2016 - By Philip Yun
  • Command and Control

    Command and Control

    The highly anticipated new documentary, Command and Control, which presents a chilling account of one of many near nuclear disasters America has faced – and still faces – is opening in select theaters across the country for a limited time.

    September 14, 2016 - By Derek Zender
  • N Square: Nuclear Weapons & Culture

    N Square: Nuclear Weapons & Culture

    Since our inception, Ploughshares Fund has invested in innovative organizations and individuals in its quest to reduce nuclear weapons threats. Our investments have adapted and shifted with the times; what worked in 1981 doesn’t necessarily work today. That’s why we’re currently investing in...
    September 2, 2016 - By Paul Carroll
  • Culture and Nuclear Weapons at Tribeca Film Festival

    Culture and Nuclear Weapons at Tribeca Film Festival

    Since the Nuclear Freeze movement of 1980s ended along with the Cold War, there has been little popular attention paid to the dangers nuclear weapons pose to humanity. This is especially worrying because many experts believe we are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. But beyond the nuclear...

    May 6, 2016 - By Elizabeth Warner
  • Tribeca Film Festival Goes Nuclear

    Tribeca Film Festival Goes Nuclear

    This year’s Tribeca Film Festival showcased a number of features focused on the threats posed by nuclear weapons. The famed festival closed with a groundbreaking multimedia installation called the bomb, funded in part by Ploughshares Fund. Festival organizers are calling it the ‘...

    April 22, 2016 - By Will Lowry
  • Donor Spotlight

    Donor Spotlight

    Joel Dobson, a former officer who was in the Strategic Air Command in the 1960s, lives in North Carolina where a near-nuclear accident known as the Goldsboro Broken Arrow took place more than 50 years ago. Joel recently wrote...

    February 26, 2016 - By Will Lowry
  • Why think about nuclear weapons?

    Why think about nuclear weapons?

    Why think about nuclear weapons? Because the threat is real. A former CIA operative, a Hollywood actor, a mom and other Americans talk about why this issue is so important to them, and why they support Ploughshares Fund. You too can make a difference.

    November 24, 2015 - By Will Lowry
  • White Paper: Changing Cultural Conceptions of Nuclear Weapons

    White Paper: Changing Cultural Conceptions of Nuclear Weapons

    Nuclear weapons have been around for almost 70 years. In that time, nuclear weapons have become just a synonym for “the ultimate weapon;” Hollywood’s trump card in case of dangerous terrorists, deranged dictators or alien attack.

    It’s as if we have collectively forgotten the real horror...

    July 22, 2014 - By Margaret Swink