That Time the U.S. Decided to Nuke Space: Starfish Prime (with Chris Winterbauer & Lizzie Bassett of What Went Wrong)
episodePreviously titled “S4E21: Chris Winterbauer & Lizzie Bassett - Starfish Prime” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026
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What is Operation Fishbowl and why is it significant?
Operation Fishbowl sounds less like a nuclear testing program and more like something you'd win tickets to see at SeaWorld. I don't know which is more depressing.
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Welcome to Snafu, the show about history's greatest screw-ups. I'm Ed Helms, and today we'll be covering Starfish Prime. This was actually a royally nuclear screw-up in our history. I'm joined today by a dynamic duo. Both are talented artists combining skills of writing, directing, producing, and And together they host the critically acclaimed podcast What Went Wrong, which you guys have self-described as a biweekly podcast exploring moviemaking mayhem behind your favorite films. Welcome to Snafu, Chris Winterbauer and Lizzie Bassett. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us, Ed.
How did the Cold War influence nuclear testing in space?
Although we have since gone weekly, we will say now, we need to update our text clearly. And we are just going to start off with just blowing your audience away. They can have twice as much of us as they thought they might get previously. So that's exciting. Do not correct me on my own podcast. How dare you? What are you thinking? If I may. A couple of other mistakes that we should just start off with. Did I say your names correctly? That's actually an important thing to point out. You guys have a really cool podcast. Tell us a little bit about it. Lizzie? A thing? Thank you. Uh, well, yeah, our, each episode of our podcast dives into the story behind a different movie. And the theory is sort of that any movie is a miracle because of how incredibly hard they are to make even the bad ones.
And so we're just exploring, you know, the, the absolute manic mayhem behind movies, which you two both, I think know a lot more about from experience than I do.
I just, I just research it.
Yes. Yes, he does. But I know I'm sure you can appreciate it. I'm sure you would agree. Like nobody goes into a movie hoping they're going to make a bad movie. Nobody wants to make a bad movie. And in fact, sometimes you think you're making a great movie and it just still doesn't turn out very good. And sometimes you think you're making a terrible movie and somehow it turns out great. And so it's like it's I just want I remember I used to be such an asshole. when I would watch movies and think, I would have done this and I would have done that.
What happened during the Starfish Prime test?
And then I made a movie and I hit my first test screening and there was that asshole who said, you should have done this. And I said, you don't think I know that, sir. I couldn't. And so we hope that we can get people to appreciate movies and the people that make them that much more because they're just so hard. They're so hard. I love that. In particular, I love how
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Operation Fishbowl and why is it significant?
0:01–2:40
2
How did the Cold War influence nuclear testing in space?
2:40–4:08
3
What happened during the Starfish Prime test?
4:08–6:05
4
What were the immediate effects of the Starfish Prime explosion?
6:05–7:49
5
How did the Starfish Prime test affect satellites?
7:49–9:22
6
What long-term consequences arose from the Starfish Prime test?
9:22–11:02
7
How did the public react to nuclear tests like Starfish Prime?
11:02–12:33
8
What lessons can we learn from the Starfish Prime incident regarding technology and ethics?
12:33–1:00:46