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10 Episodes

Lost Women of the Manhattan Project

This podcast is distributed by PRX and published in partnership with Scientific American. Our art is made by Paula Mangin.

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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.

July 13, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

Trailer: Lost Women of the Manhattan Project

Thousands of scientists worked on the Manhattan project, the top secret push to develop an atomic bomb that would end World War II. Hundreds of those scientists were women.
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July 20, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

One of Many Lost Women of the Manhattan Project: Leona Woods Marshall Libby

Just 23 years old and armed with a Ph.D., Leona Woods joined Enrico Fermi as he led a team working to produce the world's first successful nuclear chain reaction.
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July 27, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

Blood, Sweat, and Fears: The Story of Floy Agnes Lee

Aggie Lee, a young indigenous woman from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, began working on the Manhattan Project in 1945. Her job: to monitor scientists' blood for excessive radiation exposure. Yet she didn't know that she was contributing to the building of the atomic bomb. Years later, she blamed the radiation for a series of cancer deaths in her family.
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August 3, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

No Place for a Woman in Mathematics? The Woman Who Ended up Supervising The Computations that Proved an Atomic Bomb Would Work

Naomi Livesay supervised the mechanical computing operation at Los Alamos and worked on computations that formed the mathematical basis for implosion simulations. Despite her crucial role on the project, she has rarely been mentioned as more than a footnote. Until now.
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August 17, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

The Story of the Real Lilli Hornig, the Only Female Scientist Named in the Film Oppenheimer

Lilli Hornig is the only female scientist mentioned by name in the film Oppenheimer. Here's the story of the real Lilli Hornig.
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August 24, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

Meet the Physicist who Spoke Out Against the Bomb She Helped Create

Kay Way was a nuclear physicist who was an expert in radioactive decay. After working on the atomic bomb she became an outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons.
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August 31, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

Their Day in the Sun: The Book That Shone a Light on the Lost Women of the Manhattan Project

As part of our Lost Women of the Manhattan Project special series, we pay tribute to physicists Ruth Howes and Caroline Herzenberg, whose ten-year research project ensured a place in history for the female scientists, engineers and technicians who worked on the atomic bomb.
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September 7, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

Part 1: Why Did Lise Meitner Never Receive the Nobel Prize for Splitting the Atom?

New translations of Meitner’s letters show that antisemitism before and after World War II robbed Meitner of the 1944 Nobel Prize that went to her long-time collaborator chemist Otto Hahn.
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September 14, 2023
Series | Manhattan Project

Part 2: Why Did Lise Meitner Never Receive the Nobel Prize for Splitting the Atom?

In the aftermath of the discovery of nuclear fission, letters exchanged between Lise Meitner and the chemist Otto Hahn reveal how she struggled with the betrayal of Hahn, her long-time scientific collaborator, who failed not only to credit her for her work but also to condemn the Nazi atrocities.
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March 14, 2024
Series | Manhattan Project

Best Of: Meet the Physicist who Spoke Out Against the Bomb She Helped Create

Days after Oppenheimer won big at the Oscars, we look at the life and scientific contributions of nuclear physicist Kay Way, who worked on the Manhattan Project but ended up rallying fellow scientists to oppose the use of nuclear weapons.
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Our Partners

We’re proud that our partners see the value of our mission, and are helping us reach engaged audiences as we tell the stories of these remarkable women.

PRX, our podcast distributor, produces and distributes audio content and trains talented independent producers.

With an award-winning portfolio of iconic public radio programs such as "The World”, “This American Life”, “The Moth Radio Hour”, “Latino USA”, “Snap Judgment” and “Reveal”, PRX is also home to a growing body of podcast productions, including via the Radiotopia podcast network and the TRAX podcast network for tweens.
SciAm covers the advances in research and discovery that are changing our understanding of the world and shaping our lives. Founded 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and now reaches more than 10 million people around the world each month through its website, print and digital editions, newsletters and app.

Authoritative, engaging features, news, opinion and multimedia stories from journalists and expert authors—including more than 200 Nobel Prize winners—provide need-to-know coverage, insights and illumination of the most important developments at the intersection of science and society.
Barnard is one of the most selective academic institutions in the nation, Barnard College is devoted to empowering young women to pursue their passions. Throughout the 2021-22 academic year, Barnard is celebrating all things related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) at the College.

Barnard’s expert faculty, its symbiotic relationship with Columbia University, and its location in New York City makes it singularly positioned to offer unparalleled opportunities to women who will become tomorrow’s STEM leaders.

The College has also increasingly incorporated STEM curricula and programming into its liberal arts education, providing students with interdisciplinary knowledge and skill sets that they can carry beyond Barnard.