Trailer: Lost Women of the Manhattan Project

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Episode 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.

Episode Transcript

Lost Women of the Manhattan Project Trailer

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SPEAKER: Mary Argo.

SPEAKER: Virginia Olsson.

SPEAKER: Lillian Carson.

SPEAKER: Elizabeth Maxwell.

SPEAKER: Joan Hinton.

SPEAKER: Priscilla Green.

SPEAKER: Myrtle Karcher.

KATIE HAFNER: 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. Hundreds of those scientists were women.

SPEAKER: Francis Dunne was the only woman in explosives assembly.

SPEAKER: Floy Lee was a biologist and hematologist and researched the impact of radiation on chromosomes.

SPEAKER: Lilli Hornig had a master's degree in chemistry from Harvard.

SPEAKER: Leona Woods Marshall hid her pregnancy under baggy overalls.

SPEAKER: Naomi Livesay was a mathematician. She supervised the mechanical computing operation at Los Alamos.

SPEAKER: Carolyn Parker was a physicist.

SPEAKER: Her work was so secret, her sister said years later, “She couldn't discuss it, even with us, her family.”

KATIE HAFNER: The devastation caused by nuclear weapons sparked a moral controversy that continues to this day.

SPEAKER: Kay Way was a physicist.

SPEAKER: She signed the petition to prevent the United States from dropping the bomb on Japan.

KATIE HAFNER: Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you a few of these stories. The Women of the Manhattan Project, from Lost Women of Science, starting July 20th, wherever you get your podcasts.

SPEAKER: Roberta Shor.

SPEAKER: Opaline Calhoun.

SPEAKER: Elizabeth Marcus.

SPEAKER: Lorraine Barbic.

SPEAKER: Maria Goeppert Mayer.

SPEAKER: Elaine Palevsky.

SPEAKER: Evelyn Walker.

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Katie Hafner

Host & Executive Producer

Katie Hafner was a longtime reporter for The New York Times, where she continues to be a frequent contributor. Katie is uniquely positioned to tell the stories of lost women of science. Not only does she bring a skilled hand to complex narratives, but she has been writing about women in STEM for nearly 30 years. She is the author of six books of non-fiction, and her first novel, The Boys, was published in July 2022 by Spiegel & Grau. Katie is also the host and executive producer of Our Mothers Ourselves, an interview podcast that celebrates extraordinary mothers.

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