In the 1990s, Samuel T. Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb, became extremely vocal about the fact that the Soviets had discovered a new raw material that could potentially spell the end of organised society. Red mercury had hit the market. Apparently, when detonated in combination with conventional high explosives, it could create city-flattening blasts like a nuclear bomb. And, it would help make nuclear fusion weapons more efficient and considerably smaller. It was an arms dealer’s dream! In theory, red mercury could produce enormous pressures and temperatures, sufficient to initiate a mini pure fusion explosion. Traditionally, fusion weapons need a fission component to trigger the deuterium fusion. However, with red mercury, this fission step is supposedly unnecessary. Cohen described it as a remarkably non-exploding high explosive. Sounds like something from a Marvel movie right? SOURCES: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/sep/30/thisweekssciencequestions1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_T._Cohen#Red_Mercury_claims https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00963402.1997.11456737 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazher_Mahmood https://web.archive.org/web/20081016050603/http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/douglass/2003/0311.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/magazine/the-doomsday-scam.html https://www.gizbot.com/internet/news/what-is-red-mercury-and-why-people-are-ready-to-pay-lakhs-for-it-068487.html https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13418241-900-only-fools-still-hunt-for-elusive-red-mercury/ CHAPTERS: 00:00 Samuel T. Cohen Concerns About New Raw Material 03:05 Red Mercury: Doomsday Dreams 07:41 Mass Destruction or Myth? 10:06 Red Mercury Hoaxes 14:23 Cohen Claims Red Mercury Exists 17:28 Frank Barnaby’s Investigations 23:30 Scammers and Fake Red Mercury 31:12 The Mystical and Sexual Properties of Mercury 41:16 The Enduring Red Mercury ScamSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
No persons identified in this episode.
This episode hasn't been transcribed yet
Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.
Popular episodes get transcribed faster
Other recent transcribed episodes
Transcribed and ready to explore now
SpaceX Said to Pursue 2026 IPO
10 Dec 2025
Bloomberg Tech
Don’t Call It a Comeback
10 Dec 2025
Motley Fool Money
Japan Claims AGI, Pentagon Adopts Gemini, and MIT Designs New Medicines
10 Dec 2025
The Daily AI Show
Eric Larsen on the emergence and potential of AI in healthcare
10 Dec 2025
McKinsey on Healthcare
What it will take for AI to scale (energy, compute, talent)
10 Dec 2025
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View
Reducing Burnout and Boosting Revenue in ASCs
10 Dec 2025
Becker’s Healthcare -- Spine and Orthopedic Podcast