AI Summary
5 min readOBITCHUARY: Doomsday Clocks, Pocket Contents, and the Art of Dying Strangely
The doomsday clock now stands at 85 seconds to midnight—closer than it has ever been, closer than during the hydrogen bomb era, closer than the height of the Cold War. But as Madison Reyes explains in this episode's main segment, the clock is not a prophecy. It is a symbolic measure created by scientists who helped build the atomic bomb and then spent the rest of their careers trying to warn the public about what they had unleashed.
The Doomsday Clock: Symbol, Not Prophecy
The clock was born in 1947, two years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project formed the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and artist Martell Langsdorf designed a clock for the cover of their magazine. She set it at seven minutes to midnight simply because it "looked good on the paper." Midnight represents total civilization collapse. The clock does not tick on its own—scientists move the hands based on real-world risk assessments.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (04:16) **Madison's estate sale adventure** - Drove to a Nashville estate sale after seeing it on TikTok but left after an hour in line due to time constraints and empty-handed departures
- 2 (09:35) **Listener email: Buying a church with graveyard** - Heather from England shares a listing for a church property that includes a full headstone-filled cemetery
- 3 (15:02) **AITA: Ex bringing new girlfriend to dad's funeral** - Listener asks if she was wrong to tell her ex-husband not to bring his on-and-off girlfriend to her father's funeral
- 4 (17:18) **AITA: Lending father's tools to cousin** - Listener lent sentimental tools with a signed contract and now faces passive-aggressive fallout after the cousin refuses contact
- 5 (22:08) **Side bitch obituary: Mrs. Sarah Miller** - 1960 obituary highlights a 99-year-old woman who left behind exactly 99 survivors including multiple generations of descendants
- 6 (24:20) **Doomsday Clock explained** - Full history of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists clock from its 1947 creation through current 85-second setting
- 7 (46:04) **Famous pockets contents** - Items found in Lyndon B. Johnson and Abraham Lincoln's pockets at time of death, plus John Wilkes Booth and Kurt Cobain examples
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Happy Thursday Geoffs! This week Madison is serving up some fear mongering with all things doomsday! Next, Spencer takes us through some dead people’s pockets! We’ve got an obituary from a Geoff, one that was simply electrifying, and of course, we’ve got some dumb.ass.criminalssssss! Let’s go girls!
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Sources:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/woman-arrested-for-trying-to-sell-iconic-graceland-estate
https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm1049?sp=5
https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm0302/?st=gallery
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/woman-arrested-for-trying-to-sell-iconic-graceland-estate
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