Garrett M. Graff, author of The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb, explores one of humanity’s most daring ventures—the clandestine, high-stakes race by a small cadre of scientists and engineers to tap into the universe’s most elemental force and create the atomic bomb.

While American troops fought and died on battlefronts in the Pacific, Manhattan Project researchers and technicians on the Home Front raced to crack the atom’s code. Ordinary individuals are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, from scientists and engineers wrestling with ethical dilemmas and laborers unknowingly contributing to an unprecedented weapon, to military crews embarking on missions shrouded in secrecy. Then, on August 6, 1945, the world caught a glimpse of the unprecedented destruction of war’s final act—and the dawn of a new geopolitical era. In The Devil Reached Toward the Sky, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff presents a sweeping, human-centered narrative of this unparalleled moment in history through meticulous research drawn from oral histories, declassified documents, personal letters, and eyewitness testimony. Figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and President Harry S. Truman share the stage with bomber crews and the Hibakusha—survivors forever marked by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both a chronicle of scientific genius and a sobering reminder of its cost, The Devil Reached Toward the Sky is a gripping, resonant exploration of how the atomic age was born and the profound impact left in its wake.

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Topics Covered in this Episode

• The Manhattan Project
• Trinity Test
• Atomic Bombings of Japan