In this episode, we debate one of the most important questions in international relations and nuclear policy today: are the dragons in Game of Thrones more like nuclear weapons or conventional air power? Does George R.R. Martin deploy the dragons as analogs for nuclear weapons? Do dragons serve more of a conventional air power or close air support role in the story’s military battles? Perhaps the dragons themselves aspire to be artists and bakers rather than being typecast as weapons of war? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and Dr. Michael C. Horowitz (@mchorowitz) answer these questions and more.
Listen on SoundCloud by clicking here: https://soundcloud.com/supercriticalpodcast/episode-35-game-of-thrones
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Before we fly off beyond the wall with our dragons, we recommend checking out:
- Timothy Westmyer, “Dragons, Nuclear Weapons, and Game of Thrones,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2014
- Michael C. Horowitz and Matthew Fuhrmann, “Are ‘Game of Thrones’s’ Dragons the Equivalent of Nuclear Weapons? We Don’t Think So,” Washington Post’s Monkey Cage Blog, April 12, 2019
- Matthew Gault, “The Dragons in ‘Game of Thrones’ Aren’t Nukes, They’re an Air Force,” Motherboard, August 2017
- Michael Shurkin, “Dragons, Nukes, and Game of Thrones,” Scientific American, August 2017
- Reign of Fire, 2002 movie
- War College, podcast episode titled “What Game of Thrones Teaches Us About Nuclear War, September 2017
- Citadel Dropouts, podcast by Laura Hudson and Spencer Ackerman
- A Cast of Kings – A Game of Thrones Podcast, by Joanna Robinson and Dave Chen
- Mallory Rubin’s writing and podcasts on The Ringer
- Bea Fihn, “What ‘Game of Thrones’ Taught Us About Nuclear Devastation,” Daily Beast, May 17, 2019
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